Homeless personalities beat 'Big Brother' by 3m

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 25-Jun-09, 11:00

LONDON - A BBC One programme challenging celebrities to live homeless for ten days in London topped the ratings with 4.7m viewers last night, according to unofficial overnight figures.

Comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli, journalist Rosie Boycott and former tennis star Annabel Croft were among five well-known faces who chose to be 'Famous, Rich and Homeless'.

The first of two parts (the second is tonight) earned an audience share of 22.3%, coming in substantially ahead of ITV1's conclusion of a documentary about Britons living in Spain coping with the recession.

'Spain: Paradise Lost' managed 3.6m viewers and a 16.9% share at 9pm-10pm.

'Big Brother', which Channel 4 put into the same slot last night, brought in 1.8m viewers for an 8.3% share. An extra show at 10.55pm-11.30pm earned a 13.6% share as 1.6m tuned in to see the housemates forced to make surprise live nominations for eviction.

On Channel 4+1 the first show notched up 271,000 viewers and the second 97,000.

Back at 9pm-10pm BBC Two managed 1.5m viewers and accounted for a 6.8% share with 'NASA: Triumph and Tragedy', a documentary looking at the preparations in the 1960s for putting the first man on the moon.

Five ran spaghetti western 'For a Few Dollars More' at 9pm-11.45pm, pulling in 1.2m viewers and getting a 7.3% share over the slot.

On Sky One original drama 'Martina Cole's The Take', which last week debuted to an audience of 648,000, was watched by 479,000 at 9-10pm, a 2.2% share.