I’m a Celeb enters the reality battle but Strictly still reigns
This past weekend saw ITV’s The X Factor continue to fight an increasingly losing battle against BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, with Sunday seeing ITV launch its second mega reality show into the arena, just to add to the fun and balance things out a bit.
Saturday brought a series of tweet-worthy blunders to the day’s big reality events with Strictly Come Dancing first out of the trap at 6:50pm on BBC One.
It seemed like the weekend’s big ratings race was over as soon as it began with a massive 46% share flocking to see the nine remaining contestants cha-cha and foxtrot each other while donning dazzlingly garish outfits.
The one hour and 25 minute show brought in a massive 10.2 million viewers as frantic fans took to Twitter to discuss a barely noticeable stumble from boy band member Jay McGuiness, resulting in Saturday’s biggest audience.
Kicking off on ITV a full fifteen minutes before BBC One’s big song and dance number wrapped up was tired exploitative format The X Factor (8pm) which put more young contenders through the emotional wringing, thinking it was still in the early years of the shows when hopeful teenagers’ tears directly translated to success.
The 19th episode of the 12th series brought the third consecutive live show, with Saturday’s slice of mega-budget karaoke seeing a bit of a movie theme. Even more exciting was the fact that one of the contestants actually fainted backstage, helping the show top the day’s TV Twitter chart.
Coming in at 4 million viewers behind Strictly, Saturday’s taste of The X Factor secured 6.2 million viewers and a 28% share for ITV.
Yesterday brought another clash for the bitter rivals, although BBC One didn’t give the competition much room to succeed. The weekend’s biggest audience tuned in at 7:20pm to enjoy the 40 minute episode, which saw Strictly Come Dancing finally pit Jeremy Vine against the terminally unpopular Jamelia.
An audience of 10.4 million viewers – the biggest of the entire weekend – watched as the dancing troupe were whittled down to eight couples, netting a 43% share.
Over on ITV at 8pm, junior presenter Olly Murs only had one job to do in The X Factor Results show, and managed to completely muck it up.
7.2 million viewers tuned in to see the professional cheeky chappie and housewives’ favourite inform a tearful contestant they were on their way home, before being corrected by co presenter Caroline Flack that it was actually down to a deadlock.
A 29% audience share tuned in for the confusion, which resulted in said contestant being sent home anyway, and helping generate over 128,000 tweets during its broadcast.
If that wasn’t enough weekend reality TV then you were in luck! Straight afterwards was the launch of the fifteenth series of ITV’s incredibly popular bug eating competition I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here (9pm).
The first instalment saw the current 10semi-famous contestants arrive in the jungle in the usual high end way, with some skydiving and faux-bonding.
An audience of 9.6 million viewers tuned in to see the new arrivals attempt to live in an outdoor studio set, resulting in a 42% share and the most tweets of the day.
The other big news of the weekend’s telly was Friday’s big charity drive, with Children in Need 2015 breaking records for the amount of money raised.
The first chunk of celebrity sightings, super sad videos and impressive skits kicked off at 7:30pm and was watched by 7.7 million viewers and a 36% share on BBC One.
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. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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