Strictly Come Dancing steps over 10m viewers

BBC talent show's audience is almost 1 million more than last week, but is still nearly 2 million behind ITV's The X Factor

Strictly Come Dancing: Tina O'Brien and Jared Murillo were voted off. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing averaged more than 10 million viewers for the first time but remained nearly 2 million behind ITV1's The X Factor on Saturday, 30 October.

The celebrity dance show pulled in 10.060 million viewers, a 42.6% share, on BBC1 between 6.25pm and 7.55pm, with another 303,000 viewers on the BBC's high definition channel. The BBC1 audience was up from an average of 9.174 million viewers for its Saturday show last week and 8.733 million viewers on 16 October.

Rival talent show The X Factor attracted 12.2 million viewers, 47.1% of the audience, between 8pm and 9.45pm, of whom 672,000 watched on ITV1 HD.

The X Factor was up from just over 12 million viewers for last week's Saturday show, and 2 million ahead of the equivalent show in 2009, according to ITV.

Strictly Come Dancing beat ITV1's lineup including Harry Hill's TV Burp, which averaged 5.362 million (21.5%) between 7.30pm and 8pm. The X Factor had the better of BBC1's Casualty, which averaged 4.165 million (15.9%) between 8.55pm and 9.45pm.

guardian.co.uk