The Series 7 opener, Asylum of the Daleks, attracted an average of 6.4m (29.3%) viewers, comprehensively beating game show Red and Black on ITV1 in a reversal of the same scenario last year when Let’s Kill Hitler was up against the controversial game show.

Doctor Who actually peaked with an audience of 6.9m viewers and this figure will rise even further when the consolidated figures are known in a week or so. As is the norm where the Time Lord is concerned, Saturday’s episode is already the most popular programme on the BBC iPlayer.

Saturday 1st September also saw ITV1 launch the new Dom Joly sketch show Fool Britannia, which drew in 2.5m (13.7%) viewers.

On Sunday BBC One won the ‘battle of the dramas’ for the fourth week running as the second episode of Inspector George Gently (6.1m, 24.6%) trounced the concluding part of ITV1’s The Last Weekend (2m, 8.1%).

However, BBC Two’s acclaimed Parade’s End lost 950k viewers with its second episode on Friday 31st August, dropping to 2.2m viewers and a 9.8% share of the audience.

> Order Doctor Who: Series 7 Part 1 on DVD on Amazon.

Watch Doctor Who‘s Series 7 trailer…

All data was supplied by Attentional, Digital Spy and The Guardian.

What did you enjoy on TV over the weekend? Let us know below…

> Read more from Chris in his blog, Boyle’s Law.