Echo Beach lures just 2.3m

The 30-minute programme, starring Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon, held a largely steady audience throughout but couldn't come close to matching the channel's slot average for last year of 4.3m (19.6%).

Over the half hour, the show gained an exact audience of 2,336,000 while sneaking just ahead of it at the time was the later half of Five's US drama NCIS on 2,349,000, a share of 10%. The entire hour-long episode pulled in 2.3m (9.3%).

In the same 9pm to 10pm slot the second part of BBC2's The Choir: Boys Don't Sing gained 2.6m (11.3%). In the half hour it was in direct competition with Echo Beach, 2.8m (11.8%) were watching.

Channel 4 was also ahead of ITV1 thanks to a repeat. Another outing for Peter Kaye Live at the Manchester Arena at 9pm entertained 3.5m (14.9%) for an hour.

BBC1's repeat of New Tricks claimed the top spot on 4.3m (18.4%) from 9pm.

Friday's edition of Echo Beach, which marked the half way stage in the 12-part series was the lowest audience yet for the soap. The series has slowly declined since it started on 10 January with a sizeable 5m (21.9%). So far the six episodes have averaged 3.2m (13.4%).

The commercial network was in a slightly stronger position at 9pm with the sister show to Echo Beach, Moving Wallpaper, picking up 2.7m (11.4%) over 30-minutes.

Over the entire 9-10pm slot ITV1 trailed in fourth place with an average audience of 2.5m (10.7%), only Five had fewer viewers with an audience of 2.3m (9.3%).

The double helping of Coronation Street at 7.30pm and 8.30pm gave a significant boost to ITV1. The initial outing took 9.8m (4.8%) while an hour later 9m (37.2%) tuned in.

BBC1's EastEnders at 8pm had 8.9m (38.5%) for half an hour.

Keep on Truckin'

Five's hit series Ice Road Truckers showed no signs of hitting the skids just yet with the third episode on a healthy 2.2m (9.3%), on a par with previous editions.

The Five show was level-pegging with BBC2's Natural World series. The 50-minute Saved by Dolphins had 2.2m (9.6%).

C4's A Place in the Sun: Home or Away, also at 8pm, was off the pace on 1.2m (4.9%).

All hours shares for Friday 8 February 2008: BBC1 - 21.8%, ITV1 - 19.1%, C4 - 8.2%, BBC2 - 8%, Five - 6%, multichannel - 36.4%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 - 23%, BBC1 - 22.1%, BBC2 - 10%, C4 - 8.8%, Five - 6.5%, multichannel - 29.2%.

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