Chicken Run picks up 3.4m for C4

Channel 4 food programme Hugh's Chicken Run got off to a flying start last night with a sizeable 3.4m viewers (13.8%) tuning in at 9pm.

The hour-long programme is the first in a trilogy of documentaries made by Keo Films that sees TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall try to raise awareness of the conditions of mass-produced chicken.

The audience for the first show rose from 3.2m (13.1%) to 3.6m (14.6%) in the final 15-minutes.

Hugh's Chicken Run, which marked the start of the broadcaster's Big Food Fight strand, got an audience twice the size of the channel's slot average for last year of 1.7m (7.2%).

A further 200,000 viewers watched the show on the timeshifted channel C4+1.

The excellent performance from Hugh's Chicken Run meant that C4 was some way ahead of its nearest rivals with both BBC2 and Five airing films at the time.

On the Other side

BBC2's horror thriller The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, drew a steady 1.7m (7.4%) for 90-minutes from 9pm. Five's Steven Segal movie Shadow Man appealed to 1.5m (6.7%) for two hours.

Hugh's Chicken Run was no match for the might of ITV1 though as the hit drama Wire in the Blood returned for a one-off edition at 9pm.

The feature-length episode, starring Robson Green, picked up a sizeable 6.3m (26.5%) over the 90-minutes, gaining a peak audience of 7.3m (29.6%) at the start.

From that point the show steadily lost viewers to end with 5.7m (26.6%).

Despite the dropping audience figures, the average rating for the drama was well above the commercial network's slot average of 5.1m (22.7%). It was also the show's best performance since March 2005.

Last night's Wire in the Blood outperformed the four part series last year which began on 11 July with 5.9m (26.8%) in a similar 9pm slot. The entire run averaged 5m (25.9%).

BBC1 didn't put up any particularly serious competition at the time as Road Rage: the Battle for Britain's Roads gained a rather modest 4.2m (17.3%), down by 1.3m on the channel's slot average.

BBC2 serves up a treat

Food programmes also proved to be a popular attraction slightly earlier in the evening with the return of BBC2's MasterChef, now moved to a permanent peaktime slot of 8.30pm.

The 30-minute show hit the 3m viewer mark (11.7%), improving on the slot average of 2.6m (11.1%). BBC2 was on even stronger form at 8pm with University Challenge picking up 3.5m (13.8%).

C4 couldn't put up much resistence with a re-run of 10 Years Younger: Winter Sun Bikini Special on just 1.3m (4.9%). Five's repeat of Nigel Marven's Shark Island had 708,000 (2.8%).

The soaps on the two main terrestrial channels dominated from 8pm. EastEnders gained 10.6m (41.9%) for BBC1 at 8pm while at 8.30pm Coronation Street on ITV1 had 11.2m (43%). The earlier outing of Coronation Street at 7.30pm had 11.2m (46.2%).

Earlier in peaktime Five's new travel show The Rough Guide to… kicked-off at 7.30pm with Julia Bradbury going in search of the perfect beach. The 30-minute show drew 686,000 viewers (2.8%).

Living rough

Bad news for digital channel Living which had its worst Monday ratings ever yesterday with an all hours share of just 0.3%. In 2007 it averaged a share of 0.7% on a Monday.

No show on the channel broke the 100,000 mark. The best rating show of the day on Living was CSI: Crime Scene Investigation at 11.05pm. It got 98,000 (1.3%).

Earlier in the evening The Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency at 8pm impressed just 23,000 (0.1%) while the film that followed at 9pm, American Sweethearts, charmed 44,000 (0.2%).

Over on E4 at 9pm Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack at 9pm managed to break the 500,000 mark and saw off strong challenges from both ITV2 and BBC3.

The 60-minute reality show gained 583,000 (2.7%) with a further 123,000 (0.7%) watching on E4+1.

Not too far behind at 9pm was ITV2's film Leathal Weapon on 532,000 (2.9%) while over on BBC3 the comedy movie Freaky Friday at 8.30pm took 503,000 (2.3%).

Earlier in the evening BBC4 scored something of a surprise hit with a repeat showing of Top of the Pops: the True Story at 8pm. It got an impressive 470,000 viewers (2.1%).

All hours shares for Monday 7 January 2008: ITV1 – 23.9%, BBC1 – 21.3%, BBC2 – 8.2%, C4 – 8.1%, Five – 4.8%, multichannel – 33.1%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 29.3%, BBC1 – 22.6%, BBC2 – 8.9%, C4 – 7.9%, Five – 4.1%, multichannel – 25.7%.

Source: Broadcast Now