Call the Midwife easily topped Sunday's overnight ratings, scoring its highest-ever figures.
The BBC One drama attracted an average audience of 9.61 million (36.1%) at 8pm, up from last year's opener of 9.32m.
Earlier, Countryfile Winter appealed to 7.05m (29.5%) at 7pm, while The Musketeers launched to an impressive 7.41m (28.9%) at 9pm.
On ITV, Mr Selfridge returned to 4.85m (18.9%) at 9pm, with an added 415,000 (2.4%) on +1. This is down around 2 million from last year's premiere episode, and down around 500k from its previous episode in March.
BBC Two's Masters Snooker final scored 2.15m (8.5%) at 7pm, followed by a Top Gear repeat with 1.11m (4.8%) at 9.15pm.
On Channel 4, Speed with Guy Martin brought in 1.77m (6.6%) at 8pm (280k/1.1% on +1). Documentary Don't Look Down was seen by 1.47m (5.7%) at 9pm (293k/1.7%).
Channel 5's broadcast of Legally Blonde entertained 1.26m (5.0%) at 7pm (130k/0.5%), followed by Celebrity Big Brother with 2.34m (9.1%) at 9pm (370k/2.1%).
