In a week where contestants were warned they had to live up to the X Factor brand and bickering between the judges plumbed new depths, ITV's flagship show was under considerable pressure to improve on last week's viewing figures.
Unfortunately, The
X Factor's rock-themed show fared marginally worse than the previous outing, bringing in 9.77m and a 38% audience share. A further 340k (1.5%) watched on timeshift as Louis Walsh accused Misha Bryan of bullying.
Strictly Come Dancing, however, continued its rise, improving its average by 400k week-on-week to 9.45m (38.7%). The BBC also managed a smaller victory on the multichannels, with a screening of
Monty Python's Life of Brian on BBC Four outdoing ITV2's
The Xtra Factor. The classic comedy grabbed 975k (4.1%) to the Olly Murs-fronted show's 816k (4.1%).
Elsewhere on ITV1,
Harry Hill's TV Burp entertained 4.7m (18.7%), as well as another 241k (0.9%) on +1.
The Jonathan Ross Show, which featured some choice quips from Noel Gallagher, brought in 3.48m (17.4%), with an extra 187k (1.5%) on timeshift.
The final of
Celebrity Masterchef took 3.87m (21.9%) for BBC One as the winner was revealed, while
Merlin followed
Strictly with 5.52m (21.4%).
Casualty held on to 4.23m (16.6%) as a majority of terrestrial viewers watched
The X Factor.
On BBC Two,
Dad's Army tickled 2.02m (7.8%), while
Britain's Flying Past informed 1.44m (5.6%).
QI XL with Stephen Fry quizzed 1.41m (6.6%).
Channel 4 offered desultory resistance to the BBC and ITV juggernauts, with a special edition of
Time Team nabbing just 670k (2.7%) at 7pm.
World War II: The Last Heroes improved the figure to 730k (2.8%) before Oscar-winning movie
The Hurt Locker interested 1.42m (6.8%).
A double bill
NCIS was similarly ineffective for Channel 5: the episodes scored 646k (2.5%) and 655k (2.6%) following the 8pm news. A
Big Brother highlights show then amassed 938k (4.7%).
Overall, ITV1 took the primetime crown with 28.2%, beating BBC One's 25.5%. BBC Two, Channel 4 and Channel 5 followed with 5.6%, 4.4% and 3.1% respectively.
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:20 pm