Strictly Come Dancing retains Saturday night ratings crown

Strictly Come Dancing has seen another surge in viewers as the show dominates the ratings.

An average audience of 8.2 million people tuned in to watch the struggles of Anneka Rice and the triumph of Kelvin Fletcher.

Movie Week has drawn the largest audience so far in the current series of Strictly.

This is another boost in figures from the 7.9 million who watched last week’s show, according to the BBC, and higher still from the 7.7 million who tuned in for the first live show.

Strictly earned an audience share of 42%, and had a peak audience of 8.8 million.

Fletcher and Oti Mabuse made an impact on Strictly after a huge score.

Despite having less time to train after replacing Jamie Laing, the Emmerdale star wowed judges on the BBC show.

He and Mabuse had the crowd on their feet following their performance of the Charleston, which secured them a leading score of 38, and an early 10 from Shirley Ballas.

Meanwhile, Anneka Rice and Kevin Clifton danced a disastrous Charleston to the theme of Kill Bill, which only earned the pair a score of 11 from judges left crying with laughter.

On ITV, Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions reached a peak of almost 5 million on Saturday night.

Dance act Twist And Pulse were crowned winners ahead of show favourites Stavros Flatley.

ITV has not provided the average viewing figures for the BGT finale, but the series achieved an average audience of at 7.3 million for the first three episodes.