'Desperate Housewives' drops to 1.7m

Desperate Housewives dropped around 690,000 viewers last night, early viewing figures show.

The latest episode pulled in 1.72m (9.5%) for Channel 4 during the 10pm hour. Last week's season six premiere, which aired between two live Big Brother shows, managed 2.41m (12.6%). A further 206k (2.2%) tuned in on Channel 4+1.

Also on Channel 4 last night, Relocation, Relocation and Embarrassing Bodies logged 2.72m (11%) and 3.16m (12.6%) at 8pm and 9pm respectively.

Over on BBC One, Crop to Shop: Jimmy's Supermarket Secrets put in 5.05m between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, then Inspector George Gently grabbed 4.1m (16.4%) between 8.30pm and 10pm.

Natural World drew 1.76m (7.2%) for BBC Two during the 8pm hour, then the audience dipped to 1.74m (7%) during the 9pm screening of Horizon.

Five's Secrets of Egypt: Rameses attracted 911k (3.7%) at 8pm, then 2.09m (8.4%) tuned in for NCIS during the 9pm hour.

Overall, ITV1 came top during primetime with an average share of 21.7% to BBC One's 19.3%. Channel 4 was third with 9.2% (+1: 1.1%) followed by BBC Two with 7.2% and Five's 4.9%.

Elsewhere, American Idol took 652k (2.7%) for ITV2 at 8pm, making it the most-watched programme on the multichannel stations. The Grammy Awards 2010 followed immediately afterwards, drawing 562k (2.6%).

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional