X-Factor UK Season Nine Premiere Draws Fewer Viewers, But Still Wins Night

The season nine premiere of The X-Factor UK drew fewer viewers than the season eight opener, but still nearly doubled the viewership of Saturday's second ranked show.

Per THR, the Saturday premiere topped out at 9.9 million viewers, with an average of 8.7 million viewers and a 42 share.  By contrast, the 2011 premiere drew approximately 12.6 million viewers with an average over 11 million.

The episode marked the debut of Nicole Scherzinger as a judge and also featured former Spice Girls singer Mel B. as a guest judge.

Saturday was my first time ever watching the U.K. version of the show, so while I found the episode enjoyable, I don't really have anything to compare it against.  I did note that while there were a handful of really good auditions, the ratio of actual auditions to filler seemed really low.  I only remember seeing about five or six full auditions during the 75 minute show, with the rest being back-story and montage bits.

I was pleasantly surprised that Nicole S. was actually far less annoying than I remember her being on the U.S. version, but there's still a long season to go, so we'll see if that lasts.  I rather liked the other U.K. judges.