According to unofficial overnight figures, the first live eviction of 2014 delivered the biggest audience of the series so far and a 42 per cent share last night.
The hour-long show had an average audience of 8.79 million viewers, a 35 per cent share of the TV-watching audience and the highest-rating show on any channel over the weekend.
This year's judges include Simon Cowell and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (previously Cheryl Cole) alongside the former Spice Girl Mel B and The X Factor survivor Louis Walsh. The headline sponsor is TalkTalk TV.
The BBC's rival talent competition Strictly Come Dancing had an average audience of 8.49 million viewers between 7.20pm and 8pm last night, a 35.2 per cent share.
The Saturday X Factor show peaked with 9.3 million views. Across the two-and-a-half-hour-long episode on Saturday, the average audience was 7.66 million viewers across ITV, ITV HD and ITV +1 – a 33.2 per cent share.
Strictly Come Dancing, meanwhile, had an average audience of 8.65 million viewers between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Saturday, a 39.2 per cent share.
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