I am beginning to get concerned George with your fixation that I have or had some sort of connection with GMTV or any other breakfast programme. My only connection has ever been as a viewer. I think your local phone directory will have numbers that can help you

Key ratings are CiN recap, amazing to get 4.5m+ also SCD really doing the business with a cracking viewing share, IAC down 1.2m on 2010. A strong rating for Knowing on a Saturday evening. Ken Dodd higher than expected also. Look at that Xtra Factor rating - lowest ever that I have seen. IACGMOOHN beating it clearly an hour later.

He should have stayed on The One Show on a non-exclusive BBC contract and put up with having Fridays off. There would have been nothing to stop him doing football for ITV if they had really wanted him for that.

Xtra Factor is down 89k and 0.4 share points on the same episode last year, whilst the IAC spinoff is a good 159k and 0.8 share points up.

IAC is averaging 8.57m viewers per show this year, down 0.28m on 2010 average. Though last night it was up on Thursday's show by 0.26m.

Thank you. I have quite a build-up of episodes on my PVR, so I'm looking forward to the Christmas break, in order to catch up.

Alternatively you could say it's currently up 0.12m from 2010's average, including +1 .

That rating for I'm a Celebrity yesterday is a low one - its smallest rated Saturday episode in the last 3 years. It's been a mixed bag so far for IAC: it started very well the first couple of days, then Wednesday/Thursday dipped, Friday improved y-o-y but then last night's rating comes along which is its lowest for a 1st Saturday episode in a few years! There doesn't seem to be as much buzz around it as this time last year, so I can see it settling down to an average lower than last year's once the series has ended. It needs a moment which will get people talking to prevent a mid-series dip/slump. Last year it was the Gilian McKeith fainting moment, not sure what could happen this year to help increase buzz. Losing Freddie Starr quite early on didn't help as he seemed like good value compared to some of the other so-called celebrities.

Wow, Knowing was only released theatrically two years ago, that went to terrestrial TV very quickly.

They should've had it on tonight though.

There may be an argument for saying primetime starts at 7pm on aweekday when we have the News hours at 6pm (or maybe not, given the high ratings for the BBC's regional news programmes) but on Saturdays the entertainment has always started well before 7pm. In fact I can think of a certain singing talent contest that used to start well before 7pm.


Only by 0.4% which is not very much when ITV1 devoted 2 and a quarter hours (well over 50%) of primetime to 2 of their 4 biggest TV shows.

Low rating for I'm a Celebrity. it should do better tonight though after X Factor.

Was forced to watch XF at a friend's house last night - something I would never normally do.

What an embarrassment.

15 minutes? (6 * 2.5?) singing in 75 minutes.

At least 3 of the acts you could barely hear the "act's" voices due to the background music being so loud.

Judges saying everyone was brilliant.

Masses of screaming and shouting.

Well if that is the best way a large chunk of the country can be entertained it's a desperately sad state of affairs.

But as posted earlier - this type of show is by far the easiest to market / hype so it's inevitable. Just rather sad and pathetic.

I imagine if you're not used to it - it comes as quite a shock to the system!

There's an almost terrifyingly slickness applied to the whole thing - perfectly honed for maximum hype. I heard somewhere that XF producers actually play in additional crowd noise through speakers to artificially "up the atmosphere" in the studio. Don't know whether that's true, but it's the sort of canny move I wouldn't put past them. And just about sums the whole show up, in a way.

Actually, regarding the sound… I wonder how on earth XF are going to cope at Wembley for the final. Strictly struggled with an echo and getting everyone heard yesterday - even though their audience does usually shut up when Bruce or the judges are talking. You can barely hear the XF judges at the best of times. What hope when they've 10,000 people?

--

Brilliant result for Strictly last night - a fantastic result to match the hefty bump it took at the same stage last year. And a good result for Merlin too - which will timeshift happily into the mid-7m's. Incredibly impressive stuff.

Steady for TXF, but any growth it's managed this series seems to be extremely hard won (as evidenced last week). The natural surge it usually takes through November to December just isn't materialising making it hard to stick those year-to-year comparisons. Also, pretty underwhelming for IAC, though it has another chance to kick-start some momentum tonight. The scheduling with two XF lead-ins to boost you into the week must be a producers dream, really, because it can help them overcome what might otherwise turn into a downward spiral.

Also should mention a fantastic result for The Killing to find the best part of a million people willing to read subtitles. Just proves that the TV watching public isn't completely docile just yet! And abysmal for Pan Am - just as the scheduling has been. No matter - it's getting canned anyway.

You didn't get the job did you? Soooooooo much bitterness!




I think neither can be wrong as they both use different parameters. So they're both right.

Personally I think the weekend is different for measuring primetime as the main shows can start around 6pm as The X Factor and Strictly have in the past.

Your post is a bigger cliche than most of the things said by Louis Walsh on the show

"I was FORCED to watch the show"
"I never usually watch"
"I thought it was rubbish" etc etc

It could apply to any show that is big but that you don't watch yourself.

The problems for Pan Am is that rating figures simply aren't taking off here or in the states.

Onto a serious point and onto the X factor, does anyone know how many people watch it live, and how many watch via catchup devices before the 2am deadline as this may account for lower than expected following viewers for IAC.

I agree about the set too dark and ugly. Never liked it, It's just TV screens. Didn't like this year's Children In Need set either same as last year's.Dark and dull. And as for that terrible theme for The X Factor it's so obviously influenced by Pop Idol. Sounds awful. One thing I like about The Voice them is that it does sound good and much better than Pop Idol & The X Factor.

There'll probably be a set change next year. The current set has been in place for 3 years and the one before was for 3 years too IIRC, so they'll probably make some changes in that regard. I think the current set is fine - when it was introduced, people were saying it was one of the best sets they'd ever seen production-wise. Three years on though, it's probably time to make some changes to it. I agree about the lighting- it's been a bit too dark this series and this is not necessarily something which has always been the case having looked back at some 2009 series clips. As for the theme tune, they updated it a little bit this year though I preferred the old one. No point changing it again after all these years. At the end of the day however, they can make as many changes cosmetically as they want, but what mostly matters is that final bunch of 12 contestants. Get that wrong, as it's been evident this time, no matter how many publicity stunts the show tries to pull off about judges' rowing, contestants' persona lives or behind-the-scene troubles, no matter what guests they get to sing on the show, a certain % of people just won't want to commit their time to watching a bunch of contestants who aren't that talented/likeable/interesting for so many weeks and the show will find it difficult growing week on week ratings-wise. The judging panel needs some tweaking too but I think it's the contestant selection which matters the most.

Think is i don't think it's about the contestants. IMO i think it's the best top 6 in X Factors history. No joke acts. I think all of them are quite good.

The 6 they've got left now are pretty good, but the top 12 overall wasn't great, and there weren't enough characters. I agree with rzt, whilst making some cosmetic changes would be good (and I think they will), it's getting the right mix of contestants for the top 12 that's the most important thing. The top 6 now are fine, but they didn't have the right mix at the top 12 stage. Also I think they should revamp bootcamp completely as that's where the rot seemed to begin this year. Judges houses are fine but they shouldn't repeat the twist from the first live show again, and they should just have 12 to begin with on the live shows.

As for cosmetic changes, a new set and slightly brighter lighting are the main things they could do with. Also it might be worth making a few changes to the format of the Sunday results show (not too many as it still works quite well). Getting rid of the group performance and adding an extra feature (like the press grillings shown in the VTs the other week, or maybe a few judges phone calls) or an extra guest instead would help.

Regarding the judges, I'd keep Louis and Gary and ditch Kelly and Tulisa. Louis will obviously be back and I think they need to keep at least one of this year's new judges and Gary is their best bet. He's done a decent job this year, and deserves another go. Filling Cowell's shoes was never going to be easy and whilst he hasn't provoked the strong feelings that Cowell did last year I think that may come in time - it was never really going to happen on his first year. Kelly needs to go - she isn't coming across well at all, although to get rid of her they'll need to surgically remove her head from up Gary's arse first. Tulisa hasn't really made much of an impression and I can't see her doing so now either so they might as well try someone else. Ideally they'd get Cheryl back but whether she'd do it is another matter. For the other seat they could try and poach Mel B from the Aussie X Factor. She was pretty good on that from what I saw as she played the nasty role. Her and Louis would work well together (they already get on well I believe - it could be a bit like him and Sharon in the early series) and she's still got a decent profile over here so that could work.

The final 6 are a decent bunch but they're not the kind of contestants who will get people talking and I don't think they're that great singing-wise either. None of them are as good (or even come close) as Leona, Alexandra or Rebecca Ferguson from previous years and there's nothing outstanding about this final 6. They're quite good, as you say, but pretty forgettable. Amelia Lily might technically be a better singer than Cher Loyd from last year, but you can sure bet that the latter generated more word of mouth than the former. The contestants which finished between 7-16 were mainly a poor bunch and that's the problem - you need a good set right from the start of the live shows to get positive word of mouth around to help build up the audience week by week. Also, I do think the show missed a 'joke act': a joke act is always a catalyst for a high rated series- all of SCD's 3 highest rated series had one (John Sergeant, Widdy, Russell Grant) and the last 2 series of XF had one (Jedward, Wagner) but this series didn't. Whether people like it or not, a big 'joke act' for viewers at home to laugh at or even root for, nearly always works ratings-wise and that's been missing this time - humour and a sense of fun is missing from this series. As I said before, it's about getting that balance right between talented contestants and characters who people will talk about, which this time the producers/judges have got wrong.

I would not be surprised if a small percentage (of X Factor addicts) who watch TXF live then flick to ITV+1 to watch the final hour for a second viewing. Just think if we had 5100 regular posters on this thread - we could start our own r.t.a.r.b.

SCD,TXF,IAC have around 10m fans, that is why we have free choice here, people like different tv shows - I don't think any more or less of viewers who watch reality tv and not everyone can cope with Danish and subtitles on a Saturday night (I lived there for 2 years so I reluctantly got used to it.)

'Sad'? It's a Saturday night entertainment show. Let's not get carried away...

Maybe he is missing the glory days of Saturday night ITV1 - 321, Beadles About, Game For a Laugh, Blind Date, You Bet!

On the subject of a potential X Factor revamp next year I'll say this - I think the producers would be foolish to (once again) make the mistake that bigger ultimately means better. If I were them I would be tempted to move to a smaller studio and potentially move the auditions to smaller locations as well. The real problem with The X Factor studio is that it has absolutely no atmosphere. Its just noise.


I'm fairly sure that not presenting The One Show on Friday was actually quite low on the reasons he left (although I know it was blown up as a big deal in the media). I suspect the fact that the BBC weren't prepared to offer him more sports coverage was the primary motivator for his decision to leave. My guess is that had the BBC taken the Friday One Show off of him and then also handed him more sports presenting (say as an anchor for the Olympics) he would have happily stayed.