Comic Relief hits 13.3 million high

Once again, BBC One's Comic Relief telethon pulled in the viewers last night (Friday).

The fundraiser held a huge audience all evening, reaching a peak of 13.34 million viewers at 9.20pm.

A Vicar of Dibley special and the Fame Academy final topped the ratings with an average audience of 12.77 million (52.2%) across the 9pm hour. Earlier, a Little Britain special brought in 11.86 million (48%) at 8.30pm and Rowan Atkinson spoof Spider-Plant Man averaged 11.28 million (46.8%) at 8pm.

The 7pm launch show was seen by a figure of 7.42 million (34.9%), rising to 8.73 million (36.8%) for a My Family special at 7.30pm.

Graham Norton's segment, featuring a contribution from Ricky Gervais and the final verdict in Fame Academy, pulled in 9.84 million viewers and a huge 57.2% audience share between 10.35pm and 11.30pm.

Inevitably, ITV1's competing schedule suffered, with the 7.30pm Coronation Street dropping to 9.03 million (38.1%). Emmerdale was down to 7.94 million (37.3%) at 8pm, while the movie repeat Tomorrow Never Dies picked up just 4.12 million (16.9%) between 8pm and 10pm.

Multichannel's top draws were repeats of The Simpsons on Sky One, with audiences of 469,000 (3.4%) and 396,000 (2.6%) in the 7pm hour. Best original show was ITV2's Jordan & Peter: Laid Bare with 332,000 (2.4%) from 10.10pm.

ITV3's continuing Foyle's War encore proved popular with 302,000 (1.9%) from 8pm, while on ITV2, American Idol was down to an average of 249,000 (1.5%) from last week's 419,000 (2.9%).

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com