The latest unofficial overnight figures show that 'David Beckham: A Footballer's Life' and 'Big Brother' each attracted 4.8m viewers on average, with 'Big Brother' taking a 21% audience share sneaking past Beckham on 20%.
This represents a slight improvement on the previous night's ratings with ITV's 'Soccer Aid' achieving a 4.4m audience on average on its launch, compared with 'Big Brother''s 4.5m.
The Beckham documentary and 'Soccer Aid' are part of a significant beefing up of ITV's weeknight, 9pm to 10pm slot as part of a concerted challenge on 'Big Brother''s traditional dominance of the audience share at this time.
Next week, ITV hopes to do even better in the battle for viewers with the launch of 'X-Factor: Battle of the Stars', a celebrity version of the talent show.
BBC One's 'Crimewatch UK' at 9pm lagged behind ITV and Channel 4 with 4.2m viewers on average, representing 18% share, with Five's 'CSI' attracting 3.2m.
Last night's 10pm instalment of 'Soccer Aid', which ends this Saturday with a match live from Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, attracted just 3.6m viewers on average, well beaten by BBC One's '10 O'Clock News', with 4.7m.
Viewers of last night's 'Big Brother' saw this series' first kiss, just six days into its run, when entrepreneur Sezer Yurtseven smooched with former Miss Wales, Imogen Thomas.
On tonight's show, viewers are set to see the departure of Shahbaz Choudhry, who quit last night after becoming an outcast among contestants due to his increasingly erratic behaviour.
Before he left he was given around four hours of counselling and had threatened to kill himself, prompting an outcry from mental health charities over how well producers' screen contestants for signs of mental illness.
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