Ramsay's US 'Nightmares' appeal to 2.6m

A new season of the US version of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares began with around 2.6 million viewers for Channel 4 on Friday.

The chef has become a firm fixture for the channel in the Friday, 9pm slot - and last week pulled in around 3 million viewers for a feature-length edition of his UK Nightmares show.

Season two of the American version opened to 2.59m (10.8%) for the hour, with a further 314k (1.8%) watching on Channel 4+1.

ITV1 won the slot with 5.53m (23%) for the first half of a new Trial & Retribution. On BBC One, QI took 4.16m (17.1%) then Not Going Out interested 3.26m (13.7%).

A new episode of NCIS brought in 2.33m (9.7%) to Five, leaving BBC Two in last place with 1.6m (6.7%) for Around The World In 80 Faiths.

The final episode of Channel 4 comedy Plus One was seen by 983k (4.7%) at 10pm, while on ITV1, Pushing Daisies notched up 1.66m (8.8%) for the hour.

This week's Natural World, about the increasing number of elephants in Botswana, put in a decent 1.77m (7.3%) for BBC Two in the 8pm hour. It beat Channel 4's A Place In The Sun: Home Or USA?, seen by 1.63m (6.7%), and Five documentary repeat Titanic's Final Moments: The True Story, which had 1.01m (4.2%).

Coronation Street drew the day's best numbers of any channel, with 10.13m (42%) tuning in at 7.30pm and 9.73m (39.5%) returning an hour later.

EastEnders managed 9.06m (37.6%) for BBC One at 8pm and 645k (3.4%) for BBC Three at 10pm. Emmerdale grabbed a strong 7.76m (34.4%).

Hollyoaks took 1.56m (7.1%) for Channel 4, and on Five, Neighbours had 1.68m (9.5%) and Home & Away had 1.08m (5.3%).

ITV1 led primetime with an average share of 25.7% to BBC One's 21.9%. Channel 4 was third with 6.8% (+1: 0.8%), followed by BBC Two with 6.6% and Five with 5.4%.

Fiver's premiere of the next Home & Away drew the strongest multichannel audience of the day, with 757k (3.9%) tuning in at 6.30pm.

Source: DigitalSpy