Channel 4's Alan Carr New Year's marathon seen by 2m

Comedian Alan Carr's New Year's Eve extravaganza helped Channel 4 to a healthier year-on-year audience share.

Airing from 9pm to 11.30pm, Alan Carr's New Year's Specstacular averaged 1.86m (10%) as well as scoring 158k (0.9%) on +1.

The terrestrial premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End appealed to 4.96m (25.4%) on BBC One between 7.30pm and 10pm, while 1m (5.2%) watched TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks on Channel 5 between 8pm and 11pm.

Elsewhere, The Cube and It'll Be Alright on the Night anchored ITV1's schedule with respective audiences of 2.72m (14%) at 8pm and 3.4m (17.6%) at 9pm (+1: 335k/1.8%).

BBC Two's Morecambe and Wise tribute night began with The Show What Paul Merton Did, which amused 1.91m (9.8%) in the 8pm hour. Vic and Bob's Eric and Ernie followed with 1.48m (7.7%), and an edition of Parkinson featuring the comics lured 1.87m (10.4%).

At 11.15pm, Jools' Annual Hootenanny entertained 2.64m (18.6%), but the honours as usual went to BBC One's New Year's coverage, which pulled in a massive 10.92m (55.6%) at midnight, an increase on last year.

Overall, BBC One's 24.4% was nearly double ITV1's 12.9% (+1: 0.9%). BBC Two claimed third place with 8.9%, beating Channel 4's 7.6% (+1: 0.8%) and Channel 5's 4.9%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional