If they didn't make changes then it just becomes stale. Every year they make subtle changes but it makes a huge difference, but the changes you can't really notice. This was the first year that there weren't any changes and the ratings have plumetted.

But it's become stale anyway. There has to be a reason why IAC and Strictly are still pulling the viewers in and XF isn't? And both of those shows have been on longer than XF has.

It's simple. IAC might be following the same script every year but it's funny and entertaining. Ant and Dec make that show. Strictly has got it right too. It's a family show with a great panel of judges. It's all lighthearted and it's about the contestants, not the judges. The bottom two dancers are usually the correct ones to be there. No one in that show is bigger than the show itself. With X Factor it's ALL scripted right down to the judges comments. The viewers left X Factor in droves because of the blatant fixing and manipulation. The first live episode this series with the producer seen crawling to Louis Walsh during the sing off was the nail in the coffin for X Factor imo with the final nails going in every time they kept on saving Rylan over the better singers.

X Factor has been well and truly trounced in the ratings this year especially by Strictly, and the overnights have been kind to them.

According to BARB for October:

Week 1:

Strictly Show Saturday: 9.97 (Number 1 rated show on BBC, Number 2 of the week)
Strictly Show Friday: 9.22 (Number 2 rated show on BBC, Number 3 of the week)
X Factor Show Saturday: 8.61 (Number 3 rated show on ITV, Number 5 of the Week)
X Factor Show Sunday: 9.09 (Number 2 rated show on ITV, Number 4 of the Week)
Downton Abbey won ratings week with 10.22

Week 2 (No ITV viewing figures)

Week 3

Strictly Show Saturday: 10.97 (Number 1 rated show on BBC, Number 1 of the week)
Strictly Show Sunday: 9.70 (Number 2 rated show on BBC, Number 3 of the week)
X Factor Show Saturday: 8.25 (Number 7 rated show on ITV, Number 10 of the Week)
X Factor Show Sunday: 8.83 (Number 3 rated show on ITV, Number 5 of the Week)

Week 4

Strictly Show Saturday: 10.59 (Number 1 rated show on BBC, Number 1 of the week)
Strictly Show Sunday: 9.79 (Number 2 rated show on BBC, Number 3 of the week)
X Factor Show Saturday: 8.23 (Number 3 rated show on ITV, Number 10 of the Week)
X Factor Show Sunday: 8.51 (Number 2 rated show on ITV, Number 6 of the Week) - beaten by New Tricks on Monday BBC 8.53

According to BARB for November:

Week 5:

Strictly Show Saturday: 10.95 (Number 1 rated show on BBC, Number 1 of the week)
Strictly Show Friday: 9.94 (Number 2 rated show on BBC, Number 3 of the week)
X Factor Show Saturday: 7.63 (Number 9 rated show on ITV, Number 16 of the Week) - almost beaten by Countryfile BBC1 Sunday
X Factor Show Sunday: 8.29 (Number 5 rated show on ITV, Number 9 of the Week)

Week 6

Strictly Show Saturday: 11.38 (Number 1 rated show on BBC, Number 1 of the week)
Strictly Show Sunday: 10.90 (Number 2 rated show on BBC, Number 2 of the week)
X Factor Show Saturday: 7.97 (Number 4 rated show on ITV, Number 11 of the Week)
X Factor Show Sunday: 8.25 (Number 3 rated show on ITV, Number 7 of the Week)

Week 7 (No ITV data)

Strictly Show Saturday: 11.41 (Number 1 rated show on BBC)
Strictly Show Sunday: 10.47 (Number 2 rated show on BBC)

This. ^^

Definitely agree. The public have grown wise to the manipulation and the 'joke' contestants really arent that funny when better singers go home in what should be a singing contest.

8.75m (32.0%) , +1: 282k (1.1%)
* peak: 10.20m (35.6%) at 20:50

Poor for the results, especially for the semi-final. Down at least 3 million on last year and almost 7 million on 2010.

Thoughts on those ratings?

I do this more-or-less every week, but here the final ratings across all series:

2004:
8.1m and 9.7m

2005:
9.2m (40%) and 9.3m (36%)

2006:
10.4m (44%) *peak: 10.9m (48%)
10.2m (45%) *peak: 12.6m (54%)

2007:
11.4m (47%) *peak: 12.0m (50%)
11.7m (50%) *peak: 12.7m (55%)

2008:
13.2m (50.3%) *peak: 14.61m (54.4%)
13.5m (54.4%) *peak: 14.59m (61.4%)

2009:
12.36m (48%), *peak: 14.46m (54.1%)
15.62m (53.2%), *peak: 19.7m (63.2%)

2010:
14.05m (52.56%), *peak: 15.36m (55%)
17.15m (54.92%), *peak: 19.44m (60.48%)

2011:
10.6m (40.1%), *peak: 11.73m (43.38%)
12.87m (44.26%), *peak: 15.27m (49.46%)

Looking at that, I think we could well be looking at less than 9m for the Saturday, maybe even closer to 8m.

The Sunday show will probably average 10m with a peak of 12-13m if they're lucky.

Well, since 2009, the second part of the final has averaged 2-3 million more than the first part, of course mainly because of having it on a Sunday.

The BGT final peaked at 13.78m (52.7%) and averaged 11.38m (46.4%) which many people found respectable considering some of the semi-finals actually dipped to 6-7m, so if they can increase their audience like that for the final, the ratings this weekend will be interesting.

However, they are NOT helping by having the mentors duetting with the contestants unless they can make it memorable.

Let's have a look at the five-minute breakdown last night:

20:00 - 7.81m (29.33%)
20:05 - 8.75m (31.99%)
20:10 - 8.48m (31.78%)
20:15 - 7.76m (29.33%)
20:20 - 9.19m (33.24%)
20:25 - 8.18m (30.64%)
20:30 - 9.13m (33.30%)
20:35 - 9.39m (33.88%)
20:40 - 8.31m (31.00%)
20:45 - 9,84m (34.99%)
20:50 - 10.20m (35.64%)
20:55 - 7.92m (28.56%)

Interestingly the total TV audience stayed around 26-28m throughout the hour which is unusual considering it's winter and the total audience is usually over 30m.

That pales compared to the same show in 2010:

20:00 - 13.29m (44.76%)
20:05 - 14.45m (47.44%)
20:10 - 14.21m (47.18%)
20:15 - 15.26m (48.83%)
20:20 - 13.45m (44.80%)
20:25 - 15.54m (49.74%)
20:30 - 14.67m (47.62%)
20:35 - 15.47m (49.20%)
20:40 - 14.36m (46.79%)
20:45 - 16.46m (51.25%)
20:50 - 17.51m (53.34%)
20:55 - 16.35m (51.43%)

Official ratings for w/e 25/11 for Live Show 8 & Results

Figures include HD.

Performances: 8.69m (#13 for ITV1, #7 for HD)
Results: 9.57m (#10 for ITV1, #4 for HD)

It's been like this for a number of weeks but never since 2008 has it been beaten by Corrie (bar the first part of the 2010 final, as the live episode was broadcast that week).

Predictions for the final?

Your really into the ratings arnt u

Isn't it blatantly obvious considering how often I post here?

But the discussion is much larger in the ratings thread.

Barely got top 10 for ITV1? That's very worrying... I bet it costs much more to produce than the shows above it too. Will be interesting to see what they do next year.

As mentioned, first time it has happened since 2006. In 2008 it was #3 for the performances and #2 for the results. In 2007 it was #6 for the performances and #7 for the results. In 2006 it was #7 for the performances and #10 for the results.

The final will be lucky to crack at least #5 in the officials.

Bump...

More predictions, so we can see who's closest on the weekend

Bump...

Who thinks the guests we have for the final will play a huge part in who tunes in or not?

Did ratings increase when Rihanna and 1D performed earlier in the series?

There was a small increase the week 1D were on, around 600,000 mark i think , but it dropped the next week

They rised from the previous week which was down due to fireworks. But they didn't set the ratings alight like they did last year, as well as the fact they had them on the main show rather than the results (because they couldn't fit in three guests in an hour). But yes, the ratings for the main live show have dropped since.

So tomorrow is the day.

As seen above, the audience usually increases by around 3-4m from the first part of the final to the second (well, since 2009 anyway).

Probably won't this year, I'd say around 9m for Saturday and 10m on Sunday with a peak of about 12m. Can't really see it going beyond that.