'Doctor Who' season finale draws 7.7m

The finale of Doctor Who's second season was watched by 7.72m viewers, according to early numbers.

That figure was a significant improvement over that achieved by the sci-fi series' first season closer, which drew a paltry 6.19m back in June 2005. The share of the TV audience achieved by both episodes was, however, similar: this Saturday's episode had a 43% share compared to last year's 41.8%. Doctor Who Confidential over on BBC Three averaged 970,000 viewers between 7:45 and 8:15pm, significantly up on last year's 677,000.

6.77m viewers stuck with BBC One after 7:45pm for the World Cup third place decider between Germany and Poland, a 34.2% audience share.

Mrs. Doubtfire over on ITV1 averaged 3.23m viewers between 6:10pm and 8:30pm, equating to a 19.3% share. Between 8:30 and 9:30pm, 3.63m tuned in for Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, although ITV1's audience share downticked to 17.8%. Big Fight Live between 9:30 and 11:25pm was watched by 2.48m, a 14.6% share.

Big Brother and The Bachelor both performed well for Channel 4, with Big Brother averaging 2.92m (14.1%) between 9 and 10pm, and the film going on to draw 1.66m (11.9%) until midnight. Diary Room Uncut over on E4 averaged 356,000 viewers between 10 and 11pm.

Five's evening of US imports performed strongly; NCIS between 8:05 and 9pm averaged 1.44m viewers (7.4%), with CSI: NY building to 2.15m (10.3%) in the 9pm hour. Law & Order: SVU had an 11.3% share between 10 and 11pm with 1.93m viewers.

Much of BBC Two's teatime and early evening programming was dominated by Wimbledon coverage, which averaged 1.42m viewers (8.4% share) between 5:30 and 8pm. An Ideal Husband averaged 1.47m (7.4%) between 8 and 9:30pm, with Stephen Fry's QI rounding out the evening with 1.9m viewers, a 9.3% share.