The most ideal slot possible is probably 19.00-21.00. After 21.00, the tv audience tails off due to older viewers going to bed and younger viewers going out. At the moment, a 22.15 finish for XFactor is ridiculously late for a family show and I bet in yesterdays breakdown it peaked around 9pm. SCD currently has 90mins airing in this peak 19.00-21.00 slot which is better than TXF which has just 60mins in that time period [half of which is clashing against SCD].

I haven't slagged off either the BBC or Samuel, just simply stating that he is relentless with his anti-ITV posts. Every rating is apparently either poor, or only high because of weak opposition.

Exactly, let's not forget that many on screen and behind have worked for both channels at some point.

Yes and if memory serves me correctly that's what Merlin did in series one??

Strictly did very well last night. It may well average 10m soon if it keeps the ball rolling like this. The results may be hit by corrie though. Corrie has been strong lately.

Ken

That and Take Me Out against SCD sounds like a good idea on paper. Not much in reality though.

They could put XF on earlier but they know now what the outcome would be.

We've been through this before and the idea was rejected, as the majority like to have the figures and comment interspersed. (Also my view.) There have only been a few tweeted ratings so far, but I can do a quick run-down:

Strictly Come Dancing: 9.8m
* peak: 10.9m
The X Factor: 8.1m (35%) inc +1
* average down -1m on last year's first live show (9.06m/40% inc +1)
* average down -400k from last week's Judges' Houses Saturday (8.48m/36.1% inc +1)
* peak: 9.5m (40%) inc +1

The Jonathan Ross Show: 3.9m (24%) inc +1 not tape-checked
* peak: 4.4m inc +1 not tape-checked
* these ratings are for the full scheduled slot of 22:15-23:20
* actually ran 22:20-23:20, so they will include the relatively high-rating commercial break after TXF which finished at 22:15
Last edited by NeilVW : 13-10-2013 at 10:42

It's down by 400k though isn't it? (it got 8.45m inc +1 last week).

I've been kind to it so far but that doesn't look to healthy even to my eyes! It's a shame because it seemed to start quite well.

Ken

For those wanting to just see the figures, I made a suggestion the other day, that perhaps one kind volunteer could do a Daily Summary at 10pm every day just so those who want to catch up at the end of the day with figures can check around 10pm and see the figures rather than go through all the pages to find them? What do you guys think? That would be a compromise wouldn't it?

Yes, I have corrected it already, the Twitter comparison was wrong.

Only if it didn't finish late, but it's not possible, unless Strictly is off air by 8 (which IS possible when you look at it..)

Running 7-9, 7.30 to 9.30 or whatever, might be worth trying once, to see, but funnily enough that still would involve a Strictly head start so you may have a similar situation only with lower ratings all round.

You can't avoid that headstart. Really if we have to single out one problem, it's just the ITV schedule full stop. The others are less of a problem (although collectively huge).

Can they not remove The Chase quick sharp though? Bung some films on, anything!

This isnt a criticism of TXF but what is ironic about the whole ratings situation is that last year, many people including myself said that its ratings were going down because the contestants were too niche, not mainstream enough, there was a joke act, there were contestants in the show just for controversy-reasons, Tulisa was miserable, the Saturday show had little purpose to watch live etc. So this year XF producers have reasonably and understandably done the complete opposite of last year: have middle-of-the-road contestants who arent really singing in niche styles, a 80s theme to try and lure the mainstream audience, there are no joke acts,replaced Tulisa with someone who has a personality [Sharon], have added the flash vote to get people watching live. And yet the ratings have still fallen. I think TXF is in a no win situation, whatever they do, the ratings just arent going up. The best they can hope for now is trying to stabilise the ratings but even that looks like it will be a difficult job. Whatever the producers do, it seems like former viewers have already made up their minds not to return watching.

They could move it earlier, so it ends up getting the lead on SCD, and stick TV Burp at 7:30pm instead. Try that once I reckon.

Precisely, and yes we had to see what The Chase was going to do. Evidently not much and it's time to remove it NOW. At least shunt it earlier and bung a film in between.

What else is there? Burp repeats I hate the idea of as they are of their time.

Just how long is The Chase meant to be in that slot for, not the entire run I hope!

Off their Rockers, maybe? For those who didn't catch it first time, or those who wish to watch it again?

Take TV Burp. 5-6m for the first showing on Saturday, and roughly 4m a day later for the repeat. It could repeat well.

I think it's suited to an earlier slot too, The Chase.

There's not much point in removing what they have scheduled. Advertisers are only interested in XF on Saturdays anyway, so keeping that away from SCD for top revenue is important to ITV, not worrying about a show that will compete for advertising with other broadcasters! I suspect ITV get peanuts for ads during the non-XF shows. They would get the same for films, plus this could result in a chance of higher ad revenue for the same film if was shown at later date. So, the best thing they can do is just accept SCD is a big beast on Saturdays and just enjoy the higher ad revenue for XF afterwards.

That Strictly 10.9million peak is extremely strong by the way because XFactor would've kept it in check between 8-8.30pm. That peak almost certainly came around 7.50-8pm just before XF started. If XFactor hadnt clashed against the final half hour of SCD, that peak may have gone up to almost 12million.

The lead in to TXF will have very little difference to the rating, when you consider that the show is 2 hours long and has Strictly clashing over the top of the first half hour. You just need to accept that these sorts of ratings are what it will get now. It should go up a bit when there is no SCD clash and the shows get shorter. The breakdown of the rating across the time after Strictly finished would give an idea of what it should get.

It's a bit like saying EastEnders lead in on Tuesday was the reason why it didn't do well.

For Once I agree with Samuel (Even if you do take the bias too far) I think the major problem with X Factor, despite it being undoubtedly very popular there is a certain contempt for it that I've noticed this year and not so much before, whereas a couple of years ago it was watercooler TV now its more a case of 'you don't watch that rubbish do you' so I think the audience is tiring of it. Still an 8 Million average for what fills a lot of hours of banked on autumn income for ITV means it will be a long time before they'll let it go as a lot of people still watch it and has a fantastic demo rating

I have to say I had a little smile to myself when a couple of posters said (quite rightly) that XF had more competition than SCD - when programs like the Lottery Shows and Casualty have been universally derided by ITV fans as rubbish and having poor ratings against XF for years.

That doesn't really make sense as you are talking about a peak. Unless loads of people were going to tune in 10 mins before the end why would it be any higher.

The problem is the quality of the comments. Instead of a proper discussion we have remarks about other posters, simple minded reactions (rather than opinions based on a considered understanding) and no attempt to give any depth of discussion.

Those few posts containing any information or thoughtful comment are swamped by a multitude of banal posts.

This, I DO agree with. The really good posts are often being missed due to conker fights with some posters who fail to learn the concept of ignoring.

In fairness they haven't done much at all. You act like the show has had a total revamp. It hasn't. It's still the X Factor and almost nothing is different so let's not pretend it is! Minor little changes do not equate to it having a makeover.

But there is no doubt a lot of casual viewers have got bored (contrary to your statement, maybe because it HASN'T changed much, and it's "same old same old" for some - although of course as we know totally reworking things can be disastrous too, but that's another discussion).

As I said before the one thing I do think made a huge difference was changing the judging line-up two years ago. It was TV gold and changed to...something much less. That harmed it, no doubt about it.

Apart from that some people are just not interested any more, but as you also agreed, let's not forget that everything seems to be against it scheduling wise, and with the headstart and clash, while Strictly is in a peachy position. I don't think for one minute the gap would be this wide if that was all sorted out