Ricky Gervais' first full series of Derek began with a respectable audience last night.
The Channel 4 care home sitcom, also starring Karl Pilkington and Kerry Godliman, was watched by 1.44m (7.7%) and 207,000 on +1.
Despite being 400,000 short of last April's pilot, Channel 4 has said that Derek scored 31% above the usual Wednesday 10pm slot average and won the battle in the 16-34 viewer market.
The broadcaster's 9pm offering of One Born Every Minute pulled in 1.18m (5.1%) and 390k on timeshift, prior to which Gok's Style Secrets climbed to 1.18m (5.4%) at 8pm (+1: 122k).
Excluding the soaps, Midsomer Murders was the day's most-watched broadcast with 5.64m (23.6%) for ITV (+1: 272k) between 8pm and 10pm, while Food Inspectors (3.52m/15.2%) and David Attenborough's Africa (5.03m/20.6%) aired on BBC One.
Over on BBC Two, The Hairy Bikers returned with their 'Everyday Gourmet' entertaining 2.07m (8.9%), after which 1.56m (6.4%) watched Horizon.
NCIS was Channel 5's best-rated screening of the night with 1m (4.1%) in the 9pm hour and 168k on the network's +1 service.
Overall, ITV won primetime fairly comfortably with 24% (+1: 1.1%) versus BBC One's 19.5%. BBC Two followed in third place with 6.4%, ahead of Channel 4's 5.5% (+1: 1%), and 5's 3.6% (+1: 0.3%).
