The 9pm-10pm slot had a viewing split which was more balanced than ususal among the five major channels.
'New Tricks' earned the biggest share with 17.8% of the audience (4.2m viewers) while Channel 4 took the wooden spoon with a 9.3% share.
The second outing for C4's 'Boys and Girls Alone' saw viewers fall from last week's 2.4m to 2.2m, despite a flurry of publicity around its concept of comparing how separate groups of 10 boys and 10 girls develop when left to live without adults -- greeted by the Daily Mail as "a new low for Channel 4".
Another 164,000 viewers watched the programme on Channel 4+1.
C4 lost out to a BBC Two 'Horizon' documentary investigating dreams, which managed 2.5m viewers and a 10.8% share.
'CSI' demonstrated its enduring pull by bringing 3m viewers to Five, putting the channel in second place with a 12.8% share to ITV's 11.7%.
Outside the main channels the return of 'Coleen's Real Women' to ITV2 got 503,000 viewers while the start of the second series of 'Mad Men' brought 252,000 to BBC Four.
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