ITV pre-empts 'Showdown', 'Supersize'

ITV has pulled tonight's episodes of Holiday Showdown and Supersize Surgery at the last minute to avoid another ratings defeat at the hands of C4's Celebrity Big Brother.

RDF reality series Holiday Showdown normally pulls in respectable audiences of 5 to 6 million viewers but began its fourth series last Tuesday with just under 3 million viewers. Big Brother, shown on Channel 4 at the same time, won the slot with over 5 million.

Supersize Surgery began at 10pm with just 2.6 million, beaten by the 3 million who watched C4's Shameless.

Five also came close to topping ITV1 with its CSI double-bill, which averaged 2.6 million across two hours.

ITV1 has now pre-empted both shows and will "relaunch" them next week in the same slots. A repeat of Taggart will air tonight in their place.