O Brother, where art thou?

Big Brother got an audience of just 2.3m (9.9%) viewers last night as the reality show continued to feel the heat from its competitors including ITV1's Britain's Got Talent which goes from strength-to-strength.

Channel 4's 60-minute reality show at 9pm once again struggled to make any sort of serious impact with viewers and could only hit a high of 2.5m (10.3%) at 9.30pm.

Big Brother, which is normally a ratings banker, has suffered recently as both ITV1 and BBC1 have aired strong competition.

In an attempt to scupper the Big Brother party BBC1 launched a new run of the detective series Dalziel and Pascoe which held a steady 5.2m (22.1%) over the hour-long slot. ITV1 though towered over all the competition as Britain's Got Talent achieved a new personal best.

Surprise ratings hit

The 90-minute live Got Talent semi-final, which has been something of a surprise hit for the broadcaster, hit a new high of 8.9m (40.1%) over 15-minutes from 10pm. The entire show managed to draw 7.8m (34.1%).

Over the 14 editions of Big Brother that have aired so far this series the Brighter Pictures produced show has secured an average share of 3.6m (17.1%) with most editions airing in a 60-minute 10pm slot.

Its audience, so far, is down by 800,000 viewers compared to the first 14 episodes of last year's series, although then the majority of shows aired in the more popular 9pm slot.

This year the reality show got off on the right foot with the launch show taking 6m (25.1%). But since then the show has, largely, been on a downward slope. Last Wednesday's edition (13 June) sunk to the show's fifth worst performance ever with just 2.1m (8.2%).

Both BBC1 and ITV1 have picked up on Big Brother's apparent vulnerability and taken steps to counter schedule against it. Wednesday's show faced the might of both Britain's Got Talent, which broke the 7m mark for the first time, and the final of The Apprentice which scored an impressive 6.8m (27.4%).

The Channel 4 show is likely to receive a boost tonight (15 June) with the first eviction of the current series. The eighth series has not been without controversy after contestant Emily Parr was kicked out after using racist language.

Spring into action

Elsewhere it was a largely uneventful evening. BBC2's Springwatch continued to bring in the viewers with a 60-minute programme taking 3.4m (15.7%).

C4's How Clean is Your House? at 8pm gained 2.5m (11.8%) with Embarrassing Illnesses at 8.30pm on 2.4m (10.7%). Five's Build a New Life in the Country gained 1.4m (6.5%).

All hours shares for Thursday 14 June 2007: BBC1 – 22.7%, ITV1 – 22.3%, C4 – 9.6%, BBC2 – 8%, Five – 5.2%, multichannel – 32.1%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 26.6%, BBC1 – 25.2%, C4 – 9.1%, BBC2 – 8.8%, Five – 5.3%, multichannel – 25%.

Source: Broadcast Now