[Mark]

Audience ratings for the opening show of the fourth series of Celebrity Big Brother peaked at 8 million viewers last night, an increase on last year’s launch night audience, (which peaked at 7.6m viewers), and confirming the original celebrity reality show is as popular as ever. The show won the TV slot from 8pm to 9.30pm beating audiences for all other major channels.

Channel 4 also launched the third series of Desperate Housewives off the back of Celebrity Big Brother and the first two episodes, screened back to back, won 3.6 and 2.8 m viewers, peaking at 4.4m and 3.0m respectively.

The combination of ratings-winning shows helped Channel 4 to a 14.9% all day audience share, its biggest since which is the highest since the final of Big Brother (16.7%) in August 2006.

Channel 4 was also the strongest channel in terms of 16-34 share yesterday with 21.9% 16-34 for the whole day and 26.5% 16-24 share in peak.

A Channel 4 Spokesman said, “We are delighted that both shows, scheduled together as a post-holiday treat for Channel 4 viewers, were so warmly welcomed by TV audiences to give us a fantastic start to 2007.”

This was the second largest Celebrity Big Brother launch, beaten only by the opening night for series 2 which won an average 7.4m and 30% audience share. Unofficial overnight viewing figures from Barb have indicated that last night’s Celebrity Big Brother launch show (Wed 3rd Jan, 8-9.30pm) was watched by an average 7.1 million viewers, (an 8% increase on 2006 at 6.5m viewers), and a 28.4% share of those viewing television at the time. At its peak the show was watched by 8.0 million viewers and a 31.9% share.

Unofficial overnight ratings take no account of viewers who may have video recorded the programme.

- from Channel 4 Press Release