There’s bad news for Simon Cowell – The X Factor's ratings are continuing to slide, with the show losing nearly three million viewers compared to last year.

Saturday night’s boot camp show saw a peak of 9.2 million people tuning in to see who would impress judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger and Tulisa Contostavlos. Last year the boot camp stage peaked at 11.8 million viewers.

Worryingly for The X Factor, rival Strictly Come Dancing wasn’t even on air – it’s back on 5 October – so it looks like audiences just aren’t as impressed with this year’s show.

According to The Mirror, the low ratings (although 9.2 million still sounds like a lot to us) could begin to affect the advertising revenue that the show pulls in, and make the live shows – which cost millions to stage – very expensive for ITV.

“If Strictly was to hammer The X Factor this year it will be a long cold winter for ITV,” a TV insider comments.

“X Factor could go from making huge profits to being an expensive show to make. Ratings over the next couple of weeks will be crucial. If people don’t get hooked and start to know the contestants soon, they never will.”

Strictly Come Dancing has put together a top line-up ofcelebrity dancers – including two Team GB Olympic athletes. Do you think it could topple The X Factor in the ratings this year?

We already know we’re going to be hooked on both.