The return of BBC2’s acclaimed serial killer drama, The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan on BBC2 was watched on Thursday night by 2.5m viewers, a million fewer than its first series launch.
The Fall, back for a new six-part series, had an 11.8% share of the audience between 9pm and 10pm on BBC2. The first series ended last year with 3.7m viewers.
In a closely contested 9pm slot, the fourth episode of David Attenborough’s Life Story attracted 3.5m viewers on BBC1, ahead of the 3.1m who tuned in to a Neil Diamond special on ITV1. Both programmes had a 15% share.
Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E, now in its seventh series, had 2.1m viewers for a 10% share and was the station’s highest rating show of the night.
The Fall was preceded by MasterChef: The Professionals, which had almost 2.7m viewers for a 12.2% share – BBC2’s top show for the night.
Babylon and on
The other big premiere of the night – Channel 4’s Babylon – pulled in 724,000 viewers at 10pm for a 4.7% share between 10pm and 11.05pm. The police satire, which began with a pilot episode last year, stars James Nesbitt and Paterson Joseph and was written by Peep Show creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong.
The show was beaten by documentary Fred and Rose: The Untold Story on Channel 5, which had 893,000 viewers and a 5.7% share between 10pm and 11pm. Russell Howard’s Good News earned BBC2 the same share but slightly more viewers, watched by 995,000 people.
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