UK Edition
Feeds
A peak of almost 7 million UK viewers tuned in to see Beijing's handover of the Olympics to London on Sunday, according to early figures.
An average of 5.49m (42.3%) saw the closing ceremony of this year's Games between 12pm and 3.15pm on BBC One, with a peak of 6.8m watching at 2pm. The subsequent London 2012 Party, which featured performances from McFly, Will Young and Katherine Jenkins, drew an average of 3.91m (33.4%) until 5pm.
Later in primetime, the return of Coronation Street to Sunday nights was not plain sailing. The episode, shown on ITV1 from 7.30pm, drew 6.25m (31.2%). Unusually, Heartbeat drew a higher audience, pulling in 6.4m (30.1%) in the 8pm hour. At the same time on BBC One, the second episode of Pacific Abyss dropped 400,000 from last week to average 3.51m (16.5%).
At 9pm, the first half of documentary Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs managed an impressive 5.74m (24.7%) for ITV1, trumping the final episode of Andrew Marr's Britain From Above, with 4.55m (19.6%) for BBC One.
A triple pack of movies kept Five's audience above 1 million throughout primetime. Jackie Chan's The Medallion had 1.18m (7%) from 6pm to 7.45pm, then Vertical Limit improved to an all-day channel best of 1.35m (6.1%) until 10pm. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly averaged a healthy 1.02m (9.5%) until 1.20am.
On Channel 4, Wife Swap interested 1.82m (8.6%) in the 8pm hour, with 252,000 (1.3%) on timeshift, then the latest Big Brother update brought in 2.58m (11.1%) from 9pm. A further 334,000 (2.2%) watched on Channel 4+1. At 10pm, SuperBotox Me, an investigation into the increase of cosmetic surgery operations, logged 1.45m (8.3%) and 215,000 (2.2%) on timeshift.
BBC Two put in a mediocre performance during primetime with its screening of sci-fi flick AI: Artificial Intelligence. The movie, shown between 7.45pm and 10pm, averaged 1.28m (5.8%). Spinoff show Britain From Above improved to 1.94m (9.8%) at 10pm but the channel scored its highest audience of the day with Match of the Day 2, seen by an average of 2.03m (13.8%) from 10.30pm to 11.20pm.
ITV2's repeat of The X Factor was the biggest multichannel draw, with 765,000 (4.2%) in the 8pm hour and 114,000 (0.6%) on timeshift. Spinoff show The Xtra Factor had 602,000 (3%) and 144,000 (0.9%) in the 9pm hour, then movie Pretty Woman more than kept up the pace with a mighty 735,000 (6.3%) until 12.25am. An additional 92,000 (1.3%) watched on ITV2+1.
The finale of Sky One's Gladiators was also a ratings triumph, taking 587,000 (3.6%) to beat all multichannel competition in the 7pm hour.
Five US interested 474,000 (2.4%) and 475,000 (3.1%) respectively with its episodes of CSI and CSI: New York from 9pm, while FX's new episode of NCIS had 319,000 (1.6%) in the 9pm hour.
BBC Three's peak audience was a lowly 318,000 (2%) for an episode of Family Guy shown at 10.15pm. Earlier, Spooks: Code 9 fell to just 288,000 (1.4%) for its fourth episode, down almost 70% on its premiere a fortnight ago.
