Henman keeps viewers glued to TV

A new look schedule, which included a celebrity challenge show, helped the station to just a 16.5% share of the audience throughout the day.

In peak time, between 6pm and 10.30pm, ITV1 had a share of 18.1%, almost half the 34.7% share enjoyed by BBC One.

ITV said the figures, its worst since 2001, were a "blip", mainly due to coverage of Tim Henman's Wimbledon match on Saturday.

At one point on Saturday ITV1 was a mere 300,000 viewers ahead of Five, which pulled in 2.3 million viewers for its CSI Miami show.

Ratings plummet for Drop the Celebrity

The ITV Saturday line-up included new series Judgement Day hosted by Brian Conley which had 3.3 million viewers and the return of game show The Vault, with new host Melanie Sykes, picking up three million viewers.

Drop The Celebrity, in which fading stars had to parachute from an aircraft, had just 3.1 million viewers.

A spokeswoman said: "Tim Henman's Wimbledon match ran late on BBC One affecting ratings for other channels including ITV.