Actually Clarkson confirmed recently he had been given a final written warning by the BBC so he won't ''get away'' with anything.

A massive 6.91m (29.7%) for Death in Paradise.

Excellent start for Death in Paradise. It will have crushed Bring Back Borstal like a bug.

Excellent start for DIP. Exactly the same share as last year's series opener but down by 220k. Still good though, will timeshift well over 8m.

Michelle Osborn ‏@michellosborn 38s39 seconds ago
6.9 million viewers return for new series of #DeathInParadise and 7 million for #EastEnders on BBC1 last night

Dead heat between ITV and Channel 5:

Robin Parker ‏@robinparker55
Death In Paradise returned with 6.9m at 9pm last night - a 30% audience share. ITV's Bring Back Borstal neck-and-neck with CBB on 2.6m

Very good for CBB.

Not surprised at Bring Back Borstal. With Death in Paradise mopping up a huge older audience and CBB and C4's latest show about fat people mopping up the 16-34s there wasn't really an audience for it to grab, which is a pity.

Excellent as others have said for DiP. Didn't expect anything less, it's a very dependable performer.

Great retention for CBB also. First highlights show of 2014 and first Thursday highlights both did 2.3m, so that's a really nice increase on those.

Also miles clear of the post-launch episode in January 2013 which averaged 2.0m.

Overnights.tv ‏@overnightstv 1m1 minute ago
Returning #DeathInParadise at 9pm on BBC1 caned ITV's #bringbackborstal: 6.9m/29.7% vs 2.2m/9.6% (+ 330.5k/2% on +1) http://www.overnights.tv

Pretty much level with Broadchurch excluding plus 1 isn't it? I assume Broadchurch will timeshift more though.

Nice to see at least 3 dramas so far this week raking in big numbers.

Broadchurch got 7.26m exc. +1. Still close though.

I've recorded it, will watch later today.

Disappointing start for it but I suspect it did well enough with 16-34s for it to not be a total disaster.

Massive plunge for "Celebrity Big Brother" loosing viewers, expect this to continue during its run.

Four solid nights of 9pm ratings there for BBC One. It won't be five because The Musketeers tonight is highly unlikely to be above 5m.

Seriously I don't know why E4 doesn't just give up showing programmes other than The Big Bang Theory, Hollyoaks and maybe the 100 heh.

Overnights.tv ‏@overnightstv 1m1 minute ago
#CelebrityBigBrother beat ITV in 9pm slot, with 2.4m/10.1% at 9pm, but added only further 202.2k/1.2% on +1 http://www.overnights.tv

Just checked the rating for last year's second episode of CBB January series. That got 1.68m/1.85m according to DS so it's up yoy. It was on a Saturday though but still up.

Great for DIP.

Beware of any misinformation this morning around CBB.

Typically the drop from launch show to first highlights is around 30-40%. That was the case when it was on Channel 4 as well.

Despite what you might read from dubious sources, a dropoff of only 20% is excellent and bodes really well. Must be one of the smallest on record.

Highly unlikely to be above 4m actually.

What did EasteEnders get for its other episode?

Perhaps now we can finally put to rest this daft idea that programmes can"t get big audiences on a Thursday.

It's more the fact that Thursday seems harder for both main channels to create a strong lead in for 9pm - although as DIP proves the audience will come if it's popular enough. I suspect it would've been about the same without an EE lead in.

It's truly dead. You could say they were hoping for one of those rare occasions when a second series actually grows from an unspectacular base in series 1, but why would anyone think that here when it collapsed so much first time round? It fell and fell - all the signs that no matter what they did it was never going to suddenly gain new viewers if it couldn't keep hold of the old ones.

6.63m (28.6%)

More soap ratings have been released by DS: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2...-thursday.html

That CBB drop is actually quite good. It's smaller than usual. Last Jan's very successful series actually only got 2.6m once in its first week (on the fake eviction and move).

Its actually the 2nd most watch first HL show of the Ch5 era behind CBB8.

Brilliant for DiP.

Soaps very close to each other, that scheduling probably helped the 2nd Emmerdale nicely as it didn't drop off as much as it sometimes does.