You watched a different show to me then. The move to Wembley only seemed to highlight how mediocore this series has been. It just seemed pointless, the stage was smaller than the one used in the main studio, the finalists were lost in that huge arena, playing a big arena is something an artist learns over time, progressing through bigger venues.

Also what was the reason for the judges performing with their acts? It made Luis look like a fourth wheel (which he is) and suggested the whole thing is contrived, what would they have done if Luis had an act who made the final?

Also what does it say that the third place finalist got booted off in week 1 by her own mentor? Whichever producer came up with that idea should be fired!

Most of it was pure filler, all that airtime yet each song was still limited to 2 minutes.

Someone off The Voice I believe - and same for the judges performing with their acts too.

I disagree with your views on the final - but I do think they should have had 3 performances per act as they did a couple of years ago rather than 3 guest performances. All in all a good show though despite the underwheliming ratings - but no surprise really. Why would people who've stuck with Merlin throughout suddenly be interested in watching TXF live?

Can't possibly be consolidated - maybe Live+VODSAL until 2am but not consolidated considering rzt reported virtually identical figures the day after:

- http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=1408
- http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=1423

Shock horror - the Saturday final show rated similarly to the past few weeks. It's only the third year in a row that has happened! Even when it was 25% higher, we still had the smilies being dropped all over the place.

It was a pretty good show to round off a flat series - the only issue was the final half hour but they've had that problem for a few years now where they're trying to leave some time to vote. I think they'd be better off doing 3 performances on Saturday and not eliminating anyone until Sunday, tbh. Liked the judges doing the duets - there's nothing viewers of these shows like to do more than judge the judges.

I suspect tonights show might see less of a boost than previous years. It's not as buzzed about so there's the potential for fewer casual viewers checking out the last half hour or whatever. But it'll definitely rate far better than last night anyway.

From what I saw, The X Factor's Wembley show was slick but bland. It lacked the energy of Strictly's Wembley show. The only thing it did better was the sound. The X Factor's dry ice/spotlight staging really is bland compared to Strictly's richer visual palette.

Show me somebody that says The X Factor looks better than Strictly and I will show you a liar.

I did expect The X Factor to be much higher, have they even promoted this final strongly on ITV across the week?

Saturday 10th December Overnights
BBC One
18:30- Strictly Come Dancing: 10.96m (44.2%)
* peak: 12.3m (47.5%)
20:10- Merlin: 5.53m (20.9%)
21:00- Casualty: 4.3m (16.2%)

BBC Two
19:00- Live Snooker: UK Championships: 1.09m (4.2%)

ITV1
19:00- This is Justin Bieber: 2.01m (8.1%)
20:00- The X Factor Final: 10.6m (40.1%) , +1: 328k (1.4%)
* peak (exc +1): 11.8m
* peak (inc +1): 12.2m
22:00- Piers Morgan's Life Stories: 4.14m (19.7%) , +1: 280k (22%)

Channel 4
20:00- Tony Robinson's Gods and Monsters: 620k (2.3%) , +1: 115k (0.4%)
21:00- Vicky Cristina Barcelona: 470k (2%) , +1: 113k (0.7%)

Channel 5
20:00- NCIS: 706k (2.7%)
21:00- Tommy Cooper's Christmas: 1.16m (4.4%)

ITV2
22:00- The Xtra Factor: 465k (2.3%)

Primetime Shares
ITV1: 27.9%
BBC One: 26.2%
BBC Two: 4.3%
Channel 5: 3.9%
Channel 4: 2.3%

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Source: DS

Not bad for Tommy Cooper.

Shouldn't This Is Justin Bieber have been shown on CITV?

Decent rating. The episode was good but probably shows that Casualty has lost a lot of its grit and drama. Should timeshift well though.

That's shockingly awful. I have never seen such a horrible rating on a Saturday night (maybe except the ill-fated Now or Never or Don't Scare the Hare). Shows how niche Justin Bieber's audience is.

I do wonder if Cowell had been invovled in this series the ratings will have been better.

I mean there could now be a chance that next year some BGT live shows and audition shows could beat X Factor. who would have thought that at the start of august.

It really is a dreadful rating! I can sort of see that ITV wanted to try and pull in a good 16-34 audience with this (and the JLS one-off last year) but as you say, these two acts only appeal to a certain demographic, and the casual viewers all tuned away. Next year on the same wekeend they should just air a repeat hour of You've Been Framed and TV Burp, which probably would get double that audience.

Have ANY of ITV's music shows worked over the years?
JLS was pretty shoddy as well if I remember rightly. And there much more mainstream than Justin Biebers bottle sucking demographic.

Looking back at when they had to show an auditions repeat, I'd say they should just show an Xtra Factor warm up show.
Some behind the scenes stuff, looking back at the contestants etc.

The JLS show was just as much a failure, not sure what ITV were thinking with Justin Bieber - they should know full well what a casual audience is and that they'd be turned away by the likes of Bieber. So even with his small demographic, he doesn't even have any appeal for the 'don't like Strictly' as a quick hour of TV.

Looks like Bieber did as badly as everyone expected. Quite why he was given such a plum slot is anyone's guess. The Celebrity Chase or a Best of TV Burp would have got more than double that in the same slot, whilst not allowing Strictly to benefit from such weak competition. ITV don't help themselves sometimes. A bit lower than I thought for Life Stories too - but at least it got a respectable rating.


The finalists actually coped well with the bigger arena, and if Louis had an act in the final the duets wouldn't have been with the mentors. It was clearly only decided after all of Louis' acts were knocked out. They probably won't get the chance to do it again due to changes on the panel so they may as well have done it last night, and it worked well. Also, I suspect it may have been done to steal a bit of The Voice's thunder, as that was one of their big things on the live shows.


Exactly, the ratings are no surprise. 10.9m is actually towards the higher end of what I was expecting, especially considering the rotten lead in. I'm thinking about 13.5m for tonight with a peak somewhere in the 15-16m range. So underwhelming, but not at such a low level that they can't salvage it next year. The Wembley final really worked and I'm sure they'll do it again next year.


Wembley X Factor was a better show than Wembley Strictly. Sure, Strictly may have a 'richer visual palette' but the production on TXF was top notch last night, the atmosphere was much better than Strictly's (partly because X Factor got 10,000 people in whereas SCD only got 6,000) and there wasn't that awful echo that plagued Strictly. This series of TXF has been lacklustre overall but it's ending on a high.

Take That, Westlife, Susan Boyle, Rod Stewart and Michael Buble music specials have done quite well for them. The ones which appeal to a wider, older demographic. Even Simply Red had a 5.1m rating last year, whereas Beyonce - one of the biggest female artists right now - could only manage a 4.4m in a better slot. A Phil Collins music special also got more viewers than the Beyonce one. Basically for higher ratings, go for the singers who appeal to an older audience who aren't necessarily 'current' or in the charts right now.

Shockingly poor primetime share, surely a record low for Channel 4?

Nope. They fell to 2.3% on the same night three years ago too.

With a film premiere in the schedule last night's collapse is more puzzling though. Very poor but not unprecedented.

Hugely underwhelming rating for X Factor, not even Wembley Arena could lift it. There is a saying, "you cant polish a turd"...

That Xtra Factor rating is very poor aswell. Bring back Konnie!

Casualty did pretty well too, normally people are calling it for axed after the same night in previous years.

It was a Woody Allen film, but probably most viewers thought Vicky Cristina Barcelona was an opera. I know I did.

Or avoid putting it on at the same time as a Peter Andre programme that's going to appeal to the same audience.

I think XF used to look better but the SCD revamp last year really worked and it is now the more slicker visually pleasing of the two. I know many people who had never watched SCD before who really got in to it last year.

The interesting thing about Strictly is that it's a good show, well produced but there's also still plenty of room for change/to improve. With the XF there's been a revamp of sorts what feels like every series to the point it backfired on them this year. I can't see where they could go with it next, it feels like they've done everything already. Rather than trying to top every series they should have paced themselves with the revamping.SCD feels reborn and like a show that still has years left in it, the XF by comparison is looking really stale and not even setting it in a huge arena has changed that.

In my view the press hyperbole that surrounds the XF, its judges and contestants has begun to backfire on it. Everything is so OTT and for me it's started to leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Whenever I watch Strictly there's a great energy and atmosphere about the show. It's never lost sight of the fact it's an entertainment show and it's fun to watch. It's competitive without being OTT or descending into farce or nastiness.

I do think XF has a lot of life left in it and that it will bounce back but I'm glad this series hasn't been as successful as previous ones as the show needed its wings clipped.

Quite shocking for the first part of the XF final to be beaten by the SCD semi-certainly didn't expect to see that happen, especially with the Wembley factor & the closest final ever. Something definitely needs to change with the judging panel that's for sure.

The shows either side of XF didn't perform well either. I thought Peter Andre would have been a bigger draw & 2.0m is shocking for Justin Bieber-I don't know why ITV persists with the music specials before XF though. They never work in that slot. JLS flopped and IIRC Cheryl Cole didn't perform that well. They'd be much better sticking with Harry Hill.

Watched Casualty for the first time in ages last night and it was a great episode-definitely felt like the end of an era. It should have been saved for a SCD sandwich next week where it could have got 6m.

That is poor for a C4 film premiere, I did lose interest halfway myself though - I went for 1.7m on the RPG! Pretty much as I expected for TXF & SCD, although I hadn't realised was TXF final!

Justin Bieber did pretty dire, just think that rating includes parents watching it under sufferance with their kids! ITV1 would have been better running Bieber at 6pm with ASFF at 7pm or The Chase as has been mentioned. 4m+ for PA on Life Stories is more than expected, he is strictly ITV2 fodder - PA could only dream of regular ratings that high.

After the Beyonce rating following the highest rated show of the week, I didn't expect Bieber to do any better. They can shift singles but people here don't necessarily want to watch them for an hour. Some appeal more than others.


That's a good point about the mentors singing with their contestants. Didn't think of that. I think Will.i.am will be the Louis and stay seated...he's not a singer!


Tonight will do better. Even though ITV promoted it as a final on Saturday & Sunday views still see the final as Sunday only. I expected a bigger spike for Saturday but not to be huge as ratings haven't really moved the last few weeks.



I was saying to someone else that X Factor did the sound better than Strictly, but as a show X Factor was slick but bland.Strictly made better use of the space and was lit far better. X Factor has won awards in the past for their lighting but the last couple of series it has come across as ordinary. Spotlights, dry ice, flames. Dull.

If you're moving to a bigger arena the show needs to be more spectacular. Visually Strictly looked stunning, X Factor looked good.

Anyone what Morecambe and Wise did, Tommy Cooper did decently. I imagine Channel 5 will wheel them out when CSI: NY isn't on.