'George' loses a million

Ratings for All About George dropped by a million viewers on its second outing, according to early overnights.

The Rik Mayall comedy drama averaged 4.47 million (20.3%) for ITV1 in the 9pm hour, down from last week's promising 5.31 million (23.5%) opener. Winning the slot was BBC One's Spooks with a steady 4.93 million (22.8%) while on Channel 4, regal drama Elizabeth I concluded with an average of 2.63 million (13.6%) between 9pm and 11.05pm. BBC Two's Horizon interested 2.22 million (10.2%), keeping Five in fifth with 1.31 million (6.1%) for The Hotel Inspector.

EastEnders was the day's top performer with an average of 9.76 million (47.9%), ahead of Emmerdale's 8.9 million (46.9%). In the 8pm hour, The Bill had 6.97 million (32.6%) for third, despite strong competition from BBC One's Rogue Traders, which managed 5.63 million (26.9%). The Queen's Cavalry averaged 4.61 million (21.2%) in the latter half of the hour.

Five's Killer Shark Live held a steady 1.12 million (5.2%) but was outperformed by Channel 4's Risking It All (1.48 million, 6.9%) and BBC Two's A Year at Kew (1.74 million, 8.3%) / No Waste Like Home (1.69 million, 7.8%).

The much-trailed Charlotte Church: Confessions of a Teen Angel delivered the goods for ITV2, pulling an average of 928,000 (6%) at 9pm to rank first amongst the multichannels.

Sky One enjoyed another strong night, with Braniac: Science Abuse interesting 457,000 (3.1%, 6th place) in the 8pm hour and the continuing The Match Live drawing 552,000 (4.6%, 3rd place) at 10pm.

Living TV was below standard, peaking with 170,000 (2.4%) for a CSI repeat in the 11pm hour. Earlier, new episodes of The Biggest Loser UK and Extreme Makeover UK drew respective audiences of 162,000 (1.1%) and 163,000 (1.3%).