Fans move to Five with 'Neighbours'

Neighbours more than tripled Five's teatime audience last night in its first show away from BBC One.

Viewers for the 5.30pm instalment, at 2.3m, or 14.2%, were 300,000 down on its BBC One average last year. However, the figure was three-and-a-half times Five's average of 649,000 (4.4%) for the slot, and has been regarded as a reasonably strong first night.

The move took Five to third place in the soap's half-hour though BBC One remained on top with 2.5m (15.8%) watching The Weakest Link until 6pm. Over the 45 minutes from 5.15pm it took 2.2m (14.1%).

Neighbours increased Five's performance for the night to a 5.5% share, up from its 4.4% average, though there was little impact on Home and Away which followed at 6pm. Last night's audience matched its average last year of 1.4m.

Later on, BBC One's second Life in Cold Blood led at 9pm despite dropping 1.1m on last week to 5.6m (23.5%).

The Palace on ITV1 took 3.2m (13.1%), Channel 4's City of Vice 1.4m (5.8%) and Five film Blue Streak 1.3m (6.1%).

Five paid about £300m to take Neighbours from BBC One last year.