'Let's Dance For Comic Relief' ends on 7.9m

The final of Let's Dance For Comic Relief was the most watched programme last night, peaking with over 8.6 million viewers.

The celebrity dance show averaged 7.9m (35.5%) between 7.15pm and 8.35pm, culminating with comedian Robert Webb being crowned winner.

It helped knock the audience for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which dropped to a series low of 5.17m (22.7%) between 7.45pm and 9pm on ITV1.

After Dance, the Lottery draw interested 5.79m (25.3%), then the latest episode of Casualty pulled in 5.93m (27.1%).

ITV1's screening of About A Boy averaged 2.27m (11.4%) over almost two hours from 9pm. Earlier, Harry Hill's TV Burp had been seen by 5.11m (27%) and Chris Tarrant gameshow The Colour Of Money had taken 4.09m (20.2%).

BBC Two documentary Timewatch: Captain Cook - The Man Behind The Legend averaged 1.82m (7.9%) for the 8pm hour, comfortably ahead of the 905k (3.1%) audience for Grand Designs on Channel 4.

At 9pm, The Lost World Of Communism - a new three-part documentation of life in the Eastern bloc before the collapse of communism - put in 1.58m (7.5%) for BBC Two and on Channel 4, a screening of I, Robot delivered 1.47m (7.6%).

A repeat of NCIS brought in 1.4m (6.3%) to Five from 8.35pm, then a new episode of CSI: New York was seen by 2.45m (12.3%). Law & Order closed primetime with 1.25m (8.6%).

BBC One had a first place finish in primetime with an average audience share of 28.2% to ITV1's 16.9%. Five was third with 6.5%, followed by Channel 4 with 6% (+1: 0.5%) and BBC Two with 6.2%.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional