LONDON — ITV’s new-look “News at Ten” lost out to the BBC’s “Ten O’clock News” bulletin’s 4.9 million viewers when it returned Monday night, but pulled in a respectable 4.1 million viewers as the two news shows went head to head for the first time.
The ITV1 bulletin, anchored by Trevor McDonald and Julie Etchingham, attracted a 20% share of the watching audience, when it aired without a commercial break between 10pm and 10.25 pm, while the BBC1 show, fronted by Huw Edwards, had 23% of available viewers.
ITV director of television Simon Shaps said the news broadcast rated substantially higher than its previous incarnation at 10.30pm.
“We are very pleased that the return of ‘News at Ten’ was watched by over four million viewers last night,” said Shaps.
“This is an increase of over 1.5 million viewers on the average for the previous 10.30pm ITV News bulletin and a marked improvement across the 10.00pm slot.”
