Slow start for Ball, Theakston series

Britain's Best Brain made a slow start for Five last night, early viewing figures show.

The series, which is fronted by former Live And Kicking presenters Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston, pulled in 713k (3%) for its opening episode and finished last in the 8pm timeslot.

Earlier this year, Live From Studio Five - another new show commissioned as part of Five's new look - debuted to a lowly 476k (2.6%).

Collateral Damage followed Best Brain, averaging 946k (4.7%) between 9pm and 11.15pm.

ITV1's Midsomer Murders was the most-watched programme during primetime, drawing 5.89m (24.9%) between 8pm and 10pm.

BBC One's Waterloo Road returned for its fifth series to 5.04m (21.3%) at 8pm, then 4.19m (17.6%) stayed with the channel for the 9pm Crimewatch.

Over on BBC Two, 2.37m (10%) watched Natural World at 8pm, then Andrew Marr's The Making Of Modern Britain logged 2.18m (9.2%).

Ruth Watson's Hotel Rescue and Did Heston Change Little Chef put in 1.37m (5.8%) and 2.16m (9.2%) for Channel 4 at 8pm and 9pm respectively. True Blood followed at 10pm, pulling in 1.1m (6.5%).

Overall, ITV1 came top during primetime with an average share of 25% to BBC One's 20%. BBC Two was third with 8.9%, followed by Channel 4 with 6.2% (+1: 0.7%) and Five's 3.4%.

Elsewhere, Sky1's NCIS: Los Angeles dropped to 387k (2.4%), losing 118k viewers since the first episode last week.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional