Celebrity Big Brother 2017 kicked off yesterday with the lowest numbers ever for a January run.

The latest winter series - and 19th overall - started with an average audience of 2.3 million viewers, peaking with 2.6 million viewers.

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Celebrity Big Brother faced some tough competition in the 9PM hour with 6.2 million watching Silent Witness on BBC One but Channel 5 did beat ITV which had just 1.9 million for Robson Crusoe: A Surprising Adventure and Channel 4's 24 Hours in A&E (1.5 million).

The numbers for CBB are down 500,000 on last year's January launch and also down slightly on the usually lower summer series too (2.4 million).

The viewing figure makes it the least watched winter series launch ever and the second worst launch of any series, behind only 2015's summer run which began with 2.2 million viewers.

Celebrity Big Brother launch viewing figures

Including +1

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2017 Winter: 2.3 million

2016 Summer: 2.4 million

2016 Winter: 2.8 million

2015 Summer: 2.2 million

2015 Winter: 3.3 million

2014 Summer: 2.4 million

2014 Winter: 3.4 million

2013 Summer: 2.8 million

2013 Winter: 3.6 million

Elsewhere in yesterday evening's TV ratings, EastEnders came out on top over Emmerdale in the soaps with 7.4 million viewers to 6.6 million

Celebrity Big Brother 2017 continues nightly on Channel 5 for the next month.