The celebrity ice dancing competition, presented by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, attracted 9.1m viewers and a 35.3% share of the 6.45pm-8.15pm audience on ITV1.
Later in the evening the skate-off between Melinda Messenger and former Liberty X singer Jessica Taylor, pulled in 8.3m viewers and a 31.8% share of the 9.15pm-10pm audience.
It was followed by ITV1's new chat show 'Piers Morgan's Life Stories', which kicked off with the former Daily Mirror editor interviewing Sharon Osbourne.
Osbourne answered questions regarding her relationship with her violent father and the time husband Ozzy tried to kill her. It pulled in 4.5m viewers and a 24.1% share of the 10pm-11pm audience.
The second part of Jeremy Paxman's 'The Victorians', which revealed the horrors of 'baby farmers', pulled in 4.5m viewers and a 17.1% share of the 9pm-10pm audience on BBC One.
Channel 4's airing of romantic comedy 'My Super Ex-girlfriend', starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson, netted 2.1m viewers and a 9.1% share of the audience. Including Channel 4+1 figures it reached 2.4m viewers.
'Solitary Endeavour on the Southern Ocean', about Andrew McAuley's 1,000 mile journey from Tasmania to New Zealand in a kayak, drew 1.4m viewers and a 5.3% share of the audience to BBC Two.
Five's showing of action thriller 'Attack Force', starring Steven Seagal, attracted 1.1m viewers and a 4.8% share of the 9pm-11pm audience.
On Saturday night there was a tricky first outing for ITV1's new game show, 'The Colour of Money', which was up against BBC One's 'Let's Dance for Comic Relief'.
Fronted by Chris Tarrant and featuring specially formatted ATM machines that give brave contestants a big payout, the Thomas Cook-sponsored show attracted 3.8m viewers at 6.35pm-7.45pm.
This gave ITV1 a 17.5% share of viewing but BBC One took a 30.6% share for 'Let's Dance for Comic Relief'. The charity programme offers 18 celebrity acts, including Jo Brand and the judges from 'Dragon's Den' interpreting famous dance routines such as 'Saturday Night Fever'.
The first of four 'Let's Dance ...' programmes drew 6.7m viewers at 6.35pm-8pm.
Its success stole some of the audience for 'Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeway', which overlapped slightly at 7.45pm-9pm.
The Geordie duo managed 6.3m viewers (a 27% share), 1m fewer than on their return last week.
However, their show beat Casualty, which brought in 5.7m viewers, earning BBC One a 24.3% share at 8.10pm-9pm.
BBC Two proved the best of the rest at 8pm-9pm with an edition of documentary strand Timewatch on 'Queen Elizabeth's Lost Guns' garnering 2.2m viewers and a 9.3% share.
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