BBC1's first world war medical drama The Crimson Field launched with more than 6 million viewers on Sunday night.
The first in a six-part series starring Oona Chaplin, Suranne Jones and Hermione Norris, The Crimson Field averaged 6.2 million viewers, a 26.3% share, in the 9pm hour.
Viewers saw three young women arrive to offer help at a British hospital in war-torn France.
Episode two of the latest out for ITV's Inspector Morse spin-off, Endeavour, averaged 5.4 million viewers, a 23.2% share, between 8pm and 10pm.
The final part in a trilogy of Louis Theroux BBC2 documentaries about Los Angeles pulled in 1.6 million viewers, a 6.8% share, between 9pm and 10pm.
A fifteen-minute peak audience of 7.2 million, a 36.8% share watched Oxford's 11-length victory over Cambridge during yesterday's Boat Race on BBC1.
The Boat Race coverage was on an even keel with last year's ratings with 4.5 million average viewers, a 25.2% share from 4.30pm.
Live coverage of the 2013 race itself averaged 6.6 million and a 41% share.
The return of ITV's Off Their Rockers, which documents senior citizens playing hidden-camera pranks on unsuspecting members of the public, attracted an audience of 4.3 million, a 19.2% share between 7.30 and 8pm.
Channel 4's documentary, Return of the Black Death: Secret History, which follows experts as they try to uncover why the 1348 plague killed on such a scale, was watched by 1.6 million, a 7.1% share between 8 and 9pm.
