'The Tudors' draws over 2 million

Historical drama The Tudors returned with over 2 million viewers on Friday night, according to early figures.

The second season of the show, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII, opened with 2.3m (11.3%) for BBC Two in the 9pm hour. While an improvement on the 1.56m who watched Burn Up in the same slot last week, the figure is down by a million on the launch of the first season last September.

Winning the 9pm hour was Channel 4's Big Brother, where 3.58m (17.6%) tuned in to see Luke Marsden evicted from the house. The later post-eviction interview drew 3.03m (18.8%) between 10.35pm and 11.10pm. The Kevin Bishop Show had 1.89m (9.9%) at 10pm.

On BBC One, quiz show Would I Lie To You? attracted 2.68m (13.1%) at 9pm, then The Armstrong & Miller Show was seen by 2.12m (10.4%) at 9.30pm. A repeat of Agatha Christie's Poirot held a respectable 3.16m (16.3%) for ITV1 over two hours from 9pm.

At 8pm, Gardeners' World pulled in 1.93m (9.8%) for BBC Two, almost double the 1.04m (5.3%) audience for Channel 4's A Place in the Sun: Home Or Away. Five's Superstars improved week-on-week to reach 921,000 (4.7%), then 1.2m (5.9%) tuned in for an NCIS repeat an hour later.

Coronation Street won the battle of the soaps, with respective audiences of 7.84m (43.9%) and 7.05m (35.2%) for its 7.30pm and 8.30pm episodes. EastEnders had 7.35m (38.3%) for second place, and Emmerdale managed 6.1m (36.8%).

EastEnders added a further 670,000 (4%) with its 10pm BBC Three repeat to rank as the most popular multichannel show of the day. The channel also enjoyed success with Lindsay Lohan comedy movie Herbie: Fully Loaded, which averaged 595,000 (3.4%) between 8.30pm and 10pm.

Big Brother's Big Mouth logged an impressive 607,000 (5.8%) for E4 at 11.05pm and on ITV2, America's Got Talent managed 481,000 (2.8%).