[Smithy]

The ITV1 show fought back against the BBC dancing hit, pulling in a healthy peak of 13.8million viewers for its Sunday night results show.

The drama surrounding Kelly Rowland's absence seemed to help attract fans just a day after Strictly beat it in the ratings.

Sunday's show saw Kelly – crocked by a viral infection – have to decide between her two acts Sophie Habibis and Misha Bryan after calling in from her sick bed in LA.

The Destiny's Child star and her fellow judges all opted to send Sophie home, with Kelly – who was replaced by stand-in judge Alexandra Burke for the weekend - saying that Misha wanted to win the series more.

The shock result came a night after Strictly clobbered X Factor in the ratings for the first time in four years.

The BBC show drew in an audience of 11.5million, while X Factor could only muster up 11million viewers for its own Halloween-themed episode on Saturday night.

The Sun told how worried ITV producers begged Simon Cowell to return to save the show.

But on Sunday night Strictly slipped back behind X Factor in the ratings, with 10.4million fans tuning into to see Nancy Dell'Olio become the latest star to leave the competition.

Saturday's Strictly attracted 267 complaints from viewers after Robbie Savage re-enacted Michael Jackson's famous "crotch grab" directed at Craig Revel-Horwood during his paso doble with partner Ola Jordan

[Saph]

yay

lol at people complaining about a 'crotch-grab' ...do they have nothing better to do with their lives

[Jordan.]

For Cher probably

[MeMyselfAndI]

Originally Posted by Jordan.

For Cher probably

Cher saves the day, also probably because people wanted to see Sophies sing off!

[Callum]

Peaked at 13 million, the average audience who watched the whole programme was like 10 million though which is down considerably on the last series.

[MusicXian]

I think the average was over 11 million.

[Smithy]

Originally Posted by Callum

Peaked at 13 million, the average audience who watched the whole programme was like 10 million though which is down considerably on the last series.

Average was almost 12 million

The surprise exit of Sophie Habibis from The X Factor was seen by 11.93m (42%) on ITV1 from 8pm, peaking at 13.14m (44.5%) for the last 15 minutes

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...gs-battle.html

[Callum]

Originally Posted by Smithy

Average was almost 12 million

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...gs-battle.html

I'm sure ITV will be pleased but I doubt Simon will be because last year's series still had more viewers tuning in.

[Smithy]

I think Simon has more to worry about, XF USA is averaging about the same, if not less (even if it has been renewed)

[Doogle]

Tbf though XF is brand new over there, do they seriously expect MASSIVE ratings? People need to watch and get into it over time. It won't be as big there, especially with the size of the country. Like I only ever got into XF during Series 2 because Mum flicked channels and it happened to be on. I'm sure it will be better overall in their 2nd series.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Smithy

I think Simon has more to worry about, XF USA is averaging about the same, if not less (even if it has been renewed)

X Factor USA is still a fair hit though and is doing better than The Voice. When The Voice comes over here, if it gets about 7 or 8m viewers (which is about equivalent to the 13m or so watching XFUSA) then it will be a good hit. Noones expecting The Voice to match X Factors figure which would be just the same as expecting X Factor to match American Idol.

Its still beating Dancing with the Stars which is the big autumn reality show over there so whilst its well below the 20m he wanted, its still a big hit. The only thing Simon needs to really worry about is who will replace Nicole.