Celebrity Big Brother returned to Channel 5 with more than 3 million viewers but a lineup that included newspaper columnist Liz Jones, Towie's Sam Faiers and former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield could not quite match last year's winter launch.
The 13th series of the reality show – and sixth to air on Channel 5 since it was axed by Channel 4 in 2010 – drew 3.3 million viewers, a 14.9% share, between 9pm and 11pm on Friday.
It was up on the 2.8 million who watched the start of the previous series, in August last year, but marginally down on the 3.5 million (15.8%) who saw the previous winter run, which started last January.
Although it was down on the 6 million-plus viewers who used to watch the show in its heyday on Channel 4, Celebrity Big Brother was more than double (107%) Channel 5's slot average over the past three months.
It easily saw off the return of Channel 4's 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, which was back with 1.9 million viewers, a 7.6%, between 9pm and 10pm, and James May's Toy Stories on BBC2, which pulled in 2 million viewers, an 8.2% share, also between 9pm and 10pm.
Spin-of show Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side attracted another 1.1 million viewers (8.5%) between 11pm and midnight.
Elsewhere in the 9pm slot, BBC1's 21:00 Silent Witness drew 6.2 million viewers, a 25.1% share, more than double the 2.9 million who saw Piers Morgan interview EastEnders star June Brown in the return of Piers Morgan's Life Stories on ITV.
Christmas University Challenge finished its 10-part run on BBC2 with 2.4 million viewers, a 9.8% share, between 8pm and 8.30pm. Also at 8pm, the Martin Lewis Money Show returned to ITV with 4.1 million viewers (17.1%).
The most watched pay-TV programme of the day was Star Trek sequel Into Darkness on Sky Movies Premiere, its first showing watched by 354,000 viewers, a 1.5% share, from 8pm on Friday night.
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