The Great British Bake Off cooked up a storm on Thursday, with more than 9 million viewers tuning into watch the return of the BBC1 show.
The show, featuring Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood and presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, began its sixth series with an average of 9.3 million viewers and a massive 43% share of all TV viewing between 8pm and 9pm on Wednesday.
Its five-minute peak was 10 million viewers as Stuart Henshall became the first contestant to leave the show after his beetroot black forest gateau failed to win over the judges.
The opening episode smashed last year’s fifth series opener, which drew 7.2 million viewers.
The show has proved a runaway hit, having started on BBC2 with a low-key debut in 2010 with just 2 million viewers.
However, as the cooking show continued to rise in popularity the corporation moved what had become BBC2’s biggest hit – overshadowing even Top Gear – to BBC1 last year.
More than 12 million viewers tuned in to see Nancy Birtwhistle win last year’s final, with a peak of more than 13 million, beating BBC1’s ratings for the football World Cup final.
