Strictly Come Dancing pulls in almost 8.5m

The first live Saturday night edition of the new series of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing had nearly 8.5 million viewers on 2 October. Strictly Come Dancing, which had its first live edition of the 2010 series on Friday, had 8.459 million viewers, a 40.4% share between 6pm and 7.05pm the following night, with another 255,000 viewers on the BBC HD channel. The celebrity dance show easily had the better of ITV1's All Star Family Fortunes, which had 3.030 million viewers, 14.1% of the audience, between 6.20pm and 7.05pm. But the biggest audience of the night once again went to ITV1's The X Factor, which average 11.897 million viewers, a 47.3% share, between 7.05pm and 9pm, of whom 622,000 were watching on ITV HD. The episode, in which the contestants battled it out to earn a place in the final 12, was up almost 2 million viewers on the same stage in last year's series, according to ITV. The X Factor put BBC1's Merlin to the sword, the family drama averaging 5.513 million, a 22.5% share, between 7.05pm and 7.50pm. Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 (available in all UK homes with TV, except Channel 5, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 9.30pm: Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow – 4.322 million/19.2%, BBC HD 62,000/0.3% BBC2 8.30pm: Golf: the Ryder Cup – 1.674 million/7.2% ITV1/ITV1 HD 9pm: When Piers Met Lord Sugar – 5.155 million/22.4% Channel 4 7pm: Stephen Hawking's Universe – 717,000/2.9%, C4+1 – 121,000/0.5% Channel 5 9.30pm: CSI (rpt) – 958,000/4.4% Freeview/digital terrestrial TV free-to-air networks Available in 23.4m UK homes – 91.4% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 ITV2 9pm: The Xtra Factor – 895,000/3.9% More4 10pm: The Nazi Titanic – 191,000/1% BBC4 9pm: Wallander – 304,000/1.4% All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".