Brits tune in to see Big Brother finale

Almost half the viewing public in Britain tuned in to see ex-Take That idol Mark Owen win Celebrity Big Brother, Channel 4 said today.

Viewing figures released by the channel showed it achieved a 44% audience share in the UK for last night’s finale.

At its peak, more than six million people watched the face-off between Owen and former Page Three girl Melinda Messenger and comedian Les Dennis.

The top figure was a million more than the audience for the 2001 version of the show, which was watched by an average of five million.

This year, the mean number of viewers for the final was five million, 33% of the available audience, compared with a usual Channel 4 Friday night audience of 2.5 million.

Throughout its 10-day run the show was watched by an average of 4.7 million people.

More than 1.6 million votes were cast by phone, text, internet and interactive TV.

Meanwhile viewer research revealed the audience was generally young and upmarket, with 38% aged 16 to 34 and 42% ABC1s – middle class professionals.

And more 16-34s watched the show than saw Manchester United play in the Champions League on Tuesday.

CBB was watched by 1.6 million people in that age group, 500,000 more than for the football on ITV.

A Big Brother spokeswoman said: “We are delighted with these figures. Throughout the series the audience has been very stable, and we are very pleased to have raised £220,000 for charity.

“It proves that every house is different, but every house is still very watchable and people have been fascinated by what has gone on.”