Anyone seen the trailer for Text Santa? Is that the sort of thing they did last year or have they made more of an effort this year?

It's been a bit of a dull final, granted i only tuned in at 9 but it seemed full of technical difficulties and 3 very bland and insipid finalists...hey ho

The McFly show seems to have been well received, both on here and on Twitter where it was trending high up in the topics with mostly positive opinions.

Having said that though, I still expect it to only be in the high 2s as there probably isn't that many viewers around for the time slot.

Although, in the case of these particular X Factor finalists, not being able to hear them is maybe not such a bad thing. Or so I've been told anyway.

Yes it has. A lot of 'Non' fans said on Twitter and Facebook that they'd watch a series of that.

Looking at I Tunes people seem to be downloading a lot of their music since.

would ITV be happy with 2million though?

EDIT-Going against Strictly wasn't a smart move really

EDIT-ITV1 ‏@ITV1

Sorry for not tweeting about #TheMcFLYShow. We're hearing the love and will pass on the requests for more McFly to the big bosses, promise

very good.

But how many in Scotland with access to BBC/ITV London watch HC at 8pm on a Tuesday,? we have Freesat yet there is no BBC/STV Glasgow on our box through choice.

Still believe that RC should be networked in the afternoons from the beginning,

Looking at the trailer for Restless (BBC1 Thursday 27th & Friday 28th December), it looks like the sort of drama that ITV would burn off over Christmas when nobody's looking. Compare with the last two years when BBC1's big Christmas serial was (last year) Great Expectations (famous Dickens story) and (2010) Upstairs Downstairs (revival of smash-hit from the past).

Although I suppose they also had Young Herriott last Christmas which came across as a bit of a "burn-it-off-over-Christmas-when-nobody's-looking" drama.

Well i'm on a self imposed ban from talking about a certain soaps quality/ratings until Boxing Day because i was fed up with the abusive PM's , and as we near Christmas having one less annoyance is a good thing

I've had a joke like that for some time:

"Eastenders -everyone's talking about it." They're saying "What a load of depressing tripe".

Or there's Harry Hill's joke from TV Burp: "Eastenders - this first series is dragging on a bit."

I remember that, he should return to do another TV Burp, that was a guaranteed ratings banker.

Come December 26th we can dispense with the speculation cos we'll have real facts to deal with (providing the valve doesn't blow on BARB's computer "Overnights have been delayed".).

Especially when the final segment contained ballroom dancing.

If the show is well received they may commission a series or a couple more one offs and schedule them better.

I've only managed to watch clips of Strictly and The X Factor tonight which means I cut out all the waffle...strangely, both shows seems much better than usual. I can't think why.

As for last night; just like people keep saying The X Factor won't manage to gain 2m on the overnights at a click of a switch, neither will EastEnders. Not without a massive storyline. It's doing ok. Coronation Street and Emmerdale are both performing reasonably well. Considering the weak opposition, I'm surprised Have I Got News For You didn't perform slightly better.

For someone who clearly doesn't the show you seem to have a bizarre obsession with it. It isn't compulsory to watch it, you know.

As for the microphone moment, it was a bit of a disaster but it didn't come across too badly on screen - I expect it seemed a lot worse in the arena and Nicole was rightfully fuming. The picture breaking up a few times is out of the producers hands and it wasn't anything major anyway.

The show was pretty good though and no doubt there will be some sighs of relief at the result. It won't have piled on any new viewers - I'm thinking about 8.2m for the average, with tomorrow's show averaging 9.7m

Once again the usual suspects who don't watch The X Factor still can't resist talking about it. Very odd.

I actually thought the show was quite good tonight, but I know that goes against the narrative of this thread. I can't wait for tomorrow.

Agreed, and to be fair I don't think the series as a whole has been particularly bad. If anything it's been an improvement on last year but major surgery is clearly needed. It clearly isn't going to find 2 million extra viewers from nowhere this weekend but no doubt certain individuals will be all over the numbers like a cheap rash, salivating over the fact that it is down X amount on last year even though the story has been the same for weeks...:yawn:

I'm not going to lie, I haven't enjoyed this series as much as previous years, but I agree it hasn't been 'bad' - certainly not in the way that BBC One's biggest entertainment launch in a decade was horrifically bad once it hit the live stages - but it's definitely lacked a spark this year.

But as a genuine fan of the show (i.e. not somebody who purposefully watches a show they detest just so they can moan about it on Digital Spy) I don't think it's been a total disaster in terms of content. The problems are obvious and fixable. I think the decline can certainly be stemmed if those issues are highlighted and dealt with next year. I don't think ITV can afford to bury their heads in the sand again.

Ah the chair swinging thing, i'm surprised its coming back but then again its a two year contract, Danny Cohens biggest mistake that will haunt him if it tanks again in the later stages next year.

Former head of Carlton TV and media expert Steve Hewlett has quite a similar opinion as me regarding XFactor that no amount of tinkering with the format or changes with the panel will bring former viewers back to the show in future years - it's a lost cause, people have moved on and wont come back. The best they can do is try holding onto the current 8m audience next year. Hewlett told the Independent: "This is not the beginning of the end for The X-Factor, it's gone way past that. The format has run its course, and they cannot arrest its decline. It will not collapse and die, but it's never going to be what it was. It hit its heights in the last season that Simon Cowell did. Cowell was the show's 'X factor' and they never found a way to replace him. ITV need to find a plan B, and fast."

An ITV spokeswoman defended the show, saying: "The X Factor remains one of the highest rating entertainment shows on British TV. Demand from advertisers is high because it continues to attract an incredibly important audience in very big numbers."

Oh it certainly hasn't been a vintage year and the past few weeks have been sluggish to say the least but it hasn't been a disaster. A complete top to bottom makeover is needed for next year. If they bury their heads in the sand again it really will be a disaster. Changing the judges is one thing (and Tulisa and Gary do need to go) but it needs more than that. The auditions have become stale (and the awful editing they used in the early episodes this year isn't the answer) and the format has become too familiar. The live shows need a kick up the arse and they need to just be an entertainment show. I'd consider not going with a joke act next year too as it has become tired now. I'd also look into distinguishing the weeks from each other to a much greater extent (it feels the same every week at the moment) and perhaps cutting back to 8 or so live shows instead of 10 (with the loss of hours made up for elsewhere in the series) to stop it losing momentum in the final weeks. There are other things I could go into but I've already gone way off topic. The point is though that it is fixable if they put a bit of effort in and they are now at a 'make or break' point.

It'll never hit the highs of 2010 again but there's no reason for it to continue to decline at such an alarming rate.

I don't believe anyone has actually claimed that it's going to hit those heights again. But I do not subscribe to the theory that they 'cannot arrest its decline' - in fact he contradicts himself by saying it won't collapse and die, which would surely suggest that the decline can be arrested.

And the fact is that it does remain one of the highest rating entertainment shows on TV. There are still very few shows that can attract the ratings X Factor manages, despite the drop this year.

Walked past the X Factor final venue this morning around 10.30am. People were queueing up to get in.

Was it pre-recorded then?


It looks quite good to me!

That would be awful, not like anything like that happened when The Voice was declining...

I think this series has been adequate - it's still a well put together show. Some shows I've even thought the judging panel works OK and the basic premise of the show works. The problem is that for a few years it was exceptionally good, there always seemed to be something new whether it was a change to the show or a controversy of some description. There is definitely a shine missing from it now and it hasn't kept up the pace. Now obviously it's hard to keep up the kind of momentum they had - looking at the ratings picture this autumn makes you realise how crazy it was to be getting 14m viewers for just a regular episode.

Some of it is just down to a lack of new tricks. The "bigger and better" mantra seems to have gone out the window. It's all a bit "by the numbers" and not even in a subtle way. They don't seem to have got it right with the contestants the past two years. Everyone mentions the judges on BGT but it wouldn't have gone as well without great moments like Ashley & Pudsey (if that didn't raise a smile you must be dead inside!) and Jonathan & Charlotte. I get the impression that Syco Music are getting too much say in a show produced by Syco TV (an impression reinforced if you happen to have read the credits at the end of the show!). James and Maloney were just at extreme ends of the spectrum and neither are really what the show should be after.

The problem is how to stop the rot. Because as it stands, series 10 launches with 20% fewer viewers than series 9 which could be less than 7m. All amid a tide of opinion that it's nearing the end. So how do they make a statement and come back with a bang next year. They need to do something to get people watching from the start. I was expecting them to go all out this year but it did have the air of everyone forgetting about it to the point that they actually didn't have a judge in time to start the auditions! BGT seemed to get more of a push for its launch with the Walliams/Cowell double act being played up to great effect, Alesha poached from Strictly, the funny advert, the new editing (which they then over did on X Factor!), the prize money going up, distancing from the 2011 series and rivalry with The Voice plus all the blethering about 2012 being a patriotic and positive year. There was a sense of purpose that X Factor just didn't have. In fact, X Factor's most promoted auditionee before episode one was decidely negative (that angry Pink impersonator).

But the story there wasn't the same for weeks, it genuinely got worse and worse and worse as the weeks went on. X Factor's ratings have barely moved all year. A rather different situation.