THE X Factor is to be screened three times in one week later this month, with an extra edition lined up to clash with the launch night of Strictly Come Dancing as rivalry between the shows hots up.
ITV bosses said they had had to add an extra Friday night show for the Boot Camp and Judges' Houses stages.
But it means the singing contest will go head-to-head with the BBC1 show as the couples make their dancefloor debuts together on September 26.
The shows have had one battle already this year, when Strictly was the clear winner on Sunday night with a scene-setter programme in which contestants were unveiled and paired off with their professional partners.
X Factor boss Simon Cowell conceded on Monday - when overnight ratings showed the BBC programme's average audience was 800,000 ahead - that Strictly had won "round one".
Meanwhile 2013 X Factor winner Sam Bailey has become a mum for the third time, giving birth to a baby girl yesterday.
Former prison officer Bailey, who lives in Leicester, already has children Tommy and Brooke with her husband Craig Pearson.
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