The X Factor was still the biggest show of the night, with 34% of TV watchers tuning in to watch the auditions.
ITV may have brought back Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger, Louis Walsh, and Dermot O’Leary for The X Factor, but that wasn’t enough to bring back viewers.
The broadcaster revealed that 6.8 million viewers tuned in for the series’ first episode, down 800,000 from last year’s opener (7.65 million), and the lowest launch since 2005 (6.6 million).
Only BBC One’s special Casualty episode came close, 5.1 million tuning into medical drama series.