3.2m see Blumenthal take on 'Little Chef'

Heston Blumenthal's new series for Channel 4 got off to an encouraging start in the ratings last night (Monday), early figures show.

Big Chef Takes On Little Chef, which sees the celebrated chef attempt to turn around the fortunes of the ailing restaurant chain, averaged 3.18m (13.1%) in the 9pm hour.

It was Channel 4's most-watched programme of the day, outranking traditional ratings winner Celebrity Big Brother. The daily BB highlights show - broadcast at the earlier time of 8pm - took just 1.7m (6.8%) for the hour, a new series low, however a sizable 513k (2.3%) watched Channel 4+1's 9pm repeat.

A second show, which featured the surprise eviction of Michelle Heaton, had a much more respectable 2.99m (16.5%) between 10pm and 10.50pm.

Channel 4's average primetime share rose more than two points to 9.5%.

Source: DigitalSpy