According to unofficial overnight figures, the first episode of the Supercasino.com-sponsored series had an average audience of 2.66 million between 9pm and 11pm across Channel 5 and Channel 5 HD, a 14.2 per cent share.
When Channel 5 +1 is included, the programme's average audience rose to 2.83 million.
This series' celebrities include controversial former football pundit Ron Atkinson, the actors Vicky Entwistle and Bruce Jones who played the Battersbys in 'Coronation Street' and the former model Sophie Anderton.
The peak audience was equal to the 3.30 million peak the first episode of last summer's 'Celebrity Big Brother' series but was down from the 4.5 million peak that the show's January 2013 opener achieved.
Earlier this week the final of the "regular" 'Big Brother' attracted a peak audience of 2.8 million.
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