Yes, why not. Might help raise Daybreak's profile!!

Paul O'Grady also said he'd rather sweep the streets than work at ITV again. And where is he working now? I think it's almost certain it'll be him, and I think Simon will still do it too. It isn't a massive commitment and he'd be a big loss to it. Those two and either Mel B or Christine Bleakley would be pretty good (get rid of Amanda).

Here's another thought - would it be possible to film X Factor USA in New York? It would make commuting between the UK and the US much easier and could mean that the BGT lives could run weekly next Autumn with Cowell still doing them, as he'd literally just have to fly in to the UK, do the show and fly back to New York. With X Factor it's obviously a bit more complicated doing 2 series at once but it should be possible for BGT. If they were to take the AGT and X Factor format of performances on Saturday and results on Sunday then he'd only need to do a video link-up for the voting on the Sunday show and wouldn't need to be there.

They could get Adrian Chiles as a judge as well. (oh... wait, they want their ratings to go up, not down... sorry)

Not sure if New York have the same studio facilities compared to Los Angeles, I imagine it's more expensive to film in NY.

Christine Bleakley could do the ITV 2 Extra shows without too much fuss, dont know if ITV should ask BGT or X-Factor to carry her.

Expect Christmas TV schedules on November 30th:

http://www.bds.tv/broadcasters/bbcTvInternal.shtml

That's why I suggested a different approach for X Factor on Wild Card Week, more of a split - sorry the last ones had a few mistakes:

Saturday
5:45pm Animals Do The Funniest Things
6:45pm You've Been Framed
7:15pm The X Factor
8:45pm Harry Hill's TV Burp
9:15pm Piers Morgan's Life Stories
10:15pm The Late News

Sunday
6:45pm All Star Family Fortunes
*should see boost
7:30pm The X Factor
*the second part of the performance show, for the Wild Cards only maybe?
8:30pm Downton Abbey
*should see boost
9:30pm The X Factor
*potential mammoth ratings at the time it's at
10:15pm The Late News

Don't a couple of the judges on Strictly Come Dancing, go to the US during the week to do Dancing With the Stars?

I assume that's filmed in LA.

Both Bruno and Len fly between London and LA in midweek.

For anyone wondering, the full slot rating including HD for TV Burp was 5.74m (24.1%).

There are a few studios in NY but not large enough to cater Simon's X Factor and B/AGT. Which is why AGT is filmed on the West Coast

It's the reason why the results show isn't live as they have to be in LA by Monday then leave for London on Wednesday. I imagine during the Spring, they stay in Los Angeles. The jet lag must be killer but I imagine they can manage it since they've both shows for five years running plus they're likely to be in first or business class.

Right so you'd move TV Burp to a ridiculously late slot, have ITV shut up shop on Saturday at 10.15, drop The Cube, shove Downton Abbey to 8.30 and have X Factor results going on past 10pm on a school night? Good plan.

ITV got a 38% share last night and will have another epic night tonight, they are obviously doing nothing wrong.

ITV are on a bit of roll at the moment with all nights either performing well (Sat, Sun, Mon, Wed, Thur) or better than they have been known to previously against strong competition (Tue, Fri)

Haha! The X Factor rejects will be appearing on Daybreak tomorrow! .... I thought the whole purpose of Daybreak was that it was going to be more news focused and classier?

Lol, I was going to say that!

Slight own goal by BBC, Single Father didn't start until 21:02. I'd have started it slightly before 21:00 myself to capitalise immediately on the channel hoppers.

seems odd to have X-Factor rejects on the same show as Robbie & Gary, still Monday could become "X-Factor reject Monday" for the show.

Obviously they've given up on the classy approach and are just going for the showbiz approach now.

Note that "Essex" got X Factor nod in the 8:45 break. In addition ITV2 have carried a permanent DOG on screen to mark the start of this programme for the past couple of days.

It really does need to be rating close to a million tonight for all of that to have been worthwhile. Anything lower than about 700k would be poor given all this tedious hype.

It follows Xtra Factor, so that is as good lead in as its going to get.

Even if it starts well (by ITV 2 standards) I predict it will drop next week.

Harry Hill's TV Burp actually pulled in its best ratings in a later slot

8.45pm is perfect for the show, a bridge between a family and adult audience - after all, it appeals to both. It could attract 7m there - it's the only show able to keep the X Factor audience.

ITV2 is one long tedious hype. They should really try and go for the Next Top Model franchise instead of showing tat about Paris Hilton and the Jedward show, that bombed. I daresay 2 million people would tune in to watch smart looking women on a catwalk than some idiots trying to be friends with Paris Hilton.
NTM would be a huge coup for them instead of making shows about X Factor rejects that struggled to get 300,000 viewers and who really is bothered about Paris Hilton.

Interesting how some posters are saying last nights rating for TXF is alittle underwhelming. Although I can kinda see the point, it's worth noting the Saturday show never performs as well as the Sunday show and that part 1 of the final last year averaged 12.4m. So hardly a disaster by any means considering the run time.

ITV2's Essex programme sounds remarkably like C4's Seven Days and we all know what a huge ratings turkey that's turned out to be.

How much promotion did C4 give Seven Days? It must have been on a par with ITV's promotion of Essex (albeit that C4 don't have a 14m+ programme to stick trailers inside).

Eurovision is over and done with - 20-odd performances, scoring from 30 odd nations and winner's song - in a mere 3h 10 mins.

Simon Cowell needs 3h 35m to do the same for 16...


Nonsense. In the 70s there were many homes that still didn't even have a television, and nobody had a video for timeshift viewing, unlike now when most homes have 4 or 5 TVs, various PVR and VCR devices, laptops.

We're a right old bunch of goggleboxes now.





So even ITV viewers are struggling to last the pace now!

Breakdowns suggest SCD should in theory have a higher overnight rating next week by starting 15 mins later - it will suffer as some flick over to TXF before SCD finishes, or when the last performance is done with, but you'd think many will stay to the end and pick up TXF a bit late.


TXF rejects alongside the BBC rejects....

I see Loraine Kelly (the one ITV viewers like watching) is now being considered for a threesome with Adrian and Christine.

In presenting terms...

I was expecting something in the 12.5m-13.0m range for X Factor so it's a bit below that. My prediction for the RPG was 12.8m, that's 4% higher than the actual rating which is not wildly out. A few hundred thousand at that level isn't the same as Law & Order coming in a few hundred thousand lower than expected.

I'm not sure the wildcard thing is working. The pace of last nights show was pretty good but there just seems to be too many acts. Little things like calling out the names in 2's tonight didn't really work but was necessary due to the huge numbers. And much of the 10.00-10.15pm segment last night was the recap! No wonder viewers drifted away. As I've said, I think a separate wildcard competition with just 1 going forward would have been far more interesting.

Strictly had a good night as well - they seem to have got it right this year. Very poor for Family Fortunes, however.