'Autumnwatch' lifts BBC Two Tuesday

The second night of Autumnwatch helped lift BBC Two from its Tuesday night ratings rut, according to early figures. The channel has suffered on Tuesdays for many months, often finishing last place for the night amongst the terrestrial broadcasters - behind even Five - and averaging around a million viewers.

Autumnwatch, a two-week look at life on Brownsea Island, Dorset, brought in 3.26m (14.2%) in the 8pm hour making it a huge success for the channel. The audience is significantly up on the 1.35m (5.8%) who saw Twiggy's Frock Exchange in the same slot last week and almost beat ITV1's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, which had 3.57m (15.5%) at the same time.

"Autumnwatch completely overshadowed both of BBC2's nearest rivals and wasn't too far behind ITV1 at the time." - Jon Rogers, Broadcast

Adapted from Neil Wilkes, Editor, Digital Spy