Over 3.5m watch 'The Family'

Channel 4's The Family made a strong start in the ratings last night (Wednesday) with over 3.5 million viewers.

The reworking of the seminal 1970s "reality TV" show pulled in a strong 2.7m (11.5%) in the 9pm hour. Unusually, it was repeated an hour after it finished on Channel 4, adding a further 610,000 (7.4%) from 11pm. Screenings on timeshift service Channel 4+1 brought in 278,000 (1.9%) at 10pm and 63,000 (1.8%) at midnight.

The Family aired after a celebrity edition of cookery show Come Dine With Me, which pulled in an impressive 3.06m (13.6%) and 303,000 (1.5%) in the 8pm hour.

On ITV1 at 9pm, twisted period drama Lost In Austen was down to a miserable 2.88m (12.3%). The four-part series, which concludes next week, has now lost a million viewers since its debut at the start of the month.

BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are?, this week featuring Poirot's David Suchet, logged 6.43m (27.4%) to triumph comfortably in the slot. BBC Two's Wednesday night fortunes began to lift as a screening of BBC Three documentary Dawn... Gets Naked pulled in 1.49m (6.3%). The figure is almost triple the audience managed by stage adaptation A Number in the same slot last week. Five had 0.88m (4.3%) for the two-hour sci-fi movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

The Bill drew 4.48m (19.9%) to win the 8pm hour for ITV1, while on BBC One, Sky Cops had 3.84m (17.5%) and Trawlermen had 3.85m (16.8%). BBC Two's The Restaurant dropped 400,000 on last week's debut to average 1.85m (8.2%), just ahead of Five's new series Axe Men, which delivered 1.79m (8%).

Desperate Housewives brought in 1.7m (9.9%) to Channel 4 in the 10pm hour, marginally more than fellow US import Medium, which had 1.64m (14.8%) for BBC One at 10.45pm. ITV1's Numb3rs notched up 0.92m (8%) at 10.35pm.

BBC Three was the leader amongst the multichannels, keeping an average of 776,000 (4.4%) for the movie National Treasure between 9pm and 11pm. Two episodes of Family Guy followed with 492,000 (5.4%) and 464,000 (6.7%).

E4 had a respectable 417,000 (2.5%) for the debut of the new series of Fonejacker at 10pm, then a less impressive 144,000 (1.1%) for new US comedy Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World at 10.30pm. First-look Hollyoaks drew 581,000 (3.6%) at 7pm.

ITV2 had a quiet night, meanwhile, peaking with 271,000 (1.7%) for a screening of Mission: Impossible 2 between 9pm and 11.25pm.

> Click here to read our interview with Come Dine With Me contestant Peter Stringfellow