More bad news for X Factor as audience figures slump
The X Factor has continued to shed viewers with the audience for last night’s show down one million UK viewers compared to its launch a fortnight ago.
Despite a revamped judging panel with Simon Cowell and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini back on the show, it has failed to turn the tide of a shrinking audience, according to overnight ratings.
Saturday’s show on ITV had an average of 8.5 million, which is 200,000 down on the previous week. The launch edition two weeks earlier had pulled in 9.5 million.
It is also down on the equivalent show in 2013 which had an average audience of 9.1 million.
Last night’s edition – which was still the most watched programme of the night - claimed a peak of 9.9 million, while the show at this stage of the contest a year ago had a 10.4 million peak.
The show is to go head-to-head with the Strictly Come Dancing launch show on September 26 after ITV scheduled a Friday edition of their programme.
Strictly has already claimed first blood this year when curtain-raiser episode – in which the couples were introduced – was 800,000 viewers ahead when the two programmes clashed a week ago.
BBC1’s big entertainment shows also struggled with viewers last night with the final of celebrity gymnastics show, Tumble, pulling in an average of just 2.7 million viewers.
Doctor Who drew one of it lowest audiences yet with 4.8 million, although it tends to pile on millions of viewers through catch-up viewing following the broadcast.
