Strictly Come Dancing wins ratings war against X Factor

Updated

Strictly Come Dancing beat The X Factor by nearly 1 million viewers in the ratings when the two talent shows clashed on Sunday.

The BBC One ballroom show drew an average audience of 8.09 million with a 33.1% share of the total TV audience. X Factor drew 7.14 million, excluding those timeshifting on ITV +1.

However, the ITV singing show achieved a higher peak than its BBC rival with 9 million compared to 8.5 million for Strictly.

Strictly, which aired its results show at 7.15pm on Sunday, said goodbye to boxer Anthony Ogogo who become the second celebrity to be voted out of the series.

Over on ITV, an average of 7.6 million (including those watching on ITV +1) were glued to X Factor's Six Chair Challenge, which achieved a share of 31.5% of the audience.

During the singing show, Simon Cowell, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Rita Ora watched as judge Nick Grimshaw selected his final six boys for the Judges' Houses stage of the competition.

Back in August, X Factor supremo Simon had laughed off any talk of a ratings rivalry with Strictly, joking about the lack of a star-studded line-up.

"This show does feel better, the talent's great, they're interesting, so if it's us versus Peter Andre, I'm going to put my money on us."

On Saturday, pop star Jay McGuiness bagged the first perfect score of 10 from a Strictly Come Dancing judge this series. The show was watched by an average of 8.9 million, its highest so far this series.

Bruno Tonioli awarded the 10 to The Wanted singer and partner Aliona Vilani for their slick jive combining Misirlou and You Never Can Tell from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

Despite losing to Strictly once again in the ratings, Simon can take heart from the general upward trend of X Factor's ratings.

On August 30, the ITV show's first Sunday broadcast aired to an average of only 5.94m viewers (not including fans watching via timeshift on ITV +1).

In an attempt to avoid the two series clashing, ITV published episode times for X Factor right up until the final in December.

However, the two shows are set to coincide over the coming weeks.

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