SCD wasn't early out of the goodness of the BBC's hearts. They were delighted with how it was doing at 5.45pm because it was trouncing X Factor head-to-head. ITV basically gave up and ran away "but lived to fight another day". They moved X Factor an hour later mid series, it crept later in 2008 and again in 2009. Strictly didn't really react. In 2008 they moved a bit later to start just after 6pm. Then in 2009 it moved to longer episodes from 7pm which caused all the drama.

If we just take the 10 weeks each year (8 in 2004, 9 in 2007) where X Factor's live shows and Strictly's live shows clash you get median start times of:

2004:
X Factor - 1842
SCD - 1834

2005:
X Factor - 1842
SCD - 1830

2006:
X Factor - 1827
SCD - 1748

2007:
X Factor - 1845
SCD - 1749

2008:
X Factor - 1923
SCD - 1809

2009:
X Factor - 2001
SCD - 1850

I think it's clear that it works out best for everyone when they don't clash... apart from Family Fortunes, of course!

Either that or maybe confirmation of when X Factor will air in 2011/2012 - I think the official announcement on that should be imminent.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.47m
18:30 Sunday Night 1.05m
19:30 The X Factor 1.12m
21:00 Bones (R) 0.86m

Nine
16:00 Nine News Sunday 0.99m
16:30 NRL Grand Final: Pre-Match Entertainment 1.20m
17:00 NRL Grand Final: St George Illawarra Dragons v Sydney Roosters 2.09m
19:00 NRL Grand Final: Post-Match Presentation 1.76m
19:30 60 Minutes 1.22m
20:30 Rush Hour 3 0.70m

Ten
17:00 Ten News at Five 0.52m
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.29m
18:30 Modern Family (R) 0.56m
19:00 Modern Family (R) 0.69m
19:30 New: Learn India with Hamish & Andy 1.23m
20:30 Offspring 0.94m

ABC1
19:00 ABC News 0.84m
19:30 The Ocean's Supermum 0.56m
20:30 Stephen Fry Live at the Sydney Opera House 0.87m

Excellent result for the rugby. Seven News managed to emerge relatively unscathed, but it had a catastrophic impact on Ten's Simpsons repeat.

Ten made a fairly speedy recovery after that though, as Modern Family held up much better opposite the NRL showdown with episodes first shown only a few months ago, and the highly reliable Hamish & Andy delivered another good result albeit not quite up there with Junior MasterChef's performance in that slot over the past few weeks. ABC's night was similarly mixed but Stephen Fry rated really well, winning its slot across the 90 minutes.

OK again for The X Factor. Nothing more, nothing less. It seems to be fairly stagnant now around the 1.1m mark. Not a disaster, but Seven were hoping for so much more. The good news for TXF is Junior MasterChef is on hiatus until October 17 due to the Commonwealth Games.

They had Louis and Sharon on Friday.

Dancc, what do you think are the chances of X Factor being renewed for a second season in Australia?

It seems quite low, but then again a lot of Australian ratings in the 1930 slot seem to be low recently.

I see this thread has become an extension to the XF forum again. :yawn:

Oh no, the horror of it all...

cant wait to see how TXF did last night... i have a feeling it was high!

3.10.10

ITV1

The Cube 6m / 25.7%
X-Factor 14.1m / 48.5% average
Downton Abbey 8.8m / 33.2%

Excellent for the NRL Grand Final. It was actually broadcast on Sky Sports 4 yesterday morning at 7am too. It was a really good match and the scoreline doesn't really reflect the closeness of the match. However, a much deserved win for the St George Illawarra Dragons. They've had an amazing season and they did finish top of the league too.

Wow at all those figures. Highest ever rating for The Cube, X Factor up 14% from last year to its 4th ever highest rating, Downton Abbey increased its audience by over a million to Doc Martin levels ! Sensational...

Massive for TXF. Just imagine how high its going to get! And DA increases by over a million too!

Oh. My. God.

Astonishing for X Factor!

Incredible for Downton Abbey!

Wow...

Last years equivalent X Factor got 12.4m (45%). Brilliant share last night, I think its one of their best non-final shares ever. The Cube is going from strength to strength too, it was a genius move pairing it with X Factor, it may hit 7m by the end of its run. Downton Abbey did much better than I expected, that is an outstanding figure. I was expecting it to completely go the other way and be around 6m.

The Cube will clash against Strictly Come Dancing for half an hour from next week onwards. So its figures may remain static or drop over the next few weeks.

ITV have hit the jackpot with Downton Abbey, a bit like how the BBC found success with Sherlock. Both critically acclaimed and getting massive no. of viewers. Next week's rating will be interesting, though, as it faces Single Father - the new David Tennant drama.

Edit: Well done to D.M.N. for guessing correctly.

It depends on the crossover audience, I don't think there will be that much. The last half hour might benefit from the 2m or so that watch both SCD and X Factor who may switch over to ITV1 after SCD and wait for X Factor.

Its very rare for an ITV drama to increase its audience in episode 2 but I felf this one might be the exception. I wonder how the Sunday afternoon repeats of TXF and Downton did? Its amazing how much of the day ITV devoted on Sunday to just these 2 shows.

Not sure what's more impressive, X Factor or Downton Abbey...

It took until week 5 of the live results shows last year to top that 14.1m figure. The show seems to have been quite consistently gaining this year.

But I think for Downton Abbey to gain 1m from its debut is hugely impressive, growing 13% when usually you'd expect a decline of more than that. It seems like people are really enjoying the show, it looks like a strong cast and ITV have promoted it really well. I don't often think that their promo's look appealing but this one does.

Well done to DA. Let's hope this is the kick up the jacksee that ITV needed to put more variety into their drama output. (Although I hope we don't now get a "rash" of period dramas in the same way we've had a "rash" of police procedurals over recent years).

K

Stunning ratings last night. Didn't expect to see those kinds of figures for TXF before the live shows but it genuinely seems to have got everyone talking this year, even moreso than last year. It's been the only topic of discussion at work this morning.

But the big story for me is the ratings for Downton Abbey. Sublime. And very well deserved. It's one of my favourite new dramas of the year and perfect for Sunday nights.

Downton Abbey thoroughly deserves it. It is a cut above and really excellent drama for UK television.

It's remarkably shot and thoughtfully presented with an excellently subtle humour. I'm so happy it is a success story for ITV - it should push them to make more risks with expensive, high brow drama.

Any idea on a peak?

Phew, outstanding figures for all 3 shows.
I hope this encourages more post X-Factor drama premieres.
I don't think X-Factor will increase next Saturday due to the long running length, but next Sunday with the wildcard publicity I can see it heading towards 15 million +.

16.2m peak for TXF