'Geordie Shore' returns to MTV with 260,000 viewers

Series two of Geordie Shore kicked off with fairly low numbers last night.

The MTV reality show averaged 259k (1.4%) over the 10pm hour, down on its debut last May.

Winning the multichannel ratings, Junior Doctors put in another strong performance of 1m (4.2%), while BBC Four's Survivors continued with 818k (3.4%).

On the terrestrials, a Channel 4 programme on the recent sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, Terror at Sea, interested 2.87m (12%) as well as 332k (1.4%) on +1.

At 9pm, 15 Kids and Counting grabbed 2.4m (9.9%) and 353k (2%) on timeshift, before Shameless gripped 1.55m (6.8%) and 353k (2%) an hour later.

For ITV1, The Exit List sunk to a dismal 1.68m (7%) from 8pm (+1: 123k/0.5%), then the audience jumped slightly to 2.18m (9%) for The Biggest Loser.

Over on BBC One, new drama Prisoners' Wives opened with a respectable 4.92m (20.1%).

BBC Two's Alex Polizzi: The Fixer, a series following a one-woman campaign to save family businesses, started well with with 2.15m (9%). Wonderland followed with 1.18m (4.9%) at 9pm.

Dana Delany's Body of Proof held up well without a Big Brother lead-in, mustering 1.33m (5.5%) in the 9pm hour. Cowboy Builders was also steady at 8pm with 1.41m (5.9%).

Overall, BBC One led a one-horse race in primetime with 23.7%, while ITV1 had 11.5% (+1: 0.6%). Channel 4 claimed third place with 8.6% (+1: 1%), ahead of BBC Two's 7.2%, and Channel 5's 4.4%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional