PRESS ASSOCIATION -- More than four-and-a-half million people watched Jonathan Ross's new chat show, figures show.
The Jonathan Ross Show debuted on ITV1 at 9.45pm on Saturday and peaked with 4.6 million viewers.
The chat show host took a 21% share of viewers, averaging 4.3 million, a considerable improvement on the average of 3.1 million who watched his last series on Friday nights on BBC One.
Ross left the corporation last year after his contract ended in the wake of the "Sachsgate" scandal but later signed a deal to front a show for ITV1.
He presented the first of eight hour-long programmes on Saturday night, interviewing singer Adele, actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Formula One star Lewis Hamilton.
Ross landed in hot water when he appeared on Russell Brand's Radio 2 show in 2008 and they left smutty messages on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs during the show.
The scandal which erupted led to the departures of BBC executives, including the station's controller Lesley Douglas, and Brand resigned from his show.
Ross - who also hosted a Saturday morning show for Radio 2 - was suspended for three months for his part in the incident. He left the BBC the following year.
ITV also debuted new game show Red or Black? on Saturday night, which achieved a peak audience of 8.1 million, or 37% of viewers.
In the first episode, Nathan Hageman became the first person to win £1 million on the show, by picking red.