It's like the way Big Brother used to take up 15 pages of The Sun every day at its peak. Now that's declined and died, the X Factor is the big thing for the redtops. However, I don't recall Opportunity Knocks being headline news, except when Hughie Green was sacked.

You have to admit the X Factor has saved ITV1's Saturday nights. The year before it started ITV was relying on elderly and declining shows like Blind Date and Stars In Their Eyes, or Bond films to fill the schedules. It is the station's biggest Saturday success since the glory days of The Gladiators 16 years ago.

Commonwealth Games now on BBC One from 1pm to 5:20pm as a result. Repeats of Animal Park and Escape to the Country fill the original BBC Two slot from 1pm to 2:15pm (which was originally taken by Commonwealth Games).

- Formula 1: The Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying will start at 2am tomorrow most likely, so programme will start shortly before that[/quote]

As expected, programme on BBC One tomorrow morning from 1:50am to 3:30am.

When the popularity of The X Factor stars to wane, ITV will commission an alternative show to fill Saturday & Sunday nights. Its happened before & it will happen again.

Some ratings news:-

Paul O'Grady Live rallied to 4m last night, which is quite an achievement against New Tricks.

Emmerdale did very well on Thursday evening, easily topping 7m for its second episode.

An Idiot Abroad was far and away the most popular multichannel programme on Thursday, with 1.15m (5.4%) for Sky1.

Celebrity Juice had 947k (5.2%), What Katie Did Next won 944k (4.1%).

4.5m (19.5%) for Law & Order: UK, pipping Traffic Cops

EastEnders beats Corrie on Thursday, as expected, Corrie pips 'Enders on Friday.

All the DS reports coming sometime today.

sounds like an ok Thursday & Friday for ITV. I do think that 71 Degrees North would work ok for ITV on Thursdays but Paul O'Grady increasing to 4m is good news for ITV. So 3 shows in one week grow their audience in the 9pm slot?

Some interesting bits there. Looks like a solid 2 nights for ITV, even though they'd probably want Law & Order: UK back nearer to 5m. Celebrity Juice and What Katie Did Next did well for them as well.

Great rating for An Idiot Abroad on Sky1.

Wow! An Idiot Abroad's ratings have gone up. I do think it's a great show.

Don't forget New Tricks was shown on Thursday night in Scotland because of the footie on Friday so it's probably missing 200,000 viewers.

The football should have been more popular than NT in Scotland so I'm

9.00 to 9.30 was the post-match analysis. How many Scots would want to hang around to be told their team is sh1te?. (I'm an English-based patriotic but disgruntled Scot).

9.30-10.00 was Eastenders. How many Scots want to watch a bunch of loud-mouthed Cockneys shouting at each other for half an hour?

Very good points I defer to your insider knowledge

Just noticed a slight change for The X Factor on the EPG, instead of being on until 22:10, its now on for 5 minutes longer, with Life Stories 5 minutes shorter.

Indeed, it proves my point last night about this show being a matter of life or death for many.

But as if she's going to be ejected. Cowell and the red-tops who slavishly hang on his every word have made the "outrage" over an illegal immigrant not being voted through headline news every day this week to hype up the start of the live shows.

Does anyone in their right mind not recognise she'll be brought back in to great drama and fanfare at about 10pm tonight, all part of the "twist", and given her chance to sing, sending the TXFistas on this thread and elsewhere into orgasm at how fantastic the whole thing is?

Then we will have weeks of "will they won't they"" stories as the "nation" battles to stop her being sent home and thrown off the show by the authorities. I expect we'll have the PM having to personally intervene as the "backlash" (and ratings) grows.

So predictable...

BTW, isn't it a bit misleading to call the bringing back of 4 contestants a "twist". It's not as if everyone on the planet doesn't know it's happening - isn't a "twist" something that takes everyone by surprise?

A "twist" would be Cowell deciding he's had enough of pumping effluent into our music charts and TV schedules, and announcing he's retiring to Bermuda and axeing his tawdry talent shows.


Or they'll double TV Burp and BOANBEYBFC* to an hour each.


I guess 3.5hrs for 16 contestants to sing along to a backing tape and then vote one off did leave a bit too much to cram into too tight a timeslot. The extra 5 mins will help...






(* - Best of All New Best Ever You've Been Framed Classic, obviously...)

People are mental. Especially when it comes to The X Factor. Maybe someone should tell them that's it's an entertainment show and not a genuine singing competition.

XF has made the front page of at least three of the red tops today and no doubt reams of inside pages too. I have now converted to broadsheets permanently , where the references to XF are rather more reserved and business like.

Well i like the X Factor and to me it good Saturday prime time entertainment for Family's. If you don't like it don't watch it and don't waste your life complaining about it.

Thursday 7th October Overnights
BBC One
21:00- The One Show: 4.21m (21.2%)
20:00- Watchdog: 4.63m (19.8%)
21:00- Traffic Cops: 4.15m (18.2%)

BBC Two
19:00- Games Today: 1.79m (8.6%)
20:00- Nigella Kitchen: 2.38m (10.4%)
20:30- Autumnwatch 2010: 2.4m (10.2%)
21:30- Autumnwatch Unsprung: 2.07m (9.2%)
22:00- Mock The Week then: 2.22m (11.4%)

ITV1 [inc. HD]
19:30- Tonight: The Cuts Are Coming: 2.94m (13.7%)
21:00- Law & Order: UK: 4.45m (19.5%)

Channel 4
20:00- River Cottage Every Day: 1.63m (7%) , +1: 377k (1.7%)
21:00- Dispatches: Bravo's Deadly Mission: 870k (4%) , +1: 132k (0.9%)
22:30- True Blood: 510k (4.2%) , +1: 44k (0.7%)

Five
19:30- Jaguar Adventure with Nigel Marven: 386k (1.8%)
20:00- Deep Sea Divers: 551k (2.4%)
21:00- Kiss of the Dragon: 869k (4.2%)

ITV2
21:00- What Katie Did Next: 944k (4.1%) , +1: 208k (1.2%)
22:00- Celebrity Juice: 947k (5.2%) , +1: 266k (2.6%)

Sky1
21:00- An Idiot Abroad: 1.16m (5.1%)

Primetime Shares
ITV1: 21.7% (HD: 0.8%)
BBC One: 22%
BBC Two: 9.4%
Channel 4: 4.7% (+1: 0.9%)
Five: 2.9%

Source: DS
-------------
Friday 8th October Overnights
BBC One
19:00- The One Show: 4.18m (21.1%)
19:30- Real Rescues: 3.67m (17.4%)
20:30- QI: 4.44m (18.8%)
21:00- New Tricks: 6.92m (30.1%)

BBC Two
20:00- Mastermind: 2.17m (9.5%)
20:30- Gardeners' World: 1.75m (7.4%)
21:00- The Song of Lunch: 1.28m (5.6%),
21:45- The Wind in the Willows: 834k (3.7%)
22:00- The Rob Brydon Show: 1.85m (9.4%).

ITV1 [excluding HD]
20:00- Cheetah Kingdom: 2.6m (11.4%)
21:00- Paul O'Grady Live: 4.01m (17.5%)

Channel 4
20:00- Come Dine with Me: 1.43m (6.2%) , +1: 336k on +1
21:00- Embarrassing Bodies: 1.28m (5.5%) , +1: 328k
22:00- 8 Out of 10 Cats: 1.47m (7.8%)

Five
20:00- Eddie Stobart: Trucks and Trailers: 1.53m (6.6%)
21:00- The Mentalist: 957k (4.2%)
22:00- Law & Order: SVU: 1.04m (5.7%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 24.9%
ITV1: 20.8% (HD: 0.5%)
BBC Two: 7%
Channel 4: 5.4% (+1: 1.2%)
Five: 4.4%

Source: DS

Another poor few ratings for Channel 4, mind you Five's Thursday primetime share isn't handy either.

Is Embarrassing Bodies repeating? Im sure it was getting 2.5-3+ last time

Did ITV2 beat five in primetime on Thursday night?

Some pretty uninspiring 4m ratings on Thursday and Friday at 9pm, but at least New Tricks did well.

Truly awful Thursday and Friday nights for C4.

ITV recorded good soap shares - and a strong recovery for L&O UK - on Thursday, but BBC1 still won the night, despite running an almost exclusively factual schedule.

Autumnwatch not as strong as I thought it would be on BBC2 - is that figure down on previous years?

ITV will be pleased with O'Grady's numbers. Maybe the "Robbie Williams effect" will also give a boost to Daybreak on Monday?

4m is pretty good for Paul O'Grady against that sort of competition on a Friday night for ITV. Weren't you predicting sub-3m for PoG before it started?

New Tricks still rating strong and consistently on Friday nights. C4 rated poorly on both nights. Not sure if Embarrasing Bodies are new episodes or not, but the series earlier this year was getting ~2m. An Idiot Abroad has been a massive success for Sky which is good to see as it'll hopefully encourage them to do more original homegrown British comedies.

I still think 4m is a bit "meh" for BBC One and ITV1 at 9pm at this time of year.

I thought Paul might settle under 3m by the end of his current series. Now it seems he'll settle just over 3m, albeit with fluctuations, such as last week's lower ratings, and last night's Gary and Robbie boost.