The first live show of this year's Strictly Come Dancing pulled in a peak audience of more than 10 million viewers on Saturday night, according to early ratings data.
The episode, which saw youngsters HRVY and Maisie Smith take an early lead in the scoring, averaged an impressive 9.4 million viewers - a 45.1% audience share - between 7.25pm and 9.10pm on BBC One.
The figure is up an impressive 1.6 million viewers - a 20% increase - on the 7.8 million (44.2%) who watched the equivalent episode in 2019.
The peak ratings of 10.2 million (48.6%) came towards the end of the programme, which overall managed to entertain more than 50% of the coveted 25-34 demographic watching TV at the time.
The episode also marked a Strictly first, with the show's first same-sex pairing - boxer Nicola Adams and pro partner Katya Jones - taking to the dancefloor for the first time.
> Strictly Come Dancing, week one: What the judges said
Neil Wilkes
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