Tom Daley’s ITV1 diving show makes a Splash! with the viewers

Tom Daley will be mentor to celebrities learning to dive for a new TV series, Splash! (AP)

The opportunity to see celebrities emulate the orange hue, whitened teeth and diving expertise of Tom Daley in new ITV1 competition Splash! drew 5.6 million viewers on Saturday night.

At its peak the first episode had 6.3 million viewers tuning-in, making it the most-watched show of evening across all the channels with audience numbers one million above average for the ITV primetime slot.

The 90 minute competition programme in which celebrities Jake Canuso, Omid Djalili, Helen Lederer, Jade Ewen and Jenni Falconer learn how to dive with Olympic medallist Tom Daley will be a welcome success for ITV1.

Last Saturday ITV1’s night news bulletin proved its most popular programme of the evening with the channel taking just 8 per cent of the primtime viewing and several shows failing to achieve audiences of more than 2 million.