The Bill finale wins 4.4m viewers

ITV1's The Bill bowed out after 27 years with 4.4 million viewers, winning its last-ever ratings battle with BBC1 last night, Tuesday 31 August. the Sun Hill cop show finished with 4.412 million viewers, a 19.3% share, on ITV1 and ITV HD between 9pm and 10pm, with 105,000 (0.7%) of them watching on the high definition channel. This was up from 3.414 million (14.5%) for last Tuesday's penultimate episode of The Bill . 9pm competition included the final episode of five-part submarine drama The Deep, which finished with 4 million viewers, a 17.5% share, on BBC1 and BBC HD. The BBC HD channel's share of this audience was 278,000 (1.2%). Also at 9pm last night, the first of Channel 4's three-part documentary The Hunt for Britain's Sex Traffickers had 1.879 million viewers, an 8.2% share, with another 172,000 viewers on Channel 4+1. BBC2 documentary Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children had 1.053 million viewers, a 4.8% share, betwen 9pm and 10pm. Channel 5's CSI: Miami had 1.966 million viewers, 8.6% of the audience. The final episode of The Bill was followed by ITV1/ITV1 HD's retrospective about the show, Farewell The Bill, which averaged 1.661 million viewers, a 13.2% share, between 10.35pm and 11.35pm. Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel Five (available in all UK homes with TV, except Channel 5, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 8pm: Holby City - 5.672 million/25.2% BBC2 8pm: Great British Bake Off - 2.689 million/12% ITV1/ITV1 HD 8pm: New Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - 3.340 million/14.9% Channel 4 8pm: Help! My House Is Falling Down - 1.979 million/8.8%, C4+1 - 400,000/1.8% Channel 5 8pm: Nature Shock: Killer Squid - 1.338 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: Jedward: Let Loose - 338,000/1.5% E4 9pm: Smallville - 230,000/1% BBC3 9pm: Don't Tell The Bride - 1.008 million/4.4% BBC4 8pm: Hello, Glastonbury! - 102,000/0.5% All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".