Ratings: 'Torchwood: Miracle Day' sheds 650,000 viewers

[dutchman]

Torchwood plummeted to a series low on Thursday night, according to early overnight data.



Shedding 650k on last week's outing, the fourth series of the Doctor Who spinoff - starring John Barrowman - averaged 3.45m (14.1%) for BBC One in the 9pm hour.

However, due to interest in Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother relaunch, it is likely that more viewers will watch episode six on iPlayer.

Nevertheless, Miracle Day has failed to live up to the heights of Children of Earth, which was aired night-by-night last year and attracted ratings of over 7 million.

Fellow dramas Single Handed and The Killing also suffered from the heavier 9pm competition, grabbing 2.79m (11.4%) on ITV1 (+1: 101k) and 987k (4%) on Channel 4 (+1: 196k), a respective drop of 280k and 180k.

Elsewhere, BBC One had 3.98m (17.5%) for a Crimewatch special at 8pm on the recent London riots, after which 3.53m (14.7%) caught a repeat of Traffic Cops.

Country House Rescue delivered 1.64m (7%) to Channel 4 (+1: 300k) and Cowboy Builders logged 1m (4.3%) for Channel 5.

Over on BBC Two, Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape mustered 1.17m (5%) at 8pm, and Town with Nicholas Crane had 2.04m (7.6%) at 9pm, while Channel 4 documentary Jaycee: 18 Years In Captivity interested 1.7m (9.4%) at 10pm (+1: 339k).

Overall, ITV1 led primetime with 18.1% (+1: 0.5%), beating BBC One's 17.6%. In third place, Channel 5 captured 11.9%, its best primetime share since 2000, while Channel 4 and BBC Two had 5.8% (+1: 0.9%) and 5.4% respectively.