TV Overnights: The X Factor secures a high of almost 13m viewers
ITV1’s The X Factor continued to dominate the weekend ratings with a peak audience of almost 13 million viewers.
Saturday’s show, which saw the remaining 24 acts perform at the judges’ houses for their last chance to win a place in the live shows, attracted more than 11.1 million peak viewers and a 38.3% average audience share between 8pm and 9.30pm.
On Sunday, meanwhile, over 12.9 million viewers tuned in to see Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue tell the contestants who had made it in to the final 12 and who had to go home. The hour-long programme, in the middle of ITV1’s Sunday evening peak run, pulled in an impressive 12.3 million average viewers and a 44.8% average audience share between 8pm and 9pm.
The James Bond film You Only Live Twice kicked-off ITV1’s peak run with more than 4 million peak viewers before the second episode of this week’s X Factor, followed byYou’ve Been Framed and All Star Family Fortunes. Afterwards, Doc Martin held on to the highest ratings during the all-important 9pm to 10pm peak-hour with 8.8 million viewers.
However, BBC One claimed the top spot for most of Saturday, with the exception of The X Factor, which pulled in 1.5 million more average viewers than its BBC One rival Strictly Come Dancing.
The celebrity dancing competition, with judges Len Goodman, Alesha Dixon, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli, attracted a high of 9.5 million viewers before The X Factor started over on ITV1, and although Strictly had a longer running time of 2 hours 15 minutes, it slipped down to an average of 8.4 million viewers and a 34% audience share.
Meanwhile, on Friday ITV1’s Costa comedy series Benidorm returned with a high of more than 6.1 million viewers. The first episode in the new six part series pulled in over 6 million average viewers and a 26.6% audience share between 9pm and 10pm – putting it well ahead of its rival channels during the all-important peak-hour ratings war.
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.