Sunday Ratings: X Factor Elimination Tops 12 Million Viewers

Sunday’s ratings were dominated by the first eliminations in Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One and The X Factor on ITV1. Drama wise though Downton Abbey continued its stellar performance for ITV dwarfing the launch of Single Father on BBC One at 9pm. 

Sunday’s ratings were dominated by the first eliminations in Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One and The X Factor on ITV1. According to overnight ratings the first Strictly Come Dancing results show, which saw Goldie leave the competition, was seen by 9 million viewers between 7.30 and 8pm. Over on ITV1 between 8pm and 9pm the first X Factor results show of 2010 topped 12 million viewers. The first acts to be booted off, via the live shows, this year were F.Y.D and Nicolo Festa with the judges opting to save Katie Waissel – much to the dismay of some fans. According to overnight figures The X Factor – which also saw performances from Joe McElderry and Usher – was seen by 12.3 million viewers. 

At 9pm ITV1’s lavish new drama Downton Abbey continued its stellar performance for the broadcaster. Although ratings were down on last week they are still higher than its opening instalment two weeks ago – meaning the drama has yet to lose its starting audience. The third episode of Downton Abbey – which stars Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville and Penelope Wilton – had 8 million viewers at 9pm. It dwarfed the launch of Single Father on BBC One at the same time. The new four-part drama starring David Tennant and Suranne Jones opened with 4.8 million viewers at 9pm; clearly struggling against the opposition. However, the figure is more or less the same as the figure for last week’s episode of Inspector George Gently which does mean BBC One’s figure for the 9pm slot held steady. 

Earlier in the evening Countryfile on BBC One at 6.30pm had 6.8 million viewers while the Antiques Roadshow at 8pm had 6 million viewers. ITV game-show The Cube pulled in 5 million viewers at 7pm. Elsewhere the first episode of The Only Way is Essex, a new The Hills style series by Hollyoaks producers Lime Productions, launched with nearly 1 million viewers on ITV2. New detective series Thorne on Sky One at 9pm had just over 400,000 viewers.