Secret Diary makes disappointing return

The return of ITV2's Secret Diary of a Call Girl hooked an average audience of 748,000 last night (11 September), over 1 million viewers less than its debut last year.

The second series, again starring Billie Piper as high class call girl Belle de Jour, launched at 10pm on the back of a major marketing push, but failed to match the audience of 1.9m that tuned in to the opening instalment of the first run. That first series went on to average more than 1.2m and attracted a further 141,000 to ITV2+1.

The second part of last night's double bill dipped to 715,000.

But the opening instalment of Call Girl still managed to beat BBC3's repeat of Eastenders (579,000), E4's new US comedy Samatha Who? (104,000), Virgin 1 US drama The Unit (157,000), More 4 US drama Without a Trace (223,000) and Fiver series Intervention (35,000).

Five US had begun airing movie sequel The Legend of Zorro at 9pm, which went on to average 314,000 up till 11.30pm. Sky 1 also aired a movie sequel, Rocky II, which averaged 58,000 from 10pm to 12.15am. BBC4's Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery informed 243,000 over an hour from 10pm.

What did deliver for ITV2 was the launch of the third series of Katie and Peter: The Next Chapter. The reality show, featuring Katie Price and Peter Andre, entertained 804,000 between 9pm and 10pm.

It trumped BBC3 factual series Your Identity for Sale (165,000), E4's new episode of Ugly Betty (318,000), BBC4 drama Casualty 1907 (230,000), Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA (204,000), Sky 1's US drama Bones (145,000), Fiver factual series Banged Up Abroad (77,000) and Virgin 1's US series Criminal Minds (160,000).

Source: Broadcast Now