Ultimate Big Brother begins with more than 3m viewers

Channel 4's Ultimate Big Brother, which features a "greatest hits" of contestants past and present, began with more than 3 million viewers last night, Wednesday 25 August. Ultimate Big Brother averaged 3.205 million viewers between 10pm and 11.10pm, a 17.6% share of the audience, with another 226,000 viewers (2.4%) on Channel 4 +1. This was well up on the audience for last Wednesday's edition of the regular Big Brother show, which drew 2.412 million viewers (14.1%) on Channel 4 and 153,000 (1.7%) on Channel 4 +1 . The reality show also beat ITV1/ITV1 HD's News at Ten, which attracted 1.803 million viewers and an 8.6% share between 10pm and 10.35pm, but lost out to the BBC News at 10pm on BBC1, which drew 5.077 million viewers and 24%. ITV1/ITV1 HD fared better with its coverage of Tottenham's 4-0 Champions League qualifier win over Young Boys. The coverage pulled in 4.289 million viewers and an 18.9% share between 7.30pm and 10pm, with an average of 4.6 million for the match itself, which kicked off at 7.45pm. Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel Five (available in all UK homes with TV, except Channel 5, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 8.30pm: Great British Waste Menu – 5.095 million/21.7% BBC2 8pm: Coast – 2.757 million/12.1%, BBC HD: 119,000/0.52% ITV1/ITV1 HD 7pm: Emmerdale – 6.256 million/31.3% Channel 4 9pm: My New Brain – 1.832 million/7.8%, C4+1: 231,000/1.2% Channel 5 10pm: Law & Order: Criminal Intent – 1.231 million/6.4% Freeview/digital terrestrial TV free-to-air networks Available in 23.4m UK homes – 91.4% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 ITV2 8pm: Paris Hilton's Best Friends Forever – 101,000/0.4% E4 9pm: Ugly Betty – 605,000/2.6% More4 9pm: The God Delusion – 318,000/1.5% Fiver 11.15pm: Californication – 39,000/0.4% Cable and satellite pay-TV networks Available in 12.4m UK homes – 48.2% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 Sky1 8pm: Vet Adventures (new series) - 122,000/0.5% All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] 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".