This basically sums up the X Factor's current ratings performance for me and I don't know what else there is to say at this stage. It's still doing very well, but it's not the ratings juggernaut it once was and I don't think it'll ever achieve numbers as high as 2009/2010 again as viewers have seen everything that is possible to see!

It stayed pretty much consistent throughout the series last year, found its level around the 8.4m mark and stayed at that rating until the final. I think we'll see a similar pattern this year, where the X Factor finds its ratings level by boot camp and stays stuck around that figure for the remainder of the series.

Strictly did very well last night as expected and I think that could possibly see some ratings growth and momentum across the series this year. Stepping Out predictably flopped, but I think it'll increase from that figure next week as it won't face Strictly. I think there is a good format in there somewhere - I like the twist of married celebrity couples learning to dance, instead of professionals teaching the celebrities. The judging line up is decent and Davina is a good host so there is potential. I just think it should have a different slot, Sundays early evening.

I agree. I think Stepping Outs intention was to "tire" the audience out of dancing shows. They likely considered that if viewers caught onto SO and stuck with it, they'd then lose interest in SCD and continue watching ITV instead so that SCD loses out to X-Factors gain. Trouble is, to stop people watching SCD, you'd need to make SCD yourself! And that is impossible. It was a childish ploy to compensate a childish TV Mogul who likes to get his own way, only this time he did get his own way and it bit him up his arse!

But to suggest the BBC bought "The Voice' to affect the "The X Factor" isn't quite right. The BBC didn't have anything to show during the year when "Strictly Come Dancing" took a break and that's why it was bought. Not to damage "The X Factor" ratings as they air at different points of the year

"The Voice" is nothing to do with "The X Factor" ratings decline.

They surely will, but the fact that its lost out to the introduction SCD show rather does suggest things are not all rosy in the garden by its own past standards. Depending on the eventual cast list the Saturday lives could be depressed again this year if these early figures are anything to go by, especially the early elongated ones.

And of course if they'd kept the original recordings, the safe would have remained unbroken and they wouldn't have paid out anything at all!

Chris Lilley (of Summer Heights High and Angry Boys fame) is back with Ja'mie: Private School Girl on BBC Three. Don't know when, but excited! Anyone got the ratings for Summer Heights High back in 2008? Long time ago now but hopefully people will remember and be intrigued.

http://t.co/Vj5WEpgI0D

I think we've heard enough ridiculous conspiracy theories, some people are so obsessed by their hate for certain channels, they have to invent these stories.

I thought we had enough every time ITV dare to reschedule a soap episode displaced by football, it is apparently always scheduled to damage whatever is on BBC1 at the same time, even though they are always rescheduled in the same places.

This is how The Hollywood Reporter wrote the Saturday ratings in a tweet Andy23. This is what ITV News could have done in a less X Factor bashing way instead of being a corporate mouthpiece.

@THRtv: BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing' Season Debut Beats ITV's 'X Factor' in Average Ratings http://t.co/kJpefyFUtA

While I think Sundays might have been better for it, they don't have many other options if we rule out August-December as being Strictly territory. With the success of Splash! and Takeaway before BGT, that slot is lost now. They obviously opted to try and piggy back on X Factor but it has failed miserably.


And as I have said before, I can't see him being overly thrilled at what was a Syco co-pro slot being handed over to ITV Studios (basically his main rival for commissions). Especially when said show got 2.1m last night as a lead-in for X Factor. Launching a new dance show, even if had done OK, was never going to topple Strictly this week so it just hands them another PR win. As a strategy for apparently keeping him happy, it doesn't seem like the best... Again, I think ITV have just screwed up here, nothing more.

They did Dancing On Ice and the infamous Baby Ballroom in the past. They now need to replace DOI and a dancing show is the obvious option. Throw in the relative success of All Star Mr And Mrs and you get an idea for Stepping Out.

The way they are more likely to hit Strictly a bit is by removing Take Me Out. That did well in the 16-34 demo but has virtually no appeal to the potential Strictly audience. So with that on a much needed break, slotting in something like Catchphrase or Surprise Surprise with established audiences and an older profile could be more effective in slowing down Strictly and delivering a better lead-in to X Factor.

Certainly more of a threat to SCD than a few weeks of Stepping Out airing before it even begins.


They're short on any other real options right now - October to December is Strictly and X Factor lives. January through to summer is largely occupied by Splash, Takeaway and BGT. And they need to keep commissioning ITVS series to keep its hours up. So with Red or Black gone, they had to look at what ITVS had to offer... Tied in with the launch of X Factor as well. It was highly unlikely to work but sometimes there aren't a great array of options on the table.

ITV could do with a TV Burp style show which they can have on before X Factor in the autumn and which can hold up well against Strictly.

Celebrity Chase should hold up decently against it (if it ends up going on Saturdays).

I am glad I am not the only one who cocks up on their predictions.

Way to rub it in...

Calm down dear! You'll give yourself a hernia!
ITV are a business. They need to make money. They will schedule and reschedule shows to give them the best revenue from advertisers. If it means deliberately trying to dent a BBC1 show which results in publicity for them and the advertiser they'll do it. It's not conspiracy theories, it's common sense theories based on how a business that is self reliant will seek to make as much money as possible. And, with regards to your "some people are so obssessed by hate/love for a certain channel" comments, well your posts ALL 100% favour ITV. So, pot, kettle, black I'm afraid.

It needs to be judged on its performance and shares and not compared to BBC One's totally different show. "Strictly Come Dancing" has a different audience in the same way "Coronation Street" has a different audience to "Eastenders" yet there are crossovers and comparisons made as if the two shows were identical and should have the same figures. I dont like "The X Factor" but cannot deny how successful it is and BBC One would fight for 36% of the audience at other times of the year.

Yes they will reschedule them to get the maximum revenue but that has nothing at all to do with the BBC. There is never any 'publicity' outside of this thread, nobody cares how any old episode of Emmerdale rates against any old episode of EastEnders or whatever the clash is. The BBC ratings have no effect on revenue from adverts.

Something the region of 4m in that slot last week would have been nearly a 25% share, a decent result that ITV would have been pleased with. Not a flop at that level.

Obviously everyone wants to get the biggest audience possible. But there's also a sense of realism given that the "big hit" of this year in the genre has been Splash which was getting 5m in a prime slot in the dark of winter.

There are people who like both XF and SCD. Some will record one or another. Others will watch XF on Sunday and not Saturday. The thing to do for XF is shift it to Sundays after the SCD results and put DA on Saturdays after SCD finshes. I bet XF would win the ratings battle as well as DA capitalising on SCD audience!

No publicity? So you never read the never ending stories surrounding XF in the red-tops each week? You never notice the "Downton Abbey to Clash with Midwives at Christmas" headlines? You never read the "ITV to air BGT against The Voice" headlines? Ok, If you say so. No publicity. At all. Ever.

You were doing well with your argument until you wrote this.

ITV News impartial? never in a million years, Its the Daily Express of the TV News world.

All this fuss over a one line tweet that was factually correct.

I like the wording!


Small correction: ITV News said it in a tweet.


Granted, you couldn't fit all that context in one tweet, but if the Hollywood Reporter can report impartially, why can't ITV News?

It wasn't. It was a factual statement. That is true. But to make it factually correct they would need to include the factually correct fact that overall SCD beat it! They didn't.

Don't watch so can't judge, but it's certainly meant to be impartial. As it gets hammered in the ratings every day by the BBC, the public seem to prefer the latter and are voting with their remotes.


I'll say it again: if BBC News did this, we'd never hear the end of it. Just one follow-up tweet of "But the show's average was 900,000 down on last week" would have provided balance.

I'll shut up now.

Dancing on Ice -- isn't that just ballroom dancing on ice?

Great start for Strictly.

Ah yes, Dancing On Ice - the carbon copy of the BBC one-off Strictly Ice Dancing.