Death in Paradise launches with nearly 6 million viewers

BBC One’s new detective drama Death in Paradise, starring Ben Miller, launched with nearly 6 million viewers last night.

The drama, revolving around a British cop sent to the Caribbean to investigate a murder, launched strongly last night on BBC One with 5.8 million viewers according to overnight figures. It outperformed ITV’s celebrity endurance series 71 Degrees North which had just 2.2 million viewers at 9pm.

Earlier in the evening ITV’s new Jeremy Kyle fronted gameshow High Stakes continued to under perform with just 1.9 million viewers at 8pm opposite Holby City on BBC One which had 5.6 million viewers.

Elsewhere last night Channel Four drama Shameless ended its 8th season with 1.2 million viewers while earlier in the evening Gok’s Clothes Roadshow pulled in 1.7 million viewers.

Channel Five’s best audience of the night was for Big Brother at 10pm with 1.5 million viewers though CSI: Miami an hour earlier was only just behind with 1.4 million and at 8pm Amanda Knox: The Untold Story also performed well with 1.3 million viewers.