When the live shows started, Strictly Come Dancing also started its live shows, and beat The X Factor in the ratings, according to overnight figures. The first live results show was more successful, with overnight ratings of 9.42 million, peaking at 11 million, though it was still beaten by Downton Abbey. The X Factor's second live show, on 13 October, received the same ratings as the previous week, and was again beaten by Strictly Come Dancing, reported as "its most convincing victory over The X Factor in six years". The next week, Strictly Come Dancing's lead on The X Factor increased, with The X Factor's peak rating of 9.3 million being less than Strictly Come Dancing's average rating of 9.91 million. The next day, The X Factor was beaten by Strictly Come Dancing for the first time on a Sunday, as well as Downton Abbey, though The X Factor had a higher peak rating than Strictly Come Dancing. By the fifth live show, ratings had dropped to an average of 7.6 million, the fifth Saturday in a row where The X Factor was beaten in the ratings by Strictly Come Dancing. It was reported that the ratings were the lowest for a fifth live show of The X Factor since series 1 in 2004. While Strictly Come Dancing continued to beat The X Factor on Saturday nights, The X Factor always beat it on Sundays, but continued to be beaten by Downton Abbey, based on overnight figures.
By the sixth live show, Strictly Come Dancing was more than 2 million viewers ahead of The X Factor, and the launch of the twelfth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. While 8.8 million watched the sixth live results show, 10.3 million tuned in to watch I'm a Celebrity..., meaning that it beat The X Factor in the ratings battle for the first time since 2006. The seventh live show saw I'm a Celebrity... beat The X Factor again, with Strictly Come Dancing again being the most watched Saturday night programme, but the controversial live results show the following night, which saw Ella Henderson eliminated after ending up in the bottom two with James Arthur, produced 9.44 million for The X Factor. I'm a Celebrity... was again the highest rated show of the Sunday night, while Strictly Come Dancing just came up on top of The X Factor by a margin of less than 500,000, though The X Factor's peak of nearly 11 million was higher than Strictly Come Dancing's peak of 10.4 million. The final result received the lowest viewing figures for a final in seven years. It was beaten by Strictly Come Dancing, which was two weeks away from its final, getting 2 million more viewers than The X Factor's 10.04 million.
Dermot O'Leary returned to present the main show on ITV for his sixth series, while Caroline Flack and Olly Murs returned to co-present companion show The Xtra Factor on ITV2, but Murs was absent for the auditions, bootcamp and judges' houses as he was on tour with One Direction in America. In Murs' absence, Flack was joined by guest presenters such as Jedward, JLS and Westlife. Brian Burke returned as creative Director, but Elizabeth Honan did not. Brian Friedman, who left as creative Director on the show after series 7 in 2010, returned this year, but left after the third live show to launch the live shows of the U.S. version. Also, Natalya Nair, head of make-up, did not have her contract renewed. Yvie Burnett and Annabel Williams gave vocal coaching during the live shows.
After his performance of LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" on the third live show on 20 October, Arthur was accused of plagiarism. His rendition was very similar to that of YouTube star only1Noah, which was uploaded on 9 May 2012 and has since gathered over 19 million views. However, Arthur later tweeted: "Btw doesn't everyone know I was putting a spin on Noah's version? It had 13.something million hits! Was I supposed to state the obvious?"
In January 2013, Ofcom ruled that The X Factor had breached broadcasting rules by excessively promoting the hotel where the finalists stayed, saying it was mentioned in eight out of the 13 pre-recorded introduction videos for the finalists, including shots of them arriving featuring close-up shots of the hotel's sign. Ofcom found "the overall number of references to be excessive" and "therefore judged that there was insufficient editorial justification for the repeated references to the hotel during the programme." They concluded that "the cumulative effect of these references resulted in the programme as a whole giving undue prominence to the hotel."
On 6 November, it emerged that Maloney had been voting for himself throughout the live shows, something which he openly admitted. This raised anger with fellow over 28s contestant Kye Sones, who was eliminated the week before. Sones called Maloney "very tactical" and said "he must have an expensive phone bill". Maloney stated: "I have voted for myself a few times. So has everyone else—I doubt my calls have made much of a difference... If I had more credit on my phone I'd vote more." A member of production crew stated he had seen Maloney "dialling and redialling his own number over and over again." A member of production said, "You can't outlaw this sort of behaviour but it leaves a very sour taste. It's against the spirit of the show." During the VT before Maloney's performance in the live show following the reports, Maloney denied that he had been voting for himself.
