Kilroy replacement 'pleases' BBC

Nadia Sawalha and Nicky Campbell are fronting the new show

BBC One's replacement for the Kilroy programme attracted an "encouraging" 900,000 viewers for its first show.

Now You're Talking! - a topical discussion show fronted by Nicky Campbell - started on Monday.

The figures were below that of Kilroy which attracted a daily average audience of 1.2m last year.

Robert Kilroy-Silk quit his daily chat show in January over an article in which he called Arabs "suicide bombers" and "limb-amputators".

He had hosted the BBC One chat show for 17 years.

'Difficult slot'

Nadia Sawalha will take turns with Campbell to host Now You're Talking!, which is a half-hour discussion programme with a studio audience that follows a similar format to Kilroy.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said: "We are pretty pleased with the audience figures of 900,000. It is an encouraging start.

"Now You're Talking! is a new show and it will take time to bed in. It can take a while for people to find new shows.

"It is a different programme from Kilroy and he had 17 years to build up his audience.

"The nine till 10 slot is a very difficult one to get right but to get figures of just under one million on its first transmission is encouraging."