10.8m see Dancing on Ice finale

The two-hour final of ITV1's Dancing on Ice averaged an impressive 10.8m viewers (43.2%) last night, completely dominating viewing from 6.55pm.

The show, which saw Ray Quinn lift the title, managed a five minute peak audience of 12.1m (44.1%) at 8.40pm. It hit 11.9m (44%) over 15 minutes at 8.25pm.

The entertainment format was a big draw for upmarket viewers with 38.2% coming from the ABC1 demographic. In comparison, just 16.8% of viewers were aged between 16 and 34. The show was also heavily female skewing with women making up 63.9% of the audience.

The Dancing on Ice final was up by a sizeable 83% on the channel's slot average for last year of 5.9m (24.8%), but was down by 900,000 viewers compared to the final last year. In 2008, 11.7m (44.2%) tuned in on 16 March at 7pm.

Over its entire run this year's series averaged just over 8.8m (34.2%), compared to 8.9m (3.57%) last year.

The show was just part of a solid ITV1 peaktime performance last night. Following on from Dancing on Ice at 9pm was the start of the third series of Lewis, which got 6.8m (29.8%) over two hours. Not quite on the same level at 6.30pm the factual show The Prince in the Rainforest had 3.6m (19.3%) for 25 minutes.

There were mixed fortunes for Channel 4. Initially it took a heavy knock at 8pm with Come Dine with Me, falling 900,000 from last week to average a disappointing 1.2m (4.5%) over an hour. The show then added on 153,000 on C4+1.

C4 then made up for lost ground with the return of The Secret Millionaire at 9pm. The start of the fourth series pulled in 2.5m (9.6%), way above the channel's slot average for last year of 1.6m (6.3%). The programme then drew 219,000 on C4+1

But the hour-long show well short of the 3.6m (15.9%) who saw the start of the last series on 5 August, when the show aired on a Tuesday night.

Five's comedy movie Shallow Hal, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black, had 1.4m (6.4%). Earlier at 7.05pm its film I Spy had 631,000 (2.5%).

Source: BroadcastNow