Comic Relief pulls in more than 9m

MONEY FOR LAUGHS Comic Relief 2011: BBC1 & BBC2 – The BBC's biennial charity event raised more than £74m – a new record – and averaged 9.135 million viewers and a 37.8% audience share over three hours from 7pm on BBC1. The show switched to BBC2 during the 10pm news, averaging 7.415 million viewers and a 32.4% share, and then continued on BBC1 from 10.35pm until 1am with 4.475 million and 44%. Comic Relief viewing peaked in the quarter hour from 9pm with 12 million. Comic Relief's viewing figures were slightly down compared with previous years – in 2009 the event averaged 10.3 million and a 43% share on BBC1 between 7pm and 10pm. But it was up on last year's Sport Relief, which averaged 7.8 million/33.2% over the same Friday night three-hour period. Competition on Friday included ITV1's Emmerdale (7pm: 6.36 million/29.1%) and Coronation Street (7.217 million/29.1%), BBC2's Gardeners' World (8.30pm: 1.899 million/7.5%) and Channel 5's The Mentalist (9pm: 1.522 million/6.1%). TEETH AND BONES True Blood: FX, 10pm – The third series of the supernatural drama continued with 247,000 viewers. Multichannel competition included Sky Atlantic's David Simon drama Treme, with 19,000 (0.1%) from 10.15pm. All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, +1 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 [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".