I'm not saying that a 2 night final wouldn't do brilliantly in the ratings, I'm simply saying it wouldn't feel right to a lot of viewers and it certainly wouldn't feel right to Simon Cowell.

Don't you think that if a two-night final was the way to go about it, Simon would have done that for the BGT final, which, by the way, suffered not one iota, from going out on a (hot) Saturday. But he didn't because Simon knows (and even the dimwits at the BBC know with Strictly) that you put the whole of the final on one night to make it more of an event.

You wouldn't have the 2nd half of the World Cup Final taking part 24 hours after the 1st half, now would you?

And they won't be a Strictly clash. There wasn't last year and the BBC will have learnt their lesson this year and will go to enormous lengths to keep the two programmes apart that night.

Plus I strongly suspect ITV1 have pencilled in the Royal Variety Performance for Sunday the 13th to give them a "Big Weekend Of Entertainment."

Slightly stupid if you ask me.

BTW, I will be quite frankly, surprised if Britain's Got Talent or The X Factor is #1 next year. I strongly suspect England vs ?? in the World Cup will be #1 regardless of channel.

Of course, the further they go, the higher the rating should be.

You wait-Countryfile will storm ahead and peak at 25 million viewers-John Craven will be followed around by hordes of green wellied enthusiasts and Adams Farm will have to be cordened off by the Army. Meanwhile the weather for the week will replace the Queen on Christmas Day.

Now,where did I put my pills?

BGT and The X Factor can't possibly do better next year than this, surely. They have to reach saturation point at some time.

Besides I've got it all worked out. ITV are bribing BARB. Or they've hacked into their computers. That explains all ITV1's recent ratings. And why the crappiest ratings are for all the expensive dramas that ITV want an excuse to get rid of. And Millionaire's crap ratings are to wipe the smug grin off Chris Tarrant's face.


My theory will be proved right when ITV1 get twice as many viewers than BBC1 for England in the World Cup Final next year.

I wonder how well Murderland will do tonight... I reckon it will keep most of its audience tbh - maybe around 5.8-6m which I think will be decent. Very good episode last week. I can see Life dropping further though myself, and when it finally finishes in mid-December I definately think it'll be sub 3.5m.

With respect, that's completely different.

But I do agree with your overall sentiment in terms of keeping the final on the one night. Here's what I would do:

Saturday 12th December
1900 Harry Hill's TV Burp: X Factor Special
1930 The X Factor 2009 Final
2030 Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Simon Cowell
2130 The X Factor: Winner Announced
2230 ITV Late News

Yes that would all add up lol.

On the face of it 3.5 would be dreadful for a landmark series that has taken three years to make. However there will be the Sunday repeat drawing viewers to that slot so hopefully the combined total will be respectable.

Well, you may be disappointed, as the last time they did this type of thing was in 2003-to-4 when they simply showed the BBC Scotland programme, which isn't really the same as what they've done on the network in recent years, it's all based inside the castle with various bits of Celtic music and stuff. They also showed it on the network in 1998-to-9 but everyone complained because they weren't allowed to call it Hogmanay Live, much to the Daily Records' disgust, and in the end it was too Scottish for the UK audience and not Scottish enough (I rememebr Duran Duran were among the guests) for the Scottish audience.

This Graham Norton thing will presumably be like those crappy Jonathan Ross shows they did at the start of the decade, the one in 2002-to-3 was just a bog standard episode of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, but the one in 2001-to-2 was absolutely diabolical, it was the most blantantly pre-recorded show ever, all the musical guests sung ballads which is not what you want, and all the guests were boring BBC standbys like Ulrika and Neil Morrissey, and Vinnie Jones plugging his film at five to midnight. It was one of the worst programmes ever made.

I know the recent New Year shows have been pretty hopeless but at least they've at least been live and had some sort of a sense of occasion.

The slots between X Factor/BGT Finals are huge.

ITV should be using them to boost new comedies or dramas - if they have any.

They would probably have had live 'red button' coverage of the vocal training process and called the show something like 'Fame academy'

It's interesting, but I cant help remember that Pop Idol was essentially just a rip-off/spin-off of Popstars.

It introduced the live shows, certainly.

Did you zoom in on the note? It's hard to make out some of it, but fascinating all the same. There are a few pointers dotted about to help.

Yeh, I did.

But, its not like they invented the format.

Popstars had judges, the prize, the auditions.

I don't see why they'd keep both shows at an hour each though when they could easily stretch it over two nights, both shows an hour and a half.

I'm just thinking they would rather spread the ratings joy out across the entire weekend.

The Royal Variety isn't really in the same league.

The idea of having the results on the Sunday night didn't 'feel right' for the majority of people when they first heard the news but it's worked out well.

I don't think ITV will opt for a two-night finale but I personally wouldn't mind seeing them do it.

They wont this year, because its pretty much confirmed now, but they might next year seeing how well its done.

Ditto.

Plus if they can get enough big names to guest for both nights then there'd be no problem in filling time.

ITV have made such a big deal out of this 24-hour voting window you'd think it would remain for the finale.

I don't think they've given any indication of how they'll be scheduling the final or if any decision has even be made at this stage but I reckon they'd be mad not to make the most out of the bumper ratings the show's been getting this year.

I didn't realise that! When/where was this mentioned?

Then you lose the benefits of the 'sandwich.' Unless they split it up into 4 separate shows over 2 nights, but I think that would be pushing it a bit.

ITV usually waste the sandwich on established shows or one off events though. Like with the BGT finale - it was the perfect opportunity to launch a new show and they scheduled Mr and Mrs instead.

The first popstars didnt have a public vote though, which is one of the key underpinnings of pop idol, X factor.

But voting is always going to be massively up for the final anyway. They will certainly get many many more votes in a 90 minute window on finale night than they will for any 24 hour vote this series. I also think as far as the final is concerned, if people have less time to vote they are more inclined to feel a sense of urgency and vote more times for their favourite.

Fair point.

I think that's certainly the best reason I've seen that would justify keeping it on the same night.

People thought that would be the case with the regular live shows - and it's turned out to be the complete opposite.


BGT isn't The X Factor though and hasn't been going out on Saturdays and Sundays for weeks. Although at times they may feel the same, they have very different formats.

The BBC had the Strictly final all on one night because their Sundays shows were not live. ITV could easily fill two hours on the Saturday with the final 3 and guests duetting with the finalists, and then on Sunday another two hours with the final two, a couple of guests and a couple of group performances. And being in two parts on Saturday means the shows are going to have to be earlier and later in the schedules too, which will hit ratings.


P.S. Don't know if the 5-minute breakdowns were posted here this week but The Sun today are claiming that during each ad break 2.5m viewers switch from ITV1 to catch up on Strictly. Now, we know viewing figures dip during the ad breaks, but is there any proof Strictly's audience rises when The X Factor takes a break?