'Big Brother' started almost one million viewers down on last year with 5.3m tuning in to watch the housemates arrive but the market share for both openers remained the same at 25%.
A fake wedding between two of the housemates kept the following Sunday and Monday nights' ratings afloat with 3.5m and 3.3m respectively. This was down slightly on last year's ratings which pulled in 3.6m and 3.7m viewers.
The first eviction show on Friday night attracted 3.5m viewers in the 9pm-10pm slot, giving Channel 4 a 15.8% share. Including the ratings for Channel 4+1, the show managed 3.7m viewers and a 16.6% share.
'Big Brother 9' has already caused controversy due to the behaviour of one of the housemates, Alexandra, who yelled abuse at some of her fellow contestants in an argument about burnt chips.
Ofcom has received hundreds of complaints about the series, the majority of which came in response to Alexandra's behaviour.