The X Factor has bounced back and bounced back well it would seem.

The ITV show has been dogged with poor ratings since the live shows started and last Saturday, was beaten by it’s BBC rival Strictly Come Dancing for the first time in four years.

While their viewing figures fell, Strictly gained an extra 700,00 viewers for their Halloween themed episode, prompting rumours that Simon Cowell was planning to swoop in and rescue the ailing series.

However, X Factor enjoyed a return to form on Sunday night, when they ruled the airwaves with 11.93 million people tuning in to see Cher Lloyd and Nicole Scherzinger perform.

The show – which also saw the shock elimination of North London singer Sophie Habibis – peaked at 13.14 million (44.5% of the audience share) for the last 15 minutes.

Strictly Come Dancing performed well, but not quite well enough and attracted 10.43m for their results show – which saw Italian star Nancy Dell’Olio sent home – between 7.30pm and 8pm.

Could this mean that The X Factor is on the up, or are people so bored with the weekly performances that they’d prefer to just catch a bit of a recap, mixed with the results on Sunday?

On next week’s show, the contestants will be performing songs that fit with a club classics theme.

Check out more details of the X Factor theme and possible song choices here.