Thank God You're Here – but the viewers aren't

ITV1's new improvisation show Thank God You're Here struggled on Saturday night, getting just 2.9m viewers (12.4%) and losing out to both BBC1 and Five.

The hour-long show aired in the high profile slot of 9.05pm. It saw its audiene dwindle from 2.9m (12.2%) to just 2.1m (9.8%) in the final 15-minutes.

The audience for Thank God You're Here was down on the channel's slot average for last year by some margin of 5.1m (23.4%).

Despite being fronted by popular comedian Paul Merton, the comedy show lost out to both BBC1 and Five at the time. And, to make matters worse, both BBC2 and Channel 4 weren't too far behind either.

A repeat showing of BBC2's Have I Got News for You, which also featured Paul Merton, took 2.5m (10.4%) for half an hour at 9pm while C4's movie Shallow Hal entertained 2.4m (11.3%).

Nudging ahead of ITV1 was the start of the fourth series of CSI: NY on Five. The hour-long episode at 9.20pm gained a strong 3.2m (14.2%) at 9.20pm.

BBC1 on top

Easily claiming the spoils at 9.20pm was BBC1 with the results show of The One and Only on 4.8m (20.7%). Despite winning the slot the audience for the show was down on the channel's slot average of 5.1m (23.4%).

The first part of The One and Only aired earlier in the evening at 6.25pm. It pulled in 5.2m (23.2%) for over an hour.

But, in that slot, viewers preferred the return of Harry Hilll's TV Burp on ITV1. The popular comedy show attracted an impressive 5.6m viewers (26), 500,000 more than the slot average.

ITV1's returning sci-fi drama series Primeval made a solid return at 7pm with 5.7m (24.9%), building its audience to a peak of 5.9m (25.1%) in the final 15-minutes.

The drama couldn't quite match the slot average of 6.2m (30.7%).

Far from extinct

When the first series of Primeval launched on 10 February last year it picked up a strong 6.7m (28.5%) in a slightly later slot of 7.45pm. The entire six-part series averaged 6m (26.6%).

Pulling in a sizeable 7m (29.6%) at 7.40pm was the corporation's lottery show In It to Win It.

BBC1 kept up the advantage over its commercial rival at 8.30pm with Casualty on 7.4m (30.6%).

ITV1's celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? had 5.2m (21.9%) at 8pm.

All hours shares for Saturday 12 January 2008: BBC1 – 22.9%, ITV1 – 16.4%, BBC2 – 8.7%, Five – 6.6%, C4 – 6.5%, multichannel – 38.8%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 25.4%, ITV1 – 20.1%, BBC2 – 9.4%, Five – 8%, C4 – 6.4%, multichannel – 30.7%.

Source: Broadcast Now