Strictly Come Dancing has beaten The X Factor in the ratings war for the first time this year, according to early reports on viewing figures.

Last night’s show, which saw the celebrity girls taking to the dancefloor, averaged 8.59 million viewers which was just over 40% of all UK viewers in the time slot 6.45pm to 8.05pm.

The X Factor’s first show from the boot camp stage began an hour later, at 7.45pm, and was on for 90 minutes. It averaged 8.18 million viewers – just over 36% - overall and peaked with over 9 million viewers at 8.10pm, immediately after Strictly finished.

In the twenty minutes that the two programmes were both on, Strictly managed 8.25 million viewers compared to X Factor’s 7.27 million.