'Downton Abbey' overtakes 'The X Factor' on Sunday night...

Downton Abbey commanded a huge audience on Sunday night (September 30) as the period drama picked up an extra 1.2 million viewers week-on-week.



Yesterday's latest instalment grabbed 9.66m (36.9%) for ITV1 in the 9pm hour, and added 325k (1.8%) on ITV1 +1, bouncing back strongly from its dip last week.

Episode three of the third series, which centred around the disastrous wedding day of Lady Edith and Sir Anthony, ranks as Downton's third most popular - behind only last year's penultimate week and finale.

On those two occasions, however, Downton Abbey inherited an audience of 12m from The X Factor - last night the ITV singing contest drew 9.46m (35.4%) for the judges' pick of the final 12 ahead of the live shows in the 8pm hour.

Downton Abbey was the day's most-watched broadcast, overtaking X Factor for the first time in its history - never previously has Simon Cowell's show not topped the Sunday ratings.

The X Factor, which achieved a series high in its slot between 7.45pm and 9pm, added 382k (1.4%) on ITV1 +1 while The Xtra Factor took 735k (2.8%) on ITV2 (+1: 111k/0.6%).