TV Ratings Battle: The Voice Beats Out the Premiere of The X Factor

Britney Spears wasn't enough to take down Christina Aguilera and her hit NBC show

By Jenna Mullins Sep 13, 2012 5:20 PMTags
X Factor Judges, Britney Spears, Simon Cowell Mickshaw / FOX

Not even the power of Britney Spears could top the allure of giant red swiveling chairs.

The Voice, in its third night of blind auditions, scored higher ratings than the premiere of The X Factor on Wednesday, a fact that surprised, well, everyone.

The Voice won by a small margin in head-to-head competition at 8 p.m.: a 3.3 demo rating to X Factor's 2.7. And NBC beat out Fox in total viewers with 10.7 million to 7.5 million.

For the entire night, however, both shows tied with a 3.3 demo rating.

In the arena of not-so-great news, The Voice is slowly dipping in the ratings since premiering on Monday night, and The X Factor's numbers were down from its season-one premiere.

Looks like Simon Cowell was right to be annoyed that NBC moved The Voice to put it up against The X Factor premiere.