TV ratings: Panorama sees off The Bill

BBC1's Panorama special on children's health, Spoilt Rotten?, was the most watched 9pm show last night, Tuesday 13 April. However, Richard Bilton's visit to Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital to see how increasingly young kids are being treated for preventable health problems attracted just 3.575 million viewers, a 15% audience share in the 9pm hour. The Bill, axed by ITV and now shunted from its regular Thursday night ITV1 berth to make way for the first Leader Debate, limped in second in the slot with 2.815 million (11.8%). The 9pm shows on the three other main terrestrial networks were BBC2's Great Ormond Street (2.489 million/10.4%), Channel 4's Heston's Fairy-tale Feast (2.666 million/11.2%) and Channel Five's CSI (2.2 million/9.2%). A further 195,000 watched Heston Blumenthal's show an hour later on Channel 4+1. Collectively the five main networks had a 58.4% share of viewing in the 9pm hour, a sign of how the growth of digital TV – and other forms of viewing, including personal video recorders and on-demand – have eaten into their dominance. On the equivalent Tuesday night four years ago , 11 April 2006, the five main networks had a 75.6% share of viewing in the 9pm hour, which was won by BBC1's Dalziel and Pascoe (6.8 million/29%). And the rest: BBC2: Don't Mess with Miss Beckles (1 million/5%) ITV1: Celebrity Fit Club (4.2 million/19%) Channel 4: That'll Teach 'Em (1.9 million/8.1%) Five: CSI (3.4 million/14.5%) At that point 72.5% of UK TV homes had access to digital . The most recent Ofcom figures , for the end of 2009, put that figure at 91.4%. There is a silver lining here for the five main channels. Although the process of turning off the last analogue terrestrial TV signal is still two years away, digital switchover is in effect already nearing completion. So the declines in audience share the five analogue networks have suffered over nearly a decade should begin to abate. ITV1's overall audience share in 2001, the year before Freeview launched, was 26.7% – last year it was 17.8%, according to Barb . Election watch Last night's Conservative party election broadcast attracted 8.991 million viewers across the five main networks and Channel 4 +1 between 5.55pm and 9pm – a shade above Labour's PEB (8.937 million) in the same slots on Monday . ITV1's Mark Austin profile of Nick Clegg for Tonight: Spotlight on the Leaders had 1.65 million (7.9%) in the half hour from 7.30pm. On Monday ITV1's Cameron profile had 2.631 million (11.6%) at 8pm. Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel Five (available in all UK homes with TV, except Five, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 7.30pm: EastEnders (8.485 million/40.6%) 8pm: Holby City (5.797 million/25%) 10.35pm: Olympic Dreams (new series) (1.541 million/13.1%) BBC2 8pm: Grow Your Own Drugs (1.781 million/7.9%) 8.30pm: The Delicious Miss Dahl (1.654 million/7%, BBC HD: 18,000/0.08%) 10pm: Later Live... with Jools Holland (new series) (780,000/3.9%, BBC HD: 6,000/0.03%) ITV1 7pm: Emmerdale (6.175 million/32%) 8pm: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Celebrity Special (3.211 million/13.9%) Channel 4 8pm: Supersize v Superskinny (2.078 million/9%, C4+1: 195,000/0.8%) 10pm: Shameless (2.066 million/11.9%, C4+1: 131,000/1.4%) Five 8pm: Cowboy Builders (new series) (1.389 million/6%) Freeview/digital terrestrial TV free-to-air networks Available in 23.4m UK homes – 91.4% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 ITV2 9pm: The Vampire Diaires (408,000/2%) E4 9pm: 90210 (244,000/1%) BBC3 10pm: EastEnders (rpt) (765,000/3.8%) 10.30pm: The Gemma Factor (198,000/1.2%) Cable and satellite pay-TV networks Available in 12.4m UK homes – 48.2% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 Living 9pm: Cougar Town (263,000/1.1%) 9.30pm: Cougar Town (229,000/1%) Sky1 8pm: Stargate Universe (490,000/2.1%) 10pm: Fringe (317,000/1.7%) SyFy 10pm: V (UK premiere) (292,000) All ratings are unofficial live overnight figures, excluding other viewing – including timeshifted (recorded), on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated