Sunday 'Strictly' bags 8.4m

The first Strictly Come Dancing elimination show brought in 8.35m (33.6%) for BBC One last night (Sunday).

The show improved the 8pm slot audience by 3m week-on-week and easily beat ITV1's Heartbeat, which had 5.06m (20.4%) over the same period. BBC Two was third, drawing 2.29m (9.2%) for Charley Boorman: Ireland To Sydney By Any Means, while Channel 4's Wife Swap put in 1.41m (5.7%) for fourth. Five engaged 0.71m (2.9%) with Austin Stevens' Adventures: Killer Hyenas.

ITV1 regained the lead at 9pm with a new episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, which averaged 4.96m (23.5%) over two hours. The drama was ahead of Tess Of The D'Urbervilles in the 9pm hour, averaging 5.32m to the latter's still respectable 5.06m (21.5%).

BBC Two mustered 1.75m (7.4%) for the final episode of Earth: The Climate Wars and on Channel 4, romantic drama The Notebook managed 0.97m (5%) until 11.15pm. Five's movie Black Hawk Down was slightly less popular, averaging 0.85m (4.8%) between 9pm and 11.45pm.

Earlier, Antiques Roadshow delivered 6.4m (31%) for BBC One in the 7pm hour, almost double the 3.3m (16%) audience for ITV1's Sunday night variety show For One Night Only.

Live coverage of Chelsea's clash with Man Utd was the biggest multichannel draw, bringing in an average of 1.61m (19.6%) to Sky Sports 1 between 2pm and 4.30pm. Subsequent coverage of the Ryder Cup averaged 900,000 (6.5%) until 8pm.

Also popular was ITV2's 6pm repeat of The X Factor, which managed 703,000 (5%) and a further 295,000 (1.7%) on timeshift. Spinoff show The Xtra Factor pulled in 459,000 (2.1%) and 152,000 (0.7%) at 8pm.