Strictly Come Dancing triumphs in battle for viewers as X Factor sees ratings fall

Strictly Come Dancing stepped up its domination of Saturday night viewing, increasing its lead over rival X Factor last night.

Overnight figures showed BBC1's Strictly was 1.3 million ahead, as X Factor stumbled by losing 200,000 viewers in a week.

The dance contest maintained its average audience of 9.9 million - the same as last week - while the ITV1 show was at 8.6 million, even including viewers of its catch-up +1 channel.

The X Factor has struggled to match its audience numbers for last year, with last night's show down 1.5 million on the equivalent programme for 2011.

Last night's Strictly had 11.3 million viewers at its peak, while X Factor managed 9.6 million at its peak. At the same stage last year - the third live show - X Factor had a peak of 11.3 million.