Around 25 million people watched Prime Minister Boris Johnson's announcement of a new national lockdown on Monday night, according to early ratings data.
BBC One, ITV and Channel 4 cleared their schedules in order to make way for the address from Downing Street at 8pm, with around 80% of the available TV audience tuning in.
An average of 14.09 million watched on BBC One, with 6.12 million watching on ITV, 1.94 million on Channel 4, 1.49 million on the BBC News channel and 1.24 million on Sky News.
The figures are almost on par with Johnson's announcement of the first lockdown last March, when over 28 million watched his address.
Elsewhere on Monday, The Chase pulled in its highest ever overnight rating of 5.05 million in the 5pm hour, while ITV2's new stripped dating series made a decent start with 417,000 (2%) at 9pm.
Neil Wilkes
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