TELEVISION / Statistics

The figure for on-the-night donations to Comic Relief is down on the charity's last effort, two years ago. This year, overnight fund-raising reached pounds 6.5m; in 1991 it reached pounds 9m. The total figure raised in 1991 was pounds 21m: it is possible that, despite the lower overnight figure, that sum can be matched this time, since more fund-raising packs were sent out. Viewing figures for the television bonanza were impressive, reaching 8.55 million, just ahead of Chef], the other programme fronted by Lenny Henry.

Blind Date, formerly a real ratings winner, continues to lose viewers. It has just hit a low of 10.10 million: two years ago the show was regularly pulling audiences of around 15 million.

More movement in the breakfast television ratings war: The Big Breakfast has moved up yet another notch, it's quarter-hour peak audience reaching 1.4 million, now just 400,000 behind GMTV.

It may be scarcely worth noting now, but for the record: Eldorado has once again shown impressive ratings (7.26m), reaching the BBC1 Top 30 for the third time in four weeks.

All figures are for the week ending 14 March

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