Of course you need credibility in reality TV, without it there's no trust. The illusion of reality TV is the viewer being in control and identifying with who they perceive as other people like them. Who they then want to support.

If they don't feel they are in control it then just becomes a bad soap and the illusion is broken. You only had to look at the fall-out from week 1 of the lives this year to see how that illusion was still intact for those who were still watching. Some stopped then because of it, and those who had already stopped after the last stunt just had it confirmed why they had given up on it in the first place. All that attention just did yet more damage rather than revive interest, because lack of credibility is what the whole problem is.

If you don't or won't get the credibility back, you then have to play it as knowing self-parody with a figure of authority to mock rather than a puppet like Barlow. Cowell is key to the whole thing, and without the puppet master there to turn their anger on their anger is turned on the show itself.

There is no great mystery why the ratings are going down millions each year since it jumped the shark in 2010. It's exactly what happened to BB, and in the 7th series as well. When trust is broken so is the show.

Strictly results show comfortably beats XF results show again.

http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/916305-str...ults-yet-again

more revamps? apart from SC saying he;s ripped up the rule book, revamped theme, another judging panel, tweaked categories etc .. yep the rot has set in

It's hilarious watching the xfactor get beat by strictly.

About time they were brought down to earth,

I can't believe I am about to say this but I think One Direction's performance in a few weeks time could actually save the show, they pulled in the viewers last year (that results show was the second most watched show last year, even beat the first part of the final). Even more so if they had Little Mix also on the same night, considering DNA is released on the same day I believe.

Also, they need to revert to the celebrity duets, that's what makes a great XF moment. Ella duetting with the likes of Cher, Adele could recreate the sort of moment achieved by Alex & Beyonce back in 2008.

This years series is beyond 'saving'. There are only 6 weeks left and it has been on air for 11 weeks and still shows no signs of improving. If it was going to be rescued it would have happened long before now. It's firmly stuck where it is and I don't expect it to gain or lose many viewers. Their focus should be just to sort out a huge shake up for next year, and if that fails then there isn't much they can do. This year was supposed to reverse last years problems and decline, Simon said so much before the series began, but it has only made things 10 times worse.

If Twitter is to believed, the show had 7.7m, and 8.6m peak.

That's way lower than expected considering that it was the best show yet this series

But then again, it was bonfire night. They would need a miracle to make it to 9m now.

That's impressively low

Can't use that as an excuse. Strictly increased its rating and beat it by 2.5 million.

All the fireworks here started around 6 so you can't blame that. People are just turning off

X Factor 7.6m (peak 8.5m)
Strictly Come Dancing 9.8m (peak 10.8m)

Strictly extends its rating lead. Maybe, the ratings for XFactor would be higher if there were real genuine performers on this series. Unfortunately, there appears to be a lot of mediocrity with judges comments exaggerating what talent there is.

Damage limitation seems to be failing as well, similar to The Voice.

It could keep tumbling till the final.

I am one of the missing millions.... I haven't watched the show for two weeks, and haven't even got it on my skyplus any more.

It's boring and predictable and I don't like ANY of the acts. Lous Walsh has got on my last nerve for years, I didn't like Nicole whatsit on the American version (or at all) and Tulisa and Gary are struggling.

I think it's had its day, to be honest. Nobody believes it's not fixed, and as a result people aren't buying into the whole "you can save your favourite" schtick any more.

Maybe they should give it a couple of years break and bring it back as new and improved?

But that's totaly irrelevent - it's too late to help

If people have already stopped watching because earlier shows were poor they won't know last night was "the best yet"

Then because they didn't watch last night they aren't likely to do so next week so TXF is on a slippery slope

Also best yet in the context of this year means very little.

It was still pretty dire, with the favourite in Ella giving a pretty shocking vocal and I like her! The way they front-load the shows now with the voting change gives the impression it gets worse as it goes on too.

Rather than before which ramped up as it went on.

I only watched to see how they explained Lucy's absence and turned off when James destroyed 'Don't Speak'.

If Rylan was kicked out tonight, would that have any impact?

Had it been on bonfire night a few years ago I doubt they would have been that low. Take XF in 2009 & 2010. The Saturday show in 2009 was on Halloween (not bonfire night but a good enough example) and they still had around 10m, and the Sunday show in 2010 which was also on Halloween that year had 13m. With the TV audience at the time, had XF had 9m+, it could have easily managed 40% of the audience.

We could see a 9m average just about, tonight considering it's the results.

They did everything they could to keep Rylan/Union J and dispose of Lucifer/Disctict 3 last night.

If last night doesn't shift Lucifer, they have a big problem. Rylan was used up as villain in week 1, he's now become more sympathetic and isn't an issue really for the show. If anything him leaving at the moment would do more damage as the show is just too dull.

Is Chris this 'Lucifer' you're talking about?

Apparently a lot of people are voting for Chris so that's got nothing to do with the figures. Rylan still being there presumably does, considering it's quite clear that he cannot sing well.

Lucifer can't sing, he's excruciatingly flat most of the time. Last night was like a dog howling in places.

Although Ella surprisingly was the worst of the night.

As it says here:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrit...-finds-1404331



Ella's song choice wasn't the best out of all of them, but what would you have expected from her?

Blaming Rylan is silly, considering there have been joke acts like Wagner most years - and the ratings were amazing.

The fact Rylan has become tolerable just shows how bad the rest are.

Everything has backfired this year really.


Ella's vocals last night were atrocious, possibly the worst of any of them in the lives.

She missed more notes than she hit and couldn't hold anything.

I think ratings then were based on the whole atmpsphere of the show, the fun etc, which they have lost. Are the producers taking any notice!?

Also, Wagner could 'kind of' sing. And he wasn't the main 'hate figure' in that series.