Strong start for Sky One's 'Threshold'

Sky One's new sci-fi series Threshold got off to a strong start last night with almost 650,000 viewers.

The two-hour premiere averaged 648,000 viewers and a 4.1% audience share from 9pm, good enough for fourth place amongst the multichannels, behind only two episodes of The Simpsons and E4's new episode of Lost (861,000, 11.4%).

A new Stargate Atlantis drew 636,000 (3.9%) in the 8pm hour to help Sky One comprehensively win the night overall.

ITV2 began with 272,000 (1.7%) for The Xtra Factor: 24/7 at 8pm before rising to 314,000 (1.8%) for My Teen's a Nightmare - I'm Moving Out, which was albeit down on last week's 533,000 (3.2%) premiere.

BBC Three enjoyed a relatively strong night, meanwhile, with 284,000 (1.7%) for a repeat of The House of Tiny Tearaways and 295,000 (1.7%) for horror movie Stigmata.

Amongst the terrestrials, ITV1 ruled every hour of primetime, beginning at 7pm with 9.2 million (45%) for Emmerdale. Coronation Street had 11.08 million (49.6%) to rank as the day's top performer, while The Bill put in 6.83 million (29%) at 8pm for third place. A much-vaunted Take That reunion delivered the goods at 9pm, averaging 5.69 million (25%) over 90 minutes.

BBC One's high - 5.21 million (22.2%) - came in the 8pm hour, for a new What Not to Wear. BBC Two's Natural World appealed to 2.74 million (11.7%) while Channel 4 improved from 2.67 million (11.6%) for The View from River Cottage to 2.83 million (11.8%) for Jamie's Great Escape.

At 9pm, Rome held steady for BBC Two with an encouraging 4.73 million (20.1%), despite tough competition from Channel 4's Grand Designs (3.91 million, 16.7%). BBC One doc 7/7 - The Day the Bombs Came was a distant fourth with 2.28 million (9.7%), just ahead of Five's premiere of Erin Brockovich, which maintained 1.88 million (9.9%) through 11.35pm.