Derren Brown's Lottery 'truth' seen by 4.4m

Derren Brown's explanation of his controversial Lottery stunt pulled in a huge audience for Channel 4 on Friday night.

How To Win The Lottery, which saw the illusionist deliver an explanation of how he had accurately predicted Wednesday night's National Lottery result, averaged 4.42m (20.6%) in the 9pm hour. The audience was around 1.6m more than that for the Big Brother finale just one week earlier.

A further 440k (2.8%) watched the programme on Channel 4+1, then the documentary David Blaine: What Is Magic? had 1.61m (9.7%) for Channel 4 in the 10pm hour.

Earlier on C4, a repeat of Celebrity Come Dine With Me featuring Christopher Biggins put in 689k (3.5%) between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, then a repeat of culinary quiz The Big Food Fight kept 874k (4.1%) until 9pm.

BBC One's Traffic Cops picked up 2.8m (13%) at 8.30pm, then clips show Best of Live at the Apollo averaged 2.69m (12.6%) in the 9pm hour.

A Tonight investigation into Britain's waste mountain interested 2.93m (14.3%) at 8pm, then later on ITV1, a repeat broadcast of crime drama Rebus delivered 4.06m (19%) in the 9pm hour.

BBC Two started the night with 1.99m (9.7%) for Mastermind, then the audience grew to 2.17m (10.1%) for Gardeners' World half an hour later. At 9pm, the latest new episode of The Tudors appealed to 1.83m (8.5%).

Five's Brighton Beach Patrol - this week featuring a group of fighting drunk teens - was seen by 1.09m (5.2%) at 8pm, then an hour later NCIS picked up 1.09m (5.1%). Repeats of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and CSI: Miami followed with 1.21m (7%) and 577k (5.7%) respectively.

Overall, ITV1 was victorious in primetime with an average share of 22.8% to BBC One's 18.9%. Channel 4 was third with 9.7% (+1: 1.1%), followed by BBC Two with 8.3% and Five with 4.7%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional