BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing' Has Lowest Season Finale Ratings Since 2009

12:07 AM PST 12/23/2013 by Georg Szalai

Strictly Come Dancing - P 2012
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The year's final episode of the hit dancing competition drew an average of 11.5 million viewers, outperforming the finale of Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" that aired a week earlier.

BBC hit Strictly Come Dancing, known in the U.S. as Dancing With the Stars, ended its 11th season this weekend with its lowest-rated finale since 2009.

The Saturday night episode drew an average audience of 11.5 million and a peak viewership of 12.6 million.

That was down from the average audience of more than 12 million and peak viewership of more than 14 million who tuned in last year.

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But this year's final episode outperformed the season finale of ITV's The X Factor from a week before, according to ratings data. The Simon Cowell-created singing competition reached an average audience of 9.7 million and a peak of 11.9 million, becoming the lowest-rated season-ending episode of the show since 2005.

In Sunday's Strictly finale, model Abbey Clancy, Natalie Gumede, an actress on soap opera Coronation Street, singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor and BBC news anchor Susanna Reid competed in the show's first-ever all-female final.

Strictly beat X Factor in the shows' weekend ratings showdowns this season. With the recently ended latest season of ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! doing well in the ratings, it will be between that show and Strictly for the title of Britain's most watched reality TV show of 2013, according to industry watchers. Final figures are still being compiled.

Email: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai