New 'Hell's Kitchen' attracts 5m

The new series of Hell's Kitchen performed well for ITV1 last night, according to the latest figures.

Series four's opener, which features celebrities including Anthea Turner and her husband Grant Bovey, pulled in 5.03m (20.9%) during the 9pm hour, putting the channel in first place.

The opening episode for the last series managed 3.67m (17.2%) on September 3, 2007.

Earlier on ITV1, Airline logged 2.73m (11.4%) between 8pm and 8.30pm.

Channel 4's Henry VIII's Lost Palaces: A Time Team Special averaged 1.88m (7.9%) between 7.30pm and 9pm, then Henry VIII: Mind Of A Tyrant put in 2.04m (8.5%).

The Gadget Show interested 1.24m (5.1%) at 8pm, then 1.39m (5.8%) tuned in for the penultimate episode of Extreme Fishing With Robson Green on Five.

Over on BBC Two, the sixth and final episode of Railway Walks grabbed 2.51m (10.5%) at 8pm. The audience then dropped to 1.77m (7.2%) during the 8.30pm screening of Nigella Express, and the latest episode of Heroes drew 1.31m (5.4%) at 9pm.

Action-adventure film King Arthur averaged 4.71m (21.9%) for BBC One between 9pm and 10.45pm. Earlier, at 8.30pm, Panorama, an in-depth look at life without Woolworths, drew 3.2m (13%).

Overall, ITV1 came top during primetime with an average share of 23.4% to BBC One's 21.3%. Channel 4 was third with 7.6% (+1: 0.5%), followed by BBC Two with 6% and Five's 4.3%.

Elsewhere, the new episode of 24 pulled in 494k (2.2%) for Sky1 at 9pm. It was beaten by the first in a three part BBC Four series, Rain, which took 504k (2.3%).

BBC Three's Heroes was seen by 719k (5.4%) at 10.35pm.

Ratings data supplied by Attentional