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" Bradley Walsh&amp;#039;s The Chase has hit new heights in ITV&amp;#039;s weekday 5pm slot, managing to amass an audience of over 3.5 million viewers last week. Some 3.53m (a 22.6% share) as well as 170k on +1 watched Friday&amp;#039;s edition of the popular quiz game, giving ITV its best ratings in the teatime slot for seven years since Paul O&amp;#039;Grady moved his show to Channel 4.  BBC One&amp;#039;s Pointless, meanwhile, could only gather 2.65m (16.1%) between 5.15pm and 6pm for its last classic edition of the year. Pointless Celebrities will air in its place from Monday. In September, the pair were neck-and-neck but The Chase has not lost to its gameshow rival since October. Later in the evening, David Mitchell&amp;#039;s fifth stint in the Have I Got News For You hosting chair was seen by 4.41m (19.2%) on BBC One at 9pm, then John Bishop&amp;#039;s Big Year amused 3.64m (16.3%). Nearly as many, 3.51m (22.7%), stayed up for The Graham Norton Show at 10.35pm. Meanwhile, ITV1&amp;#039;s documentary celebrating 100 Years of the Royal Variety Performance interested 2.94m (13.4%) between 9pm and 10.30pm (+1: 132k). This year&amp;#039;s ceremony pulled in a peak of over 9m on Monday. Channel 4&amp;#039;s comedy night kicked off with a showing of Peter Kay: In Conversation which attracted 1.9m (8.4%) from 9pm (+1: 350k), after which 1.29m (8.4%) caught Alan Carr: Chatty Man at 10pm (+1: 301k).   Elsewhere in a fairly competitive 9pm slot, BBC Two documentary Westminster Abbey intrigued 2.28m (10.1%), US drama The Mentalist anchored Channel 5&amp;#039;s schedule with 1.18m (5.2%) and An Idiot Abroad maintained 890k (3.9%) on Sky1. Bolstered by its 90 minutes of soaps, ITV1 topped primetime with 21.5% (+1: 0.5%), beating BBC One&amp;#039;s 19.6%. BBC Two slipped into third place with 7.3% ahead of Channel 4&amp;#039;s 5.4% (+1: 0.9%) and Channel 5&amp;#039;s 3.6% (+1: 0.2%).  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ratings/news/a443991/the-chase-now-itvs-biggest-teatime-hit-since-paul-ogrady/>