Maybe move X Factor to the Winter?

It seems difficult to expect young viewers to give a shit about watching X Factor in the summer while school/college/uni is out, more so now than 5 years ago.

ITV could rest the show in 2015, and air Auditions from January 16th 2016 with the final on April 23rd.

Including +1:

Sat 05/10/13 - Judges' Houses 1: 8.48m (36.1%)
Sun 06/10/13 - Judges' Houses 2: 8.43m (34.3%)
===========================================
Sat 12/10/13 - Live Performance 1: 8.10m (34.5%)
Sun 13/10/13 - Live Results 1: 9.52m (37.0%)

15 MIN/LAST WEEK/THIS WEEK/CHANGE

8.00pm - 6.05 ------ 5.84m ----- (-0.21m)

8.15pm - 6.65 ----- 6.56m ----- (-0.09m)

8.30pm - 7.71 ----- 7.39m ----- (-0.32m)

8.45pm - 7.69 ----- 7.51m ----- (-0.18m)

9.00pm - 7.48 ----- 7.43m ----- (-0.05m)

9.15pm - 5.14

The +1 rating was down from 514,000 down to 379,000.

ITV2 repeat 323,000 up from 169,000 last week (earlier timeslot).

I shall abstain from writing long winded theories on one rating. Last weekend it was 300k behind Strictly, equal to last year and then the Sunday show posted the highest Sunday figure of the series and the highest rating of any TV show last week.

Countless times last year people started proclaiming the end based on one bad rating only for the next week to deliver something strong and all that typing and analysis had gone to waste. The difference in last weekend for Strictly (with a poor Fri/Sat) and this weekend only highlights the waste in over analysing one number.

What we can safely say is that cutting the length of the Saturday shows to have a Friday show is plainly pointless and not doing the ratings or momentum any favours at all.

Last nights is particularly poor given that the Saturday shows had been the steady night this year (slightly up on average I think until last night).

Think I might go to the bookies today and put some cash on Mr Wood winning!!

The Friday shows seem to be killing momentum. These Friday shows were a bad idea from the get-go. Yes, it performs better than anything else in that slot but is it really worth sacrificing one of their biggest shows?! Answer: No!

It's worth remembering that BGT scored just 5.8m (inc +1: 6.1m) for its last semi final results show before rebounding to 10.3m (inc +1: 10.8m) for the final the week after - so yes last night is a bad rating - but it could rebound tonight. Last week it increased 1.1m from the Saturday show.

Roll on Christmas when all these talent shows are over. Oh hang on, we have The Voice to look forward to in January

A roundup.

BBC 1
17:30: Pointless Celebrities - 4.09m (26.8%)
18:20: Strictly Come Dancing - 9.06m (43.3%)
* peak - 9.99m (46.1%)
20:30: Doctor Who - 4.82m (21.5%)
21:15: Casualty - 4.74m (23.8%)
22:30: Match of the Day - 3.21m (24.9%)

BBC 2
20:45: Dad’s Army - 1.57m (7.0%)
21:15: Genesis: Together and Apart - 1.40m (7.6%)

ITV
18:30: You’ve Been Framed! - 1.83m (9.6%)
19:00: The Chase: Celebrity Special - 2.95m (14.1%)
* +1 - 120k (0.5%)
20:00: The X Factor - 6.94m (30.4%)
* +1 - 379k (1.9%)
21:20: Through the Keyhole - 3.53m (18.1%)
* +1 - 263k (1.8%)

Channel 4
21:20: Film: Battle: Los Angeles - 0.584m (3.5%)

Channel 5
19:35: Film: Joe Kidd - 0.734m (3.3%)
21:15: Film: A Fistful of Dollars - 0.847m (4.8%)

ITV 2
21:20: The Xtra Factor - 0.317m (1.6%)

ITV 3
21:00: Midsomer Murders - 0.666m (3.5%)

Sky Atlantic
21:00: Broadwalk Empire - 0.048m (0.2%)

Source - DS

Basically - I think A.D.P had it spot on with the reasons given except I'm not sure who they can put on the judging panel. The singers were hardly successful.

There are some points in a show's life where you can point a finger and say THAT'S where it really started to go wrong, such as the baby swap on EastEnders. With The X Factor it was finishing on Cerys' audition in series 8. From that point it's really gone backwards figure wise.

Thanks.

It doesn't look QUITE so bad looking at those breakdowns.

Those figures don't match what was posted earlier - I presume this is excluding +1?

Air The X Factor opposite The Voice? That would be an interesting move to say the least.

What do they air in place of it in the autumn of 2015?

To me this shows there is nothing wrong with the show itself, it's the SCD clash that's hurting it. Last night it should have run from 8.30-10.15pm.

Very poor for Channel 4's Battle: Los Angeles (584k/3.5%), being beaten by Channel 5's old Western line-up of A Fistful of Dollars (847k/4.8%). That share for Five looks decent.

Boardwalk Empire does shockingly bad.

Series 7 averaged 13/14 million viewers didn't it? They must have been doing something right. Surely it was the catastrophic loss of the panel that started the downward spiral? Series 8 started with some strong audition ratings iirc but when it became clear the same buzz wasn't happening with the new panel the end ratings were comparatively muted(if still strong in modern terms)
Personally I think Cowell will come to regret his American adventure-the abrupt loss of the dream team panel has really accelerated XF inevitable down spiral-and he is now finding that its very difficult to recreate the feeling and the magic surrounding XF's 17 million heyday.
Ultimately America was a failure and now the Wolves are at the door in the UK. Not that Im suggesting XF will be canned-I suspect there will be many more tweaks attempted yet.

"Ant and Dec Saturday Night Takeaway" or "Britain's Got Talent" may hurt "Strictly Come Dancing" audience more than "The X Factor" if its not working in the autumn slot any longer.

I can see why Cowell went to the US with the format as "Dancing with the Stars" was successful with Americans.

Test cards? Family Fortunes? Ant & Dec?

whatever, just let Strictly dance itself to a boring grave

....that schedule would overrun BGT-so presumably that would have to move to Autumn.

ITV could also air the show later in the Autumn / away from the Summer of 2015, stripping auditions across 5 weeknights rather than consecutive weeks.

There's a momentum issue. XF's live shows should start around the same time as Strictly's

Another option is moving XF to Sunday nights with 2 shows:

19:00 - The X Factor
20:30 - Sunday Night at The Palladium
21:30 - The X Factor Results
22:00 - News at Ten

But that would obviously raise questions about where to put Downton Abbey, etc.

-sigh-

Same competition for Strictly as last year and in previous years it didn't matter what X Factor's competition was.

So 9.99m (46.1%) was the 15-minute peak for Strictly at 19:45; anyone got the 5-minute peak? It presumably came at 19:55.

I am very suprised by last nights ratings. I thought SCD would be up but not as much and I really thought XF would gain a bit of momentum too going into the lives but that rating is horrible. I was anticipating the XF lives to go up but not so sure now. Have last weekends poorly received eps caused a major backlash?

Maybe they could put it against The Voice? - it might have a chance of beating that.

Series 7 of Big Brother was also it's highest rating but contained a high number of twists and controversial moments. The following celebrity series struggled relatively speaking leading to the late introduction of the Goody family.

Many people were tired of the controversial moments on The X Factor series 7 too. I think the change in the panel actually gave series 8 a chance but appalling production decisions and the panel not gelling on the lives pulled it back.

maybe SC will keep his promise and axe it?

The problem with X Factor is SC. I would watch it but for me his arrogance is a total turn off for me. I know it is his creation but he must fall on his sword to help the ratings. He could pull the plug on the show but that would leave itv high and dry on what to put to on in its place such is their heavy investment in the programme

To be fair I think you make some good and valid points there, however I still think we need to wait and see how the live shows rate before proclaiming a terminal decline.

It's 'zeitgeist '.

'Zeitgeit' isn't a word.