ITV missing The X Factor

The return of The X Factor cannot come soon enough for ITV after its main channel was beaten in the ratings by BBC2 on Sunday. Cop drama Law & Order: UK was the only ITV1 show to average more than 2 million viewers on Sunday 14 August, continuing a run of poor weekend ratings for the commercial channel. The channel had an all-day audience share of 7.8%, rising to 10.1% in peaktime between 6pm and 10.30pm. BBC2 had 8.6% and 10.2% respectively. Law & Order averaged 3.9 million viewers, a 16.3% share, between 9pm and 10pm, with the channel's second-highest rating show, celebrity talent series Born to Shine hosted by Natasha Kaplinsky, mustering just 1.9 million viewers (8.2%) between 8pm and 9pm. Born to Shine, the penultimate episode of a six-part series, was beaten by BBC2's Dragons' Den, which had 3.3 million viewers, a 14.3% share. At the same time on BBC1, Countryfile was seen by 6.3 million viewers, 27.5% of the audience, the most-watched programme of any channel on Sunday. BBC1, which had an all-day share of 18.3% and 23.8% in peaktime, won every slot apart from the 30 minutes between 1.30pm and 2pm, when it lost out to BBC2's coverage of the MotoGP, and 11.45pm and 1am, when it was beaten by BBC2 movie premiere, Fish Tank. The Andrea Arnold film had 600,000 viewers (8.2%) between 11pm and 1am. This follows a difficult few weeks for ITV1, which had a poor run of Saturday nights broken by another showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had 5 million viewers, a 25.4% share, between 6.25pm and 9pm. The second part of Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain had 2.4 million viewers, 11.7%, on ITV1 between 9pm and 10pm, beaten by the second half of BBC1's Casualty, with 5.6 million viewers (26.4%) and John Bishop's Britain, which had 4 million viewers (19.5%) between 9.25pm and 9.55pm. ITV1 had a 12.5% all-day share on Saturday, rising to 20% between 6pm and 10.30pm. BBC1 had 21.1% and 23.2% respectively, while BBC2 had 3.8% and 4.5%. However, ITV1's weekend fortunes will be revived when The X Factor returns on Saturday, along with a double live celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on both Saturday and Sunday. All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .