'Dancing on Ice' Skate-Off is overtaken by 'Top Gear'

Dancing on Ice's Skate-Off was only the third most popular show airing between 8.30pm and 9pm last night.



Joe Pasquale's exit from the ITV reality show was watched by 5.1m (17.3%), while Top Gear attracted a superior 5.14m (17.7%) to BBC Two in the 8pm hour.

Call the Midwife continued to perform strongly for BBC One, meanwhile, dominating the hour with a huge 8.77m (30.2%).

However, ITV's recently recommissioned period drama Mr Selfridge won the 9pm slot with a commendable 5.81m (22.4%), adding 214,000 on +1.

Dancing on Ice's early performance show logged 6.6m (26.4%) and 197k on ITV +1. The Skate-Off later achieved a near-identical 196k on the timeshift service.

All Star Family Fortunes maintained 4.53

BBC One's screening of the BAFTA Film Awards averaged 5.38m (24%) between 9pm and 11pm, while Professor Brian Cox's Wonders of Life held 2.56m (10%).

Elsewhere, Channel 4's screening of film sequel Die Hard 4.0 pulled in 1.9m (9.3%) as well as 297k on timeshift, and 944k watched Person of Interest on Channel 5.

Overall, BBC One beat ITV in primetime with 26.4% versus 18.6% (+1: 0.7%). BBC Two earned third place with 9%, ahead of Channel 4's 6.3% (+1: 0.7%). 5 settled for a distant last place with 3.1% (+1: 0.3%).