Call The Midwife pulls in more than 8 million viewers as BBC1 dominates

Call The Midwife began its fourth series with more than 8 million viewers and was the most watched show on Sunday night – but viewing was down more than 1 million on last year’s opener.

The BBC1 drama set in London’s East End in the 1950s averaged 8.3 million viewers and a 32.8% audience share from 8pm.

It was streets ahead of the next best performer in the 8pm slot, the final episode of ITV1’s Foyle’s War which drew an average of 4 million viewers and a 15.9% share.

Viewing was significantly down on the 9.6 million and 36% share for the first episode of the third series of Call The Midwife last January.

BBC1 dominated Sunday peaktime, with Countryfile (6.30pm: 7 million/32.3%), Still Open All Hours (7.30pm: 7.1 million/30.4%) and Last Tango in Halifax (9pm: 6.2 million/25.5%) giving the channel a clean sweep of ratings wins.

New ITV entertainment show Get Your Act Together got off to a slow start, averaging 2.7 million and a 12% share from 6.45pm.

Katie Price boosts Celebrity Big Brother ratings

Channel 5’s latest series of Celebrity Big Brother has been dogged by controversy – singer Alexander O’Neal became the third contestant to leave rather than being voted off on Sunday after receiving a formal warning for using homophobic language (Jeremy Jackson and Ken Morley were thrown out for unacceptable behaviour, where as O’Neal walked out of his own accord).

But Katie Price’s arrival during Friday’s live eviction has provided a ratings tonic – it averaged 2.9 million and a 13.2% share that night, better than the 9pm competition on BBC2 or Channel 4.

On Saturday CBB averaged 2.5 million and 11.4% from 9pm – beating all-comers in the slot bar BBC1’s Casualty.

Sunday’s 9pm edition had 3.2 million and a 13.2% share from 9pm, against Channel 4’s Walking the Nile (2 million/8.1%) and BBC2’s The Lancaster: Britain’s Flying Past (1 million/3.9%) – admittedly a hastily scheduled repeat after The Masters Snooker final finished earlier than expected (7pm-8.45pm: 1.9 million/7.9%).

Channel 5 said these were Celebrity Big Brother’s best weekend ratings since the show switched from Channel 4 to its new home in 2011.

The Voice gets louder

The second episode of The Voice attracted 8.5 million viewers – 500,000 more than tuned into the show’s debut last week – taking a 38.5% share of all TV viewing from 7pm and 8.25pm.

Harry Hill’s reboot of Stars In Their Eyes lost more than 1 million viewers from the show’s opener last week, with the second episode in the six-part run managing 2.5 million viewers and a 10.4% share from 7pm.

Like Sunday, BBC1’s peaktime line up had the jump on their ITV rivals all across peaktime viewing, making it a miserable weekend for the commercial broadcaster ratings-wise.

Here’s how Saturday night played out:

BBC1

6.30pm: Now You See It – 4.7 million/23.7%

7pm: The Voice – 8. 5 million/38.5%

8.25pm: The National Lottery: Win Your Wish List – 4.9 million/23%

9.15pm: Casualty – 5 million/23.6%

ITV

6.30pm: Planet’s Got Talent – 2.3 million/11.7%

7pm: Harry Hill’s Stars in Their Eyes – 2.5 million/11.4%

8.05pm: Take Me Out – 3.3 million/15.3%

9.20pm: Bridget Jones’s Diary – 1.5 million/7.8%

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated