Gogglebox helps C4 beat BBC1 at 9pm

A special version of the Studio Lambert format, featuring Miranda Hart, Boy George and Geri Halliwell, grabbed an audience that added more than 1m to Channel 4’s 2.6m (12.4%) 12 month slot average.

It dwarfed the 1.8m (12.2%) that watched last year’s SUTC special and became the second most watched episode of the show’s sixth series. Gogglebox’s first episode of this run entertained 4.1m (20.3%) in September.

The show was sandwiched by two other SUTC specials: The Last Leg between 8pm and 9pm, and Alan Carr: Chatty Man, for the 65-minutes from 10pm.

The former amused an audience of 1.1m (5.1%), while the latter gathered in 1.5m (11.7%).

Gogglebox was the highest-rated show in the 9pm slot aside from ITV’s coverage of England’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Estonia (see below).

It trumped BBC1, which broadcast Have I Got News for You between 9pm and 9.30pm and retro sitcom The Kennedys between 9.30pm and 10pm.

The Hat Trick satirical panel show lost 1m from last week’s opener to tickle 3.5m (14.9%), while The Kennedys lost 600,000 from its first episode last week to amuse 2m (9.9%).

Elsewhere, the final part of BBC2’s The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice whipped up 2.1m (9.5%) for its tenth and final audience of the series between 9pm and 9.30pm.

In the following hour BBC2 aired the third and concluding episode of Patagonia: Earth’s Secret Paradise.

The natural history show signed off with a series high of 1.6m (8.5%), bringing its run average up to 1.5m (7.7%) above BBC2’s 1.4m (7.2%) slot average.

Making up the 9pm slot was Channel 5’s NCIS: New Orleans, which locked up 860,000 (4%) across the hour.

England’s penultimate qualifier for the Euro 2016 tournament brought a comfortable 2-0 victory over Estonia at Wembley.

The team’s 100% record in qualifying continued in front of an audience down on the 4.9m (23.9%) that tuned in for the victory over Switzerland last month.

The action peaked with 5.8m (27%) in the five minutes from 9pm, while some 60.7% of the audience was male.

The Middlechild Productions one-off, about the nation’s most extreme pet-owners, became C5’s highest rated 8pm show of the year.

It shaded the 1.19 (5.4%) generated for an episode of Ice Road Truckers in January – the previous high – and smashed the channel’s 813,000 (3.9%) slot average according to Barb data supplied by overnights.tv.