12 million tune in for Corrie wedding

An average of 12 million viewers tuned in to see Ken and Deirdre tie the knot on Friday night, according to early figures.

The much-hyped Coronation Street marriage drew 12.07 million (56.6%) and a peak of 12.9 million (59%) to ITV1 at 7.30pm. The figures were almost 2 million higher than those for BBC rival EastEnders, which could only muster 10.37 million (47.1%) at 8pm.

A special on the couple, When Ken Met Deirdre, fared less well however, with an average of just 4.2 million (19%) at 8.30pm. It lost out to the BBC's Only Fools and Horses repeat, which amused 6 million (27.2%).

The Two Ronnies Sketchbook continued to perform admirably for BBC One with an average of 6.97 million (31.1%) in the 9pm hour, ranking as the fourth most-watched show of the day overall.

ITV1's Friday night Bond movie, A View To A Kill, pulled in an average of 4.04 million (18.6%) from 9pm while on BBC Two, live coverage of The Masters had 1.87 million (8.6%).

Elsewhere, Channel 4's new reality series Playing It Straight got off to a solid start with an average of 1.76 million (9.6%) at 10pm.

Over on multichannel, a Midsomer Murders repeat helped ITV3 top the ratings chart with an impressive average of 548,000 (3.8%) between 8.30pm and 10.30pm.

ITV2's continuing American Idol averaged 457,000 (3.1%) from 9pm to rank as the most-watched original show of the day. E4's first-look Hollyoaks saw its audience increase almost three-fold at 7pm to average 305,000 (2.4%).

Click here for a summary of Friday's news ratings.

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com