'Emmerdale' tops 9 million

Emmerdale topped the 9m marker yesterday evening for the first time in nearly three years, continuing its run of impressive ratings for this week's episodes.

The Yorkshire serial's double bill, during which Sally attempted to kiss Ashley and the Bartons discussed Aaron's sexuality, drew 8.3m (32.3%) and 9.03m (33.2%) at 7pm and 8pm respectively. Its second episode peaked at 9.54m (34%) between 8.20pm and 8.25pm.

Emmerdale last breached the 9m ceiling on February 5, 2007 when it had 9.14m (41.1%).

Coronation Street's standalone outing at 8.30pm, which saw Joe ask Ted for a £4,000 loan, took 10.65m (37.9%). Its repeat at 1.30pm on ITV2 added 102k (4.4%).

Contrary to last week's poorest Thursday performance since the ITV schedule revamp in July, yesterday evening's combined figures were the polar opposite - the best the commercial broadcaster has seen since July 23.

Meanwhile, EastEnders pulled in over 10m viewers for the fourth consecutive day, drawing 10.68m (40.1%) from 7.30pm - almost equalling its Christmas Day audience. BBC Three's 10pm repeat added a further 826k (3.5%).

BBC One's Doctors also averaged an impressive 2.46m (22.2%) for its episode, titled 'Dance To Keep From Crying', at 1.45pm on BBC One.

Neighbours' latest edition took 1.47m (7.6%) at 5.30pm, while Fiver's 7pm repeat added a further 210k (0.8%).

Despite the snow, Hollyoaks' figures have decreased each day this week, with last night's instalment logging 1.34m (5.4%) at 6.30pm. E4's first look interested 559k (2.2%), before 189k (0.7%) switched over to E4+1 for the repeat an hour later.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional