Simon Cowell’s addition of a shock Halloween elimination twist could not reel in BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing, which surged to a record series lead over ITV’s The X Factor of more than 2 million viewers on Saturday.
But both the BBC1 and ITV talent shows were down on last year’s ratings.
The Halloween special of the celebrity dance show had 9.7 million viewers, a 43.9% share between 6.30pm and 8.15pm on Saturday, up from 9.4 million (42.8%) the previous week.
It proved especially gruesome for The X Factor which had 7.4 million viewers, a 32.7% share, between 8pm and 10pm, the same as the previous Saturday when it also had 7.4 million (32.4%).
Strictly Come Dancing’s lead, of 2.3 million viewers, was the biggest of the two new series to date as the two entertainment giants faced off on Saturday night. The BBC1 show had a five-minute peak of 10.5 million viewers, against The X Factor’s 8.7 million.
Strictly Come Dancing was 300,000 down on last year’s Halloween special, which was watched by 10 million viewers (43.8%), while The X Factor was 500,000 down on last year’s 7.9 million (34.1%).
However, both shows had a bigger audience share than for Halloween weekend last year – suggesting that the unseasonally warm weather may have meant that TV viewing was down across the board on Saturday evening.
Cowell’s return to The X Factor, along with his fellow former judge, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (formerly Cole), was supposed to rejuventate the ITV show which has been in decline ever since Cowell quit as a judge to work on its US version in 2010.
He signed a new £150m deal with ITV last year and said before the launch of this year’s series that he would be disappointed if it did not do better and beat Strictly Come Dancing. “The expectations on us are huge,” he said in August.
The results shows on Sunday were closer, albeit marginally, with Radio 1 DJ Scott Mill’s exit from Strictly Come Dancing watched by another 9.7 million viewers, a 39.2% share, between 7.20pm and 8pm, up from 9.5 million (39.7%) last week.
The X Factor had 7.8 million viewers (29.9%) for its results programme between 8pm and 9pm, the same as last week’s 7.8 million (32.2%) giving Strictly Come Dancing a Sunday night lead of 1.9 million.
All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated
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