Surely we can dismiss scheduling, clashes, Olympics and whatever else and put XF failures down to a very very average level of talent and uninspiring judges?

Much like we attach poor storylines to soap failures etc?

Over 34's don't pay the license fee now?

I would however point out that the BBC is much more than just one show. Whilst it might be fair to say that Strictly Come Dancing isn't exactly pulling in younger viewers that's not what its designed to do nor would I expect the BBC to point to it as programming aimed at or popular with younger audiences. They have other shows for that. Part of the purpose of The Voice at the start of the year for example was to attract younger audiences to BBC1 (and from memory I think it was relatively successful in doing that). It doesn't matter if younger viewers aren't watching Strictly as long as they're watching other BBC output and they are.

Seems like it's a mixture of other channels with commercials and nothing at all.

Stll not sure how these advertisers are happy, seems like some posters are desperately trying to divert attention away from the huge fall in the total rating to the demographics which have still had a huge fall. Deckchairs on the Titanic springs to mind......

Were more people watching TV that night compared to yesterday?

Just as there were a combination of factors that contributed to X Factor's surge in the ratings a few years back so there are a combination of factors contributing to its drop this year.

There had been major snowfall that week in 2010, with temperatures minus double digits at night, with the snow lying for weeks afterwards.

The fall in the demo isn't quite as dramatic as the fall in the total audience though so its fair to say the situation isn't quite as bad as it appears. I'd agree that happy might be too strong a word to use when describing the feelings of advertisers right now but by the same token there's every reason to believe they aren't quite as despondent and irate as some might wish they were. I suppose its all relative. The situation isn't as bad as it could be so you could say advertisers are happy with that...

I still like to think the Olympics has shown x-factor up a bit, in some peoples eyes, for the vapid fake tension hype-machine sham that it is.

People watched real drama with real tension and extremely talented dedicated people.

We can now unlike in the summer when the Olympics coverage was battering everything on other channels and warm weather depressed viewing figures generally.

Crikey, those X Factor ratings are shocking, I genuinely thought it would recover at some point. I don't watch it but is it Really that bad this year? It was never about talent so they can't blame that. Maybe people have finally seen through how fake the whole thing is?

Arctic weather over much of the UK. People stayed in and some shows got a massive ratings boost due to having a captive audience.

There was snow on the day of the Strrictly final on the 18th December, can't remember any snow here before that. Is there was any then, it wasn't widespread and don't think it lasted for weeks!


Last year for the show on the 3rd December, the X Factor had (inc +1) 2.77m in the 16-34 demo.

This year for last night's show (inc +1) it had 1.83m in the 16-34 demo.

I make that out to be a 34% drop in the 16-34 demo, the overall rating is only down 25% from last year's show.

Officials for last Saturday (24th November) are in, including +1:

Strictly Come Dancing: 11.19m (43.4%) , timeshift of 0.94m
* peak: 12.59m (47.5%) at 19:50
Merlin: 6.86m (25.8%) , timeshift of 1.05m
Casualty: 4.67m (17.5%) , timeshift of 0.99m

Take Me Out: 3.45m (13.3%) , timeshift of 0.46m
The X Factor: 8.94m (33.5%) , timeshift of 0.70m
* peak: 9.62m (35.8%) at 21:00
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!: 9.92m (39.5%) , timeshift of 1.39m
* peak: 10.32m (42.8%) at 22:40

Wow so the demo fall is even larger than total numbers fall, yikes!

Thanks for these DMN.

Do you have ratings for Merlin and Casualty?

^ added

God X Factor is just shocking. Going to be so interesting seeing what happens with the show next year. They will either try to make it a serious contest again or will just go even more into soap opera territory. Either way I think people are sick of it now. Like Stars In Their Eyes before it the formula has had its day and just died out plus all the 'dramas' are so see through people don't buy into it anymore. I mean there are only so many revamps of the panel they can get away with. This is what happens when the show was always more about the judges than the actual contestants taking part

Part of me hopes Simon Cowell does return with the big cheese fan fair and it backfires further! I mean I can just see it now

HE IS BACK!!!! out he walks thinking he is god grinning like a Chesire cat

loool that is how much of a parady X Factor now is.

The producers will be hoping for quite some snowfall in the week running up to the final to get the highest audience possible

I've never bought the 'Olympics effect'. IAC involves lots of fakery and little talent and it did fine. X Factor has a second rate judges panel and mediocre talent, is on for too long, and most crucially has been on for too long. People in my office who were avid fans previously don't watch it now...they are "over" X Factor.

Bumping to bring totals to current page, it took me ages to find....

there is little to say about X-Factor which has not already been said, but I am a little shocked it continues to fail, despite rapidly approaching the finale. For an event that has been compared to the Superbowl the X-Factor finale, will be like a Superbowl where two smaller market NFL teams, compete.

How is it a show called " The Golden Rules of TV" apparently has broken all of them, and is on air? X-Factor just can not hold up the Saturday night schedule anymore, or even just Take Me Out.

The Xtra Factor looking very low as well.

Channel 5's movie lineup was a ratings winner on Saturday with some super shares recorded:

12.55pm: Superman: 759k (7.6%)
3rd in timeslot behind BBC One and Sky Sports
3.35pm: The Christmas Gift: 1.24m (8.9%)
2nd in timeslot behind BBC One
5.20pm: Our First Christmas: 1.43m (7.5%)
3rd in timeslot behind BBC One and ITV1

Note from C14E in The X Factor forum: "It's the worst semi-final rating since 2006 (8.2m). 2004 and 2005 had 7.3m and 7.5m."

As for tonight, I can't see the Katharine Jenkins special doing well in the post-X Factor slot. 5 million at most in my opinion.

I don't known how anyone can try and justify these ratings. First we had the bonfire night excuse, now it's because of Christmas party season. There is no excuse, these things have never affected the shows ratings before. The problem is obvious to me, it's a stale format that has forgotten who it's audience is.

It's jumped the shark now. I watched the first two months and for all some of the talent was good, it just got tacky with all the weeping and wailing. I think the logical thing for Simon Cowell to do is cancel it next year if ratings continue to fall.