Yeah this is the end, no doubt

Just hope Simon doesn’t touch The Voice, we need less Cowell Manipulation

You'd rather have Somebody Else's Manipulation instead?

TBF less Simon Cowell is better than nothing

What would we all do without the show!!!

That clown has had far too much airtime over the years. Time to get rid.

So how were we manipulated? How were people tricked into voting for Louisa?

Why can't it ever just be because she was, you know, pretty amazing?

I'm unsure, they'll want to keep BGT

You mean with her late slots, no risk performances (that was never brought up by the judges) and a winner's single that suited her down to the ground and made her rivals look like idiots?

The show is no longer relevant, just like that other donkey ITV have now decided to purchase - The Voice.

Reality TV and talent shows are so last decade. Problem is there's no creativity anymore in ITV, hasn't been for years.

To be fair 6 million would be good normally, but for a £150m a series show, 6 million isn't great, but yeah I think they'll need to work out a new entertainment format that works.

Well this section of the forum would be full of tumbleweed...........

Indeed, people don't realise it still gets massive ratings. Not sure what the costs of production are but I'm guessing less than something like Downton.

Jesus, is that how much it costs?!

It just seems such a parody of 'the golden years'. Peter Kay's version comes over as more serious!

1. Win Simon's Car. At least this year it's a decent Jag and not some Mini you just know he never even sat in.

2. Winner's single so poor that the Reggie & Bollie version wasn't that bad considering how dull Louisa's version sounded. Just another bog standard shouty power balad. They obviously didn't think R&B had a chance to bother sorting them out with a more appropriate winner's single. Is it at risk of being the first ever (IIRC) winner's single to not be number 1 at Christmas?

3. The cringey 'come back lads' send off to One Direction.

4. The duet with last year's winner introducing Leona as the star of the performance (like George Michael did when duetting with Elton John, singing Elton's song). True, Leona is the star but doesn't say much about the show if the reigning champ is brushed aside so nonchalantly.

And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head from the final show!

She was also supported by Simon et al. The final was an absolute farce, with Louisa being given the best staging throughout and a duet with her judge, who she was familiar with by that point (and would presumably have had more chance to rehearse with than some 'guest' singer), whilst Che was lumbered with giant hamburgers (complete with dancers perched on top playing pieces of lettuce!) along with a lacklustre duet song (and singer, who looked like he'd wandered on stage by mistake and didn't know where he was)!

Then we had the winner's song. They should have had a song for each finalist, not a 'one size doesn't fit all, but we'll give it to them anyway' song. Absolutely farcical, and I'm sure there would have been complaints had Louisa been given a song which involved her rapping while galloping around the stage!

What I want to see is a show where the judges don't put people through to the live shows to give their preferred ones more of a chance. Instead, all those who make it through to the live shows have a realistic chance of careers in the music industry.

I'd also like to see the judges being constructive, telling contestants what they're doing wrong and advising them how to put it right. As it is, we have judges having a go at contestants for staging and choreography (neither of which are anything to do with the contestants), while ignoring important things like poor vocal technique. Louisa was straining her voice with all that shouting, yet was never told "You shouldn't be doing that - it'll damage your voice in the long term". Instead, she was told she was wonderful and was going to be a huge star!

I think it will probably be the last year. I love attending the live auditions, and was there on Saturday, and the atmosphere was electric. Reggie N Bollie got the loudest cheers. I think watching on TV is not the same. I think IT'S TOO STALE NOW!

Yes, i've been to the auditions many times and it was very enjoyable. When those clips are aired though it is totally false and they cut bits out and add comments in to fit their storyline. It taught me that those who give an okay performance with a backstory are shown, those who give a great performance with no sobbing are not shown. If it all hadn't been so heavily manipulated this show could have gone on for a lot longer imo, you can't expect millions of people to buy into the farce of it all forever.

Simon's recurring comment that he "genuinely means that" while rubbing his nose with his middle finger and looking at the floor pretty much sums up the show.

I assumed they would show that in the new year and early spring. They have the old Dancing on Ice slots to fill and Mr Selfridge is ending next year too. X factor before Xmas with the Voice from Jan or Feb until BGT starts?

No....

£150m is a completely made up figure.

I think Cowell will fight tooth and nail to keep it on air. How else would he promote the Syco acts besides Britain's Got Talent? It will probably be renewed again with a considerably reduced budget a la the last season of X-Factor USA.

I think x factor and BGT will go at the same time and since BGT is in the 10th series next year and XF is declining it would make sence I think to end both shows next year. Cant see Simon keeping one show without the other 1TBH

100% I can see the show being renewed, it's still a cash cow as others have said.

If they reduced the cost of the judges, by maybe bringing back louis Walsh and including his fee in with his Ireland got talent fee, also cowell coming back with maybe 2 others that won't cost a bomb and getting rid of all the arena bits before the live shows. Keep judges houses local (uk, France, Ireland etc) .

This will save them money. One thing Il say is that it needs to not be as rushed this time.

Apologies!

I've searched and can't find that, I don't know where on earth I saw that figure then

I did find an article that said;
Fountain Studios cost 100k a day to hire, if they have the studio just up on a Saturday and Sunday and a Friday for rehersals (odds are its up all week) thats 300k a week, for a 10 week live show series (admittedly less this year), that's 3 million on the Studio alone.

Apparently the 120 production staff (including a Fashion director and Vocal coach) are on a grand a day, again say they work 5 days a week, thats 550k a week (5.5m for the lives)

Last year Dermot got paid 900k, Simon 4.1m, Cheryl 1.5m with Mel and Louis on £1m, that adds an extra 8.5m.

Once you add in the rights which are £25m a year (150 joint deal with BGT for 3 years), hiring out stadiums for the final, auditions, bootcamp etc, the whole Judges Houses stage (which would be 4 lots of production staff's flights, hire of the houses etc), the music guests, Xtra Factor, The X Factor house (normally a few million alone!) and other costs, you're looking at around the cost of 4 series of The Voice UK so far for the BBC (which I read was 55m? Although again, might have come from nowhere?) which is only getting around 500k less viewers.

Although I'm not doubting its making its money back in adverts (Talk Talk are paying 10 million a series), it seems to be costing an absolute fortune

Question is how much less of a cash cow it is now compared to what it was.

The judges fees will only be a fraction of the total cost. Think about how much it must cost to book out Wembley Arena for a week just for the final. Add to that the cost of all the equipment - the dozens of cameras, the cranes, the staging, the costumes, the pyrotechnics, the mics, the vision and sound mixing gear, the outside broadcast facilities. Add to that the huge crew that is needed to operate such an unwieldy production, the transport, the catering, the pr and marketing departments etc etc etc

Add into the mix the fact that all recent XF alumni are struggling and there's not even a healthy return on music sales to justify it's existence.

They could try and cut back on all that and sell it as 'going back to basics' but I doubt they'd even consider it even if it would save the show. They're addicted to the spectacle because they literally don't know what else to do with it.