'CSI: New York' gets off to solid start

The newest spinoff in the CSI franchise made a solid start in the ratings Saturday night, according to early figures.

CSI: New York, headed up by Gary Sinise, averaged 3.18 million viewers - a 13.6% share of the audience - in the 9pm hour on Five, peaking with 3.49 million (15.1%) towards the end.

ITV1 enjoyed a mediocre night, beginning with 4.61 million (22.1%) for movie repeat Jurassic Park 3 at 5.35pm. Stars In Their Eyes drew the network's highest audience, averaging 6.28 million (28.8%) from 7.15pm. Chris Tarrant's continuing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? interested 5.64 million (24.2%), but The Great British Memory Test failed to captivate viewers with an average of 3.42 million (15.5%) between 9.20pm and 10.50pm.

Over on BBC One, National Lottery: Jet Set held 6.33 million (28.9%) while at 8.15pm, Casualty ranked as the highest-rated show of the night on any channel with an average of 8.82 million (38.1%). Victoria Wood: A Bafta Tribute also fared strongly with 5.99 million (25.7%).

Channel 4, meanwhile, struck ratings gold with its premiere of Farrelly brothers comedy Shallow Hal. The movie averaged an impressive 4.28 million (20.0%) over two hours from 9.05pm. BBC Two's fly-on-the-wall documentary Kilroy: Behind The Tan could only muster 1 million (4.4%) at 8.05pm.

Over on multichannel, movies ruled the roost. The premiere of Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle Of Life brought in 468,000 viewers (a 3.1% multichannel share) to Sky Movies 2 from 8pm, while the same number (3.6%) tuned to ITV2 for Pretty Woman. BBC Three's movie presentation of A Time To Kill also put in a respectable 313,000 (2.3%).

LivingTV's new series of I'm Famous And Frightened went mostly unnoticed, with a steady average of just 142,000 viewers (1.1%) between 9pm and midnight. A timeshifted repeat added 18,000.

Elsewhere, UKTV Gold's EastEnders marathon commemorating the soap's 20th anniversary held a solid audience throughout the day. A peak of 232,000 viewers came at 5.35pm, during a classic episode where Grant confronted Phil over his affair with Sharon.

Overall during primetime, BBC One maintained a lead with an average share of 29.8% over ITV1's 22.6%. Channel 4 had 11.3% for third, closely pursued by Five with 9.4%. BBC Two trailed on 6.0%.