Emmerdale's special 40th anniversary programme expanded its audience on Thursday (November 1) night, early overnight data reveals.
Narrated by cast member Gaynor Faye, the third edition of ITV1's five-part Emmerdale at 40 interested 3.64 million (16.1%) and 135,000 on +1, rising around 200k on last week's rating.
Emmerdale itself managed to smash the 7m mark for both of its episodes, pulling in 7.31m (35%) at 7pm (+1: 122k) and 7.17m (31%) an hour later alongside 243k on timeshift.
Carl King's funeral and Jimmy's sorrow boosted the show's audience by 500k week-on-week.
However, EastEnders still topped the soap ratings with a solid 7.64m (35%) on BBC One at 7.30pm. The launch of Phil and Sharon's fake engagement plot was seen by a further 440k (2.9%) at 10.30pm.
Elsewhere, Hollyoaks grabbed 884k (4.5%) on Channel 4 and 447k (2.1%) for E4's first look, while Doctors averaged 1.38m (17.7%) at 1.45pm.
The week's penultimate instalment of Neighbours mustered a consolidated audience of over 1.5 million, as 618k (7.9%) watched at lunchtime and 980k (6%) in its 5.30pm slot.
Home and Away followed at 6pm with 638k (3.4%), after which 472k (2.4%) caught 5*'s first look.
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 2:38 pm