Strictly Come Dancing beats X Factor in Friday night ratings battle

It was a close call between the two talent shows

Neela Debnath
Sunday 28 September 2014 10:44 BST
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'Strictly Come Dancing' attracted 6.53 million viewers on Friday
'Strictly Come Dancing' attracted 6.53 million viewers on Friday

Strictly Come Dancing has edged past X Factor in the Friday night ratings battle.

The celebrity ballroom dancing show attracted 6.53 million viewers on BBC One, while ITV’s singing contest was watched by 5.85 million.

Both shows went head to head in the schedule on Friday and started at 9pm but Strictly beat X Factor in the close race.

Strictly kicked off with show one of series 12 and saw the couples performing together for the first time.

An introductory episode announcing this year's line-up was broadcast back on 7 September but on Friday the judges and viewers finally saw each pair in action.

Meanwhile X Factor began the boot camp stage of the competition, having started almost a month ago. Friday night saw hopefuls face off against each other in the six-chair challenge as Cheryl Fernandez-Versini whittled down her category for the next phase of the contest.

The Strictly launch show also claimed a ratings victory against X Factor , drawing in 8.4 million viewers, compared with the 7.8 million people who tuned it to watch the fourth episode of X Factor auditions.

Simon Cowell’s series will now be broadcast on three consecutive nights a week in a bid to boost ratings. The media mogul and Cheryl also returned to the judging panel to help improve viewing figures.

Channel 4’s popular series Gogglebox also returned on Friday for a fourth series and came third in the ratings battle. The show, where ordinary people discuss television, was viewed by 2.67 million people.

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