mckellen fails to help ratings...

[chance]

The heavily-trailed debut of Sir Ian McKellen's month-long cameo failed to pull in the punters to Coronation Street on Sunday night.

According to early figures, the episode averaged just 8.93 million viewers - a 45.4% share of the audience - at 7.30pm, yet was still enough to rank as the most-watched programme of the day.

Figures were down notably overall, with the day's number two, Heartbeat, averaging just 7.59 million (35.7%) in the 8pm hour.

Emmerdale also fared badly with just 6.29 million (35%) at 7pm.

BBC One, meanwhile, held a steady 4.91 million (22.4%) through primetime with its screening of movie classic Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The penultimate episode of ITV1's Hell's Kitchen interested only 3.53 million (18.2%) in the 10pm hour.

Multichannel's top draw was the Sky Sports 1 coverage of Charlton Athletic v Manchester United, seen by an average of 892,000 (12.2%) between 3pm and 6pm.

Sky One's new episode of The Simpsons took second with 826,000 (7.9%) at 6.30pm, while a Doctor Who repeat pulled in 544,000 (4.6%) for BBC Three at 7pm. The Doc managed to narrowly outshine a new Malcolm in the Middle, which had 504,000 (4.4%) on Sky One at the same time.

Sky One's new episodes of 24 (420,000 - 2.8%), Dream Team (387,000 - 2.8%), Father of the Pride (369,000 - 3%) and Nip/Tuck (341,000 - 2.6%) helped complete the top ten.

Other strong multichannel performers included LivingTV's new CSI, which had 309,000 (3.4%) from 11pm, and Hallmark's House, with 182,000 (1.2%) in the 9pm hour

[Behemoth]

Wow! That's really cool, seeing all the viewing figures. Where did you get them from?

[brenda1971]

I think them figures are found on digital spy

[Meh]

You can get the figures direct from the viewers assosiation - everyone else just publishes them.

[Behemoth]

Thanks brenda and Mordor i'll check it out

[alan45]

The heavily-trailed debut of Sir Ian McKellen's month-long cameo failed to pull in the punters to Coronation Street on Sunday night.

According to early figures, the episode averaged just 8.93 million viewers - a 45.4% share of the audience -

I think 45.4% of the TV audience is quite an achievement even if you only allow for the five terrestrial channels. As far as I was aware Sir Ian appeared in Corrie at his request and not as a ratings booster.

[Siobhan]

My dad has no idea who he was hehe. Still he reminds me so much of Patrick Steward... I would have prefered him on Corrie

[barneysulk]

Sir Ian McKellan is absolutely fantastic as Mel Hutchwright, I would love to see him as a permanent cast member. I don't know how he got the gig but it must be down to him being a huge fan of the show. Pure Class. As for the ratings, I never thought he'd pull in record numbers of viewers by his name alone anyway but he is an incredible actor and a joy to watch on my favourite programme.

[Saye2213]

Ian Mckellen is a brilliant actor, just look at him in Lord of The Rings. I agree barneysulk, he is a joy to watch, even if he is playing a con artist!!