Michelle's Underworld challenge brings 9m to 'Coronation Street'

In a busy night for Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh) at the Underworld factory, Coronation Street came close to securing 9m viewers for ITV1.

The first episode of a double bill saw Michelle become the manager of the troubled underwear manufacturer, securing 8.84m viewers (38.9%) and a further 110k (0.5%) on timeshift.

At 8.30pm, when Michelle confronted Frank, an identical number of viewers piled in. While the audience share dipped slightly to 36.6%, the timeshift rating increased to 258k (1.1%).

Earlier on ITV1, the victimisation of Nicky pulled in 6.98m (32.9%) and a further 134k (0.6%) on +1.

BBC One's EastEnders captivated 8.15m (34.2%) as Amy was taken from Roxy, and 723k (3.4%) caught up at 10pm on BBC Three. The broadcaster's afternoon soap Doctors generated 1.69m (22.1%) on BBC One for an episode titled 'Tea and Sympathy'.

The Silas saga continued to grab good numbers for Hollyoaks, whose 6.30pm Channel 4 showing took 1.37m (6.7%) as the McQueens rallied round. E4's first look went on to nab 760k (3.6%).

Channel 5's Neighbours interested 766k (10%) in the early afternoon, but the soap upped its numbers to 1.19m (7.1%) at 5.30pm. Home and Away then took 938k (4.9%) as Sasha and Felix separated.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional