Celebrity Big Brother draws a 7.1m audience on return

by Mark Banham, Brand Republic 04-Jan-07, 11:20

LONDON - The return of 'Celebrity Big Brother' trounced its rivals in the ratings last night with 7.1m tuning in to watch the latest line-up, which includes pop icon Jermaine Jackson, Leo Sayer and film director Ken Russell.

Audience ratings for the opening show of the fifth series peaked at 8m viewers, an increase on last year's launch night audience, which peaked at 7.6m viewers. The 7.1m strong audience gave Channel 4 a 28% share of viewers.

Channel 4 also launched the third series of 'Desperate Housewives' on the back of 'Celebrity Big Brother' and the first two episodes, screened back to back from 9.30pm, won 3.6m and 2.8m viewers, peaking at 4.4m and 3m respectively.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: "Scheduled together as a post-holiday treat for Channel 4 viewers, ['Celebrity Big Brother' and 'Desperate Housewives'] were so warmly welcomed by TV audiences to give us a fantastic start to 2007."

The nearest rival to 'Celebrity Big Brother' in the ratings battle, according to unofficial overnight figures, was a new series of Scottish detective drama 'Taggart' on ITV1, which attracted 5.2m viewers, or a 22% share of the total audience.

BBC One's duets reality show 'Just the Two of Us' broadcast at 9pm picked up 1.5m viewers, or a 16% share of the audience. The programme is presented by Vernon Kaye.

The final 'Torchwood' on BBC Two took an 8% share, 2m, although falling by a share point on the previous episode, although the double bill finale first aired on BBC Three on Sunday.

Up against them all on Five at 9pm was movie repeat 'Ransom', starring Mel Gibson, which drew an audience of 1.4m.

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