Strong return for Sky One's 'The Match'

Sky One's football-themed reality show The Match made a strong return to the ratings last night, early figures indicate.

The first episode pulled in an average of 881,000 viewers - a 5.2% share of the audience - and fourth place overall.

The show was topped only by coverage of real football matches, including the game between Liverpool and Chelsea, which had an impressive 1.8 million (18.5%) for Sky Sports 1 between 3.30pm and 6.30pm. A repeat of The X Factor put in 1.06 million (6.1%) for second.

Other strong multichannel performers included E4's Lost repeat with 498,000 (2.8%), Sky One's Hex with 292,000 (1.7%) and BBC Three's Gypsy Wars with 260,000 (1.9%).

Coronation Street topped the terrestrial rankings with an average of 10.52 million (44.4%) at 7.30pm. Emmerdale had 8.51 million (38.6%) for second, while Heartbeat (8.02 million, 32.6%) outperformed Monarch of the Glen (5.09 million, 20.6%) for third.

A close battle followed at 9pm, with a new Waking the Dead holding 6.42 million (25.8%) for BBC One over an hour. ITV1's Midsomer Murders maintained 6.38 million (28.3%), meanwhile, albeit over a longer period.

Channel 4 enjoyed a strong night with 3.24 million (14.6%) for the Sandra Bullock comedy Miss Congeniality while Five had a respectable 1.71 million (7%) for the premiere of Killer Shark Live.