'Emmerdale' Sarah shock attracts 6.6m

Emmerdale was the most-watched soap on Wednesday evening as Sarah's illness storyline gathered pace, according to overnight figures.

An hour-long episode of the ITV1 show pulled in 6.6m (31.8%) from 7pm, as Debbie and Andy were informed that their young daughter has Fanconi Anaemia, a rare genetic disease. A further 150k (0.7%) watched on timeshift.

Waterloo Road dipped due to its clash with Emmerdale, slipping to 3.77m (17.2%) for an episode which saw Jez under pressure on match day.

Hollyoaks attracted 1.15m (6.0%) to Channel 4 earlier in the evening as Warren received an incriminating picture, while 368k (1.8%) saw the subsequent fallout on E4 as the village bad boy furiously confronted Riley.

Over on Channel 5, Neighbours appealed to 676k (9.5%) at 1.45pm and 1.07m (7.0%) at 5.30pm, while Home and Away interested 771k (4.4%) at 6pm and 486k (2.5%) for the first-look screening on 5* at 6.30pm.

Finally, Doctors took 1.68m (23.8%) at 1.45pm on BBC One for an episode titled 'Stealing His Thunder'.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional