Could you just let Mediawatch-uk know, please?

K

If you think The X Factor is even partially responsible for "the dumbing down of society". You are stupid, probably more so than someone that watches X Factor...

I was raised on Summertime Special - imagine Bernie Clifton on an ostrich, Shane Richie doing stand-up, Orville the Duck singing...........then talk about dumbing down in 2012... shows like TOWIE and BB do a lot more 'damage' if that is the right word...or do they reflect the youth of today?

A lot of these silly shows of the past were knowingly silly and foolish.

X-Factor did sort of start out that way, but Mr Humourless (Cowell) seemed to take all of that away with his constant meddling.


That is the theme with much of TV today, it's stupid and doesn't know it.

Strictly certainly has always known it. So has Lets Dance - Come Dine With Me etc.

Its a bit of a sweeping statement and not one I feel holds up to scrutiny.

I think the problem with TV is that older people can't adapt to change. It's not likely to ever go back, no matter how much whinging you do. And just because you like stupidly highbrow documentaries on BBC Four (Secret Life of Motorways, anyone?) doesn't the mean the rest do or should do. And just because you watch crap on TV doesn't make you stupid, I know loads of intelligent people that watch TOWIE, and less intelligent people that watch documentaries, to claim your TV has a massive effect on your intelligence levels is wrong.

The X Factor format isn't exactly new either. Nina Myskow was doing the same nasty judge act on New Faces in the 80s.

Where the Cowell formats have gone wrong is giving unrealistic expectations to young people and seem more exploitative. Yet, they're not responsible for the supposed dumbing down of society, that's much deeper and television is not to blame for this.

But a TV programme can change society - ask anyone in Ireland in the glory days of the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne at the helm when it discussed previously-taboo subjects in a strongly Catholic Ireland and undoubtedly changed perceptions and what was acceptable in society.

The media is to blame. They realised Big Brother was finished long ago, why can't Murdoch and the Daily Fail realise the same is happening with X Factor. Promoting this kind of celebrity worship is just the kind of vile thing you expect of these clowns.

TV can change people for the good and bad, a lot of people will say that a programme really opened their eyes about a certain issue. The news programmes are very effective at changing public attitudes, most people had no opinion either way about Afghanistan until the US/UK invaded....then suddenly we are supposed to hate them?

The judges/producers are the problem with TXF, there is nothing wrong with having a talent show on tv. There has to be an angle in 2012 to hook viewers.

Up on Thursday then, that's good. This series is proving to be gloriously entertaining.

X Factor is getting mentioned a bit today, but does anyone think ITV would have been better launching Red or Black this week, then X Factor next week?

They haven't really been able to market either very effectively, and R/B just hasn't been mentioned despite being an Ant and Dec programme.

Sounds like CBB did quite well then if it held up above 1.77m on a Friday against Eastenders. If it could stabilize here that would be alright.

Terrible rating for that Corrie "spin-off" at 9pm. ITV1 have had two 9pm shows this week that came in well below 2million and both had Corrie lead-ins.

I think Eastenders has probably done the bare minimum it needed to this week. The "big week" hasn't really paid off ratings wise although it has done a decent job in at least making sure the regular viewers returned after its BBC2 stint. The episodes themselves were reasonably decent so hopefully the reputation is on the rise now. Emmerdale and Corrie aren't in the strongest of health either right now. Not withstanding the normal autumn ratings bounce, Corrie has the return of Wednesday regular slot coming up and Emmerdale has its 40th anniversary live episode in October so they could be boosted then.

BiB I think that was the real aim with this week so on that basis it has done okay. Although the beeb were probably expecting it to be dented more than it was on BBC2.

As for X Factor exploiting the young I think exploiting the mentally ill during the early stages is the bigger issue myself.

Why doesn't The Sun in particular realise TXF is a mediocre talent contest in the same way Opportunity Knocks was in the seventies, which coincidentally had double the audience figures but a fraction of the attention The Sun gives to this show? I mean this most sincerely, folks

Wow - not only did the very heavily trailed spin off from ITV's most iconic show - the programme that defines the network - bomb in the most spectacular of fashion, it was trounced by the bitter enemy, EastEnders - and recorded one of the lowest flagship 9pm ratings in ITV's history!

And to add to ITV's woes, it's a two parter! More of the same next week?

Or will it get emergency bumped out of primetime - surely they have to think about it with those pathetic numbers?


A bit of an understatement there - the only remaining "loose end" in the sad Moors Murders/Brady-Hindley episode was whether poor Keith Bennett's mother would fulfil her wish of finding her son's body and giving him a decent burial before she lost her own battle with cancer. That possibility has closed today with her passing.

What a remarkable coincidence 24 hours after the story broke about the supposed letter, itself part of Channel 4's publicity for the show.

Will be very interesting to see if they pull it or not. I suspect the extra news coverage this weekend will make them want to stand fire from a ratings and PR perspective - but they need to do some hasty updating I imagine.

The 'promo' for it is one of the most lazy pieces of shit I've ever seen. Even with such a failure on their hands as the first series, this show still comes across as very arrogant and entitled.

Agreed. Whats worse is people excuse it.
Its not needed in the show imo, The Voice auditions were evidence enough of this.

From the press launch thread tweets:

Strictly Come Dancing series average - 10.87m. X Factor series average - 12.04m. It's a bit like an Emmerdale fan saying it trounced Eastenders in 2011 because it came out on top a few times (but lost most of the time, by series average and had a lower peak rating).

With The Voice I think there's a risk of the comparative first few episodes of X Factor being lower, although once we get past week 4 it should all be plain sailing (even if it starts dropping again it's unlikely to collapse quite so spectacularly).


The way people talk about the Olympics you'd think the kids that were good at sport were being bullied by the geeks and that we, as a nation, had a serious shortage of skilled javelin throwers who would greatly help to create employment and reduce our public sector deficit and balance of payments.

...

Goes off to create formats for "The Next Mark Zuckerberg" and "Economic Mastermind".

...

The X Factor is Saturday night TV. Doctors watch it. Students watch it. The unemployed watch it. Royalty watch it. Indeed, whole families watch it together. There is no social message to it beyond the old "having a dream" which comes up in all kinds of media (including all over The Olympics). They don't even promise success to the winners anymore and some winners serve as particularly good reminders of that. The successful contestants aren't making a fortune out of having 6 kids and claiming the benefits. Some of them are overnight success stories, but that is nothing new. Others have been plugging away for years (indeed, this is the case a lot more often than the show ever admits!).

It's just entertainment. A bit like 99% of what is on TV, and I include the Olympics. Sure, some people will be inspired to get into the music industry or TV or whatever - if you still have a job at HMV, send a letter to ITV thanking them for putting on the Sunday results show! Likewise, some people might take up Badminton all of a sudden and give their local JJB Sports a lift for the week. But for the majority of the audience, it's escapism.

I've seen it and it seems to say, WATCH THIS, IT'S THE BEST SHOW ON EARTH. Also might it be a case of ITV knowing it's so bad, it's a case of please watch this show, you'll enjoy it, honest.
I think ROB will pull in 4 million tonight, then drop to 3 million. OK not bad compared with some of their flops, but for such a hyped up show, very poor.
Dancc might like this next comment, I think CBB is holding up quite well and I wouldn't worry as the show followed a very weak BB. I'm still confident it will hover around the 2 million level for most of the series. To Channel 5, this is their Corrie.

The news that broke yesterday it looks like was embargoed until 00:00 yesterday morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19292164

"The police were alerted to the possibility of information about the location of Keith's remains by the makers of a Channel 4 documentary about Brady, who said Ms Powell had told them she had received letters from the killer, one of which was for Mrs Johnson."

The DS thread was created at 00:01 yesterday morning so presumably the media were not allowed to report it until Friday.

A very sad coincidence though with the death of Winnie Johnson today.

Thanks for that, and thanks to Pizza also. Im afraid that although the IT is sorted the broadband still needs some work. Posting on here via dial-up is bordering on impossible so posts from me will be few and far between at the moment.

I shall spend some time trying to work out what the The Flowerpot Gang is all about and why its on in the middle of primetime. No doubt it will please George S

Immensely sad

In ratings terms there are other ways for a show to beat another without directly rating higher. For instance how much was the XF down on 2010's figures and how does that compare to how much SCD was down on its 2010 series?