'X Factor' Tops Sunday U.K. Ratings After Losing Out to 'Strictly Come Dancing' on Saturday


LONDON - The X Factor Sunday night live results show on U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV's ITV1 network drew a peak audience of 11.7 million viewers, the highest peak audience of the season so far. 
It won the ratings battle for the night after losing out to BBC1'a Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday.

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The ITV data for X Factor included viewership on catch-up network ITV1+1, which airs shows with a delay of an hour.

A week earlier, the music competition created by Simon Cowell had peaked with 11.4 million viewers. 

ITV said the hour-long show also drew an average audience of 9.6 million as it had done last week.



Meanwhile, costume drama Downton Abbey continued to draw a big crowd, reaching a peak audience of 10.4 million viewers for ITV1 in the 9pm time slot. 

The latest episode of the series, which is in its third season, averaged 9.8 million viewers, exceeding X Factor in this metric, the network said.



A couple of weeks ago, Downton Abbey drew a season-high average of 10 million viewers. 


With an average audience of 8.2 million between 7pm and 10:30pm, ITV1 was the most watched channel in peak audiences by more than 3 million viewers, the broadcaster said.

Celebrity dance show Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1 saw its Sunday results show reach an average of 8.1 million viewers in its 6:50-7:30pm slot.

On Saturday, Strictly had reached a peak audience of 10.9 million viewers and an average of 9.9 million, beating out X Factor, according to the Guardian. The show was Strictly's first episode of the season that featured all celebrities in dance routines with their partners.

The X Factor that night had an average audience of 8.8 million and a peak of 9.5 million.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com


Twitter: @georgszalai