Sami Brookes X Factor exit seen by 11 million viewers

Sami Brookes’ exit from the X Factor was seen by 11 million viewers last night while Downton Abbey continued its strong performance for ITV and Spooks bowed out with over 5 million viewers.

Sami Brookes and Kitty Burcknell were both in the bottom two last night following the X Factor’s rock themed week. Judge Louis Walsh had to decide which of his acts to send home and as he announced he was picking Brookes to leave his words were met with strong boos from the audience. The X Factor results show was seen by an average of 11.1 million viewers with a peak of 12.4 million viewers in the final 15 minutes as viewers tuned in to see who would be the latest act to leave the competition. Following the X Factor was the latest episode of Julian Fellowes’ drama Downton Abbey which had 8.9 million viewers with a further 320,000 watching via the time-shift channel. That gives the episode a combined audience of around 9.2 million viewers.

Over on BBC One the Strictly Come Dancing results show lagged behind the X Factor somewhat with 9.6 million viewers as the comedian Rory Bremner exited the competition. Following Strictly at 8pm was the Antiques Roadshow with 6 million viewers while spy drama Spooks came to an end after ten seasons at 9pm with 5.1 million viewers. Earlier in the evening on BBC One rural affairs magazine programme Countryfile had a healthy 7.2 million viewers.

Elsewhere last night Channel Five’s biggest audience came from Toy Story 2 with an impressive 2.5 million viewers while Big Brother delivered 1.2 million viewers. Fry’s Planet Word had 1.2 million viewers for BBC Two at 9pm while Match of the Day 2 was seen by 3.8 million viewers afterwards. ITV2 had 1.1 million for the latest episode of The Only Way is Essex.