The first two episodes of ITV1 show I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!, have done modestly well in the Bank Holiday ratings, according to unofficial viewing figures.

The first two editions of the ITV1 show, which pits eight minor UK celebrities against the elements in the Australian rainforest, were watched by 6.5m people per show.

But the first episode attracted fewer viewers than BBC One's special edition of Ground Force on Sunday night, broadcast from New York to mark the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks.

Ground Force pulled in 7.4m viewers - 38.9% of the audience share compared to ITV1's 33.8%.

However, the reality TV show did win the ratings battle on Monday night, pulling in 800,000 more viewers than Merseybeat on BBC One.

The first series of Survivor pulled in disappointing viewing figures when it was shown on ITV1 last year.

Producers had hoped for an audience of 10 million, but just four million people were tuning in by the second week, forcing ITV1 to cut the show back to just one edition a week.

Celebrity Survivor's viewing figures are similar to those of last year's Celebrity Big Brother, the week long show which took place as a fund-raiser for Comic Relief.

The Channel 4 show, which saw the likes of Vanessa Feltz, Chris Eubank, Claire Sweeney and Jack Dee spending time in the Big Brother house, was pulling in over six million viewers by the time it finished.

However, a second nightly broadcast of the programme on BBC One added an average of four million extra viewers to its total.

The contestants must learn survival skills

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Nell McAndrew, Tony Blackburn and Uri Geller are among those taking part in I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

The programme, hosted by Ant and Dec, is taking place in a remote rainforest in Northern Queensland.

Viewers will have a chance in the second week of the show to vote for the people they want to see evicted and to decide a winner.

The audience can also vote on who they would like to see face certain challenges during their time in the jungle.

The first of these will see Palmer-Tomkinson facing a shower of maggots and other insects.

The eight contestants will be filmed 24 hours a day and there will be live nightly broadcasts on ITV1 for two weeks, with extra footage on ITV2.