EastEnders pulled in an impressive audience for its live Olympics special last night (Monday, July 23), despite the hot weather.
Billy Mitchell's desperate dash back to Walford was seen by 7.59m (35.1%) at 8pm and 681k (3.3%) two hours later on BBC Three.
Perry Fenwick's torch run as Billy and Danielle Harold's birth - both performed live - attracted 7.32m (31%) at 9pm as well as a huge 1.04m (6.1%) for BBC Three's 10.30pm second showing.
EastEnders peaked with 8.2m (37.3%) for its first instalment, and 7.9m (32.6%) for the live climax of its later edition - helping BBC One beat ITV1 in the primetime ratings.
Coronation Street, however, remained the day's most-watched soap when comparing head-to-head first showings - also pulling in a consolidated average audience of 8.1m.
Yesterday's first visit to Weatherfield logged 7.68m (38.8%) at 7.30pm (+1: 226k/1%) as Sunita and Karl's affair was sensationally rumbled, and 7.8m (34%) at 8.30pm (+1: 273k/1.2%) for the messy aftermath.
Emmerdale, meanwhile, drew 5.87m (33.3%) at 7pm for Cameron's proposal to Debbie. The rural soap added a further 167k (0.8%) on ITV1 +1 an hour later.
Elsewhere, Hollyoaks mustered 861k (5.3%) at 6.30pm and E4's first look grabbed 514k (2.9%), while Doctors took 1.14m (16.4%) for BBC One at 1.45pm.
Neighbours nabbed 689k (9.8%) at lunchtime and 981k (7.9%) at 5.30pm, while Home and Away fetched 801k (5.3%) at 6pm and 555k (3.4%) for 5*'s first look.
