4.1m have 'Grand Designs' for C4

More than 4 million tuned in for a new series of Grand Designs on Channel 4 on Wednesday, early figures suggest.

The home renovation series - fronted by Kevin McCloud - launched with 4.12m (17.4%) in the 9pm hour, equalling the audience for the final episode of The Secret Life Of Elephants on BBC One. A further 224k (1.4%) watched from 10pm on Channel 4+1.

ITV1 managed 3.56m (15%) for a rerun of Taggart at the same time, while on BBC Two, the final episode of The City Uncovered With Evan Davis brought in 1.41m (6%). Five had 1.07m (5.3%) for the Van Damme action flick The Hard Corps.

Before Grand Designs, a new episode of Relocation, Relocation took a healthy 3.1m (12.6%), with a further 228k (1.1%) on timeshift.

Channel 4's average primetime share was 11.6%, while Channel 4+1 averaged 0.9%.

ITV1 won the 8pm hour with 5.33m (21.7%) for The Bill, and on BBC One, 4.4m (17.9%) preferred Waterloo Road. BBC Two started the hour with 2.04m (8.5%) for eco show It's Not Easy Being Green, then improved to 2.91m (11.6%) for the week's penultimate MasterChef. Five's Ice Road Truckers logged 1.57m (6.4%).

Coronation Street drew the day's top numbers, with 9.65m (42%) tuning in at 7.30pm. Emmerdale was seen by 7.62m (35.3%) at 7pm.

Hollyoaks snagged 1.74m (8.5%) for Channel 4, and on Five, Neighbours had 1.49m (9.3%) and Home & Away had 1.14m (6%). Fiver's first-look Home & Away drew 738k (4%) at 6.30pm, outdoing the 660k (3.4%) for E4's 7pm showing of Hollyoaks.

ITV1 was first place in primetime with an average share of 21.7% to BBC One's 18.9%. After Channel 4, BBC Two managed 7.8%, then Five had 4.6% for last place.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional