Strictly Come Dancing trounced The X Factor by more than 1.5 million viewers on Saturday night.
The return of the hit BBC1 show to the Saturday night schedule drew an average of 8.6 million viewers and a 45% share of total TV viewing between 6.30pm and 8pm. The show – which saw Daisy Lowe top the leader board with her waltz and Ed Balls come last – attracted a 15-minute peak of 9.3 million.
Saturday night was well up on Strictly’s slightly disappointing debut on Friday night when 7.2 million tuned in, 500,000 down on 2015 but still well up on 2014’s 6.5 million.
Strictly was well ahead of Simon Cowell’s The X Factor which drew an average of 7 million viewers and a 34.9% share between 8pm and 9.45pm. The Saturday night show had a 15-minute peak of 7.3 million.
The two shows are scheduled to go head to head next Saturday.
