Taking a tumble from last week was the second outing of BBC1's new drama series The Invisibles as the hour-long drama picked up just 3.2m (15.3%). The opening episode last week picked up 4.7m (20.1%) in the same slot.
For most of the time the episode hovered around the 3.1m mark but hit 3.5m (16.8%) in the final 15-minutes. It was still some way off the channel's slot average for last year of 5m (22.3%) and also below the average for the current year so far of 4.8m (20.7%).
At the same time ITV1 may have won the slot but hardly covered itself in glory with its new drama trilogy Midnight Man.
The opening episode only interested an audience of 3.8m (18%) over the hour. Its audience dropped from 4m (19%) at the start to 3.7m (17.8%) in the final quarter of an hour. Last week, an edition of Taggart claimed 4.4m (19.1%).
Midnight Man was above the channel's slot average for last year of 3.5m (15.7%) but some way below the commercial network's slot average for this year of 4.5m (19.3%).
Neither BBC1 nor ITV1 could particularly attract younger viewers with those aged between 16 and 34 making up 11% for the BBC1 programme and just 9.7% for ITV1's. The two channels made a bigger impression with ABC1 viewers with that demographic making up 38.7% of Midnight Man's audience while ABC1's made up 44.1% of The Invisibles' viewers.
Channel 4 maintained a ‘steady-as-she-goes' stance at 9pm with its Grand Designs Live strand at 9pm picking up 1.9m (8.8%) with a further 102,000 watching on C4+1.
BBC2's Heroes regained some lost ground from last week when it attracted a relatively poor 2.5m (10.7%). Last night's 45-minute episode, the third in the second series, had 2.7m (12.5%).
Five's House managed 1.7m (8.2%) at 9pm, adding on an extra 300,000 from the previous week.
Holby Blue's audience on BBC1 continued its downward path at 8pm with just 3.2m (16.3%), its lowest of the eight episodes that have aired so far and some way off the opening edition of the current run on 20 March when it interested 5.2m (23.4%).
Once again ITV1 had a convincing victory over the corporation's police drama with The Bill taking 5.1m (25.8%).
C4's Come Dine with Me at 8pm took something of a knock with 2.1m (10.6%) on the main channel with another 241,000 viewing the show on C4+1. Last week 2.7m (12.5%) watched the programme on C4 alone.
Neither BBC2 nor Five could give C4 much to worry about though. Living the Dream Revisited on BBC2 had 1.4m (7.3%) while Five's I Own Britain's Best Home drew 964,000 (4.8%).
While C4's main edition of Grand Designs Live at 9pm is, largely, maintaining a solid audience its teatime edition at 5pm isn't quite making the same impression.
The hour long live show which started this week has yet to reach the one million mark and yesterday's edition interested just 806,000 (8%) with a further 34,000 watching on C4+1.
At the time the broadcaster failed to make much of an impression. BBC2's revised repeat of Escape to the Country found 890,000 (7.6%).
There wasn't too much between Five and ITV1 with the commercial network's Golden Balls on 1.5m (15.4%) for an hour while Five's Neighbours at 5.30pm had 1.5m (13.9%).
Top of the pile was BBC1 with Weakest Link at 5.15pm on 1.9m (18.1%).
All hours shares for Thursday 8 May 2008: BBC1 - 22.4%, ITV1 - 19.3%, C4 - 7.6% (C4+1 - 0.6%), BBC2 - 7.6%, Five - 5.1%, multichannel - 37.3%.
Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 - 23.3%, ITV1 - 21.7%, BBC2 - 8.7%, C4 - 8.3% (C4+1 - 0.7%), Five - 5%, multichannel - 32.3%.
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