Piper's 'Call Girl' ends run with 534,000

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl ended its second series with just 534,000 (3.2%) on Thursday night.

Over its eight episodes, the drama - starring Billie Piper as a high-class hooker - has averaged 614,000 (3.8%). While still impressive ratings for ITV2, the average is down an alarming 39% on the 1.01m (6.5%) average for series one, which aired last year.

Also concluding its run on Thursday night was celebrity reality show CelebAir. The final episode, in which rapper Lisa Maffia was crowned the winning trolley dolly, drew 254,000 (1.3%) in the 8pm hour. The series began strongly eight weeks ago in its original Tuesday, 9pm timeslot, drawing an average of 549,000 (2.8%). Viewers quickly checked out, however, and by week four the audience was down to just 163,000 (0.9%). The show was then moved to become part of the channel's "XXL Thursday" lineup and remained there for the rest of its run.

Overall, CelebAir averaged 277,000 (1.4%) across its eight episodes.

ITV2's best performing show on Thursday was Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter, which drew a huge 999,000 (5%) in the 9pm hour and a further 206,000 (1.4%) on timeshift.

After nearly two weeks of bumper audiences, E4's Hollyoaks returned to normal viewing levels. 760,000 (4.4%) tuned in for a first-look episode at 7pm, with an additional 177,000 (0.9%) watching on E4+1.

BBC Four had high audiences for its train-related programming, with a peak of 664,000 (3.3%) tuning in at 9pm for documentary The British Transport Films - A Nation On Film Special.

Among the terrestrial broadcasters, EastEnders was the day's most-watched programme, with an average of 6.18m (28.2%) at 7.30pm. A further 1.07m (6.3%) tuned in for the later repeat on BBC Three.

An hour-long edition of Emmerdale was not as effective as usual in denting the EastEnders audience and actually finished second overall with an average of 5.94m (28.2%).

ITV1 had the lead at 8pm with 5.05m (22.2%) for The Bill. BBC One put in 3.99m (17.9%) for The Planners Are Coming, then at 8.30pm, 3.33m (14.3%) remained for Accidental Heroes.

BBC Two edged out Channel 4 for the hour, pulling in 2.64m (11.6%) to The Restaurant. C4's River Cottage Autumn dropped half a million viewers on last week to average 2.55m (11.2%).

Five maintained a strong audience throughout primetime with live Champions League coverage. The first game, between Udinese and Spurs, averaged 1.4m (7%) from 6pm, then coverage of Villa against Ajax averaged 2.13m (9.5%) between 8.10pm and 10.20pm.

Silent Witness drew 5.86m (25.4%) to BBC One in the 9pm hour. ITV1 dropped to an embarrassing 2.08m (9%) for Real Crime: Death Of A Hostess, drawing level with the C4 documentary Mum, Heroin and Me. BBC Two had 2.18m (9.4%) for Never Mind The Buzzcocks, then dropped to 1.02m (4.5%) for Beautiful People.

Overall in primetime, BBC One was ahead with an average share of 22.3% (last week: 23.4%) to ITV1's 17.3% (18.2%). Five ascended to third with 8.8% (3.9%), followed by BBC Two on 8% (8%) and Channel 4 on 7.6% (8.4%).

Ratings data supplied by Attentional