'I'm a Celebrity' gets ITV out of its slump in ratings

ITV1 has reversed its recent decline by overtaking BBC1's share of the television audience, although it has had to rely on low-brow offerings such as soap operas and reality TV shows.

ITV1 has reversed its recent decline by overtaking BBC1's share of the television audience, although it has had to rely on low-brow offerings such as soap operas and reality TV shows.

The commercial channel clinched a larger share of the "all hours" ratings for the first time since August 2001, figures from the Broadcast Audience Research Board (Barb) showed. ITV1 averaged a 24.5 per cent audience share compared with BBC1's 23.9 per cent for the three-week period ending on Sunday 4 May.

Much of the success is due to the popularity of I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! In its first week, it averaged 8.7 million viewers and a 36 per cent audience share, compared with 6.9 million and 31.5 per cent last year.

Audience share was further boosted by the documentary showing how the army major Charles Ingram tried to cheat his way to the top prize on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Broadcast on Easter Monday, Major Fraud was watched by 15.1 million viewers, the biggest audience for a factual programme for six years.

Investment in sport paid off with 12.7 million people watching the second Champions League game between Manchester United and Real Madrid.

The BBC first overtook its rival in the all-hours section in August 2001 with strong daytime ratings successes.