Originally Posted by Jonwo:
“That's surprising as we've had actors like Ashley Jensen and presenters like Cat Deeley (although her accent is not as strong in general) so a Welsh accent shouldnt be that much of a concern. Makes you wonder why they didn't opt for an American presenter or try and lure Ryan Seacrest from American Idol although he's a workaholic with his E! commitments, his radio show, Idol and the Top 40.”
Seacrest shrewdly played on that expectation. Simon Fuller signed him to a highly unusual deal that made him exclusive to CKX Entertainment, rather than FOX. He also paid through the nose - $15m a year. And they could only get FOX to cover $5m of it. Needless to say, CKX shareholders were unimpressed. It does cast doubt over whether he'll continue. Under new ownership, CKX are unlikely to write another cheque that big and if FOX won't pay up, will Seacrest take a substantial cut in his pay when he has so many other jobs?
They apparently started with Corbin Bleu (the idea being to have 2 young hot performers hosting to differentiate) but Nicole didn't like him and they ended up with Steve.
Originally Posted by AlexiR:
“I remain unconvinced there's any genuine interest in The X Factor US. Fox have reportedly spent tens of millions on promotion but have seen very little mainstream splash for that money and that whole Cheryl stunt was a complete bust in the US. I'm going lower than expected for X Factor. A 6 in the demo is my upper limit right now.”
I think there's interest. But I don't see how it can compete with Idol - it will most likely be feeding off a section of Idol viewers with the appetite for a similar show in the fall. I may be wrong but I don't see where it's going to find the viewers to do ~10.0 numbers.
The long drawn out nature of it has been an issue, IMO. NBC announced The Voice several months after X Factor and nobody really cared at first. Then they had a short but really intense period of promotion so expectations were rising but it was still able to beat expectations for the premiere.
I think in terms of promotion, X Factor has struggled for momentum. The long drawn out nature of the judge/host selection and to then end up with a fairly unremarkable team. Then 2 "sneak preview" things over the summer. The second one was 8 minutes long and appears to have shown the 2 big auditions from the first episode! Plus, I tend to think that there comes a point where no extra amount of promotion can add to the number of viewers. People are going to watch or they aren't. Showing them the same advert 4 times or 22 times isn't going to change that. Now with the relentless plugging for 20 months they've ended up with a show that could be a "flop" if it gets, for example, 15m viewers and a 5.5 demo rating!
I think we're looking at demo numbers closer to The Voice premiere than the Idol one.
