Golden Victoria Pendleton gives Strictly Come Dancing a dream start
GOLDEN girl Victoria Pendleton helped the BBC to achieve its biggest audience for a Strictly Come Dancing launch show in three years at the weekend.
The first episode of the new series – which saw the Olympic cyclist and fellow contestants meeting their professional partners – was watched by an average of eight million people.
There was also a resurgence for ITV1’s The X Factor on Saturday after disappointing ratings, achieving average viewing figures of nine million – although the programme is still more than two million down on last year’s figure at this stage of the contest.
Strictly saw its audience peak at 9.8 million on Saturday night, but had an average of eight million viewers for the start of its 10th series.
It was the show’s biggest series debut since 2009, when it pulled in 8.4 million – although the programme was scheduled differently then and started with a Friday show.
The first episode of the new series – which saw the Olympic cyclist and fellow contestants meeting their professional partners – was watched by an average of eight million people
Strictly returns in three weeks to give the hopefuls time for intensive rehearsals with the professionals.
The contestants include Fern Britton, Jerry Hall, Denise Van Outen and Johnny Ball.