'Echo Beach' fails to resonate

A poor audience for Echo Beach made ITV1 the least watched terrestrial channel in its slot on Friday.

The new soap drew just 2.3m or 10% at 9.30pm to trail last year's slot average of 4.3m by some way, according to viewing figures. Its sixth outing was the lowest after successive drops from a 5m (21.9%) debut.

Its exact figure of 2,336,000 was pipped to fourth place by NCIS on Five, which made 2,349,000 during the half hour.

BBC One led the way on Friday with a repeat of New Tricks taking 4.3m (18.4%). The Choir: Boys Don't Sing, from 9-10pm, attracted 2.6m (11.3%) for BBC Two while Channel 4 earned 3.5m (14.9%) with a repeat of Peter Kay Live at the Manchester Apollo.

Last night BBC One suffered, however, thanks to poor audiences for its BAFTAs coverage. Some 3.5m (14.2%) tuned in for the first hour, from 9pm, and 2.9m (19.2%) for the second half from 10.20pm. Last year's average for the first hour slot was 5.4m (22%).

ITV1 easily dominated at 9pm with Kingdom taking 5.3m, 21.9% of the audience, as well as taking 8.2m (35.6%) for Dancing On Ice followed by 7.2m (28.4%) for Wild at Heart.

New BBC Two travel documentary Tropic of Capricorn got 2.4m (9.1%) at 8pm while Channel 4's Wife Swap, at the same time, made 2.1m (8.1%).