TV

'Law & Order: UK' returns with 4.8m

Published Saturday, Jan 7 2012, 13:26 GMT | By Liam O'Brien | 4 comments

Law & Order UK: PETER DAVIDSON as Henry Sharpe, DOMINIC ROWAN as Jacob Thorne, FREEMA AGYEMAN, BRADLEY WALSH as DS Ronnie Brooks, PAUL NICHOLLS as DS Sam Casey and HARRIET WALTER as DI Natalie Chandler.

The UK version of Law & Order proved popular on ITV1 on Friday night, securing 4.8m viewers and a 18.4% audience share.

The crime drama, starring Paul Nicholls as a no-nonsense detective, took a further 426k (2.2%) on timeshift. Earlier on ITV1, Safari Vet School nabbed 2.94m (11.9%) at 8pm, as well as 103k (0.4%) on +1.

Channel 5's World's Toughest Trucker drove off with 1.18m (4.8%) at 8pm before the highlights of the Celebrity Big Brother launch night summoned 2.44m (9.9%). Celebrity Wedding Planner followed with 936k (4.8%) and Celebrity Big Brother's Bit On The Side entertained 619k (4.8%).

On Channel 4, New Girl charmed 1.22m (4.9%) along with an extra 217k (0.9%) on +1, while The Bank Job held on to most of the audience with 1.11m (4.5%) and 184k (0.9%) on timeshift.

The One Lenny Henry tickled 2.88m (11.7%) on BBC One at 8.30pm. Public Enemies was up next with 3.83m (15.5%).

Two editions of BBC Two's Mastermind conjured 2.11m (8.5%) and 2.03m (8.2%) from 8pm, and Sicily Unpacked saw 1.58m (6.4%) tune in from 9pm.

ITV1 had the largest primetime audience share at 22.6%, followed by BBC One's 19.2%. BBC Two, Channel 5 and Channel 4 followed with 7.8%, 5.4% and 4.7% respectively.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional