'Let's Dance for Sport Relief' dents 'Harry Hill's TV Burp' in ratings

Let's Dance for Sport Relief's return boosted BBC One on Saturday (February 18) night, early overnight data reveals.

The show opened with a solid 6.54m (28.9%), up slightly on the launch of the last series, and much higher than its 7pm predecessor, The Magicians.

ITV1's early evening suffered as a result, with You've Been Framed nabbing 3.7m (16.4%) at 7.15pm (+1: 206k/0.9%), and Harry Hill's TV Burp slumping to 4.21m (17.5%) at 7.45pm (+1: 190k/0.8%).

Both Who Dares Wins (5.3m/22.5%) and Casualty (5.35m/23.1%) rounded off BBC One's evening with decent audiences.

Meanwhile, Take Me Out dipped to 4.85m (19.6%) at 8.15pm (+1: 151k/0.7%), then 571k (2.5%) switched over to ITV2 for Take Me Out: The Gossip. Back on ITV1, The Jonathan Ross Show entertained 3.23m (14.7%) at 9.15pm (+1: 306k/1.8%).

Live late-night boxing gave Channel 5 a helping hand, scoring 1.1m (6.9%) from 10pm, prior to which drama imports NCIS (1.26m/5.4%) and CSI: NY (1.49m/6.4%) also performed well.

Channel 4's The Bank Job, hosted by George Lamb, rallied to 1.06m (4.7%) at 9.15pm (+1: 145k/0.8%) after a decent lead-in from movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, which had 1.21m (5.2%) from 7.30pm (+1: 379k/1.6%).

A BBC Two documentary on artist Lucian Freud, Painted Life, interested 871k (3.9%) at 9pm. Cycling coverage averaged 1.15m (5%) at 7pm.

Overall, BBC One topped primetime with 23.1%, beating ITV1's 17.2% (+1: 0.7%). Channel 5 claimed third place with 5.6%, followed by Channel 4's 5% (+1: 1.2%) and BBC Two's 4.6%.

Drama channel ITV3 (4.2%) fared well also, with Doc Martin (988k/4.2%) and Poirot (885k/4.2%) leading its charge.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional