Yet another year has passed and the time has almost come for the Ratings Battle of the Autumn-Christmas television season.

Strictly 6 V The X Factor 5, its time for a new thread for the 5th year of the battle for viewers between these two giants of entertainment on a Saturday night (and Sunday in Strictly's case).

BBC One against ITV1 [yet again]

September 20th is the first live Strictly show

Saturday 13th September

Strictly Come Dancing
6:30pm - 7:30pm - BBC One
A chance to catch up with the glitz, the glamour, backstage preparation and gossip for this year's show. Hosts Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly take a sneak peek at the new couples, present a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series and catch up with the professional dancers to discover what they get up to when they're not appearing on the show.
Repeated Sunday 14th September 5:30pm - 6:30pm on BBC One.

The X Factor
7:30pm - 8:30pm - ITV1

The X Factor audition tour arrives in Cardiff, which gave us last year's runner-up, Rhydian. Can it go one better this year and deliver the winner? Judges Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole select which of the lucky acts will continue through to the next round. Dermot O'Leary presents.

Saturday 20th September

Strictly Come Dancing
Time: TBA
Details below from BBC Press Office

Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly return for the first live show in the fabulous sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing. This season is bigger than ever with 16 couples competing for the coveted title of Strictly Come Dancing champion.

Tonight, the men battle to stay out of bottom place on the leader board. One of them will exit after performing either a waltz or a cha cha, whilst the girls strut their stuff in a group dance.

Judges Arlene Philips, Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli return to cast a professional eye over the performances.

Andrew Castle, Tom Chambers, Phil Daniels, Mark Foster, Austin Healey, Gary Rhodes, John Sergeant and Don Warrington compete for the men.

For the women, Christine Bleakley, Jodie Kidd, Cherie Lunghi, Heather Small, Lisa Snowdon, Rachel Stevens, Gillian Taylforth and Jessie Wallace will perform in the group dance.


I do hope this thread will once again have the ratings as soon as they're available every Sunday when the overnights are known on other threads on DS.

Let the battle begin!

Saturday 20th September:

Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1): 6.10pm-7.30pm
The X Factor (ITV1): 7.30pm-8.30pm

Sunday 21st September

Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1): 8.00pm-9.00pm

The results show will have a lot of padding for it to be an hour long.

Frankly I couldn't care less about the ratings as I never watch the X Factor anyway!

There's a lot to fit into the hour:

1. Recap of all 8 dances with audience opinions
2. Ladies group dance
3. Group dance with all 16 couples
4. Professionals dance
5. Defending champions dance with short VT
6. Invited artist's performance with pro dance
7. Comments from the judges on 1, 2 and 3
8. Short VTs of the contestants saying how scared etc they are
9. Moment of truth
10. Dance off
11. Elimination
12. Farewell dance

Well remembered Pasodabble...how exciting to think we have all that to see...they should make it two hours

As posted by Score yesterday, here with a little more detail

Saturday 20th September

New series of note to Strictly fans

Hole in the Wall
5.40pm - 6.10pm - BBC One

Dale Winton hosts a new series in which two teams of celebrities, captained by dancing star Anton Du Beke and cricket legend Darren Gough, must try to force themselves through various crazy-shaped holes in giant moving walls. Clad head-to-toe in tight silver lycra there is everything to play for as failure results in a head-first plunge into a swimming pool. The wall shapes get harder and travel faster as the celebrities get wetter.

Strictly Come Dancing
6.10pm - 7.30pm - BBC One

New series of the celebrity ballroom dancing competition, hosted by Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly. Andrew Castle, Tom Chambers, Phil Daniels, Mark Foster, Austin Healey, Gary Rhodes, John Sergeant and Don Warrington dance either a cha-cha-cha or a waltz and face the judges and the voting public for the first time.
Christine Bleakley, Jodie Kidd, Cherie Lunghi, Heather Small, Lisa Snowdon, Rachel Stevens, Gillian Taylforth and Jessie Wallace are the female celebrities taking part.

The X Factor
7.30pm - 8.30pm - ITV1

The final auditions roll around and some of the best contenders from the 182,000 hopefuls who applied show off their talent in front of judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue and Cheryl Cole. Plus we look back at some of the best and worst auditions from around the country this series.

Sunday 21st September

Strictly Come Dancing
8.00pm - 9.00pm - BBC One

Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly host the celebrity ballroom dancing competition. The eight male stars and their professional dance partners battled it out with a first round waltz or cha-cha-cha. Now the two couples with the lowest combined judges' score and viewer votes must perform again in the dance-off, and only one will be saved by the judges. With special performances and behind-the-scenes footage from the first show.

Monday 22nd September

Teatime is now compulsive viewing until Christmas with the return of:

Strictly Come Dancing - It Takes Two
6.30pm - 7.00pm - BBC TWO

Claudia Winkleman returns with all the backstage gossip and behind-the-scenes action from the world of Strictly Come Dancing. Tonight judges Craig Revel Horwood and Arlene Phillips analyse the weekend's events, while Claudia consoles the first couple to be knocked out of this year's competition.

Oooh all this schedule gossip is getting me excited!

I was about to start a thread.

The induction show never usually rates very well, usually 4-5m maybe a bit higher but nothing more than 7m.

rtz posted these over at the long running Ratings Thread on the TV Programmes Forum here on DS

BBC One
18.30pm Strictly Come Dancing Launch 6.03m (32.8%)

ITV1
19.30pm The X Factor 9.38m (43.2%)

The X Factor is really strong this year in auditions, but look at that figure for Strictly, Top show of the day on BBC One, looks promising for next week

Last year's preview show had lower ratings:


The first live show could do even better than last year's. We'll see....

Last year's live launch got 7.36m last year. The X Factor got 7.54m later that evening.

Next week will be interesting.

Hmmm, I think it'll be hard for SCD to beat XF after the ratings this year.

I would normally watch X-Factor but have got bored of it and will be making sure i switch to Strictly for my Saturday night TV.

I'm with you there. I sometimes drop in towards the end of the series but never at the expense of Strictly

From The Sun 15/09/2008

From the TV Biz article - Arlene blasts 'idiot' Peaches
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle1686985.ece

"It’s already 1-0 to ITV1 after Saturday night’s Strictly preview bagged just 6.5million viewers compared to 10.4million for X Factor."

I'm presuming they are the peak audiences from Saturday night..

Broadcast has published a peak of 6.6m (33%) for Strictly and a 15 minute peak of 9.9m (43.4%) at the end for The X Factor.

Provisional airtimes from Radio Times Online (Subject to Change) for

Saturday 27th September

Strictly Come Dancing
6.05pm - 7.25pm - BBC One
NB: BBC Press Office says 6.15pm - 7.35pm

Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly host the latest round of Strictly Come Dancing live from BBC's Television Centre, where the remaining 15 celebrity couples compete for the coveted title. Tonight the men strut their stuff in a group dance, while the women battle to avoid bottom place on the leader board.

Judges Arlene Philips, Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli cast a professional eye over the performances of Christine Bleakley, Jodie Kidd, Cherie Lunghi, Heather Small, Lisa Snowdon, Rachel Stevens, Gillian Taylforth and Jessie Wallace. One will make her exit after performing either a salsa or foxtrot.

The X Factor
7.15pm - 8.15pm - ITV1

The times will be official later in the week

The 10 minute overlap may affect The X Factor slightly on the 27th, especially as it's just a boot camp show -which I think are the most unpopular out of the three stages (auditions-boot camp-live show). TBH I can't see the two programmes clashing with each other much more than 10 minutes a time throughout the series.

13/09/08 5 Minute Breakdown

Time - BBC-1 (% Share)
18:30 - 5.01m ( 30.65 %)
18:35 - 5.35m ( 31.70 %)
18:40 - 5.56m ( 31.87 %)
18:45 - 5.69m ( 31.97 %)
18:50 - 5.87m ( 32.62 %)
18:55 - 6.09m ( 33.25 %)
19:00 - 6.24m ( 33.23 %)
19:05 - 6.41m ( 33.79 %)
19:10 - 6.48m ( 33.93 %)
19:15 - 6.48m ( 33.24 %)
19:20 - 6.47m ( 32.44 %)
19:25 - 6.70m ( 33.79 %)

Its not a ratings BATTLE if neither shows are on at the same time, just like this weekend when Strictly ends at 7:30 and X-Factor beings at 7:30. :sleep:

They arent even on at the same time.

BBC Press Office have changed Saturday 27th's Strictly time to:

Strictly Come Dancing
6.45pm - 8.05pm BBC One

i think a lot of it hinges on celeb performances that they bring in. strictly has the advantage of ready made celebs taking part in the show plus whoever performs during the pro dance, whereas with x factor the public get to know the contestants and their sob stories as the series goes on, as well as watching for the judges and celeb performances. heatworld has published a story this morning that x factor claim to have secured britney spears to perform live during december. that's huge for them if they've managed it and something that strictly has no chance of competing with.

I don't think the Strictly target audience which is older than The X Factor would appeal to Britney's people who want record sales first and foremost. If it happens Britney would be ideal for an X Factor performance.

Strictly did have Beyonce in 2006 which was pretty cool.

Saturday 20th September 2008
18:10 - Strictly Come Dancing - 8.0m (42.7%) *peak: 9.61m (45.6%) at 18:15
19:30 - The X Factor - 9.3m (41.7%)
19:30 - Merlin - 6.6m (30%) *peak: 6.82m (30.3%) at 20:10

The X Factor beats Strictly in the viewing figures. Strictly does get the higher audience share though. Strictly is 0.6m up on last year's opener. Good ratings for both shows.

I think TXF had the advantage of a later timeslot.

However, fantastic ratings for both shows, glad to see that Saturday night entertainment is still popular!

Yep, I'm glad it's up on last year, but no surprise it lost out to TXF considering it's time slot.