Dreadful for the Nicole show but hardly surprising.

So is some awful rubbish like Meet the Parents doing good demos? Is that all your bothered about? A test card would be better.

It basically consists of:

X Factor is...

still good/has run out of steam/dire/will do well with time shift/crap

Wow, the gap is widening even more, 4.2m difference between X Factor and Strictly

That is bad stuff for X Factor, it will probably be around 6.5m tonight though. Fantastic for Strictly!! Getting Bake Off numbers now!

So we are discounting demos now then because it's ITV?

Good for Jonathan Ross. Entertaining guests bounced off well with each other.

I thought Strictly was a bit flat yesterday. Great that it's the highest October episode since 2011 (?) X Factor watched 5 minutes then kids dictated they wanted to watch the BBC2 doc on teens reading.

A test card obviously wouldn't be better though, would it? If it's doing good demos that does definitely soften the blow, but at 1.9m even good demos won't be enough.

Is Meet The Parents actually "awful rubbish" or did a new show like that just not stand a chance in that slot? I can see why they have tried new things there but it obviously hasn't worked. I'm not sure what their best bet is. Moving an established show there probably, but that comes with the risk of killing that show.

The performance of Meet The Parents and Go For It certainly makes the low 3s Celebrity Chase was getting there last year look better though!

No, I didn't even say discount the demos. It's because it's doing dreadful numbers.

Edit - my god the reaction to my post. Jeez, didn't mean to cause such offence.

Meet The Parents is not crap. It really isn't. It deserves to do better. It would probably do well on a weeknight.

If you had said XF was getting below 6m for its live shows a month ago, I'd have said you were absolutely crazy! The show became an embarrassing parody once 6 chairs began and the ratings reflect it. Strictly isn't much better however so I'm shocked it gets those numbers.

MTP got about a 25% skew for episode 1 I believe, but even that's surely diminishing returns given that the total number has dipped further.

However, demographics or not, ITV shouldn't really be dropping under 2 million in Autumn in Saturday prime time. That surely can't be an acceptable position to be in?

I fully appreciate that SCD is one of the biggest shows on TV at the moment, but ITV should be able to hold up a bit better than that.

Although I do agree with you regarding XF. The under-performance is being somewhat exaggerated in the context of the demographics pulled in, overall numbers across all showings and (perhaps most pertinent of all) the continued overall decline in audience numbers across all shows / genres on all channels (see previous soap discussion for evidence of that)

To be honest Strictly and The X Factor both had poor shows for me last night. Strictly will no doubt survive it and see an increase next week whereas The X Factor will take a hit. The X Factor was up on last week; that's the only crumb of comfort they can grab on to really.

Maybe the format is ok. Are some put off by the host?

You didn't cause offence (not to me anyway). With Meet The Parents, from the (very little) I've seen it doesn't look any worse than Take Me Out, yet has just completely died on its arse from the off. Would suggest it didn't stand a chance in the slot.

Of course a lot of people would also describe Take Me Out as awful rubbish but it is going into series 9 so must have done something right, whereas Meet The Parents is a complete disaster.

I think Holly is fine and resonates with the younger audience, it's literally just the slot it's been given. Even Friday nights would be better!

ITV have pulled in better figures against Bake Off this year despite the BBC One show pulling in more viewers than Strictly at the moment. Not that 2.4m is anything to shout about but still better than Meet the Parents!

Admittedly a Coronation Street lead in probably helps.

As a trend its now mirroring The Voice with its performance shows, which are now too much of a test of patience for the casual viewers who gladly used to jump on the bandwagon-especially as it would appear several better singers were dropped for the lives. The problem is there are so many more lives and also a trend to polarizing interest into the results show which is snappier and obviously has a payoff. The 24 hour gap which previously made for such strong weekends is now acting against the Saturday show imo.

Strictly did brilliantly to be above 10 million-every show that does that on overnights is particularly special these days. This is always a good period for SCD after the first week and up to Halloween but I think movie week has propelled interest even higher this time. All this with bad luck too with the Will Young loss, and various illness.

Meet the Parents hasn't had any word of mouth surge it seems, but more than decent for Ross. That show should start later-that's where it had its success on the BBC.

How many more years does ITV have TXF ? I wonder if there's an escape clause

Bake Off skews quite young and it is easier to schedule against a show that skews young than one that skews old, as TV in general skews old so you can just stick something that gets that old audience on against the big show. Hence why complementary scheduling has worked better against shows like Bake Off, X Factor, The Apprentice, EastEnders than against shows like Strictly, Downton, Corrie which tend to be tougher to schedule against.

Signed up to a new 3 year deal. Simon has his escape clause in the contract

However I think if Simon did step away from TXF again, it would certainly kill the show now.

Yes it is doing good demos and yes that does matter. Tipping Point does better at 4pm on a weekday than Saturday prime time. That tells you how strong Strictly is. Pointless gets double its weekday rating which is thanks to Strictly.

XF was very enjoyable last night. Dermot held it together brilliantly and the judging became much more critical. Most of the acts were good though Matt was very overrated. From Nicole singing at the start through to the end it was fun Saturday night viewing. That's all they can do. It helped a lot that the songs were familiar.

Nice to see Ross doing much better. It should always have been on at 10pm.

Here's the headline:

ITV still make money from X Factor.

Are the ratings disappointing? Yes. Should it have done better? Yes. Would anything else get a similar rating in the same slot? No.

Do people REALLY believe ITV would have signed a new three year deal if it wasn't making them any profit?

It's perfect for Saturdays. It's a lot like Blind Date and I'm surprised how good Holly is (I was wrong about her). Any new show v SCD has no chance. They could put Takeaway up against it and it would struggle to overnight at 4m.


TMO was allowed to build a base. People here are axing a show they have not watched after two episodes.
I don't like TMO and would say MTP isn't such a young show.

It's a given that after the 3 year deal that's it for X-Factor. It ain't gonna get any more popular all of a sudden.

I think Simon will try and keep X Factor alive as long as possible. He lost X Factor USA, American Idol and has only X Factor here now, if he moves along, I don't think he will be in business anymore