Wow, X Factor has really been huge this year

I'm a bit shocked at that Girls Aloud rating. I know it was in between X Factor but just because it's on before the result doesn't necessarily mean people will sit through whatever's on. I thought SCD would benefit much more at avoiding X factor and being in between as people would see both of the big reality shows with no problem. Even with the last 10 minutes or so being ads, Girls Aloud must have been pretty close for the duration to end up with a higher rating?

I'm glad Harry Hill's doing so well too

[quote=Score;29464591]Yes, and XF's results have started late and ended very early for most of the series. Also, in Strictly's slot, there is a far higher potential audience than in XF's much later slot (often post-10pm), explaining XF's higher audience share.



My point was that there is pros and cons of both result shows slots.The x factors results show has less programming competion but also has less of an available audience and strictly has more of an available audience but more competition.

Regarding Strictly (and a bit off topic): isn't it a bit absurd that the judges still have a huge choice at this very late stage in the competition?! They already give half the input of who stays with their scores, so surely a dance-off is not required at this late stage!

When the phone lines were opened orginally[after the first dance], they didnt know it was going to be an tie on the leaderboard.

In terms of its ratings, not the quality of the show is what I think I meant. Sorry!

Exactly, and if they had revealed the bottom 2 last night, it would have been revealed who had came top (like what happened last year), making the final predictable.

They should have closed the lines as soon as the second dances had been performed, then.

It was probably better to do that, than rush into a decision which hadn't been properly considered. It was quite a complex situation and I think they were quite right to take as much time as possible to consider all possible options before they made a controversial decision.


The flaw should have been spotted earlier, but it is a very rare occurance. It only happened because:

a) they had only three couples in a semi-final that was to include a dance off

(in other words, this would be an impossibility on any other week - the mathematical problem was specific to this weeks competition)

and

b) the judges total scores happened to be totally equal for the top two.

Wow! Excellent ratings for both XF shows last night. I was pretty close with my predictions.

Robbie, you owe me a fiver, as TXF is going to beat BGT's official figure of 13.88m as i said...

Yes because that wouldnt have caused as much confusion as what happened anyway

It wouldn't have, actually.

I don't think it's been mentioned in this thread, but does anyone actually know what Outnumbered got last night?

The final of the X Factor has now become a must see even for many, even though they may not watch the show regularly. Last night approaching 4 million extra viewers were added over the semi final week. So this is the result the status the show has in peoples minds and many plan parties to tie in with the final night. Of course it will be most confusing for those, indeed the majority, who have little connection with it.

As for SCD, well this is its most successful year ever and its become mired in talk of failure and farce. Its not as good as last year because Alesha Dixon made it special, but last nights fiasco was down to the fact that three couples were left when there should have been four-sods law dictating a tie though some of the judges marks quite peculiar. Bruce is right about the timing-6pm today is not the same as 6pm in the seventies when people were already glued to their seats by that time-Generation Game got 20 million at 5.45 back then. And as I and RS have suggested before, a fair few SCD viewers may have caught the XF bug as the show now has had a clear run-and leaving BBC1 later line up a virtual desert apart from Merlin.

Not supporting the conspiracy theory for SCD but what is puzzling is that the error occurred weeks ago when they lost John Sargeant.

This is when they chose to carry on evicting every week and not reinstate anyone either. That was an option. However, they chose to leave the semi final with three couples and the self evident problem that loads of people must have spotted immediately (I did) that with a dance off the only person not in the dance off is probably going to win. And having just two people in the final was always looking like a bad mistake as it reduces the drama of that final considerably.

It is hard to see why nobody on board figured such basic issues out at the time they chose to do what they did with nearly a week's notice after John Sargeant walked.

What is even more curious is that in the US version - Dancing With The Stars - involving many of the same people on camera and off - a not dissimilar situation had already occurred. A celebrity had to pull out mid series for personal reasons and they did not do what they did over John Sargeant. Instead they suspended the eviction that week, made it clear from the start and rolled over any votes to save the couples the following week. This ensured there would not be three couples in the semi with a dance off or just two couples in the final which they clearly saw was not a bright idea.

So the real question is why was this precedent ignored over here when they faced a similar dilemma a few weeks ago? For it is not what happened last night that created a problem with the mess needing resolving on the fly - had their been four people on the show last night then such a foreseeable crisis would not have arisen. And that situation was deliberately brought about by what they chose to do when John Sargeant left.

So there are some questions to be answered here.

Brucie is taking it well, I see.

If Strictly was beating XF on share every week then he might have a point. I think it won twice through the whole series. Typically, there would be 23 million TV viewers in the Strictly slot, rising to 24 million (some nights 25m) during the XF slot. But then you have the fact that being on later means XF goes up against tougher competition in Merlin as oppose to You've Been Framed. And XF did 6pm on a Sunday evening with 9.5m for judges houses.

Strictly is doing well. But the reason it trails X Factor in the ratings is because XF has seen a massive jump in ratings from start to finish.


So when Strictly gets an early primetime slot on a Saturday, it's bad because it isn't "prime" enough. But when it gets the #1 slot on all TV (8pm Sundays - 29 million watching) and a lead-in from one of the most watched shows on TV... well then you need to go easy on Strictly, because it's just so tough in primetime.

I wonder whether ITV will push Syco and TalkbackTHAMES to have X Factor result shows in 2009 on Sundays with the show hitting its highest ratings, I imagine ITV will want to extend that to Sundays to boost its flagging Sunday Nights and give the Sunday dramas a boost.

TalkbackTHAMES are doing great in the overal ratings chart with BGT, X Factor and The Apprentice in the top ten.

After the ratings this year they may well be more inclined to cash out to do it live. No way it'll be pre-recorded though.

I think leave where it is. The Sunday repeats would be screwed up as well if they went to a live results show on Sunday nights. I think a lot may depend on whether ITV is allowed to rebalance ad minutes between days. If they can an more ad minutes to Saturday night they will be happy to leave as is.

Louis Walsh said the X Factors budget is £12m - seems pretty cheap if you strip out the stars fees which must come to half of that alone

It's a lot better all on one night, and the Sunday repeats is a valid point. They tend to perform strongly for ITV2.

Simon might not be included in that £12m, though, as he is signed separately. But Cheryl, Danni, Dermot and Louis must add up to about £2.5m-£3m and Cheryl is set for a bumper increase next year. The auditions must be a huge operation as well.

When you consider that Carphone Warehouse pay £7m a year for sponsorship. Then you have £6m total revenue from phone votes this year to be split 4 ways (ITV, Syco, Talkback, Harvest Media). It looks like ITV must be doing very well out of the show!

Couples often tie, but it would only ever be any sort of a problem in an edition with three couples taking part.




It's quite simple really. It's 50/50 between the judges and the viewers. The maximum number of points available to the couple who top the judges' leaderboard is the same as the number of couples taking part. Three couples took part last night, so a maximum of three points were available, with two points for second place, and one point for third.

However, as two couples tied for first spot, each of those two couples scored three points, with the other couple (Tom and patner) on one point.

When Three couples take part, three points are awarded to the couple with the most viewer votes, two points to the second couple, and one point to a third.

With Rachel and partner getting three judge points, and Lisa and partner getting three judge points, nothing the viewers did would have prevented Tom and partner ending in the bottom two couples (and subsequently facing a dance-off).

Therefore, viewers would have been unable to save Tom from the dance-off. With all three couples being pushed through to the final, everyone's vote counted because every couple got saved.

Wasn't much of an overrun, was there?

On commercial telly, it might have been covered up.

DOI has been off air for around nine months, so its Christmas special won't have the momentum the final had.

The final was live. The special is not.

The result of the live final meant a lot to people. The pre-recorded special won't.

The live final had a head start on EastEnders. The special won't.

The final was up against EastEnders on a night (sunday) you wouldn't expect to find EastEnders on. People expect to find EastEnders in the schedule on Christmas night.

EastEnders has bigger storylines on Christmas night than it did on the DOI final night.

I'm amazed at that rating for Parents of the Band. It is certainly not a wonderful comedy, but worse things such as Jam and Jerusalem have rated better against Coronation St in that slot.

I'm amazed at how well Dad's Army did last night.

I'm also very pleased The X Factor has beaten Britain's Got Talent. I just think XF is by far the better of the two Cowell shows.

Bruce Forsyth mentioned next week's SCD's start time (6.40pm) last night, saying something along the lines of it being a better slot. Picture his dismay if SCD gets slotted before Hole in the Wall next year.