Yeah could be either of those. I heard that the Girls Aloud one is 3 parts which seems a bit much though! The Spice Girls one would probably be more suited to the slot but it is 90 minutes long, so even on the Sunday it wouldn't be finishing until 11pm which is pretty late. The Saturday slot is even trickier as the chances are that TXF won't finish until 10pm. I suppose they could air the first episode of the GA one on the Saturday (either at 7pm or 10pm) with the Spice Girls one on Sunday. Still leaves a couple of blank slots though.

Both Voice and XFactor have had some format changes to the live shows in other countries in the last month:

In Holland, the spinning chairs are now part of the Voice live shows. The coaches have their backs to the performances, although unlike the auditions they obviously know who is singing. Then once the song finishes, there is a scoring system from 0 to 10 like SCD. If the judge's score is 6 or higher, the judge spins their chair around and reveals that score. If it's below 6, they keep their backs to the performers and dont spin their chairs. The scores are then combined with the viewer votes and the contestants at the bottom get eliminated.

In XFactor US, every week the voting results have been revealed; not the % but the ranks of each contestant. This means that the show has created extra storylines for itself. If a contestant comes 8th out of 10th one week, in the following week's VT the contestant and their mentor would discuss how disappointly he/she did in the rankings the week before and then would change their style in order to try to win more votes. In a way, it removes the mystery of who is doing well but it also brings an added element to the competition.

I think Voice UK will implement the Dutch live show changes because BBC entertainment boss said he wanted to have spinning chairs in every live show for series 2. I think they will do this Dutch format. XFactor UK might also change up a little next season and reveal the weekly rankings to at least freshen it up and make it different to previous years.

Sounds ridiculous. What's the point of keeping your back to the performer once you know who they are ?

The pre X Factor slot on Saturday has tended to go to music specials with decreasing returns to scale - Cheryl Cole in 2009 did alright, JLS in 2010 did badly and Justin Bieber last year did dreadfully. The thing about those is that the record labels are probably paying all the production costs, ITV use their ad allowance during XF and anything that follows and the major labels probably buy a load of advertising from ITV in Q4 anyway. However, given how badly these have done it might be the case that no label is willing to repeat this for such a poor audience.

It also depends on the scheduling. If they stick with things the way they are then X Factor might not finish until 10.30pm on Saturday which closes that slot off. Chances are that the Sunday show starts at 7pm which again doesn't leave much room.

So the only major slot to be filled is the 9pm Sunday one. They've got that pilot/special for the Ashleigh & Pudsey dog show thing. Or The Spice Girls. My guess is that one of them - probably The Spice Girls - gets the 9pm-10.30pm slot and the other airs the next Saturday or Sunday.

It means the coaches make their comments solely on the voice rather than be influenced by the performance or staging. It's not as ideal as the blind auditions format but how else could they incorporate the popular spinning chairs into the live shows?

I don't see what the purpose is of The Voice having spinning chairs in the live rounds? There's also something a bit weird about the idea of someone giving a score but not actually facing the act in question. The best way to make the live shows work is to get a decent panel and some good acts that the public connect with. As good a twist as it is for the auditions, spinning chairs can't be the answer to every single issue that the format might have!

The X Factor thing is a bit of a novelty but I'm not sure how long they can keep doing it. In X Factor 2010 it means everyone would have known in week 4 or 5 that Matt Cardle had it won. It's right that they're trying to do something with the results shows, however.

If the voting was revealed every week publicly, it would've influenced the way people vote. If people saw Matt Cardle was winning 2 or 3 weeks in a row, it would have a psychological effect on some viewers to not vote for him and vote for the underdog. Its like the rebound vote thing, whenever an XF contestant is in the bottom 2 one week, they are never in the bottom 2 the following week because viewers know they werent doing well in the votes and give them a sympathy/rebound vote. The Great British Public love an underdog. Revealing the votes every week changes the dynamics of the show a little bit, I find it a bit more interesting.

The fact that they need to suggests that the format is broken.

The Big Bang Theory just gets bigger and bigger. Last night it pulled an all time series high 17.6m viewers and a season high 5.7 rating among adults 18-49. Two and a Half Men followed with its own season high 4.1 rating in the demo making the CBS 8pm hour the highest rated non sports broadcast hour of the week.

Then Person of Interest set a season high 3.1, just a tenth behind Grey's Anatomy (it was tied in fast nationals). That matches the Monday comedy hour for the highest ratings in the 9pm hour on CBS. At 10pm, Elementary did a 2.3. Judging by comments around the web, it seems choosing it for The Superbowl has drawn a lot of interest and negative commentary for a show which would otherwise have gone largely unnoticed.

Elsewhere, Glee hit what must have been a series low 2.1 rating in the demo for its Grease special. That was coming out of a 2.8 for the final half hour of X Factor (which did a 2.4 overall).

And in cancellation news, CBS have pulled Partners with immediate effect. They've got perennial substitute Rules of Engagement and midseason replacement Friend Me on the bench but in the meantime, repeats of Two and a Half Men will fill the slot.

Strictly will probably be done by 8pm that night anyway as according to this page The National Lottery Awards are on BBC1 on Saturday 8th December. They never rate well but they have to air them it seems. Last year's was 40 minutes long.

So XF will most likely air from 8-10pm on the Saturday. Like you said they have done music specials in the past but I haven't heard about any for this year (the Katherine Jenkins one is the week before). The Ashleigh and Pudsey thing could air there I guess though (even though it'd most likely bomb). They've got a few episodes of The Cube ready to be burned off too. Last year in the Saturday 10pm slot it was Life Stories with Peter Andre but they don't have any Life Stories episodes this year as far as I know, but I definitely don't think they should be writing it off.

The Sunday show has always aired from 7:30-9:30pm in the past and I guess they'll do the same this year (Strictly has shifted to 6:50pm that night). I guess it'll be whichever of Ashleigh & Pudsey and The Cube doesn't air on Saturday goes there with Spice Girls 9:30-11pm.

The following weekend will be hideous for them. The Saturday schedule doesn't appear to have anything and they're against Strictly/Merlin, then on Sunday BBC1 will have Strictly and Sport Personality. Could be a bit of a car crash for ITV.

I don't see the point of having the spinning chairs on the live shows either but I do quite like the idea of scoring. It adds a slightly different dynamic to it and I think it's something producers of both The Voice and The X Factor should look into for next year.

I think XFUK should definitely bring in the voting leaderboard next year. It's something different and could potentially shake up the whole show. I quite like the idea for XF of the judges scoring the acts on Saturday (perhaps each judge marking out of 25 giving a total out of 100 so it isn't the same as Strictly), and then on Sunday there could be a bottom 3 instead of a bottom 2, with the judges picking one act to save (after a 3 way singoff) and then the lines re-opening with the public saving one of the other 2. After the act is eliminated they could do the rankings. Would add much more content to the results shows and would make more people tune in for the whole think rather than the last 5 minutes. The group performance would be axed, with the first guest going earlier on and the second guest during voting time with the bottom 2. It'd give the show the kick up the arse the ratings show (slight link back to the topic!) that it needs.

Elsewhere, Louie Spence has been axed from the Dancing on Ice judging panel, so there's clearly a few changes going on there (Katarina Witt isn't coming back either).

Exactly - it's quite disrespecful actually and an insult to both the performer and the judges. The spinning chairs make sense in the auditions but moving forward through the live stages the acts have to prove they have the stage presence to back up The Voice. I'm also not a fan of combined voting really - it takes a bit of the show away from the viewers when actually nine times out of ten the viewers will get it right without the judges anyway.

That weekend is every year

Of course if it was the other way round then Strictly's high ratings for the final would be dismissed as only occuring because ITV has rolled over. see Downton Abbey for an example.

This year will be worse though because Strictly is running for 2 weekends after TXF ends. Also SPOTY will most likely get its best rating in many years.

Yes, there isn't exactly an embarrassment of riches for them to pick from. I think that Family Fortunes has started filming, so they'll need to bring those forward.

I think Rod Stewarts Christmas will probably be sacrificed against SCD.

The Poison Tree or Doors Open will be the drama up against Sports Personality.

I think the Take Me Out Christmas Special, That Dog Can Dance ! & Jonathon Ross Christmas Special will be the Saturday before Christmas.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire Panto special the Sunday before Christmas.

Apart from a Christmas special Family Fortunes isn't airing until next year according to ITV Media.

According to a few on Twitter Doors Open is airing on Sunday 23rd December (although plans could obviously change) so avoiding Sport Personality. Poison Tree is a 2 parter which I think will take Monday 10th & 17th.

Rod Stewart's Christmas, the Girls Aloud thing and The Cube seem most likely to be thrown against Strictly/Sport Personality, and that schedule for the Saturday before Christmas will probably be right.

Going into Christmas I think it'll be Panto! on Christmas Eve at 9pm, Downton on Christmas Day and The Making of A Lady on either Boxing Day or Sunday 30th. Paddy's Show & Telly and It'll Be Alright on The Night could take Thursday 27th & Friday 28th with the last ever Wild At Heart on either Sunday 30th (if Making of A Lady takes Boxing Day) or New Year's Day. Looks like a pretty decent Christmas schedule to be fair, although the week or two leading up to it might not be so good.

Given the ratings of TBBT, its surprising that CBS didn't give it the Superbowl slot or Person of Interest, would it possible for CBS to do a U-turn on Elementary and swap it for either one of those two in the Superbowl slot.

On the subject of the X Factor Final weekend, I could've sworn that ever since the results show moved to Sunday nights, both nights of the final weekend have always run 8pm - 10pm.

EDIT: Just checked and no, Sunday last year was 7:30 - 9:30. Odd, I must've made it up in my head then

Tonight was an brilliant episode of IACGMOOH... I can see Rosemary Shregar being an fab addition to the show. Ratings should be high for the weekend as things seem to be getting exciting now- definatley one of my favorite series!

Ant & Dec are on top form as well.

Tonight will be dented by CiN though as per usual, even though CiN seems to have a record breaking lack of effort put into it this year.

Very understandable the guy sings like he is on 80 fags a day, he is just embarrassing himself, ratings bomb.

And that has to be a joke, dancing mutts, if jesus was alive and watching ITV the night thats aired then he would weep with anger.

ABC has cancelled Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue.

Not surprised, and there is a prime reason why broadcast tv is in decline, people will not watch because they fear the show may be cancelled.

The constant digs about posters supposedly being biased to the BBC or how the BBC only get good ratings down to "default" viewing in pretty much every single post is getting beyond tiresome. It's never done amusingly or lightheartedly, you sound like you have a serious hang up about it.

A CW show, The Vampire Diaries I think was beating Last Resort on certain weeks.

A CW show! People were already saying it was going to get cancelled when that happened!