TV Overnights: Paige’s exit attracts a high of 15.3m viewers to The X Factor

ITV1’s X Factor continued to dominate the weekend ratings, although BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing is quickly closing the gap on the Saturday night top spot.

Last night, a high of more than 15.3 million viewers tuned in to see Paige and Cher fight it out for a chance to perform again next week.  The hour-long results show, which also featured performances from Olly Murs and the full group of X Factor finalists, attracted more than 14.1 million average viewers and an impressive 46.8% share between 8pm and 9pm.

Saturday night’s performance show, which saw the remaining acts perform songs from The Beatles back-catalogue, peaked with a lower 12.6 million viewers.  The overall programme, which ran from 8pm until 9.20pm, pulled in 12.2 million average viewers and a 45.1% share between 8pm and 9.20pm.

Over on BBC One, Strictly Come Dancing started gaining ground.  The 75-minute rival programme peaked with 12.3 million viewers at 7.30pm, just 300,000 less than The X Factor‘s highest Saturday night ratings.

The overall programme, which saw the final eight couples take to the Blackpool Tower in an attempt to impress the judges, secured 11.3 million average viewers and a 45.3% share between 6.30pm and 7.45pm.  However, Strictly‘s results show pulled in a lower 11.1 million peak viewers and a 39.2% average audience share between 7.30pm and 8pm on Sunday evening.

The two reality shows were not the only ones to lead the weekend ratings.  ITV1’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! has got a firm grip on the peak-hour ratings now, pulling in more than 10 million viewers on Sunday night and 8.8 million peak viewers on Saturday.  Having said that, the programme was unable to see off competition from BBC One’s Children in Need on Friday evening.

The three-hour long charity show, presented by Terry Wogan, Tess Daly and Fearne Cotton, attracted a peak audience of more than 10.8 million viewers at 8.15pm, and banked over 9.1 million average viewers during the full 7pm to 10pm slot.

Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.