UK Edition
Feeds
The return of Robin Hood beat the return of Primeval in the ratings last night, according to early figures.
The BBC drama - back for its third series - averaged 5.62m (25.8%) over 45 minutes from 6.50pm. Its ITV1 rival, also launching its third run, put in 5.27m (23.7%) over an hour from 7.20pm.
Hood suffered from being up against Harry Hill's TV Burp, which averaged 5.93m (27.6%) for ITV1 over 30 minutes, but when Primeval began at 7.20pm, Hood's audience jumped from 5.65m to a peak of 6.74m (29.7%) within five minutes.
The audience for Hood was roughly on par with that for the first episode of series two, which managed 5.76m (26.5%) on October 6, 2007.
Primeval, meanwhile, was down around 500k on its second series premiere, which delivered 5.72m (24.9%) on January 12, 2008.
After Hood, a new series of The National Lottery: 1 vs 100 picked up 6.11m (27.5%). The audience then grew further to 6.36m (28.6%) for the latest episode of Casualty at 8.25pm.
Post-Primeval, ITV1's audience plummeted. Chris Tarrant gameshow The Colour Of Money logged just 2.71m (12.3%) over an hour, then the final episode of The Feelgood Factor had 2.17m (11%) from 9.20pm.
BBC Two's Timewatch documentary on the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza interested 2.2m (9.9%) at 8.15pm, then the final episode of The Lost World Of Communism took 1.38m (6.8%).
Five's NCIS had 1.54m (6.9%) from 8.15pm, then CSI: NY rallied an impressive 2.97m (14.6%). Law & Order closed off prime for Five with 1.64m (10.5%).
A 90-minute Grand Designs rerun attracted 1.22m (5.5%) to Channel 4 from 7.45pm, after which a screening of Brokeback Mountain mustered 950k (6%).
BBC One averaged a share of 23.3% overall in primetime, a clear six points ahead of ITV1. Five was a strong third place finish on 8.3%, followed by BBC Two with 6.5% and Channel 4 with 5.7% (+1: 0.7%).
Ratings data supplied by Attentional
