Jonathan Ross drags in 4.3m audience to entrance ITV1 show

Jonathan Ross illustrated a honourable 4.3m spectators for the first appearance of his new ITV1 chat show, preliminary figures show.

The hour-long Jonathan Ross Show started at 21:45 BST, following ratings winner The X Factor and the outcomes show of Simon Cowell's Red or Black?

Ross, who declared his exit from the BBC in January 2010, drew around 21% of watchers, the biggest share of the viewers at that time.

Opponents were lukewarm, stating ITV had made few alterations to Ross's BBC set up.

"Jonathan Ross come back to prime-time TV tonight with a new talk show that observed amazingly like his old one - and, well, made a pretty good fist of it," wrote the Telegraph's Serena Davies.

"Distinctive channel, same old show!" criticize the headline from Daily Mail reviewer Sarah Bull.

"Minus the Four Poofs and a Piano and the brilliant violet colors, the show if everything looks classier, but the content is almost identical to its BBC forerunners," commented Metro Online.

The Jonathan Ross Show - which drew a climax viewer of 4.6 million - saw the eponymous presenter interview Hollywood actress Sarah Jessica Parker, singer Adele and Formula One's Lewis Hamilton.

Struggles for watchers included Channel Five's Celebrity Big Brother, which took 1.5m observers and 7.6% of the spectators in an identical timeslot, C4's Million Pound Drop and BBC Two's Proms coverage.

BBC One coverage at the time included the end of John Bishop's Britain, BBC News and the first half of Ricky Gervais film Ghost Town, and hovered around 12.5% of the audience share.

Though, the runaway triumph of the night was talent show The X Factor, which goes on to strengthen its flagship status on ITV1 with 11.1 million audiences.

The final episode of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on BBC One was looked at by 4.6m watchers in July 2010 – simply the most watched episode of the show's run that year, which pulled in an average of 3.1 million each week.

The 27 year-old Londoner, who can now say to be the furthermost male endurance runner Britain has ever formed, was locked in a titanic struggle with Ethiopian Dejen Gebremeskel with 200 meters remaining before pulling clear as the pair entered the final straight.