A special edition of ITV1's Tonight show, which featured details on the now infamous case of cheating in n episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, drew a peak audience of just under seventeen million viewers.

Overnight data indicates the show averaged 15.1m viewers, peaking at 16.7m in the final half-hour. These figures surpass those for a Tonight special on Michael Jackson, which drew 14.1m viewers. The figures equate to ITV taking roughly half of the available 'share' while the programme aired - share being a measure of the amount of people watching the programme out of the total TV audience in the time period.

The Media Guardian reports that a showing of the complete episode on ITV2 in which Major Charles Ingram, his wife Diana and Tecwen Whittock were convicted of cheating, attracted around 1.3m viewers.

Major Ingram said on the BBC's Breakfast programme today: "I did not notice or hear any coughing on the night. The clips that were played last night were wholly unrepresentative of the environment that I was sitting within."

Reports indicate Celador, who makes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, may turn the entire saga into a movie.