'People's Court' a turn-off for viewers

ITV's replacement for Trisha lost over a third of its audience by the end of its first week on air.

The People's Court, a judicial show based on a US format, began promisingly last Monday (April 18) with an average of 1.28 million (30.5%). The figures were slightly higher than the 1.2 million average who had been tuning in for repeats of Trisha since January.

Ratings were down significantly on Tuesday, however, with an average of just 792,000 (20.9%) coming back for the second outing. The audience lingered around the same level for the rest of the week, finishing on Friday with 795,000 (22.3%).

Surprisingly, Five's competing episodes of the all-new Trisha Goddard show didn't fare especially well: it too managed to lose viewers across the week. Monday's show began with 381,000 (9.1%) but ratings were down to a low of 309,000 (8.6%) by Friday.

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com