Thanks Score.

The overnights are similar to last year but the timeshift is down for Gogglebox.

The overnights are down too. Most episodes last Autumn (until I'm a Celebrity came along) were getting 3.5-4.0m (inc +1) in the overnights. This year they are in the high 2's.

What were the format changes to last night's XF?

SCD beats XF by 2m on Saturday and 1m on Sunday then. I'm surprised 1.6m people watch Saturday's Strictly but not the results show. I guess people don't catch-up if they know the result.

I haven't watched it yet and will only flick through it to watch the bits I want to see. Never bother with dance off.

Is the BARB website down for everyone or just me?

EDIT: Never mind guys, working OK now.

The Sunday show was on the low end of my prediction, though Saturday was fine given the circumstances - and may have scuppered Sundays momentum somewhat.

I predict 6.5 for Sat and 6.7 for Sunday looking ahead to this week. The shorter clash and generally positive reaction to the weekend giving it the small boost. Saturdays seem slightly up YOY whereas Sundays are slightly down, that seems to be a general pattern this year.

I agree, the twist worked well. It added a bit more action to the fourth part, last year the singoff seemed a bit stale.

Excellent for SCD the results get out as it's recorded. Dire for XF down year on year whatever the spin.

XF is at the very low end of everyone's predictions, it should be running as a minimum at the levels of SCD. But it can't. The negative press isn't helping it.

Here we go again. Can you not confine you weird little obsession to weekends?

Now he could do Graham Norton show as normal live with with a Pudsey Bear on the red chair, As his show signs better guests then CIN.

I don't see why XF should be beating SCD unless you feel that XF is the better show so should win.

Never thought I'd see you and DanR in agreement.

I saw 5 minutes of X-Factor last night, now granted I never even finished the first series of the show, but in the mean time, the show has turned into a total travesty, which seems to be about anything but singing talent. If X-Factor gets low ratings, its because it deserves them.

Interesting they are using Greg James and have binned off Grimmy, maybe he's falling out of favour?

Ade Adepitan is a random choice, I don't think he's been on the BBC for quite a while, they've obviously been watching him on Channel 4.

As someone rightly said, XF is not event television anymore.

Why Strictly is fairing much better, I don't know though, but I can understand why it's more popular now, even if I don't like it.

I'm not into this years XF as much as I thought I would be, but if I'm honest the only thing I really like is the panel. Rest of show including Dermot's dancing is just meh.

There only three other shows on British TV capable of matching SCD's ratings (to be honest, I'm being generous including IAC on that list - it's more of an 8m show than a 10m one).
Beating SCD should not be a benchmark of success, and I'm baffled why the media still insists on framing it as "SCD beats XF" when it's the fifth year that's the case. Look at each show on its own merit, one show beating another is not really a reflection on the success of either show.


Well it was a results show. The singing tends to happen on Saturdays, just as with the dancing on SCD.
And since you've only seen 5 minutes of it in the past 12/13 years, I'm not sure how you can have formed a full, justified opinion of it.

You've only seen 4 of those so how can you have one either?

I'm a Celeb manages to hold 9m+ for virtually 3 weeks, on every night, for 60minutes+. The show works differently to SCD. If SCD was on every night for 3 weeks, I don't think it would be quite as big.

I would say IAC is bigger than SCD. IAC can still achieve 12m+. SCD hasn't touched that figure in the few years. But both are in the same bracket as no1 shows. Alongside GBBO and BGT.

SCD is still doing well because they have never made any drastic changes so it's a 'comfortable' watch. It's the same for I'm a Ceebrity and BGT. They've evolved over time so are still different shows to when they first started, but X Factor is constantly changing to the point it becomes a different show each year.

As you say, this years panel is good but it's what they should have went with in 2014 and not made any changes since, and the figures would tell a different story. It would probably be rating a good 2-3m above where it is now.

It's the 3rd most watched show currently on TV. I can't think of any other recent programme that used to get 10m ratings twice a week for months. We may never see a show as consistently popular as XF was.

There's a herd mentality to tv watching. People like to watch what they know others are watching. So BBC news wins as you feel it's a shared experience. GBBO best has that now with SCD similar to it.

You watch because others are watching and you want to share in the experience. It's why I used to find myself watching the match on ITV instead of sky even tho sky was clearly the better broadcast. I knew 7m people could hear Andy Townsend and only 700k were listening to Andy Gray.

The soaps used to have the same pull. Big stories were part of the national conversation. That's gone now.

There's one other problem for XF and that is that it does represent a demographic that many do not relate to and maybe don't like. Young, urban, American, street, big city - a Snapchat not Facebook generation who want their music to be sick and dope, bruh.

Those very urban acts often don't last long because they're so niche. Maybe the XF should sing older songs that most of us know but that puts off the target demographic.

In America there's always a fuss that the SuperBowl half time act is so middle of the road and doesn't represent the music scene that the players listen to. Coldplay and the Who are not very black. They wanted Adele but had to settle for Gaga. They know what has mass appeal and don't care if they are not cool. The NFL hated being associated with NWA when really it was the sort of rub you can't buy.

The genius of BGT is that it has married the family appeal of SCD with the credibility of streetdance. The Voice should be the Radio 2 equivalent.

The XFactor isn't a singing contest because the charts has never been a singing contest.


Wow that was a long ramble.

Incidentally on the way home from work they were talking about it on the radio and the presenter admitted fast forwarding through most of it, including the judges comments. Says a lot. Would never have happened back in the day. And Sharon and Nicole got the name of the act the novelty act they were sending home wrong. Also says a lot.

Mid 6's is okay I guess in today's ratings, but they've been well and truly left behind by Strictly now and the ever increasing gap will be making ITV increasingly uncomfortable I suspect. It's not so much about losing bragging rights, or not being able to schedule as aggressively as they would like; but rather, it underlines the extent to which they are not achieving their full potential in that slot. It's not like the soap situation whereby there's been consistent declines across the board. The demand for high quality Light Entertainment via broadcast is as strong as ever, indeed ITV's very own I'm A Celebrity is an example of that, but X Factor is still regressing despite on paper more things going for it this year, and so if ITV have anything about them at all as our main commercial broadcaster they will strive for better sooner rather than later. That doesn't necessarily mean cancel the show when it's still capable of doing a job, but the need to reduce their dependence on it in Q4 has never been greater. Especially with Downton gone as well.

IMO the Judges are dreadful, it's like a backwards step. Louis just spouting the same old stuff, Sharon, probably thinking about the flight back to the US, Nicole 'it's all about me' and Simon doesn't seem to care. The panel seemed out of it over the weekend. Maybe they'll bring Olly 😀 and co back as it's not fairing much better than last year.

That's true to an extent but it's through changes that the show reached dizzy heights back in 2009/10. But then you could argue that this, while created short term success, tired it out much quicker... I don't really know.

I even skipped BGT this year but still like IAC.

XF was damaged goods in 2011 when they went chavvy with the series, and alienated the older audience. Then when Simon came back, they made even more of a mess in panic reaction and tried to emulate a different period but felt flat on it's backside.

BGT needs to replace Holden and Dixon this year, because it's getting stale now.

IAC needs to stay away from XF rejects too.

I agree with you that it should have been this panel in 2014. I already said that it was do or die that year. Last chance to save the show that year IMO.

Oh Dancc....

It's the most-watched show on commercial TV, dear. It's not regressing, it's stable and has many years left in it. Striving to replace a show with 8, 9, 10 million viewers is really going to be easy, isn't it? Maybe stick to talking about Channel 5 shows with 400k viewers.

Any small decline the show has been posting this year actually bucks the overall decline for singing shows, considering The Voice was down a staggering 2 million this year....

And I found Sharon getting the name wrong very funny, because I watch to be entertained, not to come and doom-monger in the ratings thread...

For goodness sake, get off your bloody high horse. This is the second time you've made personal comments towards Dancc, who was simply commenting on the SHOW not you personally. Why make it personal?

Christ only knows how you've arrived at the claim it's the biggest show on commercial TV.

You get very personal don't you?
BGT and IAC get more viewers than it, so no it is not the most watched show on commercial TV