X Factor keeps Strictly on its toes
- Published: 29 September 2008 12:36
- Author: Jon Rogers
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- Last Updated: 29 September 2008 13:55
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The first Sunday night outing for this year's X Factor serenaded an impressive 8.9m (38.1%) at 7pm, 800,000 more than BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing which aired an hour later.
The commercial network's search-for-a-star format grew its audience from an initial 7.7m (35.9%) to a huge 9.8m (39.5%) in the final quarter of an hour. The show was way above the channel's slot average for the year to date of 6.1m (27.9%).
The X Factor continued to bring in both upmarket and younger viewers. Over the hour 35.7% of the show's audience was from the ABC1 demographic while 26.2% were aged between 16 and 34.
Once the commercial network's programme ended at 8pm viewers switched over to BBC1 for the Sunday results show of the corporation's own talent show.
Strictly Come Dancing pulled in a strong 8.1m (31.7%) over an hour, peaking with 8.5m (32.5%) at 8.30pm.
The BBC1 celebrity talent show proved to be a hit with upmarket viewers but younger audiences were less impressed.
Over half – 50.5% - of the show's audience were from the ABC1 demographic while just 14.6% were aged between 16 and 34.
At the third and final time of trying ITV1's Agatha Christie's Poirot finally managed to get the better of BBC1's Tess of the D'Urbervilles at 9pm.
ITV1's Belgian detective, who solved the mystery of The Third Girl, gained 5.1m (23.8%) over two hours, up by 100,000 week-on-week.
The third instalment of Tess on BBC1 continued its slow decline with 4.9m (20.3%) over an hour, losing 200,000 on last week.
The start of James May's Big Ideas at 9pm on BBC2 got a big audience with a sizeable 2.9m (12%) over an hour. The new documentary series featuring the Top Gear presenter was up by 26% on the channel's slot average of 2.3m (9%).
Neither Channel 4 nor Five could match that sort of audience. C4's film Pan's Laybrinth gained 1.3m (6.5%) for over two hours while Five's film Hitch, also at 9pm, charmed 1.5m (7.5%).
All hours shares for Saturday 27 September 2008: ITV1 – 23%, BBC1 – 17.9%, BBC2 – 8.5%, C4 – 4.7% (C4+1 – 0.6%), Five – 5.1%, multichannel – 40.2%.
Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 35.7%, BBC1 – 23.7%, BBC2 – 9.5%, C4 – 4.7% (C4+1 – 0.5%), Five – 5.8%, multichannel – 30.2%.
