'Doctor Who' ratings on the rise

The new series of Doctor Who added 1 million viewers at the weekend, according to early ratings figures.

Saturday's third outing drew an average of 8.34 million (36.7%) to BBC One between 7pm and 7.45pm, up from the previous week's 7.3 million but still down on the 9.9 million who saw the debut.

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway remained behind with an average of 7.14 million (32.3%) between 6.45pm and 7.55pm.

Casualty was the day's second most-watched show with 8.05 million (34.8%) at 8.20pm.

Elsewhere, BBC One's Strictly Dance Fever continued to hold the edge over ITV1's Hit Me Baby One More Time, with audiences of 4.9 million (26.9%) and 4.21 million (24%) respectively. The later results shows pulled in 4.06 million (18.1%) and 4.85 million (21%).

Channel 4's movie presentation of Vanilla Sky thrilled 2.25 million (11.8%) from 9.10pm, while Five's new episode of CSI: New York averaged 2.75 million (12.4%).

Earlier in the day, BBC One's coverage of the Charles-Camilla wedding beat ITV1 by around 7 million to 1 million viewers; click here for a detailed roundup.

Top programme on multichannel was ITV2's spinoff Queen Mania: The Show Must Go On, with 641,000 viewers (7%) from 10.10pm. BBC Three's Doctor Who: Confidential put in a 542,000 (3.6%) average for fourth place.

ITV3 had another steady performance with 489,000 (3.4%) for David Jason thriller March in Windy City, which aired over two hours from 9pm.

The Sky Movies 1 premiere of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World pulled in 364,000 (2.4%) at 8pm, with a further 219,000 (1.6%) for a timeshifted encore on Sky Movies 3.

Sky's PPV channel Premiership Plus enjoyed another strong afternoon with an average of 338,000 (2.8%) tuning in for its coverage of the game between Norwich City and Manchester United.

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com