England game gives ITV1 The X Factor

A combination of The X Factor and live coverage of England's World Cup qualifier against Kazahkstan helped ITV1 to one of its best ratings performances this year on Saturday (11 October).

The channel's extensive coverage of England's first home game in the Group Six qualifier delivered a a huge afternoon audience from 4.30pm.

The entire coverage between 4.30pm and 7.15pm managed s sizeable 6.3m (35.5%) with the match itself, from 5.15pm, being supported by 7.6m (39%). The game saw a spluttering England performance somehow result in a 5-1 victory.

The coverage was over twice the audience for the commercial network's slot average this year of 3.1m (19.9%).

ITV1's audience then soared at 7.15pm to an impressive 10.4m (44.1%) for the two hour edition of The X Factor.

The show was up by a huge 82% on the channel's slot average for the year to date and was higher than any episode of last year's run, excluding the final.

The singing contest pulled in sizeable amounts of both upmarket and younger viewers. ABC1 viewers made up 37.1% of the audience with those aged between 16 and 34 accounting for 26.2% of the overall audience.

Viewers largely stuck with ITV1 at 9.15pm as All Star Family Fortunes – in a much later slot than usual – managed 6.5m (29.3%).

Smashing the channel's slot average by 211% at 10pm was the results show of The X Factor as the 45-minute show claimed 8.1m (40.7%).

So far the current series of The X Factor has averaged 9.3m (42%), up by a million viewers on last year.

Across the whole day, ITV1 gained a sizeable share of 26.8%, its second highest of the year so far. For the final of Britain's Got Talent on 21 May, the commercial network secured a share of 31.0%.

Source: BroadcastNow