ITV romps home in ratings battle with costume drama watched by 9.6 million and The X Factor pulling in 9.5 million viewers
Downton Abbey's fourth series continued its strong start on Sunday, attracting an average of 9.6 million viewers.
The second episode of the ITV costume drama's 2013 series averaged a 39.5% audience share, as the show roughly maintained the previous weekend's ratings level of 9.5 million and 39.7% – Downton's best opening so far.
Downton left the 9pm competition for dust, including BBC1 drama By Any Means (3.5 million/14.1%), the final instalment of Simon Schama's BBC2 documentary series The Story of the Jews (0.8 million/3.4%), Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz of the 90s (1.7 million/7.8%) and Channel 5's movie repeat Gone in Sixty Seconds (0.7 million/3.9%).
ITV owns Sunday peak-time right now, with The X Factor weighing before Downton for an average 9.5 million viewers and a 38.5% share over 90 minutes from 7.30pm.
The X Factor was up against BBC1's Countryfile (6.3 million/28.6%) and Antiques Roadshow (5.7 million/22.8%), BBC2's The Crane Gang (0.9 million/3.7%), Channel 4's Man-made Home (1.2 million/4.8%) and Channel 5's movie repeat Superman (0.9 million/4.1%).
Gridiron touches down
Channel 4 picked up the UK terrestrial TV rights to American Football recently and on Sunday broadcast live coverage of the NFL's annual showcase London game, featuring the Minnesota Vikings v Pittsburgh Steelers.
The NFL match from Wembley averaged 500,000 viewers and a 2.9% share between 5.30pm and 8pm on Channel 4, when coverage switched to More4 for the rest of the game.
Dexter's last hurrah
The final episode of US serial killer drama Dexter, drawing to a close after eight series, averaged 285,000 viewers and a 1.2% audience share on FX from 9pm.
Dexter was the top rating show on pay-TV channels in its slot and the sixth most watched of the day across the sector.
Top spot in pay-TV went to Sky Sports 1's love coverage of Sunderland v Liverpool, which averaged 1.2 million viewers and a 9.5% share from 3.30pm.
All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated