ITV1 lags with 2.8m for movie awards night

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 10-Sep-08, 11:00

LONDON - ITV1's 8pm-10pm coverage of 'The National Movie Awards' pulled in a lowly 2.8m viewers last night beaten by BBC One and Channel 4's 9pm offerings, 'Holby City' and 'The Sex Education Show' respectively, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The awards, which are decided entirely by the public and threw up winners such as 'The Dark Knight' in the superhero category and Meryl Streep as best female performance, earned ITV1 a 12.4% share of viewing from 8pm-10pm.

The audience for the first hour of the programme was dwarfed by the 5.5m (24.7%) who tuned in to BBC One's 'Holby City', but came in ahead of the 2.6m (11.6%) who watched Channel 4's new series 'The Sex Education Show'.

However, the C4 show's audience grew from 2.1m to 3m over the hour it was on air, auguring a good run. Another 249,000 watched its Channel 4+1 outing, giving it a total of 2.8m viewers.

Fronted by Anna Richardson, the series opened with a group of parents being given a shock look at the pornography their kids watch on the internet.

At 9pm, C4's 'The Secret Millionaire' again won the slot with 4.1m viewers (17.8%) to BBC One's 3.7m (15.9%) for drama series 'Mutual Friends'. Including Channel 4+1 ratings, 'The Secret Millionaire' managed 4.3m viewers.

On Five, 'CSI: Miami' drew 2.5m viewers which was a 10.9% share.

BBC Two offered the live grand final of its "celebrities become orchestra conductors" 'Maestro', which was won by writer and comedian Sue Perkins, at 8.30pm-10pm. 1.7m watched, earning the channel a 7.4% share.