Lewis triumphs for ITV1 with 7.4m viewers

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 19-Feb-07, 11:45

LONDON - ITV experienced mixed fortunes in the battle for viewers over the weekend, with 'Inspector Morse' spin-off 'Lewis' making a strong debut and dinosaur drama 'Primeval' shedding almost a million viewers.

'Lewis' attracted 7.4m viewers on ITV1 last night, beating BBC One's 'Waking the Dead' in the same time slot by more than 2m viewers.

The drama, which stars Kevin Whately as Lewis, earned an audience share of 31.6%, compared with 'Waking the Dead''s 20.1% share. The BBC One two-parter attracted 5.3m viewers.

'Lewis', who has been promoted to inspector and has a new young sidekick in Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, benefited from having previous history with its audience, as 'Inspector Morse' fans tuned in hoping for the same magic that made the original series starring John Thaw so popular.

Those same fans and ITV will be hoping Whately, who now takes top billing, signs on for more instalments of the standalone episodes. The current run is only for three outings, and Whately has not yet committed to further work.

A 'Lewis' pilot, which was broadcast in January 2006, attracted an audience of 11m.

ITV's new Saturday evening sci-fi dinosaur drama series 'Primeval' held up well, despite losing viewers.

In its second episode, 'Primeval' attracted 5.9m viewers after debuting with 6.7m viewers the previous week. It was still the most watched programme in its time slot and earned an audience share of 27.5%.

'Primeval' was scheduled against Graham Norton-fronted variety show, 'When I Will Be Famous?', which attracted 4.9m viewers and a 23% share.