Wow, Strictly rates amazing with 65+, over half the viewing audience watched SCD!

Tellymix reports 11.2m peak for XF inc +1, down on last week's of 11.7m.

Only an icy cold winter/snow could save it now.

Downton is the number one show on TV at the moment. @mediaguardian: Sunday TV ratings: Downton Abbey 10.1m/38.1%, X Factor 9.6m/35.9%, Strictly Come Dancing 9.3m/36.5%, Surprise Surprise 4.5m/18.4%

Every week, every rating is down about 2million from last year. I dont know why you keep expecting XFactor to suddenly get a big boost? Just be happy the ratings havent fallen below 8m yet but beware that might happen when Halloween and Bonfire Night arrives.

There isn't a live show on 31st October, but there is on 5th November (which is the Sunday).

Should be said; Strictly is slightly down year on year but nothing too significant.

So much for the dance-off helping things

Is 500k down on a peak really an issue? Its rating 8-9m on a Saturday and 9-10m on a Sunday with a big peak. It's remaining consistent which is the important thing, but it does need a BGT style kick up the backside for next year. If anything, the 500k loss could just be a natural week to week fluctuation and nothing to do with the show itself.

It seems to have found a level of about 8.5-9m on Saturdays and c9.5m on Sundays and I can't really see it budging much from there except for the final.

They'll have to make changes next year or it could go even lower. Gary and Tulisa will be gone I think, but more than that I think the actual format needs to change - especially for the auditions, which don't really have a USP (The Voice has the spinning chairs, BGT has the buzzers and is the only variety show etc). They ned something new, and I don't just mean new judges.


The Sunday is November 4th. If the last couple of years are anything to go by, Halloween/Bonfire Night should only cause a small dip as it isn't on the actual days this year.

According to TV Scoops, Surprise Surprise had ITV's best ratings against the Strictly results show since 2010.

Was last week's Corrie all a dream then?!

In fairness, Surprise Surprise did better than I ever imagined. It really had no business doing that well in the year 2012. Such a dated format.

Absolutely. Lots of captive viewers would definitely bump up ratings for all shows.

It will be very interesting to see how the ratings pan out over the coming weeks. It could be a surprise hit () but I imagine it will drop by half a million or so and stay around 3.5-4m. A lot of last nights viewers will be curiosity or nostalgia viewers that relaunches of shows tend to first get.

I do agree that the show is very dated, especially in the face of programmes like Long Lost Families which are much more in touch with 2012.


Probably, but it would also affect other shows so X Factor would be doing proportionately just as well as it is now, ie Downton & SCD would also see similar increases. 2010 was a brilliant year in terms of acts, judges, buzz, Wagner etc. This year just seems to be a poor copy of series 6 and 7 when it needs a new direction altogether.

Not this old chestnut again. I'd love to know why a youthful brand like Freederm sponsored Neighbours recently if nobody young watches it. That'd be a bit pointless, would it not?

Of course a lot of the viewership is older viewers that have followed for years, but not exclusively so. They have a similar percentage of 18-49 year old viewers as Emmerdale, and not that far behind Corrie and EastEnders.

It's only Hollyoaks that does markedly better, but then that's specifically made for the teen market. Neighbours and Home & Away are aimed at broader audiences.

TV news time then. Time Team has been unceremoniously cancelled:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-18-years.html

Is anyone surprised? I can't think of a programme that would suit modern day C4 less.

And Doc Martin, "the UK's most watched drama series" (prizes for guessing who wrote this particular article) has been renewed:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...es-by-itv.html

Isn't it?

You'll be surprised, Robbie...

4.5m for Surprise Surprise is a surprise, although I don't think the format is dated, it simply needed tweaking which is what ITV have done. I'd wait and see if those viewers will retune next week as I think yesterday was based on the curiosity factor.

The show did miss Cilla though.

You mean in it being educational?

Had Strictly been facing that Holding Out For Heroes show again this year it would have been higher. The show might just start pulling away on Sundays from X Factor too.

This is almost certainly because Ed Miliband was on it last week. And it's not so unusual given that The Agenda is presumably now ITV's flagship political programme now the likes of Jonathan Dimbleby have long gone, so the party leaders will presumably go on there like they go on Andrew Marr.

I don't really want to start getting into the X Factor In Crisis stuff but it clearly needs a major revamp. I've said this before but there seem to be excuses for everything - the early weeks were poor because it was August, judge's houses rated low because judge's houses always rate low, the show has to be two hours long even if it rates badly because it needs to be two hours long. If the format demands it, the format's wrong.

If two hours plus programmes are causing ratings to drop, don't do them. Have half singing on Saturday and half on Sunday, or get them singing together or something. I dunno what, but I am fed up with excuses that it can't be helped because it always does it like that. If it doesn't work, change it. It's just encouraging decline.

there are no official ITV1 progs for this week, I guess they were late filling logs

data will be up in a sec..... I do like to keep you all waiting

I think the problem more than anything is the amount of ad breaks ITV insist on having during these shows (this goes for BGT and DOI as well) - which means these light-hearted entertainment shows in the schedules for escapism end up feeling, certainly in the case of X Factor this year, like goalless Champions League qualifiers between two non-English teams.

So even if the show was on for 90 minutes, with the amount of 6-minute ad breaks ITV pump out the family experience will be weakened. Hence why so many decide to Sky+ - and sadly all that does is decrease the buzz... you won't get people texting each other while the show's on and stuff like that.

While it's definitely more lucrative for them in the short-term, they're boring viewers into switching off - and if they don't do something soon, the inevitable decline will start (it arguably already has) and The X Factor, like Big Brother on Channel 4, will be no more.

I don't think The X Factor can be saved from the "overnights are irrelevant" argument - it's a big, family reality show that was two years ago pulling in 12m viewers.
Last edited by Paul Millar : 22-10-2012 at 13:49

Shame as I wanted to compare Strictly to The X Factor. Oh well Saturday's Strictly will be number 2 for the week...even when ITV figures do eventually arrive. You'll see!

Can't just be commercial breaks as the Sunday results show has been at roughly the same level for 3 weeks. Reducing ad breaks won't help X Factor as other changes appear to be needed.