Drama helps ITV lead Sunday

ITV held a 50% lead over the BBC during primetime thanks to its consistent Sunday night drama lineup, early ratings figures show.

Coronation Street started off strongly at 7.30pm with an average of 11.79 million viewers and a 48.2% audience share, peaking toward the end with 13.19 million (52.8%). In the 8pm hour, The Royal managed a convincing 8.22 million (33.1%) over BBC One's Down To Earth, which had 5.04 million (20.3%).

At 9pm, BBC One slipped ahead with 7.37 million (30.1%) for Dalziel and Pascoe, while on ITV1, Lindsey Coulsen drama The Stepfather managed 6.52 million (27.8%), albeit over a longer period.

Channel 4 blanketed its primetime schedule with The 100 Greatest Pop Videos. Hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr, the show averaged 2.14 million (11.2%) between 8pm and 12.10am. Meanwhile, Five enjoyed movie success with 2.62 million (12.4%) for Con Air from 9pm.

Dream Team kicked off Sky One's Sunday lineup at 8pm with 488,000 viewers and a 3.0% share in multichannel homes. Ratings rose to 533,000 (3.3%) for a new episode of 24 in the following hour, down around 80,000 on the season premiere a week earlier. The debut of Nip/Tuck season two attracted just 484,000 (3.9%) at 10pm, a far cry from the 1 million who watched the first episode last year.

LivingTV's original reality event I'm Famous and Frightened continued to flounder, down from 142,000 on Saturday night to an average of just 75,000 (0.6%) between 9pm and 12am. The premiere of critically-acclaimed drama Huff brought in 96,000 (0.6%) to FX in the 9pm hour. BBC Three's The Bachelor drew 119,000 (0.7%) over the same period.

On ITV2, a Superbowl Preview started poorly with 73,000 (0.5%) at 7pm but ratings rose to an impressive 515,000 (3.2%) for an American Idol repeat from 8pm. Friday's first showing drew almost 1 million.

Overall during primetime, ITV1 was the clear victor with an average share of 33.8% versus BBC One's 21.8%. Channel 4 trumped Five for third with 8.3% over 7.9%, while BBC Two trailed on 5.7%.

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com