Both shows might be able to fit in without clashing if the respective channels didn't flog them for all their worth by adding contestant after contestant to the mix.

Rain was over much of the country last night and in some places that was from late afternoon. So more people were indoors then I'm assuming.

So nice to see strong figures for both the two talent shows.

Strictly's launch one of the highest ever (or is it the highest?) and XF nearly beats every show from last year and nearly pips last year's final. 8.3m is a great figure for it, and I suspect it's a lot to do with the very clear improvement to the show, the avoidance of any form of clash and a bit of the crap weather.

When will we get the timeshift for the premiere weekend? I reckon the officials will paint a picture. Tonight will be fascinating especially at 9pm with Poldark vs Victoria, the latter of which has reportedly timeshifted "like a rat up a drainpipe". It is a real shame ITV don't have a more supportive lead-in to X Factor on Sunday night.

X factor's ratings always drop on Sunday's, a drop is inevitable tonight.

I was not expecting that rating for X Factor! That has really surprised me this morning. I'm really enjoying it so far, the show is nice and light hearted. I hope it manages to keep that tone, even with the Six Chair Challenge!

Excellent for Strictly, though I thought it would do very well as last year's series was really well received.

Credit to Newzoids too - hopefully it can stay above 3 million.

Hi Kevin from Lygo.

It might be that last weekeneds TXF ratings were hit hard by the Bank Holiday and that is why there were more subdued than las nights. It may be the fact SCD boosted TXF partly, but I'm also suspecting the first twp eps of TXf will have a timeshift over 2m, and that had ITV launched TXF last night (without SCD) it would have been well over 7m, nearly 8m.

We shall see in the consolidated ratings. The X Factor is 13 series old. Viewers know what TXF is like now, so not like the show can attract that many casual viewers. I suspect the boost from SCD was minimal.

More like pleasantly surprised. Thought Strictly could get 9m with the poor weather across the country but might suffer from starting before 7pm. I was wrong! The way it shot up iPlayer last night makes me think it could add at least a million in consolidated ratings.

Strictly Come Dancing launch show overnight ratings:

2010 - 7.07m (37.5%) [aired at 6.25pm]
2011 - 7.6m (37.3%) [aired at 6.10pm]
2012 - 8m (40.2%) [aired at 6.30pm]
2013 - 8.43m (41.3%) [aired at 6.50pm, overlapped X Factor by 10 minutes]
2014 - 8.43m (33.7%) [aired on Sunday at 8pm, in full-on clash with X Factor]
2015 - 8.69m (41.7%) [aired at 7.15pm, 20 minute overlap with X Factor]
2016 - 9.26m (46.5%) [aired at 6.50pm, no overlap with X Factor]

Eugh, I think some Strictly fans can't seperate their fandom of the BBC. All sorts of excuses now. Is XF still past it's sell by date?

One excuse to another.

I think X Factor went up due to bad weather and good word of mouth about last week.

Clueless.

Given that TXF is up in the same week that Strictly is on, I think it's pretty obvious that the reverse is true.

Not always true. In 2013 it kept doing better on Sundays in the early part of the series.

X Factor fans seem touchy.

As a longtime poster on this thread I've noticed this. For years X Factor fans talked about its ratings, Louis Walsh would say something disparaging about Strictly, there was an arrogance about it. Now ratings are down so people are getting their shots in.

X Factor and Strictly did well, viewers of both can be happy...Strictly fans are slightly happier today though.

So, based on the reaction to one of my harmless posts today, we can assume that Strictly Come Dancing wasn't at all helped by the reduced competition, and would have gotten the same figure anyway because it's such a superb, magnificent piece of programming. of course, because it's on the BBC, it's that by default.

And then people wonder why this place is much quieter nowadays.

X Factor will never beat Strictly again, barring some sort of disaster for Strictly. I think they've probably accepted that at this point. That rating for X Factor is really surprising though, because of how far ahead of last week it is and how it is comfortably in front of anything from last year. I think the producers of X Factor will be very, very happy this morning. As will the Strictly lot.

Louis Walsh is disparaging about things all the time. He's disparaging one minute and complimentary the next. He's a wind up merchant and that's why I find him amusing. I wouldn't take anything he says seriously though.

But couldn't you say the same about Xfactor? I watched Strictly and then switched to Xfactor because the offering on the BBC was awful. Both shows had reduced competition, both shows did well, why not celebrate that instead of trying to make out Simon Cowell is responsible for Strictly's success and pushing an agenda.

It's interesting that in 2014, both strictly launch and XF clashed fully and the ratings were near identical. Seemed XF harmed it more than Strictlt harmed XF.
Strictly-8.4m
XF-8.2m

No, your "harmless" post was a load of absolute rubbish.

I don't think everything on the BBC is superb, in fact I don't even like SCD. However, the post you made was clearly total rubbish, and you seem to think that you have some sort of friendship with Simon Cowell! Deluded is not the word!

Your post doesn't even make logical sense, how can a less popular show prop up a more popular show? Doesn't make sense AT ALL.

Good writing helps, too. Which is another reason why Goodnight Sweetheart has the best chance of more to come because it has the same creators and writers and a similar mood to Birds of a Feather plus a good ensemble cast not just one star dominating the comedy.

But a popular star comedy actor in the nominal lead role nonetheless.

They seem to have that ability to know what an audience wants out of a sitcom.

Their previous show Shine on Harvey Moon followed a similar format - though it was more a drama with comedy. It was also where they first paired the two actresses that they then brought back for Birds of a Feather.

Marks and Gran have the right touch for an easy to watch comedy and often use music in their shows. Hence why they have successfully translated their work to the stage (Birds of a Feather returned to TV after a well loved stage tour with the cast in a new sequel storyline and they have long planned a stage version of Goodnight Sweetheart). And written successful original musical dramas there as well.

Never say never. As long as a programme doesn't mess up too many changes it can keep its audience for a long time.

And some might say, a good rating for XF and suddenly their fanboys are chirping
again.

They will both be happy though not everyone on here is

Be interesting to see how the XF lives go. These recorded shows are edited well and the humour comes across.

I'm not good with the dates - when will we got officials for XF wk1, Casualty 30 and Victoria?

They should come through on BARB tomorrow (although we won't get the Monday Victoria until,the following week). Occasionally one or two slip through on a Sunday (for the Saturday night shows) but there's no guarantee of that.

Not necessarily.

The Sunday X Factor used to be the highest rated programme of the week. I'm sure it was around 2009 that the Sunday results show overtook the Saturday show