The Doctor Who spin-off Class came to BBC One in a late night timeslot on Monday evening, getting its first domestic transmission on a main TV Network.

Episode 1, For Tonight We May Die, which was broadcast at 10.45pm, featured a guest appearance from Peter Capaldi, had an estimated audience of 0.94 million viewers, a 10% share of the total TV audience. The rating is below the channel average of 1.64 million for the timeslot. The drama rated higher than BBC 2’s Newsnight with 0.65 million. and ITV 1’s Through the Keyhole which had 0.75 million. Top for the timeslot was the Channel 4 reality TV series First Dates Hotel which had 1.37 million watching.

Episode 2, The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo, followed immediately afterward, starting at 11.40pm, but only managed 0.39 million watching, a share 7.4% of the audience. The ratings were less than the average for the timeslot for BBC One which is 0.64 million. Class did out rate programmes on the other four main channels, winning the timeslot.

Class has been available on the BBC Three online channel since October where the episodes have had around 200,000 viewers.

Final official ratings should be available in two weeks time.