The X Factor's series premiere topped Saturday night TV, but was down 1m viewers on last year

And that's without Strictly complicating things



The X Factor won the ratings war last night - but it also suffered its worst series opener in over a decade.

The 13th series of the reality giant kicked off with 6.8m viewers for 34% of the audience share between 8pm and 9:30pm. It was enough to place it in the top spot on Saturday night's viewing figures, but not enough to top last year's launch of 7.65m viewers.

In fact, it was The X Factor's lowest launch since 2005, when it saw 6.6m viewers tune in for the series premiere.

Of course, these are just the overnight figures so Simon Cowell and co will no doubt be expecting an increase in audience numbers through consolidation viewing over the next seven days.

But at least The X Factor did manage to score some wins last night, including beating the number of viewers who tuned in for Casualty's dramatic 30th anniversary episode, which managed 5.1m viewers on BBC One.

ITV2's newly-styled The Xtra Factor Live with Rylan Clarke-Neal and Matt Edmondson interested 809,000 viewers between 9:30pm and 10:30pm, with a peak figure of 942,000.

It wasn't quite enough to top most watched digital programme of the day, though, losing out to Hull vs Manchester United on BT Sport.

The X Factor continues tonight (Sunday 28) at 8pm on ITV.