Just to say, before tomorrows triumphant posts, going on about Sunday's rating proving people wrong saying x-factor is finished today, it isn't but is losing it's lustre. Time will tell if it's a blip, or the start of a decline.

It's not a blip. The decline started last year and continued to this year. Unless the format is radically changed next year which surprises people in a good way and gets people spreading positive word of mouth about it again, I'm sure the decline will contimue next year too. You have got to remember, Itv and Syco are saying this is apparently one of the most talented bunch of contestants the show has ever had. If that is true, then the decline is even more of a concern. Last year a lot of the blame went to the contestants being a poorly talented bunch, this year of the contestants are so good as the XF producers are saying, the ratings dropping must be a lot due to format getting tired which is an even bigger problem than last year.

I like to remain spoiler free for the results show plus I like seeing the performances and the dance off. It's still good for at least 9/10m on a good day.

TXF last week averaged 8.66m (36.2%), +1: 331k (1.7%), total: 8.99m inc +1.
Last night it had 8.6m inc +1.
So the average with +1 is down around 400k; the peak is down about 600k (from 10.2m to 9.6m inc +1, from 9.9m to 9.3m exc +1).

How low does it have to go before Jenny Cummins stops tweeting on a Sunday morning?

Strictly seems to be unchanged, to the nearest 100k, on last week at 9.9m average, 11.3m peak. The average share is however slightly up from 43.5% to 44.2%, and it beat TXF's +1-included average by 1.3m, up from 900k last week.

More detail on last week's figures here.


Or if they axe it at the end of this cycle - which seems to be getting more and more likely.

Completely disagree - like Simon Gary has the knack of saying exactly what the viewers are thinking (he did it numerous times last night) and without him the current panel would have no credibility at all. Nicole is fantastic - so much better here than on the US version...


... but agree with you davey_wavey about Tulisa - she just seems to have lost her spark. Can never agree Louis is "great" though - he's even more out of touch than I thought this year and is holding back a quarter of the acts by being such an awful mentor, while his comments for each act are the same every week and he can't take on board constructive criticism from the other judges.

It looks like Simon will be back next year the way XFUSA is going, and personally I'd have Gary, Nicole, Simon and if possible Danni Minogue back - though I suspect Gary will go and Louis will stay, and to be fair Gary, Dannii and Simon on the same panel might actually be a bit too serious.

I do wonder though how much the switch to the lower ratings are down to the late finishes and whether they should have just started between 7.30pm and 8pm regardless of any Strictly clash.


No idea really - always thought someone like Fern Britton would be a better choice for this but Holly does open the show up to a much wider audience as she's popular enough with old folk and will bring in a younger audience who wouldn't watch otherwise. It's one of those shows though that could get 2.5m or on the other hand be far more fondly remembered than we thought and surprise us all.

And I've stayed away from the Strictly spoiler thread for the same amount of time. I think there are also loads of people that don't search the internet for the results so will always watch the results show, as they have done for years. It'll hit 11m in the finals for a results show eventuall.

No its not. There are no 'key demos' for the BBC. They want to hit all demos throughout the year.
Whilst skewing old, Strictly does better in all the other demos than many of their other shows.

X Factor doing well in the key demos is for ITV's happiness alone.

"Frankie don't listen to this lot; I thought you were amazing tonight"

Not watched this year but Louis has more credibility than Gary Barlow

Confirmation that the Savile Panorama special airs tomorrow, 8.30pm:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20019993

Presumably just a 30 minute version unless New Tricks has been bumped. The BBC website TV guide still has the usual lineu, but the Panorama ep is still down as the scheduled gambling one.

I like the Surprise Surprise format, but not ITV's dubious decision to get Holly Willoughby to present it.

I wonder if they just decided to make it 60 mins as they had so much good material that would have ended up on the cutting room floor if the episode was the standard 30 minute length. I must say I'm disappointed with the scheduling for TTOI - it's a show which deserves the bigger audience it would get if it wasn't buried away on a Saturday night. Looking at Barb data for the past few weeks, it doesn't even scrape into BBC2's weekly top 30.

But it seems that, so far at least, Strictly and Merlin are adding more in the consolidated ratings. Has The X Factor crossed 11m yet for any shows including +1 so far this year?

I know The Voice dropped like a stone but it seems X Factor is only two million ahead of what The Voice was getting at the same point right now.... plus The Voice aired in summer on light nights, X Factor is airing after dark.

Make of that what you will.

Post of the day!

With The X Factor results show haven't the peaks for the last two weeks increased but the average stayed roughly the same? Some people aren't even watching the whole results show and just the last 15 minutes that suggests to me. We could have a scenario where X Factor wins Sunday, but Strictly with its Saturday show beats X Factor across both days.

According to www.Barb.co.uk, The Voice averaged 10.5million for auditions, XFactor averaged 9.4m. The Voice averaged 11.1m for middle stage [battle], XFactor averaged 10.4m [bootcamp and judges homes].

For first two weeks of studio shows: The Voices live shows averaged 39%, XFactor averaged 36%.

The Voice's biggest audience was 11.99m and I don't think The X Factor has topped that yet in the BARB ratings including +1.

Thats even better for The Voice then I remember.

So X Factor has problems...

We need figures for all eight showings!! Two ITV1, two ITV2 and the +1s.

No we don't. We need the highest rating so far on ITV1 versus the highest rated episode of The Voice on BBC1 both according to BARB.

The Voice had problems later on in the series but ended respectably. My question is this. Which shows needs more fixing The Voice or The X Factor?

It is the bigger story than Saturday ratings imo; especially if we see Sundays as X Factors main strength now. In previous years the average has been surprisingly close to the peak. People watch the full hour - the results were just part of an entertaining night with X Factor.

Now, theres a 'peak' well above the average. Some people are interested just in the results, more so than previous years.
Suggests that there is a 'tiring' of the hour long Sunday format, which yes - could see the average drop over time if people are just not bothering as much anymore with the full hour.

The Sunday shows at this point must be down much more than the Saturday shows year on year.

The Voice rated fantastically until about the third week of live shows. But even after the so called "big drop", the final got almost 8million viewers and the share was only 3% down from the launch. It wasnt the disaster some newspapers made it out to be.

Wonder how well did Dads Army hold up because it was on the same time as The X Factor last night?

The Voice just needed to air out its problems on the live shows. Everything else worked i would say. The auditions and battle rounds were a huge success.

X Factor however is showing its age has an awful panel and has almost become a complete parady of itself. I think the truth is, people have seen through the farce of X Factor and no longer care the way they used to. Its one big gimmick.

X Factor has actually become that Peter Kay piss take show he did.