From DomeOfStars (Ashes to Ashes fansite) forum:

BBC One
21:00 - Ashes to Ashes: 4.9m (21%)
* includes HD

ITV1
20:00 - FILM: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: 4.0m

Disappointing for Ashes, Harry Potter very clearly must have dented it.

Quite low for Ashes to Ashes- the move to Friday seems to have shaved off about a million viewers. The Potter repeat did alright.

Hmm, pretty low for Ashes to Ashes. But it was the warmest day of the year so far. The soaps (Hollyoaks) must of took a pounding too.

Yeah real shame for A2A, as it was an excellent episode last night. Hopefully it will pick up a few more once the officials are calculated, and the ratings will build again as we get closer to the grand finale.

Just as a FYI, there is a strong possibility of either today's or tomorrow's FA Cup games going into extra time and maybe penalties, which will mean changes to ITV's schedule. I suspect we may see something like this for today if it goes into extra time:

90 minutes only - as scheduled
16:35 - The FA Cup Live
19:00 - FILM PREMIERE: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
21:30 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories
22:30 - FILM: X2
23:30 - ITV News
23:45 - FILM: X2

90 minutes + extra time
16:35 - The FA Cup Live
19:30 - FILM PREMIERE: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
22:00 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories
23:00 - ITV News (if it went into extra time, this would have to be screened before X2 otherwise the bulletin would not start until after midnight!)
23:15 - FILM: X2

90 minutes + extra time + penalties
16:35 - The FA Cup Live
19:50 - FILM PREMIERE: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
22:20 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories
23:20 - ITV News
23:35 - FILM: X2

There's a good chance that for the first time this year, ITV could actually cleanly win primetime on a Saturday!

Tomorrow would simply be either shortening or removing the scheduled edition of You've Been Framed! I would have thought.

ITV were foolish really not to put a filler You've Been Framed or Best of TV Burp in between the football and Harry Potter as I doubt really the crossover audience is that significant.

No, the BSI have dented it by putting it out on Friday nights, in April.

Numpties.

Goodness knows what Dr Who will get tonight in its 'late teatime' slot on the first warm weekend of the year - I guess it will clear 6m in the overniights, but probably not by much.

I see they're trailing Total Wipeout quite heavily at the moment - has it not occurred to the BSI that the reason it's not pulling the viewers is because nobody watches TV at 5.15 on a Saturday, compared to 7.15?

Makes me mad...

I have to say I agree with you (it does happen sometimes ).

The Friday slot is clearly not really working for Ashes to Ashes. Not that its out in April - loads of stuff has done well at this time of year before - but the Fridays are clearly denting it for one reason or another. A real shame to see.

And Doctor Who will take a pumelling tonight. IIRC, it tends to see a big fall from its first episode to the second anyway. Take out the curiosity factor of the new Doctor in the last episode and factor in the glorious weather and a 6.15pm timeslot and we're definately looking at the 6 millions.

Ashes wasn't on HD last night. It was the golf.

Horrible numbers for Ashes to Ashes last night. Friday night drama may work in the depths of winters, but by this time of year, people are going out on Friday nights or going away for the weekend.

As said above, Doctor Who will take quite a hit tonight. With fantastic weather all over the country, I could see it going sub 6m unfortunately.

Bizarrely, BBC One actually have an extra 15 minutes at the end of their schedule tonight (MOTD starts at 10:15pm) but they seem to want to start Over The Rainbow at the same time as Harry Potter. Surely it would be better to have Doctor Who running into Harry Potter to stop people from switching over, rather than 'allowing' them a choice at 7:00pm.

For the record, the lowest Doctor Who rating since its return in 2005 was 5.4m (25.4%) when it was up against the Britain's Got Talent final in 2008.

Even in the scorching Summer of 2006 it still had solid ratings and very good shares: 5.9m (39.8%), 5.5m (35.6%), 6.2m (38.3%), 6.6m (39.7%), 7.7m (43.2%), 7.7m (43.2%).

I'm not sure how low tonight's could go against the football even with warm weather.

I think 6.0m (30%), although a lot depends on how the football is doing.

But weren't these figures from when it was on between about 6:45pm and 7:15pm? I thought it only went to the 'late teatime' slot for series 4 in 2008.

Good point - the weeks I've quoted was when it was in a consistent (you hear that BBC schedulers, consistent?) 7pm slot week after week...

Its a shame about Ashes to Ashes, last nights show had everything and its building into the finish that may have been expected at the end of Life On Mars. Its a cult show for those that are into it, but the figures suggest its getting pigeonholed a touch rather than appealing to the mass. It will be a sad day when Hunt races off into the sunset taking the last remaining bastion against political correctness with him.

They are solid as you say and some amazing shares, but there is something peculiar about having to close the curtains to get any sense of atmosphere watching the show-especially when its really hot outside.

Completely agree with this.

I think the FA Cup has been a bit of a turkey this season. I can't see it having much effect on Doctor Who. The weather will knock the Doc, though.

Interesting list of Doctor Who debut ratings in this week's Radio Times.

William Hartnell (1963) 4.4m
Patrick Troughton (1966) 7.9m
Jon Pertwee (1970) 8.4m
Tom Baker (1974) 10.8m
Peter Davison (1982) 9.1m
Colin Baker (1984) 7.6m
Sylvester McCoy (1987) 5.1m
Paul McGann (1996) 9.1m
Christopher Eccleston (2005) 10.8m
David Tennant (2005) 9.8m

Does the William Hartnell one include the repeat?

I recall (1963 - yipes!) it being effected by debuting the week that President Kennedy was shot and that they had to rescreen it later.

PS: To clarify apparently it was the day after the assassination and so ran late due to news broadcasts. It was repeated the following week as several parts of the UK did not see it, but the repeat was more to do with a major power cut that coincided with the episode first airing than the assassination itself.

During General Election campaign it would be very interesting to see ratings for main news prgrammes if these are available? (I know most Friday ratings are usually not available yet).

DS did a daily roundup in 2005, see below, not sure if they will this year.

Hollyoaks stayed the below the million mark for the second day in a row, only getting 938,000 - i think Hollyoaks is only a few weeks away from the axe if Paul Marquess can't turn it around

Especially with so many popular characters leaving requiring major cast changes soon.

Thanks D.M.N. - if DS doesn't do a daily roundup perhaps you can include them wherever possible on your summaries? Thanks a lot!

That episode is on BBC HD on Monday at 9 pm so it should top 5 million with viewers who have waited...not that this particular HD quality is worth waiting for.