Simon Cowell saved Strictly. By heck, heard it all now.

But no, I'm pleased for both shows. I can't abide X Factor but 8m is very good. Question is, will it drop?

Very Happy for both Strictly and X Factor.

Great to see Great ratings for our long running shows. I hope X Factor can build on that rating tonight.

My partner was 10 at the time, and the only time he could stay up after 9pm was to watch 3rd Rock From The Sun.

Very puzzling......

Blimey, great ratings all round there.

I think it proves that there are people who want to watch both shows (when the X Factor is good, anyway) and that orchestrating clashes is just silly because it's going to make the ratings suffer. I think the bank holiday clearly hindered X Factor last week, if Strictly had launched last saturday I doubt it would have got the same figure. Most schools are back Monday so there are more people at home whereas last week people were on holiday still.

I hope X Factor can do well tonight, it has had 3 very enjoyable episodes in a row.

There's no doubt in mind that it'll drop. The question is by how much. As Score says, last night was probably not the night to air something as divisive as Chickengate but the show does have a much lighter tone to it so far... will that benefit it?

Yes TXF did well against no competition on BBC1 and SCD did well to pull so many viewers away from a YBF rpt and flimsy LE show Go For It.

Both big shows has next to no competition.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of TXF rating for last night. I wonder if the peak was at the beginning of the show with people switching from Strictly or later as the show progressed.

Simon 'saved' SCD? What nonsense.

Since when has he been responsible for ITV's scheduling? SCD would've had the advantage had it overlapped. It's XF that would've been hurt (though I think the effect of the clashes is exaggerated on here... XF has had/has other problems).


The BBC has every not to start Strictly, which is showing no signs of flagging, ridiculously early to accommodate an ailing show (last night's figure is an improvement for XF but one swallow etc) on the other side.

Neither XF or SCD has a fixed slot and minor overlaps are nothing really. They've hardly been the cause of all XF's woes. Now let's talk about the number of times ITV has aired Emmerdale in EastEnders' full slot shall we?

Was the weather bad across the country last night? Rained all day here yesterday, that would have helped. And yeah crossover lead-in and no clash. I'm pleased to see TXF do well last night. It's a good show this year.

Clashes at the start are always going to happen as both shows are so long.
BBC don't want an early start and XF don't want a late finish.

Also would like to see demographics as people still compare SCD and TXF on pure numbers, which is pretty meaningless.

Wondering whether TXF is going to have shorter shows this year though. Last night's show was only an hour, which is unusual for a Saturday audition show I'm sure. If they keep the live shows to only max of 12 contestants and cut out some of the padding they can cut those down a bit too.

Well I think Dancc was right in that the positivity surrounding the BBC after the Olympics is still showing its strength, giving GBBO and SCD is biggest launches. I suggest POldark will (perhaps not top its previous launch in overnights) but might consolidate over series 1.

Go For It - given how well NWUK did against TVUK, I think this should have definately been scheduled here. The only saving grace for Go For It was that its last 5-10minutes peobably got a boost over 3m, wheras the rest of the ep was below 2m.

The X Factor did well, but that 'chicken-stuff' having just caught up was absolute nonsense. I want a singing show, not a parady.

Newzoids did as I predicted, in fact spot on. 3.3m isn't terrible, but it needs to hold here for the rest of its run. Even if it drops, this is much better and something different to just following TXF with Jonathon Ross. Speaking of which will be below 2.5m next week, perhaps even below 2m. Last run I think.

SCD did very well, very well.

And people thought X Factor was dead, great rating for it!

I thought chicken gate was hilarious and I'm glad that after all these years, X Factor is finally not taking itself too seriously like it has been in the past.

From Steve Williams/Broadcast:

Lottery 3.48m
Casualty 4.94m
Avengers 1.71m

Dad's Army 1.55m
War Horse 1.27m
Lone Survivor 1.08m

Football on 5 270k
Beck 560k
Xtra Factor 500k

Casualty with a good retention from last week, back to it's regular non TXF clash figures.

I'm disappointed with that Newzoids figure, especially as it seemed to have quite a bit of promo this time round. I thought it was pretty funny and the perfect slot for it.

Yes BBC should not be starting SCD any earlier than 6.30 and the first show with all contestants will be 2 hours plus, there is bound to some kind of clash.

It had a lead in of 10m viewers from Strictly. Another channel but with BBC1 offering nothing but lottery games it was natural viewers might drift to TXF

Shame Goodnight Sweatheart didn't air at 8.15 last night. Its performance on Friday proves one of the Ratings Thread golden rules - piss poor scheduling may lead to piss poor ratings.

Casualty did well.

That's not too bad for the Lottery quiz in all truth and by its modern standards pretty good for Casualty. I think a terrestrial tv benefited from some dreadful weather last night. SCD can probably thank its best ever start for that, and Simon Cowell can take a breather from his rain dance. Fascinating to see what XF does tonight and if the weather is better next week which it looks like being.

XF has an England game lead in tonight though that nowadays may or may not help .....

Hopefully that wont be its peak figure, though that does tend to happen with many new and returning shows.

It won't be much use with 30 minutes of news between the two.

I think X Factor won't be as high as last night but should be a good bit higher than last Sunday.