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Blue Planet II beats Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor

PA / BBC / Getty Alexandra Burke, a fish and Nicole Scherzinger Blue Planet IIPA / BBC / Getty
Strictly contestant Alexandra Burke, a tusk fish from Blue Planet II, and X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger

The opening episode of Blue Planet II won the TV ratings battle on Sunday evening - beating both Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor.

The documentary series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, was watched by an average of 10.3 million live viewers.

The Strictly Come Dancing results show, broadcast just before Blue Planet II, attracted an average of 9.6 million viewers.

Sunday evening's X Factor was seen by 4.3 million live viewers on average.

The figures for all shows will increase when viewers watching catch up services like iPlayer and channels such as ITV+1 are included.

This weekend marked the first two live shows of this series for The X Factor - but Simon Cowell was absent from both.

The judge was injured after falling down a staircase in his west London home on Friday.

ITV Rai-Elle Williams, Leon Mallett and Grace DaviesITV
Rai-Elle Williams, Leon Mallett and Grace Davies all competed on the first X Factor live show

Saturday night's first live show, which focused on the boys and the girls categories, went ahead with the other three judges - Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger.

The trio were joined by Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon on Sunday evening, who took Cowell's place on the panel as the groups and over-25s categories competed.

Strictly Come Dancing's Halloween special on Saturday night was seen by an average of 10.6 million.

PA Strictly Come DancingPA
Simon Rimmer became the sixth contestant to leave Strictly Come Dancing

Sunday night's results show, which was down on that figure by around a million viewers, saw TV chef Simon Rimmer leave the show after a dance-off with Saturdays singer Mollie King.

Elsewhere on Sunday evening, BBC Two documentary Louis Theroux: Talking to Anorexia was watched by an average of 1.6 million viewers.

Channel 4's top programme of the night was Great Canal Journeys, which was watched by a live average audience of 1.1 million viewers

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