Strictly Come Dancing beats X Factor to pole position yet again

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/05/strictly-come-dancing-x-factor

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Strictly Come Dancing was 2 million viewers ahead of The X Factor on Saturday, and also stretched its ratings lead over the ITV1 show on Sunday night.

But there was better ratings news on Sunday for ITV1 from Downton Abbey, which ended its third series with an average of 10.1 million viewers and a 39.1% audience share from 9pm.

The BBC1 celebrity dance show averaged 9.8 million viewers and a 43.3% audience share on Saturday from 6.30pm. The X Factor had 7.8 million and 33.3% from 8.20pm.

On Sunday the Strictly Come Dancing results show averaged 9.6 million viewers and a 37.4% share from 7.20pm, while The X Factor Results had 9.2 million and 34.1% from 8pm.

Saturday's X Factor was down from 8.4 million and 35.9% the previous weekend, and from 9.9 million on the same weekend in 2011.

The X Factor matched its 9.2 million for the previous Sunday night, but was well off the 12.3 million it had on the equivalent weekend last year and 14.9 million in 2010.

Last weekend Strictly averaged 9.6 million/43.5% and 9.2 million/35.8% on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. A year ago the equivalent figures were 9.1 million/41.6% and 10.7 million/39.6%.

The final episode of Downton Abbey series two averaged 10.7 million on the first weekend in November 2011.

On Sunday night Strictly's competition included ITV1's Surprise Surprise (4.4 million/17.5%), BBC2's Obama: What Happened to Hope? (1.1 million/4.1%), Channel 4's X-Men movie repeat (1.5 million/6.7%) and another film repeat on Channel 5, Hancock (1.4 million/5.3%).

The X Factor was up against BBC1's Antiques Roadshow (5.9 million/21.7%) and Channel 4's How Britain Worked (1.4 million/5.1%).

Downton faced Andrew Marr's History of the World (2.5 million/9.5%), BBC2's Space Dive (1.6 million/6.1%), Channel 4's Homeland (2 million/7.4%), and Channel 5 terrestrial movie premiere Bangkok Dangerous (1.4 million/5.9%).

On Saturday night Strictly was up against ITV1's New You've Been Framed! (2.6 million/11.6%) and Take Me Out (3.3 million/14.2%).

Competition for The X Factor included BBC1's Merlin (5.3 million/22.1%) and Casualty (4 million/17.1%), BBC2's The Late Great Eric Sykes (1.8 million/7.8%) and Channel 4 terrestrial movie premiere Green Zone (1.1 million/5.6%).

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC and some other channels including Sky1) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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