Hour-long 'Emmerdale' outrates 'Enders

The latest hour-long edition of Emmerdale helped the ITV soap to the top of the ratings on Tuesday, according to early figures.

The episode, which included a gun-point hostage, pulled in an average of 6.23m (30.7%) in the 7pm hour, a week-on-week rise of 400,000. EastEnders, shown over half an hour from 7.30pm, managed 5.77m (27.2%). However, when figures for the BBC Three repeat - 826,000 (4.7%) at 10pm - are included, the BBC soap had an overall lead of around 400,000.

The second episode of BBC One's comedy drama Mutual Friends drew 3.67m (16.3%) in the 9pm hour, a significant fall from the 4.57m (19.6%) who turned out for last week's premiere. ITV1 was also down in the hour, taking a terrible 2.32m (10.3%) for the documentary Superhuman: Super Strong. The lack of competition allowed Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire to clean up, taking a near-record 4.21m (18.7%) for the hour and a further 238,000 (1.5%) on Channel 4+1.

BBC Two's ongoing search for a conductor in Maestro was seen by 1.6m (7.1%) and Five's CSI: Miami took 2.43m (10.8%).

Channel 4 also had success on Tuesday with a double eviction in Big Brother. The first show had 3.34m (14.7%) and 299,000 (1.5%) in the 8pm hour, doubling the slot's week-on-week audience. At 10pm, the second show, which included the evictions of Mohamed Mohamed and Kathreya Kasisopa, pulled in 3.74m (20.9%) and 131,000 (1.6%).

Holby City was the overall winner of the 8pm hour, with 4.9m (21.5%) for BBC One, while ITV1's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Armed Forces Special put in a respectable 4.01m (17.6%). The concluding part of BBC Two's Thames Shipwrecks: A Race Against Time interested 2.45m (10.7%) and on Five, documentary Secrets of the Jesus Tomb held a decent 1.35m (5.9%).

Behind Big Brother at 10, Ian Hislop's submissions to Room 101 brought 1.6m (7.9%) to BBC Two. Five's CSI: New York repeat delivered 1.51m (8.3%).

ITV2's new celebrity reality show CelebAir got off to an encouraging start at 9pm, with 549,000 (2.8%) tuning in. A further 88,000 (0.6%) watched on ITV2+1. It comfortably beat Sky1's premiere of the new season of Prison Break, which averaged 375,000 (2%) from 9pm to 10.50pm.

E4 had success with first-look Hollyoaks at 7pm, with 636,000 (3.8%) and 134,000 (0.7%), then later with Big Brother's Big Mouth. The show, which is being hosted by Davina McCall this week, doubled its audience to 599,000 (6.2%) at 11pm.

Elsewhere, Fiver's first-look Home & Away had 505,000 (3.2%) at 6.30pm and Living's Ghost Whisperer pulled in 366,000 (1.8%) and 89,000 (0.6%) in the 9pm hour.