Low overnights are no good to ITV but I do think looking at the official rating for show 1 and the overnight for show 2 will tell a better story. We've had stories about falling ratings for BGT then the show rebounded in the official ratings or jumped the following week. If The X Factor gets a similar rating for this week's show then it can be said the show might be in trouble for certain.

Out of interest what makes you say that? Whatever talents Barlow may have he's not a particularly charismatic man (which is why his solo career died) so I've never understood why anyone felt and continues to feel that he's the right choice to anchor a big Saturday night show like this.

Gary Barlow seems a nice man but charismatic he is not which is one reason why Robbie Williams overtook him as a solo act.

In previous years The X Factor has been hyped for a good month before it hits the screens as it's seen as the next big thing in terms of event television after Britain's Got Talent finishes. This year the Olympics stole it's thunder completely. In my opinion, ITV should have held it back a month to try and allow the press hype to build instead of airing it a week after the Olympics.


I've always said Britain's Got Talent will outlast The X Factor. It's a lot more light-hearted and relaxed and the differing styles of talent keeps the show fresher. After a slight blunder with the panel last year, which wasn't a disaster, they got it exactly right this time around. Plus the competition with The Voice didn't hurt it in the long run.

Again I find myself wondering if the ad campaign for this years show was a response to The Voice. It felt very serious and nice with a focus on the 'stars' they'd created. You're right though it was very odd. It seems to me that the producers aren't quite sure what they want The X Factor to be any more. Its just grabbing random techniques and ideas from various other reality shows and its making for an odd mix...

Having said that I had hoped that those ads were going to signify a more 'back to basics' approach for the show this year. I think we tend to overlook these days that part of the reason shows like The X Factor became such runaway successes is that they took what were for all intents and purposes normal everyday folk and gave them the opportunity to shine if they had the talent and were prepared to put the work in. That basic concept is also what underpins the successful audition process of The Voice. I kind of liked the idea that the show would dial back the gimmicks and over produced back stories in favour of a much more simplistic chance to live their dream approach but that wasn't to be. Not that I'm convinced that kind of series would go down any better although oddly I am completely convinced that, that's what the BBC needs to do with The Voice next year. Strip away all of the over produced sob stories and focus entirely on how much these people want to make music.

Doctor who is back next week
I didn't even get see the final of last series It's the only ep i have missed since it came back in 2005 anyone know if it's on BBC3 before next week?

Christ, if you're suggesting that TOWIE is "good" (or, at least, "not shit") and that TXF tonight was "a shit TOWIE", then my brain can't quite compute how bad it must have been....


You say that, but I noticed 3 or 4 other people made almost identical to predictions to mine around the same point in the thread.

Were they "ramping" too?


I know I've added to the TXF discussion, but it's so annoying to come on here between August and December and see endless posts about how good or bad TXF was tonight, and isn't Gary hopeless/brilliant, and Twitter is going mad/nobody's hashtagging it, or what was Tulisa wearing, and X's singing was rubbish but she's still go through, and :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: it goes on.

And to add insult to injury, DS has a dedicated sub-forum all about TXF that all this deep and meaningful insight could be posted on....

I'm finding all the over analysis regarding the X factor a bit much as well (I've probably still got the Olympic hangover)

Of course tomorrow we'll have the same discussions again with added hysterics!

Amazingly not. Last years Christmas Special will be repeated on BBC3 on Friday though.

I think it may have been on 17th August; the Reading Festival took it's Friday night slot this week and the Christmas Special is airing next Friday.

Honestly this is a year to year problem, even if ITV moved it back a few weeks, would they have the shows to really advertise it? Their ratings haven't exactly rebounded in 2 weeks, just BBC's have gotten worse.


I agree, I also feel that BGT is more capable of just being - entertaining, X Factor (increasingly now, not so much in the past) relies on the news stories and the office talk. BGT I've always felt could comfortably hold at 7/8m - the fact it punches above this is testament to the producers.


I think they could have started off with the 'mature' campaigns for a few weeks, even pre-Olympics (big miss by ITV here, they should have got it into peoples mind before them; lots of things were advertised by the BBC during them, long before they'll come out) then moved to advertising the actual show; clips, judges etc.

Instead its this...strangely dull reminiscing; those would work for telling people to audition...not for watching...its very strange. I agree they don't know what to do with the show. It was clear last year they were relying on old techniques.


Its odd isn't it? The BBC had all these people with rich and interesting histories, instead they concentrated on the 'here and now' sob stories. It kind of worked, but not beyond the auditions; in the auditions it was nice to think back to the 'old days' with these things but generally sob stories are killed in X Factor and they create 'new stories'. The Voice never really had that.

I agree, they need to concentrate on the history of the artist and the music. The sob stories are maybe necessary from a TV point of view, but maybe its better to put them in later? Certainly in the auditions they never felt necessary.


Well the Christmas ep is on the Friday before. Trying not to spoil anything but the finale is very contained, watch the christmas ep and it'll offer some background at the end to things.

It is on itunes ofc. BBC Three sort of rushed their usual repeat run for The Olympics, so its unfortunate its not repeated closer.

Thanks.....
Youtube it is then

Another bold prediction from Robbie there - IIRC a 10m+ rating for X Factor would basically tie the highest ever rating for a second episode and be the first time in 7 years that the second episode has rated higher than the first.

Just watched it back and my main criticism would be that it was too trendy for its own good. I'm willing to bet that 80% of the audience didn't have a clue who Rita Ora is or that some guy started singing her song. X Factor is meant to be cheesy and uncool. The killer moment is when some cute 17 year old kid comes out and nails a Whitney Houston classic. For the majority of the audience, I think that resonates far more than a scruffy kid doing an acoustic version of Tulisa's summer club anthem.

The "TOWIE scenes" aren't new, they did them in BGT and they worked fine. They're maybe doing a bit too much of them in X Factor - I don't remember them being this long. And they seem to actually be coming at the expense of the VT's and judges chat which I think makes the show flow better. And with the extra ad break pacing is more of an issue than it used to be.

They've just not pushed forward in any shape or form - promotion, scheduling, production and no real media hooks either (they needed a Gamu returning moment or that Harriett girl from The Voice). Compare that to X Factor US where the producers sat down in London in January and decided what was changing and went out and signed Britney Spears. Even BGT felt like there was a real emphasis on improving the show this year - certainly the lead up to the show really suggested that. You kind of get the feeling that after BGT, everyone went to LA to start working on the US show and forgot about the UK one.

So I take it the overnights come out in about 10 minutes?

The ratings are more interesting than the actual programmes nowadays.

Talking about BGT comparing to X Factor, XF didn't need any SuBo hype to get peaks of 15-16 million throughout the live shows and a 19 million peak for the final (2009), or in 2010 when some live shows peaked at 17 million, even though BGT slightly more deserves higher ratings. I'm amazed that the semi-finals of BGT in 2009 actually rated around 4-5 million higher than they did this year, or even last year, there were peaks of around 14-15 million, and of course the final peaked at 19 million. What could BGT do next year to get back those ratings, and what could XF do for the final to get back their 19 million, even though the final does bring in new viewers?

And so say all of us

The X Factor nor Britain's Got Talent will peak at 19m again. It is possible, but highly, highly unlikely. Once show's start decreasing, they don't all of a sudden rise again back to new heights.

X Factor did manage it twice.

Strictly rebounded after a poor series didn't it?

I think anything is possible with Cowell. He has dispelled ratings norms like this in the past. Of course it's possible, anything is possible. And I'd say likely.

Yes, I know that, but last year it was down a lot year-on-year. I can't see it rebounding to 2009 or 2011 levels.


Strictly depends a lot on celebrities, that was one poor series in 2009 due to poor scheduling.

No matter how many times people are proved wrong, their all knowing will bounce back I'm no fan of Cowell, but I do like how he seems to love proving people wrong. When they least expect it, too. Then the same people will be all "ah, yes, well how he did that was..." and "my word amazing figures from King Cowell there" kinda thing

The X Factor peaked with 10.9m (46%).

Source: Jenny Cummins

Normally Jenny's figures include +1, so it is 1m up week-on-week (average around 9.1m/9.7m therefore), share is identical to last week's peak.