Britain’s Secret Treasures digs up nearly 3.9m

The stripped series will reveal the 50 greatest artefacts uncovered by members of the public, but has sparked fears it could lead to a damaging “gold rush” for valuable objects.

It got underway with nearly 3.9m viewers, which was roughly in line with ITV1’s slot average of 3.91m (16.13%) for the past 12 months. It lost around 200k viewers over the period it was on air, according to overnight Barb figures supplied by Attentional.

Britain’s Secret Treasures was beaten by BBC1’s EastEnders, which pulled in 7.64m (33%), but beat all other channels at the time.

Later in the evening, things didn’t get any better for ITV1 musical talent show Superstar, which collapsed to a series low on its first weekday outing.

The below-par showing came despite its strong inheritance from Coronation Street and the fact that Blackout is underperforming on BBC1.

The Christopher Eccleston drama won the 9pm slot after recovering from last week’s series low of 2.93m (12.72%). It was still way under BBC1’s slot average of 4.97m (20.05%).

The factual franchise climbed to a series high for Channel 4, beating both BBC2 and Channel 5.

The documentary repeat replaced The Riots: in Their Own Words - which was pulled as a result of a court order - but still topped Big Brother.

The Channel 5 reality show again barely budged, meaning it remained rooted in last place.

The documentary on the Jamaican sprinter was quick out of the blocks for BBC1, beating all the competition in its timeslot.

The all-access film also out ran BBC1’s slot average of 2.14m (16.49%) for the past year.