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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Stuart Kemp

The Jump gets off to a flying start for second series launch

The Jump
The Jump was watched by an average of 2.8 million viewers on Channel 4 on Sunday night. Photograph: Channel 4

Channel 4’s winter sports reality show The Jump returned to screens for a second series on Sunday night, leapfrogging the first series opener with a healthy 2.8 million viewers.

The show’s first episode, which saw the male contingent of the 16 celebrities take on the skeleton in the Austrian Alps, gave Channel 4 a respectable 12.4% average audience share between 7pm and 8pm, peaking at 13.7%

The returning ice and celebrity fright show faired better than the first season’s debut of 2.6 million in January last year, in the 8pm-9pm slot, performing at 110% of the channel’s slot average for the last 13 weeks.

However, BBC1’s Countryfile continued to dominate the 7pm Sunday evening slot, coralling 7.6 million viewers for a 33.2% audience share.

Last Tango In Halifax dances off with victory

The third season hour-long finale of BBC1’s Last Tango In Halifax went out with a bang, attracting 6.6 million viewers from 9pm Sunday night for a 26.6% share, up from last week’s tally average of 6.3 million viewers.

The rise in viewers for the Sarah Lancashire vehicle, written by Sally Wainwright, in the 9pm slot came as ITV drama Mr Selfridge posted a downturn in audience fortunes for the second episode of its third season.

The department store drama, starring Jeremy Piven, lured 3.6 million viewers to its doors for a 14.3% share, slipping from last week’s opener, which attracted 3.8 million for a 15.3% share.

Last season’s opening episode of Mr Selfridge attracted 4.9m viewers.

The 2.5 million viewers tuning in to see the beginning of the final week of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5 were matched by the same number of folks watching BBC2 for Dragon’s Den.

Channel 4’s Our Guy in India also brought success for the broadcaster in the 9pm slot, garnering 2.2 million sets of eyes for the first of a two-part documentary about Guy Martin’s 1,000-mile trip across India on a motorbike.

Andy Murray Australian open final serves up BBC viewer bonanza

BBC1’s decision to broadcast Andy Murray taking on Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open tennis grand slam final played out well on Sunday morning.

The final, from which BBC1 began broadcasting at 8.15am, peaked at noon as the fourth set began, with 4.1 million watching for a 37.1% market share. The final, which Djokovic secured after going on to win that set, served up 3.2 million viwers for a 34.6% average.

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, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

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