'Torchwood' ends run with 5.8 million

The final episode of Torchwood: Children Of Earth drew 5.81m (26.7%) for BBC One on Friday night, according to early ratings figures.

Overall, the third series, which was stripped on the channel in the 9pm slot over five nights last week, averaged an impressive 5.89m (26.1%).

On Friday it beat a rerun of Doc Martin, which had 3.63m (16.7%) for ITV1, and the 1.26m (5.8%) audience for Five's NCIS.

BBC Two's coverage of the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show interested 1.76m (8.1%) over the same period. It followed on from Gardeners' World, which had 1.81m (9.1%) in the 8pm hour.

The finale of Celebrity Masterchef - won by TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss - managed a decent 4.37m (21.2%) for BBC One between 8.30pm and 9pm. ITV1's Airline drew 3.09m (16%) in the first half of the hour.

Five doc Air Force Afghanistan put in 920k (4.6%) in the 8pm hour, outdoing the 839k (4.2%) for Channel 4's A Place In The Sun: Home Or USA?

The latest update from Big Brother brought in 2.04m (9.4%) to Channel 4 in the 9pm hour, with 2.12m (13.3%) returning at 10.35pm to see Kris Donnelly evicted from the house.

BBC One came out on top in primetime overall, with an average audience share of 24.3% to ITV1's 22.9%. Channel 4 was third with 7.5% (+1: 0.7%), followed by BBC Two with 6.7% and Five with 5.2%.

The top multichannel draw was America's Got Talent, seen by 579k (2.9%) on ITV2 in the 9pm hour.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional