Silent Witness edges Ant and Dec doc

The long-running in-house drama won the 9pm slot, but was unable to match last year’s series opener, which drew 6.7m (29.5%) on Tuesday 6 January.

Silent Witness smashed BBC1’s slot average of 3.6m (16.4%) for the past 12 months. Some 60% of the audience was aged 55 or over.

Opposite, Spun Gold’s When Ant and Dec Met The Prince aired to 5.8m (26.2%) viewers as the heir to the throne discussed his involvement with The Prince’s Trust.

It was well ahead of ITV’s 3.8m (18.9%) slot average, while almost two-thirds (64%) of viewers were female.

Betty’s format held up well against the competition, according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv.

Although it was unable to match the 2.4m (9.6%) who tuned in for the fifth series opener in January 2015, it easily wooed more than the 1.7m (7.8%) slot average.

Immortal Egypt with Joanna Fletcher got underway on BBC2 with 1.3m (5.6%), while World’s Most Dangerous Prison locked up 980,000 (4.1%) for Channel 5.

12 Yard Productions and Black Dog’s comedy panel show, hosted by Sue Perkins with team captains Josh Widdicombe and Richard Osman, narrowly missed out on the 1m (5.8%) slot average.