Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing: fancy footwork takes BBC1 to the top
BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing overtook rival ITV1 entertainment show The X Factor in the ratings for the first time on Saturday, attracting a series high of nearly 8 million viewers.
On its fourth episode, Strictly Come Dancing was watched by 7.8 million viewers and took a 39% share of the audience between 6.20pm and 7.35pm, according to unofficial overnights.
Strictly Come Dancing overlapped with The X Factor for 45 minutes from 6.50pm, and was ahead of the ITV1 show for that entire period.
The X Factor was watched by 7.3 million viewers and a 35% audience share between 6.50pm and 8.10pm.
The improvement in Strictly Come Dancing's fortunes may be largely down to a scheduling switch.
In previous weeks, The X Factor has got in ahead of its BBC1 rival, starting anything up to half an hour earlier.
Later in the evening, the Strictly Come Dancing results show also proved more popular than The X Factor Results for the first time in a head-to-head from 9.10pm.
Strictly Come Dancing snuck out in front between 9.10pm and 9.40pm, attracting 7 million viewers, compared to The X Factor's 6.8 million.
guardian
