TV Overnights: New X Factor starts on a high of 10.2m viewers

2011’s X Factor series started on a high on Saturday night with a peak audience of 10.2 million viewers.

It is down 500,000 on last year’s opener but is the second highest-rating launch show to date.

The first episode of series eight, with new judges Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland and Tulisa Contostavlos, attracted almost 9.6 million average viewers and a 40.5% audience share between 8pm and 9.30pm on Saturday evening.

An extra 490,000 viewers watched the show on ITV1+1, which was not available last year.

ITV2’s spin-off show The Xtra Factor with former contestant Olly Murs pulled in an average of 1.5 million viewers.

At the same time, Channel 5’s new Celebrity Big Brother, which started last week (and became one of Channel 5’s highest-rating programmes ever), secured a peak audience of just over three million viewers and a 12.1% average audience share.

Channel 5 has signed its first product placement deal for Celebrity Big Brother, which features TOWIE star Amy Childs, Jedward and Kerry Katona.

Elsewhere this weekend, BBC One enjoyed a peak ratings run on Saturday until 6pm, when ITV took over. The channel’s sports coverage proved to be a popular choice among viewers. The Rugby Union match scored over 1.9 million peak viewers during the afternoon slot, while Final Score won a high of 2.1 million viewers at 5pm.

On Sunday, BBC One also claimed the prime time ratings with Countryfile and Ocean Giants. The long-running Countryfile attracted more than 6.5 million peak viewers in the 8pm to 9pm slot, while the second in the new documentary series Ocean Giants saw a peak audience of 5.4 million viewers at 9pm.

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.