American Idol and The Voice were established in America. X Factor took too long to come to the party over there. Simon going to America and taking some X Factor creatives with him meant the UK version suffered. X Factor's fall was self inflicted.

The wheels would have fell off in 2011 anyway with or without Simon etc on the panel. The 2011 series was on course to beat 2010 in the ratings until it hit the middle stages and then it went disastrously.

No ratings yet apart from the soaps?

As for the soaps.. not doing very well in general are they? Hollyoaks seems to be on a terrible run at the moment.

Would the wobble have happened had Simon and some X Factor creatives still been on the show?

exc +1
CBB: 1.39m (7.6%)
BOTS: 0.74m (6.3%)

Not to the same extent probably, as there were some astonishingly bad decisions made by the producers that year. I do think they would have failed to match 2010 just because those numbers just aren't sustainable, but it would have probably been a more gradual fall from grace.

Things could have been stabilised after 2011, but the producers completely dropped the ball by going into the 2012 series by making only very minimal changes despite the 2011 series going badly. It meant that the show felt really tired at the audition phase that year and there was no reason for people to turn back in, hence it launching over 2m down on 2011.

The 2013 and 2014 series were both much better produced but the damage was done in 2011/2012. Mark Sidaway who was appointed executive producer in 2011 after the previous lot went to the US was dropped from the show earlier this year and has been replaced by the executive producer of the past 3 seasons of BGT. That's probably where some of the change in tone for this year has come from. But will it be too little too late?

Maybe I'm incorrectly remembering last year's numbers, but that looks a bit shit for CBB. Rating more like regular BB there.

Jeez, that's terrible.

exc +1
Celeb 15-1: 0.98m (5.1%)
8/10 CDC: 1.52m (8.1%)
Last Leg: 1.16m (8.0%)

Cancel the summer celeb series, it's the January one that does well

Extra Slice: 2.46m (14.1%)

Agree. I don't get the point of summer series when the winter one has been getting between 2.8-3.1m. Thing is, I'm liking this series so far, but they could splash out so much cash if they just have one cbb series a year.

I don't get why they'd launch on a bank holiday weekend because it will instantly lose momentum. They should have went for Sunday or Monday. But it does mean that the summer one being watched a lot less than the winter one, it won't damage the winter one that much. Over the last few years, the winner ones haven't had great ratings yet the winter ones have increased their audience year on year.

Ripper Street outside BBC One's top 3 (i.e. lower than The One Show's 3.14m/19.5%) but no surprise there. EastEnders top with the 10pm news second on 3.28m (19.3%).

Yeah looks like it could be entertaining, don't even wanna look tomorrow for the Saturday night ratings. Could dip below a million with a Friday rating like that.

Probably won't even look at them over the weekend!

I am still amazed that after the unbelievable success of the 2010 the show was allowed to be so dismantled in losing three of its judges. The next series iirc started fantastically well but it wasn't quite the same pantomime experience as it was at its huge peak and its been on the slide ever since. Inevitable anyway maybe but I still think the blueprint was thrown away far too soon.

It was too much change at the one time. It would have been better if Simon had only went and the other 3 stayed with Gary B joining

I think the fall would have been more gradual than it was had they lost Cowell but Cheryl and Dannii remained, it would have been even slower had they continued with the 08-10 panel. Losing three of the panel was just too much in one go.

That link is not working unfortunately.

Works for me.

In a couple of weeks Gogglebox returns to Friday nights. That 9pm slot is going to get very competitive.

I diagree, the panel was so much better without Simon, Cheryl and Danni. The ratings would have gone down either way. It had peaked in 2010.

Yes the Strictly v Extra Slice v Gogglebox is a match and a half. I wonder if Extra Slice will move that week but I doubt it

You'd think Gogglebox will win the showdown with Extra Slice. And the Strictly launch on Friday night get dented slightly later in September. A fascinating few weeks of ratings coming up.