Royal Variety Performance hits low

The annual showcase - hosted by Jack Whitehall and featuring performances from Kylie Minogue, Elton John and One Direction - lost more than a million viewers on last year’s previous low of 6.9m (30.3%).

However, The Royal Variety Performance peaked with 6.5m (30.8%) at 8pm to easily win the slot, while more than half (54%) of the viewers were aged over 45 years old.

Kudos’ three-part drama bowed out with a series average of 3.5m (15.2%) after it launched with 3.8m (16.3%).

Although it was unable to outperform the channel’s slot average of 4.4m (20.5%) for the past 12 months, it beat the indie’s previous BBC1 drama River, which gripped an average of 2.9m (13.6%) in the same slot from October.

Opposite on BBC2, The Great Pottery Throwdown bowed out with a series high of 2.1m (9.5%). The Love Productions’ format entertained an average of 1.9m (8.7%) across its six episodes, ahead of the 1.7m (7.9%) slot average.

Wildfire TV and GroupM Entertainment’s Meet The Psychopaths got underway on Channel 5 with 880,000 (3.9%) - down on the station’s 1.2m (5.7%) slot average.

Eight Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown Christmas Special entertained 1.4m (6.1%) over the 9pm hour on Channel 4, according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv.

Later in the evening, Objective Productions’ three-part series That’s So Last Century launched with 1.2m (7.5%), well ahead of C4’s 851,000 (5.5%) slot average.

Mammoth Screen and Two Brothers Pictures’ four-parter got underway with an audience around half the size of E4’s 337,000 (2.1%) slot average.