Both showings helped Five improve its performance substantially; according to Five its 13-week slot average for Monday was 302,000 at lunchtime and 789,000 at teatime.
Five claims that during 2007 on BBC One, the show averaged 2m viewers in the lunchtime slot and 2.5m viewers during the afternoon time slot.
The BBC's figures, which cover the past 12 months, are somewhat different; they put the lunchtime edition at 2.72m and the afternoon edition at 3.2m.
BBC One's rival soap 'Doctors' outperformed Neighbours at lunchtime yesterday with 1.8m viewers and an audience share of 26.3%.
However, Five did better with the afternoon repeat, which beat 'The Weakest Link', BBC One's replacement for 'Neighbours'. After being moved from BBC Two, the quiz show was watched by 2.2m and earned a 14.1% share at 5.15pm-6pm.
Five said the two showings of the soap each attracted a 20% share of 16- to 34-year-olds -- double the nearest terrestrial rival at the time.
Last night also saw the launch of the second series of 'Skins' on E4. It attracted 1m viewers and a 7% share of the audience from 10pm-11.05pm, which was the highest rating multi-channel programme of the evening. The last series averaged 1.1m across the 9 episodes.Its closest rival was Channel 4's 'Without a Trace', which was watched by about 958,000 people, or 6.2% of the total audience.
Sky's 'Ross Kemp in Afghanistan', in which three soldiers were killed during a friendly fire incident, drew in 1m viewers and a 4.7% audience share from 9-10pm.
David Attenborough's 'Life in Cold Blood' documentary on reptiles and amphibians on BBC One took a closer look at bullfrogs and Panamanian golden frogs last night, attracting 5.6m viewers and a 23.5% share of the audience during the 9pm-10pm time slot. This was down by about 1m viewers from last week.
Its 9pm rival on ITV1, 'The Palace', drew in 3.2m viewers and a 13.1% share of the audience, which was up by around 100,000 viewers on last week's episode.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
