The X Factor a winner in the ratings, as Ten slumps With an army of support, Dami wins Crowd favourite Dami Im wins the X Factor and launches her new single Alive, a song she hopes will propel her to singing success well beyond the reality competition. PT2M8S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2wcpy 620 349 October 29, 2013 - 10:54AM Almost 3.67 million people watched Dami Im win The X Factor last night. Channel Seven divided the episode into two segments: the "grand final," which 3.44 million viewers in the metropolitan and regional areas tuned in for, followed by the "winner announcement," which drew the higher audience figure for the night. The singer on everyone's lips last night was Dami Im, after her X Factor win. The winner announcement had 460,000 more viewers more than last year, when Samantha Jade claimed victory. The X Factor not only trounced its rivals last night; it's among ratings royalty, including Seven's My Kitchen Rules and House Rules, and Nine's The Block and The Voice. With just a few weeks of the official 2013 ratings period left, Seven and Nine enter the final stretch with five programs each in the year's top 10. Seven looks set to win the year overall, Nine to win the key demographics of 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54, and ABC to take third place, relegating Ten to No. Last night, Seven had half the top 10 programs, including the top three. Seven captured a huge 35.6 per cent share of the audience - more than double Nine's 16.8 per cent. ABC1 took 13.2 per cent, while Ten had its worst Monday night share of the year, snaring just 7.4 per cent. Seven's news bulletin took third spot last night with 1.85 million viewers, followed by Nine's news with 1.66 million. Seven's Home and Away was at No. 5 with 1.64 million, followed by Today Tonight with 1.4 million. ABC1 claimed the the next three positions with Australian Story (1.35 million); its 7pm bulletin (1.34 million); and 7.30 (1.26 million). Nine's reality show Big Brother came in at No.10 with 1.19 million. Ten's woeful figures can be partly explained by The X Factor's dominance last night. Regardless, its prime-time offerings - local sports show A League of Their Own and acclaimed American drama Homeland - are underperforming. Even The Bold and Beautiful rated better. Both are good programs, however, and deserve bigger audiences. Indeed, if they shifted to Seven or Nine, they'd probably gain hundreds of thousands of viewers overnight. Unfortunately, Ten has fewer viewers to promote its programs to - and smaller "lead-in" audiences for its prime-time shows. Of course, most of us think we select programs on merit alone but many other factors influence our choices. Ten knows it desperately needs a local reality hit like My Kitchen Rules or The Block to lift itself out of the doldrums. There are many advantages to these shows: advertisers love them, they're virtually pirate-proof and viewers prefer to watch them live, which boosts the all-important "overnight" ratings. When a network hits on the right formula, and can "strip" these programs over five or six nights a week, they get bang for their buck and a halo effect that boosts everything else in their schedule. Ten did it with MasterChef a few years ago; repeating the trick with a new program is now key to reversing its fortunes. An earlier version wrongly claimed The X Factor beat all other reality show grand finales. Metro and Regional Top 10 My Kitchen Rules - Winner Announced (Seven) 4,545,688 The Block Sky High - Winner Announced (Nine) 4,355,566 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW v QLD 3rd - Match (Nine) 4,111,614 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW v QLD 1st - Match (Nine) 3,908,449 The Block Sky High - Auctions (Nine) 3,707,681 State Of Origin Rugby League QLD v NSW 2nd - Match (Nine) 3,647,480 The X Factor Grand Final - Winner Announced (Seven) 3,565,101 Seven's AFL: Grand Final: Hawthorn v Fremantle (Seven) 3,489,517 Rugby League Grand Final (Nine) 3,374,724 The Voice Grand Final - Winner Announced 3,355,058 The X Factor Grand Final (Seven) 3,341,713