Ratings Roundup: Oliver continues to impress

Viewers are continuing to queue up in their droves for Jamie's School Dinners on Channel 4.

According to early ratings data, the second episode drew an average of 4.94 million viewers - a 20.8% share of the available audience - in the 9pm hour, up from the previous week's debut of 4.28 million (17.6%).

The show was preceded by a celebrity surgery special featuring Sherrie Hewson, which had 2.93 million (12%), and was followed up by US drama Desperate Housewives, which managed 3.91 million (21.1%).

On BBC One, Comic Relief Does Fame Academy was down from the 6.5 million who saw Saturday's opener to average just 5 million (20.3%) in the 8pm hour. The 10.40pm results show averaged 3.01 million (18.7%). The figures are thusfar a far cry from the first series, which peaked with 14 million in 2003.

Despite Oliver's success on Channel 4, Alan Sugar's The Apprentice actually managed to build its audience by almost 400,000 viewers to average 2.13 million (8.9%).

Once again ITV1's drama lineup took the top four slots, with Coronation Street leading the pack on 12.19 million (52.4%). Emmerdale had a strong showing with 10.31 million (47.6%) at 7pm, as did The Bill an hour later with 7.71 million (31.4%). In the 9pm hour, Life Begins bounced back up to 7.41 million (31.2%).

Multichannel's top draw of the day went to Sky Sports 1's live coverage of the FA Cup game between Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur, which averaged 718,000 (4.5%) between 7pm and 10pm.

A new episode of Braniac pulled in 429,000 (2.6%) to Sky One in the 8pm hour, making it the fourth most-watched show of the day. BBC Three's extra coverage of Celebrity Fame Academy drew 251,000 (1.6%) in the 9pm hour while on E4, a Point Pleasant special could only muster 83,000 (0.5%).

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com

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