UK Edition
Feeds
The return of Big Brother pulled in more than 8 million viewers to Channel 4 last night (Thursday), according to early figures.
An average of 6.9m - a 30.6% share of the audience - tuned in between 9pm and 10.15pm to see the new crop of contestants enter the house, recording the highest ever figures for a BB launch show. The peak of 8.15m (36.7%) came at 10pm.
C4 was comfortably ahead of all terrestrial rivals during the period, its nearest rival being ITV1's The Bill - shifted from 8.30pm to 8pm, giving thirty minutes of overlap - with 4.73m (21.8%). On BBC One, the final part of The Street had 3.41m (16.7%) and on Five, House fell to 1.94m (8.6%). BBC Two was fifth with 1.18m (5.2%) for documentary Psychic Vietnam: This World.
The success of Big Brother provided a healthy inheritance for Bring Back... The A Team. The heavily-trailed piece, presented by Justin Lee Collins, had an admirable 2.7m (18%) through 11.35pm.
EastEnders ranked as the day's number one overall with 8.78m (46.4%), followed by two episodes of Emmerdale - shown at 7pm and 8pm - with 6.81m (39.2%) and 6.85m (34.4%) respectively.
Elsewhere, BBC Two had a middling night with a peak of just 2.23m (10.7%) for Mastermind at 8.30pm while on ITV1, drama Vital Signs shed more viewers to average just 2.79m (12.7%) from 9.30pm.
Over in multichannel homes, spinoff show Big Brother's Big Mouth pulled in some of E4's best ever figures, with an average of 1.83m and a peak of 2.32m. The first bout of live streaming also fared admirably with an average of 479,000 between 10.45pm and 2am.
ITV2 entertained 378,000 with the movie Beverly Hills Cop at 9, while on BBC Three, live coverage of the Eurovision Semi-Final drew 365,000 between 8pm and 10.15pm. A later documentary on British hopeful Daz Sampson had 214,000.
Sky One was solid throughout, beginning with 379,000 for Vorderman's Big Brain Game, followed by respective audiences of 331,000 and 577,000 for US dramas Cold Case and Bones.
