'Wife Swap' makes strong return

The third series of Wife Swap kicked off in style last night, helping Channel 4 to its second best day of the year so far.

The episode - screened at 9pm - averaged 5.3 million viewers and a 23.1% share of the audience, peaking with a hefty 5.8 million (25.4%) in the final quarter hour.

The figures are comparable with those for the second series, shown earlier this year.

Wife Swap also provided a strong inheritance for an extended Big Brother, which held 5.4 million (29.6%) over an hour from 10pm.

C4's strong peaktime showing helped the network to an all-day audience share of 15.2%, the second highest this year so far behind last month's 'Black Friday', which had 17.1%.