Launch of Chris Evans' TFI Friday series helps Gogglebox to record ratings

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/19/chris-evans-tfi-friday-gogglebox-to-record-ratings

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Chris Evans returned to Channel 4 for the first of a new series of TFI Friday with more than 2 million viewers, helping Gogglebox to its biggest ever overnight audience of more than 4 million.

TFI Friday began a new 10-part run with 2.1 million viewers, a 9.3% share of the audience from 8pm on Friday.

It doubled Channel 4’s three-month slot average and delivered a healthy inheritance to Gogglebox which followed it at 9pm with 4.1 million viewers, an 18.3% share.

Related: Chris Evans rocks up late to Radio 2 – thanks to a parents' evening

Gogglebox won its slot, beating BBC1’s Have I Got News For You, guest hosted by Sue Perkins, which drew 3.9 million viewers (18.9%) from 9pm and sitcom The Kennedys, which could only manage 1.6 million viewers, an 8.4% share, from 9.30pm.

It also beat ITV’s Piers Morgan’s Life Stories with Warwick Davis, which picked up 2.5 million viewers (11.4%) in the 9pm slot.

A new series of TFI Friday was commissioned by Channel 4 after Evans, the new presenter of BBC2’s Top Gear, brought the show back for a 20th anniversary special in June watched by 3.7 million viewers.

The first of the new series narrowly lost out to BBC2’s lineup of Mastermind and Gardeners’ World, which had 2.3 million viewers apiece.