Downton Abbey beats the former Doctor

The ITV period drama 'Downton Abbey' beat the first episode of the high profile new drama starring former 'Doctor Who' David Tennant on BBC One last night, according to unofficial overnight figures.

Downton Abbey: ITV show scores eight million viewers
Downton Abbey: ITV show scores eight million viewers
‘Downton Abbey’, written by Julian Fellowes and starring actress Maggie Smith, attracted an average audience of 8.06 million across ITV1 and ITV1 HD between 9pm and 10pm, a 30.8% share of the TV watching audience.

‘Single Father’, starring Tennant as a widowed father with young children, had an average audience of 5.06 million between 9pm and 10pm on BBC One and BBC HD, a 19.1% share of the available audience.

‘The X Factor’ results show, which saw singer Nicolo Festa and band FYD get kicked out of the competition, had an average audience of 13.14 million between 8pm and 9pm, 46.2% share of the TV watching audience.

The peak audience for ‘The X Factor’ was 14.7 million viewers at 8.50pm, up 200,000 from the same show last year.

The results show of BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ won an average audience of 9.18 million on BBC One and BBC HD between 7.30pm and 8pm last night, a 36% share of the TV watching audience.

ITV’s new living soap, ‘The Only Way Is Essex’, managed an average audience of 1.0 million between 10pm and 11pm last night, a 5.7% share of the TV watching audience.
Last night’s show included scenes of Essex boy Mark attending his on/off girlfriend's birthday party with another girl. It attracted a peak audience of 1.2 million.

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