I see it launching with 9.3m... the by the end of auditions to have it at around 8.4m and then climb over 9m for Judges houses and live shows.

I think just as Subo did for BGT, Jedwrad did to XF last time, so I reckon ratings will be down unless another huge thing comes out of XF.

The creators' scripting isn't very good: too surreal and not enough laughs (see Peep Show).

If all of series two had been scripted by the other members of the writing team, things would have been different.

I saw part of one of the episodes and the characteristic Coronation St slapstick and farce were present. Had that kind of thing been missing under the previous producer?

ITV3 if it must be done anywhere. These kinds of shows don't age well.

I think the X Factor will be down on last year's series but it will still make strong ratings.

This series looks like another revamp from last night.

I think 9.5m for the launch staying above 9m for the auditions.

I think 10m for Bootcamp and 12m for Judsges Houses.

Bootcamp and judges houses are the lowest rated rounds of the series, it tends to drop from 9-10m to 7-8m then.

On the subject of reality shows, it will be interesting to see the ratings for Don't Stop Believing when up against Must Be The Music.

Next week Must Be the Music runs 7pm-10pm with repeats 11pm-1am. Overkill much?

I'd suspect the weather will be the biggest factor in X Factor's ratings next week.

It will be several weeks before we get a true picture of how the new series will fare.

Yikes! Five hours!

And if that wasn't enough, Sky have scheduled SEVEN repeats for Must Be the Music across the week just in case you miss them tonight. That's 14 hours of MBtM repeats across Sky1 and Sky2, and most of them are in primetime.

Who needs Sky+ with this scheduling?

Going off the opening segment the production values are VERY strong. I might be a bit hasty in saying it but Sky1 could have another big hit on their hands

"Another"?

I meant in the reality genre, their other being Got To Dance. On first impressions, this show looks much stronger.

But launching it the weekend before The X Factor?

They can be as catty as they want about it in the adverts, but it's easily the daddy of this genre.

Big big mistake.

That doesn't mean that other channels can't put their own spin on the format. Otherwise we'd have about 3 shows on TV using your logic

Its also on a different day to X Factor, and will never clash. That point is null and void.

Assuming The X Factor follows the same scheduling pattern as last year, it is very likely they will clash on September 19, the night of the Must Be the Music final.

Are you sure its the 19th? Episode 1 and 2 are on tonight. Episodes 3-5 next week leaving just 3 episodes after that. The 2 live shows air on 29th August and 5th September and then the final after that. I can't see them leaving it a fortnight before the final.

At least it shows that they want it to do well, I think it could have a high 7k rating tomorrow, they've promoted it alot.

According to DigiGuide:

Sun 15th (Auditions 1 & Auditions 2)
Sun 22nd (Auditions 3, Auditions 4 & Semi-Final 1 Preview)
Sun 29th (Semi-Final 1 & Semi-Final 2 Preview)
Sun 5th (Semi-Final 2 & Semi-Final 3 Preview)

Which I'm assuming will be followed by...
Sun 12th (Semi-Final 3)
Sun 19th (Final)

Its an 8 part series. 2 audition eps both this week and next week, and next week there is an additional 'Meet The Semi Finalists' show which is billied as 5/8 on Radio Times which I personally hold in higher regard than Digiguide.

Applause Store are only offering tickets for 29th and 5th for the semi finals at Fountain Studios. Nothing for the final yet though.

An 8 part series would tie in with DigiGuide. (Auditions 1-4, Semi Finals 1-3, Final) The preview shows would surely not count, so that's a mistake by RT.

There are definitely three semi-finals because according to the episode descriptions, 15 acts go through to the semis with 5 in each.

Well even so, I doubt Sky would be stupid enough to schedule it to clash with the final X Factor auditions show. X Factor will probably go out at 7.30pm/8pm anyway so Sky1 could get away with putting it on at 6pm, or take a big risk and air it at 9pm.

I think the best thing to do would be a 6 o'clock start though I think that Sky might want to take the 9 o'clock slot knowing that if it comes off well they'll get lots of glory.

Which brings me back to my original thought... is there an appetite for both? Only time will tell, but right now I'm leaning heavily towards no.

I think it will be okay until the final and even then I don't think it will be a problem, if people have tuned in so far, they'll tune in for the final, I think.