'Rings' is golden for Channel 4

Over 3 million viewers tuned in for the terrestrial premiere of the second Lord of the Rings movie last night, according to early overnights.

The Two Towers drew an average audience of 3.4 million (15.1%) to Channel 4 between 8pm and 11.15pm, slightly down on the 3.6 million who saw the first movie earlier in the year.

As usual however, ITV1 dominated primetime with a mix of soaps and drama. Coronation Street topped the chart with 11.15 million (46.1%) at 7.30pm. Creature Comforts pulled in 9.03 million (40.1%) for second, while Heartbeat averaged 8.31 million (32.5%) for third. Emmerdale had to make do with fourth, having averaged 7.63 million (35.6%) in its earlier 6.50pm timeslot. One-off drama thriller Child of Mine put in a respectable 5.88 million (26.6%) between 9pm and 11pm, an improvement of over 700,000 viewers on Jericho.

BBC One managed a peak of 6.07 million (31.5%) for the Antiques Roadshow at 5.30pm. In prime, Rocket Man lost more than a million to average 4.41 million (17.2%) at 8pm and Egypt dropped 300,000 to 5.69 million (23.3%) in the 9pm hour.

BBC Two had an admirable 3.63 million (14.2%) for Top Gear at 8pm while on Five, Britain's Worst Hairdresser drew 0.94 million (3.7%). Girls and Boys - Sex and British Pop concluded with 1.7 million (7%) an hour later, comfortably ahead of Five's Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven, which averaged 1.3 million (6.6%) between 9pm and 11.35pm.

Sky One ran a close race with ITV2 in multichannel households, topping the chart with 1.33 million (9%) for a new Simpsons at 6.30pm. Football Icon added 100,000 to average 456,000 (2.8%) in the 7pm hour while Dream Team landed 468,000 (2.6%) an hour later. Hex dropped to 283,000 (1.6%) at 9pm before ratings rose to 345,000 (2.5%) for a new Nip/Tuck at 10.

Repeats of The X Factor occupied ITV2's schedule, averaging respective audiences of 560,000 (3.1%) and 516,000 (2.9%) at 8pm and 9.15pm. Two episodes of The Xtra Factor averaged 424,000 (2.6%) and 239,000 (4%), sandwiched between a repeat of My Teen's a Nightmare - I'm Moving Out with 253,000 (2%).

Other strong performers included E4's Lost encore (668,000 + 109,000, 3.8%), UKTV Gold's Little Britain (379,000, 2.6%) and BBC Three's The House of Tiny Tearaways (265,000, 1.5%).