Big Brother 9 finale pulls in 4.7m viewers

With another 192,000 catching the 10-11pm show an hour later on Channel 4+1, the combined ratings were 5m viewers and a 23.7% share.

This was 600,000 fewer viewers than the combined ratings for last year's show of 5.6m viewers and a 29% share of the 10-11pm audience, illustrating its declining popularity.

The housemates were narrowed down to one winner over two shows; in the first at 8-9pm albino singer Darnell and chef Rex were placed fifth and fourth respectively, with an audience of 3.9m and a share of 16.8%. Including Channel 4+1 ratings the first show drew 4.2m (18.5%).

But 'Big Brother' reached its peak at 10.15-10.30pm with 5.1m viewers, as Rachel was revealed as the winner after Sara was placed third and Mikey second.

This delivered a sizeable audience for the 10.30pm ad break Cadbury's booked out for its 'Gorilla/Trucks' re-hash.

It was a close result this year, with Rachel receiving 51.3% of the votes for the final two places, putting her narrowly ahead of bookies' favourite Mikey, who was the first blind contestant to appear on the show.

On hearing the news, Rachel looked genuinely shocked and said "Oh my god, no way!" as she hugged Mikey.

Runner-up Mikey shouted "I'm glad you won Rachel" before walking out of the house to greet 'Big Brother' presenter Davina McCall.

The 13-week run of Big Brother 9 has averaged an audience of 3.2m (16.1%), compared with 3.5m (17%) last year. It has consistently beaten the respective slot averages of 2.3m for 9pm to 10pm and 1.8m for 10pm to 11pm.

A spokesperson for Channel 4, said: "This year's 'Big Brother' has regularly delivered an audience of around 3m viewers - even after nine years on air, it is still right up there among our highest ratings programmes.

"No other programme delivers us such a consistent, sizable audience and we are incredibly pleased with its performance. We look forward to celebrating 10 years of 'Big Brother' next year."