Record audience for Cowell and co

The new series of X Factor got off to a blinding start on Saturday when its opening show pulled in record audiences.

15:40 22 August 2005

The new series of X Factor got off to a blinding start on Saturday when its opening show pulled in record audiences.

The ITV find-a-star vehicle for pop tsars Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh trounced the BBC's primetime contender, He's Having a Baby.

After opening to 6.6 million viewers, contented TV bosses were able to claim a 40 per cent of the audience share, while the BBC show fronted by Big Brother's Davina McCall only managed 2.4 million viewers, a 16 per cent share.

And it's easy to see why viewers tuned in the way they did, when confronted with the choice of watching a talentless pair of singers from Wakefield being restrained by security guards after being dealt some home truths by callous Cowell, or watching eight men preparing to become dads.

ITV entertainment controller, Claudia Rosencrantz, said: "The X Factor has returned stronger than ever with a greater mix of talent and some great characters to watch.

"We're sure that the show is going to find another singing sensation."

Whether that prediction is particularly astute seeing as last series' winner Stephen Brookstein never quite set the world alight, is open for debate, although he did score the ubiquitous number one single and album before disappearing into the pop abyss.

Having said this, last year's runners-up, G4, are still going strong with their possessed pop-opera warblings, so maybe an even stranger success story could be born this time around.