Nearly 13m watch David Cameron arrive at No 10

David Cameron's arrival at No 10 Downing Street was watched by nearly 13 million viewers last night, Tuesday 11 May, as BBC1 joined the news channels in live coverage of the new Conservative prime minister taking power. BBC1 ditched its early evening schedule – including EastEnders – for nearly two hours of live coverage of the denoument of five days of unprecedented Westminster drama and the formation of a Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government, starting with Gordon Brown's resignation statement just after 7.15pm. Viewing across BBC1, BBC News Channel and Sky News peaked in the five minutes from 8.45pm at 12.844 million as Cameron arrived at Downing Street and made his first speech as prime minister outside No 10, after visiting Buckingham Palace for an audience with the Queen. During this five-minute period, BBC1 had 10. 4 million viewers, BBC News Channel 1.76 million and Sky News 684,000. The 15-minute peak came in the quarter hour before that, from 8.30pm. BBC1 and BBC News Channel, simulcasting a news special fronted by David Dimbleby, had a combined audience of 11.5 million viewers for that 15-minute period. Of these, 9.914 million were watching BBC1. Sky News averaged 586,000 viewers in the half hour from 8.30pm. Overall, the BBC's news special averaged 10.2 million viewers and 43.7% share across BBC1 and the BBC News Channel between 7.15pm and 9pm. BBC1's share of this audience was 8.878 million (37.8%). BBC1 cut into The One Show halfway through at 7.15pm for its news special, also dropping the scheduled 7.30pm edition of EastEnders and clearing Holby City from the 8pm hour. EastEnders will be broadcast tonight at 7.30pm, in place of DIY SOS. BBC News Channel was again the biggest winner ratings-wise from the final day of Westminster manoeuvring, with Sky News also enjoying another hefty audience boost. Viewers also turned in greater numbers than usual to the BBC1 10pm news bulletin, Channel 4 News and Newsnight. However, ITV1 saw little relatively audience uplift for its coverage of political developments, despite running a news special between 5pm and 7pm. This fits the trend for viewers to turn to the main BBC networks and the news channels for coverage of big news stories. The BBC news network was the most-watched multichannel service for the fourth day in the past six , with an all-individuals audience share of 4.5% for Tuesday, its best ever and not far short of Channel Five's 4.9%. This was more than five times the network's average daily share of 0.9% for the past three months. Sky News had a 2.4% share of viewing yesterday, putting it second equal in multichannel with ITV3. This was four times the network's average daily share over the past three months of 0.6%. BBC1 posted a 24.6% share yesterday, a boost to its average daily share for the past three months of just under 18%. BBC News Channel averaged 903,000 viewers in the 5pm hour, 794,000 in from 6pm, 1.118 million from 7pm and 1.532 million in the 8pm hour. In the two hours from 7pm the news channel had more viewers than BBC2 (Coast repeat and Theo's Adventure Capitalists) or Five (Live from Studio Five, Zoo Days repeat and Cowboy Builders) and was level pegging with or just ahead of Channel 4 (Channel 4 News, Supersize v Superskinny). Sky News's biggest audience of the day came in the 7pm hour, with an average of 626,000 – ahead of Five's programming at the time. Channel 4 News had 1.031 million (4.8%) in the 7pm hour, compared with 823,000 (3.8%) last Tuesday; while BBC2's Newsnight attracted 1.279 million (8.5%) over 50 minutes from 10.30pm. A week ago Newsnight had 860,000 (6.1%). The BBC1 10pm bulletin drew 6.669 million (30.4%), up from 4.874 million (24.5%) last Tuesday. ITV1's news special had 2.089 million (13.2%) over two hours from 5pm, replacing the scheduled gameshow Divided and the early evening regional and national news bulletins. Last Tuesday Divided had 1.411 million (11.5%), the regional news 2.564 million (15.1%) at 6pm and the national bulletin 2.997 million (15.6%) from 6.30pm. ITV1's News at Ten attracted 2.179 million (10.1%), compared to 1.83 million (9.2%) last Tuesday. Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel Five (available in all UK homes with TV, except Five, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 9pm: Luther - 5.313 million/21.4%, BBC HD 41,000/0.16% BBC2 7pm: Coast (rpt) - 964,000/4.5% 8pm: Theo's Adventure Capitalists - 538,000/2.2% 9pm: The Story of Science - 1.998 million/8.1% ITV1 7pm: Emmerdale - 6.121 million/29.6%, ITV HD 86,000/0.4% 8pm: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? - 2.478 million/10.1%, ITV HD 29,000/0.1% 9pm: The Bill - 2.679 million/10.8%, ITV HD 17,000/0.1% Channel 4 8pm: Supersize v Superskinny - 1.509 million/6.2%, C4+1 295,000/1.2% 9pm: Heston's 80s Feast - 2.384 million/9.6%, C4+1 299,000/1.6% 10pm: Shameless - 1.929 million/10.5%, C4+1 248,000/2.7% Five 6.25pm: Live from Studio Five - 229,000/1.2% 7.30pm: Zoo Days (rpt) - 313,000/1.4% 8pm: Cowboy Builders - 1.068 million/4.4% 9pm: CSI - 1.908 million/7.7% All ratings are unofficial live overnight figures, excluding other viewing – including timeshifted (recorded), on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. 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