The Great Fire's launch topped Thursday's ratings outside soaps, overnight data reveals.
The new ITV period drama attracted an average 4.44 million (21.4%) at 9pm, with an added 377,000 (2.5%) tuning in on +1.
Earlier, Paul O'Grady's For the Love of Dogs appealed to 4.38m (21.2%) at 8.30pm (240k/1.2% on +1).
On BBC One, Watchdog interested 3.17m (15.4%) at 8pm, followed by Crimewatch with 3.21m (15.4%) at 9pm. Question Time brought in 2.13m (21.1%) at 10.35pm.
BBC Two's It Takes Two entertained 1.74m (9.6%) at 6.30pm, while Cat Watch continued with 1.27m (6.5%) at 7pm. The Great British Bake Off Masterclass gathered 2.04m (9.9%) at 8pm.
Peaky Blinders' latest episode thrilled 1.59m (7.6%) at 9pm, up over 100k from last week.
On Channel 4, the series finale of Location, Location, Location was seen by 1.25m (6.1%) at 8pm (274k/1.3%), followed by Educating the East End with 1.18m (5.7%) at 9pm (151k/1.0%) and Scrotal Recall with 413k (2.4%) at 10pm.
Channel 5's Benefits Britain intrigued 749k (3.6%) at 8pm, while No Foreigners Here attracted 606k (2.9%) at 9pm.
On ITV2, Celebrity Juice topped the multichannels with 882k (5.5%) at 10pm (129k/1.4%).
New Clive Owen drama The Knick debuted with 105k (0.5%) at 9pm on Sky Atlantic. Homes by the Sea launched with 565k (2.7%) at 9pm on More4.
