The seven-hour fundraiser raised a record £21 million for good causes on the night, despite the threat of the credit crunch reducing its possible total. The ratings were also up year-on-year, with the peak of 12m (49.1%) at 8.55pm outdoing last year's 10.9m high.
The average audience between 7pm and 10pm was 9.65m (41.7%), then the post-news coverage managed 4.71m (48%) until 2am. The Ten O'Clock News was also up, averaging an impressive 7.29m (31.5%) over 35 minutes.
A new episode of Taggart picked up 3.56m (14.9%) between 9pm and 10.30pm.
Overall, BBC One thrashed ITV1 in primetime with an average share of 40.9% (last week: 21.7%) to 18.8% (26.2%).
BBC Two's Mastermind logged 2.01m (8.7%) at 8pm, then Gardeners' World had 1.46m (5.9%). Five averaged 974k (4.1%) for the hour with Police Interceptors and on Channel 4, A Place In The Sun: Home Or Away took just 840k (3.5%).
New legal documentary series The Barristers made a so-so start for BBC Two in the 9pm hour, averaging 1.17m (4.8%). Five's NCIS put in 981k (4%) and on Channel 4, a screening of the romcom Four Weddings and a Funeral averaged 1.5m (6.8%) until 11.15pm.
The Children In Need interval helped boost BBC Two's audience at 10pm, as a themed episode of QI notched up 4.25m (18.5%).
BBC Two's average primetime share was up to 7.9% (last week: 7.6%), with Channel 4 following on 5% (6.5%) and Five on 3.4% (4.4%).
Home and Away brought in the day's best multichannel numbers, netting 526k (3%) for Fiver at 6.30pm. Hollyoaks took second with 499k (2.7%) for E4 and 184k (0.9%) on timeshift.
Ratings data supplied by Attentional
