Jonathan Ross loses out to Mrs Brown's Boys repeat on Saturday evening

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/28/jonathan-ross-mts-browns-boys-itv-bbc

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He was once the king of TV chat, but Jonathan Ross's ITV talkshow is struggling in the ratings against a repeat of BBC1's sitcom sensation, Mrs Brown's Boys.

The Jonathan Ross Show was watched by 2.7 million viewers, a 14% share, between 9.45pm and 10.45pm on Saturday, with guests including Adam Hills and X-Men: First Class star Rose Byrne.

Mrs Brown's Boys, which started five minutes earlier on BBC1, had 4.6 million viewers (22.1%) between 9.40pm and 10.10pm, even though it had already been shown on BBC1 six days earlier.

The BBC1 comedy had the advantage of inheriting a bigger audience than Ross, with 5.1 million viewers tuning in for Casualty between 8.50pm and 9.40pm, against the 4.1 million who watched ITV dating show, Take Me Out, between 8.30pm and 9.45pm.

Ross's chatshow returned to ITV with 3.3 million viewers, a 14.9% share, on 5 January, down 40% on the slot average over the previous three months.

It dipped to 2.7 million for its second episode, improving to 3 million for last week's outing before dipping again on Saturday.

Daley splashes water in Balding's face … again

Earlier, ITV's Tom Daley diving show Splash! kept its head above the 5 million water mark with 5.1 million viewers, a 22.5% share, between 7pm and 8.30pm.

Despite many critics holding their noses, the show has held on to most of the 5.6 million (23.6%) who tuned in for its launch show on 5 January.

It once again beat BBC1 quiz show Britain's Brightest, hosted by Clare Balding, which had 3.8 million viewers (17.3%) between 6.45pm and 8pm.

Goodall effort

Elsewhere, BBC2's Howard Goodall's Story of Music began its six-part run with 1 million viewers, a 4.9% share, between 9.30pm and 10.30pm.

Channel 4 drama World Without End had 1 million viewers, 4.7%, for its third (of six) outing between 9pm and 10pm.

Channel 5 sci-fi drama Impact was watched by 900,000 viewers (4.1%) between 6.20pm and 9.45pm.

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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