ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! kicked off its 14th series on Sunday night with just over 10 million viewers, putting it on course to be one of the top-rating shows of the year.
I’m a Celebrity, which features Michael Buerk, Melanie Sykes and former footballer Jimmy Bullard, averaged 10.3 million viewers and a 42% audience share from 9pm. It was ITV’s biggest audience since the football World Cup in the summer.
This was down on last year’s opening night ratings of 12 million and 46.5% – the show’s best-ever launch figures – but on a par with 2012, when the show’s debut also scored 42% and 10.2 million.
The reality series – which aired between 9pm and 10.40pm – was the most watched show of the night, beating BBC1’s screening of film War Horse and Channel 4’s US import Homeland.
The adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s war drama was watched by an average of 5 million between 8pm and 10.45pm, a 19.7% audience share, while Homeland drew 1.2 million.
War Horse, making its free-to-air debut, was also beaten by The X Factor results show between 8pm and 9pm, which pulled in a 32.5% audience share and 8.3 million viewers.
The X Factor featured the first airing of Band Aid 30 but was still down around a million on the same time last year.
New BBC2 documentary series World’s Greatest Food Markets launched with an average of 1.3 million viewers and a 4.9% share from 9pm.
Earlier in the evening, Strictly Come Dancing’s results show on BBC1 did better – waltzing off with an average of 10 million viewers from 7.15pm, a 40.8% share.
The rejigged Songs of Praise at 4.10pm drew an audience of 1.5 million and an 11.3% share on BBC1.
All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated
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