'Unforgiven' draws 7.2m for ITV1

New ITV drama Unforgiven made a strong debut last night, according to early ratings figures.

The three-parter, starring Suranne Jones as a recently-released murderer, began with 7.2m (30.2%) in the 9pm hour for ITV1. It comfortably beat BBC One's Traffic Cops, which had 3.98m (16.7%) over the same period.

The latest Celebrity Big Brother highlights show picked up 2.21m (9.3%), with an additional 310k (1.9%) on Channel 4+1, and BBC Two's Million Dollar Traders started with 1.32m (5.5%). Five had just 708k (3%) for War Zone.

The first quarter-final brought in 3.2m (12.9%) to BBC Two's University Challenge at 8pm, then 3.49m (14%) tuned in for the start of a new week of MasterChef.

Channel 4 documentary Mum, Dad, Alzheimer's and Me, presented by Fiona Phillips, drew 1.17m (4.7%) for the 8pm hour, while Five's Fifth Gear pulled in 855k (3.4%).

Coronation Street drew the day's best numbers, with 10.11m (42.8%) watching at 7.30pm then 9.91m (39.8%) returning an hour later. EastEnders notched up 9.51m (38.5%) for BBC One at 8pm and 620k (3.4%) for BBC Three at 10pm. Emmerdale put in a reasonable 7.79m (35.4%).

Hollyoaks took 1.45m (6.9%) for Channel 4 and 628k (3.2%) for E4, while on Five, Neighbours had 1.5m (9%) and Home & Away had 1.01m (5.1%). First-look Home & Away was the most-watched multichannel programme of the day, pulling in 702k (3.8%) for Fiver at 6.30pm.

ITV1 averaged 28.3% in primetime, down just 0.3 points on last week. BBC One was back up to 20.9%, from 17.8% last Monday, while BBC Two took third with 7.4%, down from 10.1%.

Channel 4 had 7.2% for fourth, down from 8.1%, and Five dropped from 3.7% to 2.9%.

Elsewhere, the premiere of the seventh season of action drama 24 brought in good numbers for Sky1, averaging 633k (3.2%) over almost two hours from 9pm.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional