Strictly Come Dancing continued its barnstorming run on Sunday night, pulling in 10.5 million viewers as Call the Midwife actor Helen George exited the show. The figure is just 200,000 off the series high of 10.7 million set last month.
The show continues to attract more viewers than The X Factor on Sunday, which held steady at 6.7 million viewers, 600,000 more than the Antiques Roadshow on BBC1 at the same time.
With an audience of 6.8 million on Saturday night, The X Factor, produced and fronted by Simon Cowell, has recovered from a record low of 5.6 million at the end of October.
The future of The X Factor has been cast into doubt following ITV’s deal to poach The Voice from the BBC once its 2016 run is over. Recent seasons have failed to get anywhere near the peak of its success in 2010, when 17.7 million tuned in to watch Matt Cardle win the final.