The 90-minute extravaganza, which saw Welch triumph over the likes of Frankie Cocozza and the Shannon twins, averaged 3.04m (13.3%) for Channel 5 from 9pm and around 100k on +1.
Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side followed at 10.30pm, with 1.54m (10.6%) sticking around to see Welch and enemy Michael Madsen have one last confrontation.
© PA Images / Ian West/PA Wire
© PA Images / Ian West/PA Wire
Despite the finale being slightly more popular than Paddy Doherty's 2011 win, the audience has dipped over the entire four weeks. Overall, the 2012 run (2.3m/11%) is down 200k on Channel 5's debut series (2.5m/12%).
Zooey Deschanel's New Girl fell back to 942k (3.9%) on Channel 4 at 8.30pm (+1: 163k/0.7%), then 1.44m (6.3%) watched another Million Pound Drop with Davina McCall from 9pm (+1: 167k/1%).
Frank Skinner's new Room 101 held a respectable 3.59m (15.2%) for BBC One at 8.30pm, after which Hustle took a solid 4.5m (19%), overtaking Law & Order: UK which had 4.48m (18.8%) on ITV1 (+1: 302k/1.6%).
Meanwhile, Mastermind provided BBC Two's highest audience, grabbing 2.24m (9.8%) at 8pm.
Overall, ITV1 topped primetime with 22.5% (+1: 0.6%), beating BBC One's 20.4%. A Big Brother-filled Channel 5 claimed third place with 7.8%, ahead of BBC Two's 6.8% and Channel 4's 4.8% (+1: 0.7%).
BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional
