Carolynne Poole's controversial X Factor axing gave The Xtra Factor huge ratings last night (Sunday, October 7).
Louis Walsh's decision to take Poole and Rylan Clark to deadlock, despite initially backing the former, led to Gary Barlow storming off the stage in anger.
For the first 15 minutes of the ITV2 spinoff show from 9pm, some 2.8 million and an 11% share of the audience followed the fall-out from the main show's rushed climax.
The X Factor's ITV1 results show averaged 9.42m (31.9%) in the 8pm hour, peaking with approximately 11m (40%), and adding 191k (0.7%) on +1. The singing contest, which was overtaken by an in-form Downton Abbey last week, reclaimed its Sunday night crown.
The Xtra Factor averaged a colossal 1.95m (7.4%) on ITV2 (+1: 217k/1.2%), then The Only Way Is Essex drew 1.07m (5.5%) at 10pm (+1: 120k/1.1%). Both broadcasts helped ITV2 overtake Channel 5, which didn't top a million viewers throughout the entire day.
That didn't stop ITV1's Downton Abbey from performing magnificently - the period drama logged 9.29m (35.6%) and 319k (1.8%) on +1, dipping only slightly week-on-week.
Despite all the competition, critically acclaimed US drama Homeland returned to Channel 4 with 1.99m (7.6%). The show's season two premiere 'The Smile' appealed to a further 347k (1.9%) on +1.
Friday Night Dinner's move to Sunday began disastrously as only 755k (3.9%) caught the Channel 4 sitcom's series two opener at 10.15pm (+1: 120k/1.1%), a third of the first series launch rating of 2.2m last year when it aired on Friday.
Earlier in the evening, both major channels posted improvements in the 7pm hour, with Countryfile soaring to 6.43m (28.1%) on BBC One and The Chase rallying to 4.52m (20%) on ITV1 (+1: 154k/0.6%).
Elsewhere in BBC One's schedule, 8pm's Antiques Roadshow (5.12m/19.3%) managed to hold up better than 9pm's Andrew Marr's History of the World (2.37m/9%) against ITV's big guns. Meanwhile on BBC Two, Dragons' Den took a steady 1.78m (6.8%).
Overall, ITV1 reigned victorious in primetime with 28.4% (+1: 0.4%) over BBC One's 18.7%. Channel 4 earned third place with 5.7% (+1: 1.4%) above BBC Two's 5.2%, while ITV2 averaged 4.1% (+1: 0.5%), and Channel 5 had 2.4% (+1: 0.2%).
