Ratings boost for 'Dragons' Den'

Dragons' Den improved in the ratings last night (Monday) to score its third best performance ever.

The business-based series averaged 3.44m (14.7%) for BBC Two in the 9pm hour, up half a million week-on-week and within reach of its audience record, 3.8m for an episode in 2006.

Dominating the slot was BBC One's New Tricks with 8.38m (35.7%), down slightly on last week's 8.56m (37.3%) but almost triple the audience of ITV1's Police Camera Action!, which had 3.08m (13.1%) over the same period. Channel 4 had 1.2m (5.1%) for the concluding part of documentary Can't Read, Can't Write, while Five entertained just 943,000 (4.6%) with its Greatest TV Comedy Moments between 9pm and 11.05pm.

Coronation Street won the Monday night soaps battle, with respective audiences of 8.22m (45.4%) and 8.11m (37.7%) for its 7.30pm and 8.30pm instalments. EastEnders had 7.88m (38.2%) for BBC One at 8pm but added a further 574,000 (3.3%) with its later repeat on BBC Three. Emmerdale was seen by 6.2m (35.7%).

ITV1's The Tourist Trap: Tonight had a decent 3.49m (16.9%) against EastEnders at 8pm, while on BBC Two, 2.16m (10.5%) were interested in University Challenge. Ching-He Huang's Chinese Food Made Easy managed 1.88m (8.7%) from 8.30pm. New Richard Dawkins documentary The Genius Of Charles Darwin made a muted start for C4 in the 8pm hour with an average of 1.43m (6.8%), a fall from the 2.25m (10.8%) who watched a Dispatches investigation about sandwiches in the same slot last week. Five's The Gadget Show took 948,000 (4.5%).

At 10pm, the latest Big Brother update had an impressive 3.05m (17.1%) for Channel 4, with an additional 154,000 on Channel 4+1. BBC Two pulled in 1.34m (6.6%) with a repeat of panel show Would I Lie To You?

First-look Hollyoaks was the top multichannel draw, with an average of 623,000 (4.2%) for E4 at 7pm and an additional 131,000 on E4+1. House delivered 398,000 (2.5%) to Five US at 10pm and on ITV2, Monday night movie Coyote Ugly attracted 372,000 (2.1%) between 9pm and 11pm. BBC Three documentary I'm Kylie's Body Double managed 372,000 (2.1%) in the 9pm hour.