New Peter Andre series debuts high

Peter Andre's new ITV2 series made a strong start last night, according to early viewing figures.

The 9pm show, titled Peter Andre: The Next Chapter, pulled in a respectable 1.44m (6.7%) during the hour, making it the most-watched show on the multichannel stations. A further 302k (2%) tuned in on timeshift.

The series premiere beat Katie Price's first solo offering since their split. The opening episode of What Katie Did Next managed 1.28m (6%) on Thursday, August 27. Andre's show also matched the success of Katie & Peter: Stateside, which hit a series high of 1.44m (7.2%) earlier this year on Thursday, May 21.

Also on the multichannel stations, the new season premieres of Bones and Lie To Me logged 596k (2.8%) and 497k (3.2%) for Sky1 at 9pm and 10pm respectively.

Elsewhere, the penultimate episode of Criminal Justice brought in 4.22m (18.4%) for BBC One during the 9pm hour. Earlier, at 8pm, 3.68m (16.1%) tuned in for Watchdog.

A double bill of MasterChef: The Professionals interested 2.77m (12.3%) and 3.14m (13.4%) for BBC Two at 8pm and 8.45pm, then 2.16m watched Never Mind The Buzzcocks between 9.30pm and 10pm.

Over on ITV1, The Bill averaged 3.6m (15.6%) during the 9pm hour.

Location, Location, Location managed 2.17m (9.5%) for Channel 4 at 8pm, then 1.23m (5.3%) tuned in for documentary Alex: A Passion For Life at 9pm.

Five's Vice Squad took 1m (4.3%) during the 9pm hour. Earlier, 621k (2.7) watched the penultimate episode of Megastructures: Built From Disaster.

Overall, BBC One and ITV1 were tied during primetime, each with an average share of 21.7%. BBC Two was third with 8.7%, followed by Channel 4 with 6.4% (+1: 0.9%) and Five's 3.4%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional