X Factor continues to dominate ratings

The X Factor continued to dominate ratings on Sunday evening as a peak of nearly 13 million viewers tuned in while Downton Abbey once again out performed Spooks but ITV2’s The Only Way is Essex lost viewers.

It might have a new line-up of judges by The X Factor hasn’t lost its mojo in terms of ratings for ITV. The series still commands big audiences and despite the weekend’s unusually hot weather viewers still flocked to see who the final 16 contestants would be. According to overnight figures the X Factor average 11.7 million viewers but peaked at nearly 13 million viewers in the final quarter of the programme. Just over 400,000 viewers watched via ITV’s time-shift channel giving it a combined audience of roughly 12.1 million viewers. Downton Abbey continued to perform well for ITV at 9pm and outgun Spooks. It had 8.7 million viewers with an additional 350,000 viewers via the time-shift channel giving a solid 9 million viewers.

Spooks on BBC One could hardly compete against such figures and had 4.3 million viewers. ITV2’s The Only Way is Essex lost viewers on last week’s season opener but that’s to be expected. It had just under 1 million viewers for ITV2 but an additional 120,000 viewers watched via the time-shift channel meaning it managed to break the 1 million mark overall.  That Sunday Night Show, fronted by Daybreak’s Adrian Chiles, had 1.8 million viewers following Downton Abbey.

Elsewhere on Sunday Songs of Praise marked its 50th anniversary with 3.2 million viewers while rural magazine programme Countryfile had 6.6 million viewers. Big Brother continued its lowly performance on Channel Five with 1.3 million viewers at 10pm.