'Dispatches' sent five of the UK's top criminal investigators to the Portuguese holiday resort where Madeleine went missing for an hour-long special on their findings. The documentary drew a 15.1% share of audience in the 9pm-10pm slot.
In the same slot, BBC One's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' featured Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent tracing his family history. It pulled in 6.26m and a 28.7% share.
Earlier in the evening, the first part of a special edition of 'The Bill' on ITV1 was watched by 5.09m and a 23.5% share in the 8pm-9pm slot.
Five's new US drama series, 'Californication', which features David Duchovny, failed to build on last week's promising start.
After pulling in around 1m last week, this week's second instalment attracted just 0.77m and a 4.1% share.
ITV1 is set for its biggest weekend of the year so far, with live coverage of the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday night and Lewis Hamilton's attempt to win the Formula 1 World Championship the following evening.
The Rugby World Cup final is expected to pull in around 15m viewers, based on a similar audience for the 2003 final, in which England were crowned world champions after beating Australia on their home turf.
However, ITV is not expecting its share of audience to be as big as it was in the 2003 final, which took an 82% share, because many people will choose to watch the match in bars and pubs due to the evening kick-off time.
The 2003 final was broadcast early on a Saturday morning, with the majority of the audience watching from their beds or sofas.
The Brazilian Grand Prix will take in a Sunday afternoon slot on ITV1 (coverage starts at 4pm), with Hamilton vying for the championship against McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen; the broadcaster is expecting the audience to close in on 9m-10m.
The Canadian Grand Prix was the most watched Formula 1 race this season, with a bumper audience of around 7.7m on ITV1.
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