BBC pulls in 12m for Strictly Come Dancing finale

The BBC said its flagship entertainment show was watched by a peak audience of 11.7 million. This compares with the 19.1 million who watched Joe McElderry take the X Factor title on ITV1 the previous week.

Hollins and his dance partner Ola Jordan overcame the Hollyoaks actor Ricky Whittle in the public vote, despite Whittle being widely acknowledged as the better dancer.

Hollins said: “I’d love to thank all our family and friends, our loved ones, because without you we wouldn’t have been able to do half the training.”

Strictly had been beset by rows about ageism and racism, and lost viewers after a decision to drop its Sunday night results show and go head-to-head with The X Factor on Saturdays. Even Len Goodman, the show’s head judge, said it had become too long and boring.

He said: “The show is like a plant, you need to prune it a bit as that makes it more healthy. But sometimes you may over-prune it and that was the blunder.

“Having 16 couples was too much and at the beginning of this series people had to sit through two-and-a-half hours — that was too long.”

The absence of The X Factor, the latest series of which finished last week, led to ITV1 recording its second lowest Saturday night audience of the year last night. An average of just 3.4 million viewers tuned in across peak time.