Light at end of the tunnel as Daybreak pulls in over 1m viewers brings

• Presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley may be getting viewers back onside Picture: PA

Daybreak, which replaced GMTV as ITV's breakfast show in September, became the butt of jokes as ratings plummeted.

Presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, who joined in a multi-million pound deal after presenting BBC's One Show together, endured a welter of criticism as audiences turned their backs on the show and pundits heaped scorn on the new format.

However, the pair look like having the last laugh after new figures showed viewers are warming to the programme.

For the first time since launch week, a broadcast of the show attracted more than a million viewers.

A series of high-profile guests, including Dame Helen Mirren, Harry Hill and stars from I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! and The X Factor, has helped Daybreak to a record weekly average figure.

The average for the week so far has been 923,000, marginally ahead of the launch week average of 915,000.

ITV said the programme's viewing figures had been growing steadily since they reached a low point in mid-October.

In a newspaper interview published shortly before the latest figures were released, Chiles admitted the Daybreak team had made mistakes in its opening weeks but had worked hard to find a winning formula.

"I'd been saying to Christine for two or three years we should do a breakfast show together, the time is right to do a breakfast show," he said. "I was absolutely sure. And I was completely wrong."

Both presenters thought the first show had gone "OK", they said.

However, added Chiles, "we woke up in the morning and found out that, far from being OK, it was actually one of the biggest crocks of s***e anyone had seen in years."

Figures released in October revealed the programme's audience had sunk to a new low, drawing just half a million viewers.

At the time Chiles confessed he was stung by harsh criticism. Reading that he was "the ugliest man that's ever presented a programme" and that the show was the worst thing anyone has seen meant that when people accused him of being grumpy, he was grumpy for a reason, he said.

"I wish now I'd watched it a lot more (breakfast televison]," said Chiles.

"I've got a newfound respect for all of them. They look comfortable in their skin, and I think just to be companionable at that time is a challenge."

Bleakley insisted she had been cautious before the show first aired, aware that success was not a given.

What the critics said

Fiona Phillips, former GMTV presenter: "It's core audience is housewives and children and I don't think they're appealing to that."

Andrew Pettie, the Telegraph: "Daybreak's producers had promised that it would help set the day's news agenda for its viewers. For most of the show, however, the news items were flabby and lacklustre."

Graham Norton on the pair moving from the BBC: "I can see why Adrian Chiles did it, but Christine Bleakley - it's bonkers."

Christine Bleakley: "There are things that don't work, and we'll change them … we're learning as we go."

Adrian Chiles: "We woke up one morning and found that, far from being ok, it was actually one of the biggest crocks of s**** anyone had seen in years."

Esther Rantzen: "All the money in the world won't make their lives worth living, as they struggle in to work long before dawn, knowing that however hard they try they won't be able to keep the audience from trickling away."

Jan Moir, Daily Mail columnist: "The creepy pair looked as if they were glued together on the purple sofa."

Orkney Library, Twitter: "Adrian Chiles in morning: less welcome than the woman who asked to look through our entire Danielle Steel collection at 4:59pm on Saturday."