Over 5 million viewers tuned in for The Real Full Monty: Ladies Night last night.
Alexander Armstrong and Ashley Banjo returned for the new special, which first made its debut last year. Originally the show saw dance supremo Ashley marshal a band of famous male celebrity novices through their moves, whipping them into shape to perform a frenzy-inducing striptease.
For 2018, a new women-focused show also aired with celebs including Coleen Nolan, broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire, Emmerdale actress Sally Dexter and reality TV star Megan McKenna.
They were joined by former Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton, actress Helen Lederer, TV legend Ruth Madoc and presenter Sarah-Jane Crawford.
The group got their kit off to an average audience of 5.2 million viewers between 9PM and 10:30PM on ITV last night (Thursday, March 29).
It was a million more viewers than watched the male show on Wednesday and up 900,000 on last year’s original (male) series.
The Real Full Monty easily beat BBC One in the 9PM hour, with Not Going Out slipping to a series low of 3 million viewers.
In the latest series, Not Going Out sees Lee (Lee Mack) and Lucy (Sally Bretton) living in the anarchy of a packed family house with kids Charlie and twin siblings, Benji and Molly.
As if children weren’t enough to keep the couple crashing from one near-disaster to the next, factor in lovably feckless father, Frank (Bobby Ball), close friends in the form of the world-weary, or more specifically wife-weary, Toby (Hugh Dennis) and uptight ice-queen Anna (Abigail Cruttenden), plus Lucy’s parents Geoffrey (Geoffrey Whitehead) and Wendy (Deborah Grant).
Staying on BBC One, MasterChef continued with 3.5 million viewers, 500,000 below last week, while Still Game had 2.4 million viewers for its latest episode at 9:30PM on BBC One.
In the soaps EastEnders had 5.2 million for its latest episode, 600,000 viewers down on last week’s return for Kat Slater.
Emmerdale had 6 million and 5.8 million for its two episodes while an out-of-place Coronation Street topped the night with 6.5 million.