TUESDAY: Sister comedy underway with a slot-winning performance as The Brits sinks below 3m

this is going to hurt

This Is Going To Hurt (BBC1) 9pm-9.50pm

3.2m (19.6%)

The opening ep of Sister’s comedy drama claimed the 9pm slot, pulling in an audience ahead of the 3.1m (18.2%) slot average.

The Ben Whishaw-starring adaptation of Adam Kay’s book was also ahead of the launch of Big Talk’s The Outlaws, which debuted with 2.6m (16.4%) in a Monday 9pm slot in October.

This Is Going To Hurt was followed by short-form, 10-minute sitcom Cheaters, which began its 18-part run with an audience of 1.9m (12.6%).

The scripted shows clashed with ITV’s broadcast of The Brit Awards, which reeled in 2.7m (17.5%) over the two-and-a-half hours from 8pm. It was the lowest audience since at least 2014 and adrift of last year’s 3.9m (20.9%).

Channel 5’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild won the factual battle with a steady 1.4m (8.8%), ahead of Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E (1m / 6.5%) and BBC2’s AstraZeneca: A Vaccine for the World (750,000 / 4.7%).

BBC3’s RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK versus the World returned for a second outing with 170,000 (1.1%), some way short of the 350,000 (2.4%) for last week’s launch.

It was behind Dave’s QI XL (300,000 / 1.8%), before Mel Giedroyc: Unforgiveable returned across the 10pm hour with a multi-channel slot-winning 320,000 (3.1%). Expectation’s comedy entertainment show beat the 290,000 (2.2%) who watched the debut in the same slot in February 2021.

At 11pm, BBC3 comedy Starstruck was repeated on BBC1 to 310,000 (5.7%), having opened on the digital channel on Monday to 51,000 (0.5%), according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv.

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