Let's Dance for Sport Relief's return boosted BBC One on Saturday (February 18) night, early overnight data reveals.
The show opened with a solid 6.54m (28.9%), up slightly on the launch of the last series, and much higher than its 7pm predecessor, The Magicians.
ITV1's early evening suffered as a result, with You've Been Framed nabbing 3.7m (16.4%) at 7.15pm (+1: 206k/0.9%), and Harry Hill's TV Burp slumping to 4.21m (17.5%) at 7.45pm (+1: 190k/0.8%).
Both Who Dares Wins (5.3m/22.5%) and Casualty (5.35m/23.1%) rounded off BBC One's evening with decent audiences.
Meanwhile, Take Me Out dipped to 4.85m (19.6%) at 8.15pm (+1: 151k/0.7%), then 571k (2.5%) switched over to ITV2 for Take Me Out: The Gossip. Back on ITV1, The Jonathan Ross Show entertained 3.23m (14.7%) at 9.15pm (+1: 306k/1.8%).
Live late-night boxing gave Channel 5 a helping hand, scoring 1.1m (6.9%) from 10pm, prior to which drama imports NCIS (1.26m/5.4%) and CSI: NY (1.49m/6.4%) also performed well.
Channel 4's The Bank Job, hosted by George Lamb, rallied to 1.06m (4.7%) at 9.15pm (+1: 145k/0.8%) after a decent lead-in from movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, which had 1.21m (5.2%) from 7.30pm (+1: 379k/1.6%).
A BBC Two documentary on artist Lucian Freud, Painted Life, interested 871k (3.9%) at 9pm. Cycling coverage averaged 1.15m (5%) at 7pm.
Overall, BBC One topped primetime with 23.1%, beating ITV1's 17.2% (+1: 0.7%). Channel 5 claimed third place with 5.6%, followed by Channel 4's 5% (+1: 1.2%) and BBC Two's 4.6%.
Drama channel ITV3 (4.2%) fared well also, with Doc Martin (988k/4.2%) and Poirot (885k/4.2%) leading its charge.
