Davina drives BBC1 to a new low

BBC1 recorded its worst ever peak-time performance on Wednesday - thanks in part to Davina McCall's increasingly unpopular chat show.

Her ratings continued to spiral downwards, reaching just 2.5million - a loss of a million viewers since the programme started only four weeks ago.

The much-hyped show, entitled Davina, was supposed to bring some 'Saturday night sparkle' to Wednesday nights and was touted as the corporation's replacement for Michael Parkinson.

But it seems things have not quite gone to plan.

Even this week's guests - Jordan, Girls Aloud and Eamonn Holmes - did nothing to stem the falling ratings, capturing just 11 per cent of the viewing total.

Instead viewers watched The Bill on ITV1, which had an audience of 6.6million, and Relocation, Relocation on Channel 4, with an audience of 3.7million.

The overall share of viewers for BBC1 between 6pm and 10.30pm was 14.8 per cent - the lowest since records began.

Miss McCall's show has an initial eight-week run with BBC bosses promising a £1million deal if it was recommissioned.

But yesterday the BBC admitted that it was far from certain that there would be a second series.

A spokesman said: 'We support the show and we support Davina, and we are confident that she is doing a good job.

'We want to give it time to grow, which we are sure it will, but whether there will be a second series, it is too early to say.'

Miss McCall's show was not the only one to blame for the BBC's poor Wednesday ratings, however.

A Panorama documentary on the fatal police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in London pulled in just 2.1million viewers.

Nor did the other evening's choices - Child of Our Time, hosted by Professor Robert Winston, and Disaster Masters, about a wood-flooring company facing financial ruin - fare any better.