SLAY
Celebrity Big Brother watched by 3.5m
Channel 5 reality show takes 15.8% of audience share at 9pm, up 273% on channel's slot average over past three months
Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock arrives on Celebrity Big Brother, which was watched by 3.48 million people on Channel 5.
Celebrity Big Brother returned to Channel 5 with nearly 3.5 million viewers on Thursday night, up on the last series but no match for the 5.1 million who watched its debut on the network in 2011.
The celebrity reality show, which drafted in former footballer Neil "Razor" Ruddock as a last-minute replacement for Jim Davidson, had 3.48 million viewers, a 15.8% share of the audience, from 9pm on Thursday.
This was nearly four times (273.5%) up on the channel's slot average over the last three months.
Celebrity Big Brother debuted on Channel 5 with 5.1 million viewers (21.9%) in August 2011, after switching from Channel 4 after 10 years.
The second series launched with 3.5 million viewers (15.9%) in January last year, dipping to 2.7 million (12.9%) for its second run of the year in August 2011.
This year's line-up for the reality show also includes jockey Frankie Dettori, The X Factor contestant Rylan Clark and former EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth.
Celebrity Big Brother gave Channel 5 a rare victory over ITV1, which could only manage 3.1 million viewers, a 12.6% share.
But with only one other show rating above 1 million, spinoff Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side, watched by 1.2 million viewers (10.4%) between 11pm and midnight, Channel 5's peaktime share of the audience failed to leapfrog either BBC2 or Channel 4.
Lacey looked like a bitch on the photos but I think she's likeable.
Big Brother is still a force in the UK 
