For only the second time in its current run, ITV1’s period drama failed to top the ratings tables and yet still managed a 36.9% audience share in its time slot.
Meanwhile, Homeland on Channel 4 scored a respectable 2.2m (8.3%) viewers, but Friday Night Dinner is still falling short of its Series 1 figures with only 712k (3.4%) people tuning in. The sitcom was comprehensively beaten by the return of sketch show Harry and Paul on BBC Two, which drew in 1.5m (7.1%) viewers at the same time.
Also on Sunday, Misfits returned for its fourth series on E4 and the new-look cast was welcomed by 690k (3.8%) viewers.
The last ever episode of The Thick of It aired on Saturday and 900k (3.7%) viewers witnessed the possible downfall of Malcolm Tucker on BBC Two.
BBC One’s Me and Mrs Jones continues to disappoint with only 2.7m (12.8%) viewers on Friday, consistently undoing HIGNFY’s good work directly before it.
Over on Sky1 this weekend Trollied checked in 409k (1.9%) viewers, whilst Spy recruited just 199k (0.9%).
> Order Series 3 of Downton Abbey on DVD on Amazon.
Watch the trailer for Series 5 of Merlin…
All data was supplied by Attentional, Digital Spy and The Guardian.
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