Latest 'Big Brother' draws 1.8 million

Last night's Big Brother highlights drew 1.84m (8.2%) for Channel 4, according to early viewing figures.

The 9pm show came fourth during its timeslot and was down 1.37m on last year's equivalent episode, which drew 3.21m (17.6%) on Tuesday, August 26 during the 10pm hour. The drop - a reason cited by Channel 4 for the recent Big Brother axe - represents a decline of 43% year-on-year.

A further 333k (2%) watched the show on Channel 4+1.

It was beaten by BBC One's Motorway Cops, which had 4.88m (21.8%), Five's CSI: Miami episode, which put in 2.55m (11.4%), and the second episode of The Duchess On The Estate, which logged 2.01m (9%) for Five.

The sixth and final episode of BBC Two's Desperate Romantics came last during the hour, pulling in 1.65m (7.4%).

Holby City led the 8pm hour, interesting 5.08m (23.5%) for BBC One. Its nearest rival, BBC Two's Coast, had 3.48m (16.1%).

ITV1's Car Crime UK pulled in 2.96m (13.7%), 1.92m (8.9%) tuned in for Channel 4's Property Snakes And Ladders, and Big, Bigger, Biggest grabbed 678k (3.1%) for Five.

Overall, BBC One dominated primetime with an average share of 24.2% to ITV1's 13.5%. BBC Two was third with 9.5%, followed by Channel 4 with 6.6% (+1: 0.9%) and Five's 6.7%.

Elsewhere, the latest episode of Chuck averaged 183k (0.9%) for Virgin1 during the 9pm hour, while BBC Four documentary Rich Man, Poor Man - A Knight's Tale took 340k (1.7%).

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional