The X Factor: Celebrity launch gets just under 5 million viewers
Strictly Come Dancing easily bested its ITV rival, according to overnight figures
The X Factor's new celebrity-themed spin-off drew an average of 4.8 million viewers to ITV last night (12th October.)
The first episode of The X Factor: Celebrity saw Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger size up a batch of famous faces who aren't best known for their singing ability.
The show – which saw The Chase's Jenny Ryan, journalist and broadcaster Martin Bashir and Glee's Kevin McHale take part – peaked at 5.3 million and won its time slot with a 27.3% audience share. It was also the most-watched show of the night among 16 to 34-year-old viewers.
However, BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing was way ahead in terms of total viewers – with an average of 8.5 million watching (a 45.6% audience share) and a peak of 9.1 million, it was the most watched show across all channels for the night.
Strictly – which saw Kelvin Fletcher and Oti Mabuse stun the judges with a sexy rumba – did not compete with The X Factor directly, airing in an earlier 6.40pm slot.
The X Factor: Celebrity's launch figure is down on the 5.5 million who watched the final of the 2018 series, and is also lower than the figures for Cowell's Britain's Got Talent: The Champions, which launched with 5.8 million in August.
