Ross Kemp beats 'Celebrity Hijack'

Sky One's Ross Kemp in Afghanistan drew a bigger audience than the finale of Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack last night.

An average audience of 644,000 (3.14%) tuned in to E4 for the reality final and it peaked with 774,000 (4.36%) at 9.30pm. However, that compares with a 5.8m Channel 4 audience for the Celebrity Big Brother final last year.

Throughout the series the main 9pm shows averaged 523,000 viewers despite a strong advertising campaign. Its Celebrity Big Brother predecessor averaged 4.3m in 2007.

Hijack was beaten last night by the second episode of Sky One's Kemp show. It attracted 1.1m (5.61%), high enough to even beat terrestrial competitor Five.

It was a poor night also for ITV1's The Palace. It gained a 3.3m (14.7%) audience compared to a slot average for the channel of 5.7m (24.4%).

The drama was last night beaten at 9pm by a BBC One repeat of Waking the Dead. The forensic drama averaged 3.4m viewers (15.1%).