Youre hoping for a good rating tonight but XF is out of its usual slot and not starting at the same time as any other show on any other channel. If I was a betting man, I would say it will end up being XF's lowest rating Sunday live episode ever!!

But then you could say they just asked too many celebrities to take part this year. They maybe were turned down by some of their requests and had to draft in other competitors.

You have to be careful as a producer that you're not just signing up someone for the sake of adding another number.

They maybe asked too many to participate this year.

There were complaints in the year that the figures dropped in 2009 that there were too many contestants.

We will see if this has any impact upon its series ratings and its rise and fall. I'm not convinced by the line up the producers have chosen this time.

I think they've had 15 for a couple of years now but I agree - there's no reason why they couldn't have stuck to 12 celebrities. Less is sometimes more, especially for the BBC which doesn't have to chase ratings to the same extent as the commercial networks.

Of course, cast correctly and 15 is fine. But get it wrong and it can drag horribly.

They had the same number of contestants last year - 15

How long are the delays usually?

I think it depends on what the issue is - if it's just realigning BBC One's figures due to a schedule change it shouldn't take too long. If there's an anomaly they're checking it may take longer.

Varies but normally takes until mid afternoon.

I think the data needs reprocessing which takes time.

A lot of tedious Samuel bashing I see, people will notice that he never retaliates... Sticks and stones spring to mind.

Thought you said you were going back to bed?

100% agree with this. Also jumping on a band wagon

I guess sometimes it's a generation thing. You are clearly a lot younger than me James and perhaps can relate more to the music so I really can't agree that the talent pool is excellent.
There is one stand out singer and a couple of maybe's for me.
The girls this year look very poor which is unusual.

Apparently this girl on XFactor was the highlight of the entire episode last night. But I dont see what the fuss is about?! The Voice did Happy so much better a few months ago here. If the XFs best contestant isnt even as good as a quarter finalist from the Voice, there's not much hope for this series imo.

I only asked him where the 8.8m target came from; it seemed to spiral from there.

Look up Andrea Faustini if you want to see a highlight

Then again you already will have done and I suspect he is in a part of your brain labelled "gloss over".


But you see, questioning invented targets and insiders is "bashing" these days. Don't you worry, you have no reason to defend yourself.

I suspect that people enjoyed Alison and Steve, that Jennifer and Simon aren't anyone's favourite, people don't enjoy Judy but Anton has a loyal fanbase and that people liked Tim despite his routine being lame. I think the order could have done with a bit of tweeking but I didn't think it was awful. The only people I REALLY couldn't care less about watching last night were Judy, Jennifer and Simon. Everyone else had something to offer (even if they were so awful it was hilarious). That's not bad going.

5.1 for Who apparantly. Up !!

Fantastic! Doesn't bode well for xf

Pathetic. Utterly pathetic. For a start Lauren's version is better and more inventive. Plus I'd say Andrea was the highlight of the night anyway.

Andrea was the highlight. I thought Lauren was pretty overrated, though I don't like Happy that much anyway.

Where's this from, please?

I'm wondering though if maybe a few of them could have been left out from this year, unlike the previous years contestants lists. 12 would have been fine. In 2009, was it 16 they had ?, an there was speculation in the media that the calibre wasn't high enough and had helped make it a low rated final. I don't know if this has any bearing on the ratings whatsoever, but you want short sharp Strictly which you will get as the series progresses and the quality performers remain.

TVRatingsUK: Saturday night ratings:
#StrictlyComeDancing - 8.65m/39.2% (DOWN 1.2m)
#TheXFactor - 7.66m/33.2%
#DoctorWho - 5.08m/22.1%

Gallifrey Base

17:40 - Pointless Celebrities: 4.30m (27.1%)
18:30 - Strictly Come Dancing: 8.65m (39.2%)
20:35 - Doctor Who: 5.08m (22.1%)
21:25 - Lottery Draws: 2.90m (13.1%)
21:35 - Casualty: 4.33m (21.5%)
22:25 - BBC News: 3.45m (20.7%)

No they include +1. Ronant always posts ratings including +1.

Slightly better than I expected for X Factor. Not great by any stretch but could have been worse. Strictly showed a greater year on year decline though.