Superstars twinkle with 1.3m

Five's resuscitation of Superstars got off to a steady start with 1.3m viewers (6.2%) watching at 8pm on Friday.

The 60-minute programme kicked off with 1.1m (5.3%) and grew to a peak of 1.5m (7.2%) at 8.30pm before ending on 1.3m (6.5%).

The show, hosted by Sharron Davies and Jim Rosenthal, was on par with Five's slot average for the year to date of 1.3m (5.7%) but considerably up on the channel's average for 2007 of 861,000 (4%).

Five has had some very mixed fortunes in the 8pm slot on Friday this year. Ice Road Truckers on 7 March was a surprise hit with a sizeable 2.5m (10.4%). However, Storm Chasers on 4 April could only muster 623,000 (2.7%).

Superstars gave a pronounced boost to Five's upmarket and younger audience.

ABC1 viewers made up a solid 45.7% of the show's audience, this compares with Five average profile audience for the year so far of 37.8%.

Similarly, viewers aged between 16 and 34 made up 25.3% of the Superstars audience, while so far this year Five's profile share for that age group has been 16.9%.

The sporting competition first aired in 1973 and was hugely popular in the 70s and 80s. It last aired in July 2002 on BBC1 as a one-off as part of Sport Relief. Then, the two-hour programme averaged 6m (38.5%).

Superstars managed to get the upper hand over Channel 4 at the time as A Place in the Sun: Home or Away managed just 1.1m (5.2%) with a further 84,000 watching the show on C4+1.

Superstars couldn't touch BBC2's Gardeners' World though at the same time had 2m (9.8%).

But BBC1 and ITV1 dominated the 8pm slot with their respective soaps.

BBC1's EastEnders at 8pm gained 7.7m (37.5%) while Coronation Street at 8.30pm took 7.4m (34.5%).

It was, in general, a strong peaktime performance from the commercial network with the channel easily dominating most of the evening.

Emmerdale got the channel off on the right foot with 6.2m (34%) at 7pm which was followed by the first outing of Coronation Street at 7.30pm on 8.2m (41.8%). At 9pm, a re-run of A Touch of Frost gained 4.2m (20.8%).

The only BBC1 show to get a solid audience was EastEnders at 8pm, otherwise no other BBC1 show could hit the 4 million mark.

The One Show, at 7pm, had 3.8m (21%) but Sky Cops at 7.30pm managed just 3m (15.3%).

The corporation's flagship terrestrial channel continued to struggle at 9pm with the return of Would I Lie to You? on just 3m (14.1%), which was followed by a repeat of The Two Ronnies Sketchbook on just 2.6m (12.1%).

Eviction night on C4's Big Brother gave the reality show a boost. The first outing at 9pm pulled in 3.8m (17.4%) for an hour. The later show at 10.35pm gained 3.3m (18.9%) for half an hour.

All hours shares for Friday 11 July 2008: BBC1 – 20.1%, ITV1 – 19.8%, C4 – 9.2% (C4+1 – 0.4%), BBC2 – 7.2%, Five – 4.8%, multichannel – 38.4%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 25.2%, BBC1 – 20%, C4 – 9.8% (C4+1 – 0.4%), BBC2 – 8.6%, Five – 4.9%, multichannel – 31%.

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