I was thinking the same about SCD. Remember it suffered a little ratings wise last year as well so maybe people are gradually giving up on these old formats.

Casualty held up well. Mrs Brown's Boys continues to perform well; people seem to love watching it over and over again.

In terms of people, only Flack I suppose. But Cheryl and Rita don't add much and Walsh would be better than Grimshaw at Walsh's job. It is only episode 1 of course but the real issue for me is the format - they can make as many tweaks as they like but the central product feels really tacky and cheap to me these days. Pre 2011 and I suppose even for 2011 and 2012 to a smaller degree it still felt like a big show with a bit of freshness about it each year rather than a total chore. It needed to be changed but so far it all seems very cosmetic and dare I say it lazy. Strictly remains more or less the same as ever yet makes sure its tone is just right every year. Maybe XF's constant over the topness and soap opera was always going to wear thin with time and after 12 years the dark days are finally upon us

It was 22.1m in XF's slot on launch night last year. So down 2.3m this year. Much of that was down to XF but elsewhere was down a bit too.

From Hassan of GB.

Saturday 29th August 2015 - Overnights
BBC One
19:00: Pointless - 3.66m (22.2%)
19:50: The National Lottery - 2.61m (13.8%)
20:45: Casualty - 4.22m (20.7%)
21:35: Mrs Brown's Boys - 3.89m (21.5%)

BBC Two
19:40: Edwardian Farm - 0.84m (4.6%)
20:40: Dad's Army - 1.20m (5.9%)
21:10: Sue Perkins' Big Night Out - 0.75m (4.0%)

ITV (inc +1)
19:00: Keep it in the Family - 3.42m (20.8%)
20:00: The X Factor - 7.65m (38.6%)
* 7.11m (35.9%) exc +1
* Peak of 8.49m
21:30: Through the Keyhole - 3.40m (19.1%)

Channel 4 (inc +1)
19:00: Great Canal Journeys - 0.96m (5.8%)
20:00: Walking Through History - 0.78m (4.0%)

Channel 5 (inc +1)
21:00: Football League Tonight - 0.45m (2.4%)
22:00: Celebrity Big Brother - 0.91m (6.9%)

ITV2 (inc +1)
21:30: The Xtra Factor - 659k (3.8%)

ITV breakdown (inc +1)
19:00 - 3.12m (19.7%)
19:15 - 3.42m (20.9%)
19:30 - 3.42m (20.4%)
19:45 - 4.06m (23.5%)
20:00 - 7.16m (38.5%)
20:15 - 7.48m (39.0%)
20:30 - 7.77m (40.0%)
20:45 - 7.93m (38.7%)
21:00 - 7.86m (38.0%)
21:15 - 7.68m (37.7%)
21:30 - 3.90m (21.0%)
21:45 - 3.55m (19.6%)

Spun Gold's the name of the production company I think.

Thanks.

That is terrible for CBB, just terrible.

How many times are they going to try the new judges trick, there's been a new line up every year since 2011.

It's a Bank Holiday and pay day weekend with various festivals and events taking place around the country, so that might explain the all round low figures.

Saturday night, bank holiday weekend 10.30pm i dont think i'd expect anything else tbh

True, but problem is that CBB has never gone under 1m, and this looks terrible no matter how you look it.

Am I right in thinking the strictly launch show have never been as high as the live shows? If that's the case Simon may well use that to his advantage in the press next weekend

I don't think it's ever gone out at 10.30 either?

He already is - Mr Murdoch isn't the only high profile Tory supporter who stands to benefit from Mr Whittingdale starting a public debate about whether the BBC should be stripped back you know

X factor has aired on the August bank holiday in the past and not been effected by the festivals and events

The summer CBB seems a big mistake to me in the grand scheme of things, it's only diluting the brand.

Well done to Casualty for holding up so well - it was a very good episode last night

Well tonight's show has some decent competition. It will still rate the highest but could be hit and rate even lower.

For all the doomladen comments about The X Factor what are ITV going to replace it with? Britain's Got Talent? Then what do they have for the spring? And how can they fit Talent and I'm A Celebrity into the same part of the year with Ant and Dec's schedule.

Whilst that is an awful figure for The X Factor it's still ITV's number one show of the week. Take a million from that and only Coronation Street is beating it.

Saying that if it doesn't improve massively ITV will, at the very least, offer less money for the new contract. And Cowell may decide enough is enough and pull the plug himself... though he allowed the American version to sink to embarrassing depths.

I think ITV need to complain again, the BBC can't show Casualty against X Factor as it dents it! Simon Cowell may ask for Dads Army on BBC1 at that time, but that may beat XF.

Surely that would mean TXF has nothing to fear from the 20-minute clash? So no excuses...

Agree Poor Charlie rather emotional.

I wonder if next weekend ITV will extend their live football coverage at the last minute till 7.30 next week so X Factor starts at 8.30 and only has a 5 min clash with strictly

I think perhaps cutting the number of hours might be the next port of call. It'll be interesting to see how the Sunday only weeks do as reducing it to one night only could be an idea, I do think it feels a bit much to be on twice a week. It didn't when the show was huge but it clearly isn't now and needs protecting these days if they want it to last. Of course the problem is that they're losing Downton this year too so it isn't particularly straightforward. They really could do with Jekyll & Hyde taking off although I'm not so sure it will. You'd think they'd offer less though.

I doubt Cowell would pull the plug. Even if it fell to 4m he'd probably still do it if ITV wanted it. Whether he'd still judge it is another matter, mind.