Yes, I was age blind too. I enjoyed shows like The Generation Game, Game for a Laugh, Tenko, Give Us A Clue and Metal Mickey! I liked these shows because they were good and didn't tell me who they were aimed at. In those days TV execs knew their audiences. They responded accordingly by making mass appeal shows that the audience they were after would watch, along with everybody else.

I wasn't thinking that, more the share figures.

Does a 100% share include those watching streaming services and on demand box sets etc. or just the linear channels.

Incidentally, I've been getting a few notifications on my tablet from Sky, prompting that I can watch ITV live on Sky Go. e.g. for yesterday's Rugby.

Celebrity Pointless and Strictly are the two main shows that I watch on a Saturday night. I do watch Doctor Who but think the current series is not as good as last years but that maybe just me.
I only usually watch the X Factor when it gets to the live shows but never even bothered to put ITV(STV) on last night.
A friend I have on Facebook posted on there page that they think the X Factor is not the same anymore and they love watching the X Factor.

Darren

Looking at the peak for Strictly and X Factor & Doctor Who's ratings, I'd say Halloween parties/Trick or Treaters dented viewing.

Saying that, Strictly held up very well. Not much to say for X Factor or Doctor Who.

I'm shocked at those figures for X Factor and to think even two years ago it was still pulling in 8-9million.

5 years ago when it was pulling in 13-15million I would never have imagined that it would be pulling in nearly ten million less viewers. Its sad really.

SCD is still pulling in great ratings.

Older skewing SCD? One place where XFactor consistently beats SCD is BARB's TV Player Report.

i know the X Factor's woes have got all the attention but let's not get distracted by Strictly's successes. For BBC 1 to be getting audience shares in the teens in prime time on a late October night (Dr Who and Casualty) is truly pitiful.

Incidentally, there was next-to-no apparent 'Halloween dent' for X Factor last year..

Here's the ratings report for the Saturday of Halloween weekend 2014: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...psN04CA8bKfmcb

And here's the ratings report for the Saturday prior to that: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...psMZHIVIAEx34p

In fact the 2014 Halloween Saturday episode of X Factor rated exactly the same as the previous Saturday's episode had, when you exclude +1.

I bet the BBC fan bois are doing cartwheels this morning.

Correct, but Halloween didn't fall on the Saturday last year, it was the Friday. Last time Halloween fell on a Saturday (in 2009) XF lost 1.3m week on week. Obviously it was a bigger show back then but it was still over 10% of its audience.

Strictly held up fine again that year, presumably down its older audience. No Doctor Who that night so can't compare, but TV Burp also took a big dent (which again had a younger audience).

For reference, this is how other opening live shows rated in terms of consolidated ratings. I'm sure it won't become the lowest rating opening live show ever, but it may struggle to climb out of the bottom three

It was dragged out!!

(Kidding! )

Super Strictly in a league of its own. But we all knew that for years.

Strictly absolutely tore The X Factor a new arsehole last night.

4 million difference is unbelievable, embarrassing and abysmal.

I expect there will be panic at ITV as the failures and problems just keep on coming thick and thin. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, the dead wood behind the scenes at ITV need kicking out pronto. Yes, Peter Fincham, it's your time to go my friend.

That said I think ITV is now such a tarnished brand in the eyes of the public many will avoid it at all costs. The damage has been possibly done and I'm not sure what could be done to bring it back to anything resembling "glory days".

The BBC is completely all over everything, every area. Really flexing its muscles now. A shame a strong ITV makes a stronger BBC, but as long as the Beeb don't rest on their laurels despite having no real competition anymore, it's fine.

Still, from a TV ratings enthusiast's perspective, TV is so much less interesting now there's no real battle anymore.

I really enjoyed Strictly last night and I thought it was by far the best episode of the series so far. It wasn't too long, the Halloween theme was light-hearted and enjoyable, and the dancing was high quality. It deserves its excellent rating.

Football League Tonight continues to struggle; 400,000 viewers last night. How long before Channel 5 lose patience and change the format or just stick it on 5*?

Doctor Who would rate better in an earlier slot I think, and push Strictly back to later. Yes, that means a bit more of a "clash" with The X Factor, but as we've seen, Strictly can defeat TXF very convincingly so having some more competition between the two programmes is unlikely to have a noticeable adverse effect on Strictly's ratings.

It's a shame that Celebrity Chase is being shown as ITV's competition to Strictly. The Chase has been a dependable ratings winner for ITV for many years and the Celebrity Specials usually do well; they would be better off putting the Celebrity Specials in the 6pm slot and then something like a repeat of Piers Morgan's Life Stories or the News in the 7pm slot.

You're quite right - though Halloween 'celebrations', if you can use that word to describe them, do tend to carry on over the whole of the closest weekend to the day itself, which is why I made the point. Just wanted to clarify

Click, in 2009 most people at work would enthusiastically talk about it and I was watching it near the end to see what was happening and contributed to the ratings monster for the final. Since 2010 XF talk has declined iatwork, since 2012 the talk has been more of the programme has had its day and only a handful of people still watch it. A decline of 50 per cent in five years obviously has an effect on what people talk about, although I could say DW, which has seen a fair sized decline, doesn't have the same enthusiasm it had in the Tennant era, when plenty of casual fans were watching.
Also soaps seem to be mentioned far less often as well, with only a few brief Corrie chats from a few women at work and hardly any mention of EE, which proves this has fallen from grace in the last ten years. As for sports, football appeals to about half of the men in the office and two women, the RUWC seemed to fizzle out of conversations once England went out, and F1 stopped being mentioned once Hamilton won the title.

Really?! Even my mother who is the main Strictly fan thought it'd never get going, and when it did there was nothing that blew her away (she rolls her eyes at the non stop praise of Jay considering his dance training background). A really poor episode by all accounts here so not sure what you were watching really

It's sad isn't it?

TV is dying out as a medium, perhaps.

Everyone's just narcissistic and social media obsessed, or doing that thing I hate to hear with others: "Netflix and chill" *pulls hair out at the irritation of the phrase*

I may have to retire from the Ratings Thread soon as the trajectory for TV is going one way and the doom and gloom of falling ratings and rotting schedules is starting to be quite depressing.

This theory has already been floated on popbitch, which compared the costs of the two shows: TXF apparently costs ITV £150m, compared to TVUK costing the BBC £11m. And the contracts for both shows run out next year …

I think I'm right in saying that The Voice is now the only returning vocal talent show in the US. Looks like we could have the same thing here.

And Cowell must know the writing's on the wall - he's not going to America's Got Talent for nothing.

X Factor demise is not unexpected surely. It got too big / too brash. Believed it was invincible It's a classic bubble that burst. They keep trying to inflate the bubble with decreasing success. A bit like the global economy!

I gave up on X Factor after series 3 so well before most people. My reasons being simple. Contrived manipulated and the narcissism of the judges. I also felt uncomfortable at the way vulnerable people were being used for laughs in the audition stages. Not good. Then we wonder why verbal abuse / harassment of people with learning difficulties grew. Hardly anybody I know watches as they are fed up of supporting an act to win and them being forgotten shortly afterwards. Some still support the act but doubt Simon even remembers who they are. This is particularly amongst folks over 30 who have an attention span more than that of a gnat. There is a thread about who folks supported over the last decade. Hardly anyone watched since beginning. Compare that with SCD.

Scheduled TV, perhaps. Not so good TV, perhaps. People have a lot more choice now, and are simply going where the quality is. Sadly a lot of that is where the money is i.e. the US. People always flock together to whatever's fresh and interesting, if TV is full of commissioners who don't know what they're doing (especially at ITV...), not the viewer's fault.

Rather than compare Doctor Who episode 7s, here's what the episode has to do to avoid becoming the lowest rated episode of the new era (in terms of consolidated numbers).

That figure really does surprise me. I thought it would have increased to the low 7m for the first live show despite it being Halloween.

I honestly never thought we'd see X Factor drop 6m in the overnights at all by the time it would end permanently. That mid 5m rating really shocks me.

If you type in X Factor on Twitter the first one in the predictive text that comes up which people are talking about is 'X Factor ratings'.

SCD was poor. Going after costume and makeup award to the detriment of the show. Music wrong for dances. Costumes wrong for the dance. Facial makeup wrong for dance.