The BBC One ballroom dancing show held a strong 34% share of the audience between 8.30pm and 10pm for Darcey Bussell's debut on the panel, while 8m average matches last year's premiere.
© BBC
Piers Morgan's Life Stories was Strictly's nearest challenger with 2.88m (12.3%) for ITV1 - a further 385k (2.1%) on ITV1 +1 were interested in Ronan Keating's story.
Elsewhere, Mastermind (2.23m/9.9%) and Gardeners' World (2.37m/10.2%) gave BBC Two a comfortable third place finish behind BBC One and ITV.
Meanwhile, Channel 4's Hotel GB concluded with 1.1m (5%) at 9pm (+1: 163k/1%), while Eddie Stobart: Trucks and Trailers had 1.01m (4.4%) for Channel 5 in the 8pm slot.
Overall, BBC One topped primetime with 26%, ahead of ITV1's 19.5% (+1: 0.9%), BBC Two's 7.2%, Channel 4's 3.7% (+1: 0.6%), and Channel 5's 2.9% (+1: 0.2%).
BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional
