Agreed. It would better if the X Factor loyalists could accept improvements need to be made, rather than just totally refusing to accept any criticisms. (Not that it's even their role to accept criticisms!!)

I'll correct factual inaccuracies and unnecessary spin, as ever. Folk should stop telling me to stop posting, I'm allowed my opinion- this is a forum after all.

Cowell's done this as long as I can remember, always used to amuse me, I think it's called needing a fag break like it's a matter of life and death.

The songs on Strictly didn't fit the Halloween theme and some good dancers had an off night. X Factor did well with Fright Night. Viewers will forgive a show that has an off night, when it has several in a row they leave.

STOP BITING SO DAMN HARD, DANR.
They love winding you up and turning this thread in to a dumpster fire.

I know, I should rise above it. I'm trying.

For goodness sake, opinions you so happen to disagree with are not "factual inaccuracies". Comments like this make you seem totally ridiculous Dan.

https://storage.googleapis.com/imgfa...3533809078.jpg

You can post what you want. But replying to every negative comment makes you The X Factor ying to ADP's Strictly yang. And you both find it hard to be complimentary when the opposite show has a decent rating.

XF getting good press and write ups tonight.

It is a shame that it'll likely be in the 5.5-6.5m range, if it's as good as some say. I will call the episode up later tonight. I just watched the YouTube clip of the girl singing Creep by Radiohead expecting one of my favourite songs to be slaughtered, but it was one of the best performances I've seen on the show in a very long time.

Seems they put lots of effort in to the staging/choreography too.

I suppose if they keep it up the show might get some positive vibes. It needs the press to like it more then the sheeplike fickle viewers will follow. Strictly wriggled its way to become the nation's darling, through this method I think. It's all about changing perceptions.

You play the man not the ball too often and that is your biggest error. And you spin too hard sometimes.

Obviously you have every right to reply but just remember that if you go off on one you're just sprinkling the hundreds and thousands on top of the cream on the trifle.

That analogy has me in stitches

Do you buy a newspaper? Does your parent or grandparent?
Newspaper readers match SCD's demos. Newspapers follow and rarely lead.

They did the same with BBro. GBBO was always going to suffer it too but now that has been brought forward to next year.

X Factor put on a good show. It's the fickle sheep like viewers that watched it before and followed every controversial moment that they need to get back. Revelling in the unsavoury for too long gave X Factor an unsavoury tag. BGT used to be just as bad, and in some cases worse, until The Voice came along and got them to change tonal direction. Newspapers go where the ratings are, you couldn't move for X Factor front pages on the latest controversy. That stopped working and they switched to Strictly

Rise above the blood baying knuckle draggers that like seeing endless arguing and controversy and embrace the positive. That's why several formats are so popular now.

Forgive me but I don’t understand that post.

I was talking about write ups on sites like the Telegraph and other websites, online, that are going round Twitter. Seems more positive/praise.

As for the papers I tend to browse the papers a couple of times a week when in the pub, but I'm still not sure why that's relevant, or even what your post meant. I rarely find much about TV in them, to be honest (and that's the Mail, Sun and Mirror).

It was good tonight. I think you are right that the decisions made at judges houses just felt weird and it has led to ratings dropping off for the live shows. I think they'd have dropped a bit anyway but it feels like they've dropped a bit further this year. Viewers aren't as invested in some of the 'journeys' because a lot of time was spent getting people to invest in acts that got chucked out at judges houses. I can't say I miss any of them personally but they should have got viewers more emotionally attached to those they did put through earlier on.

The staging, costumes and theme were really good tonight and a lot of the acts stepped it up. Emily at the end was great and several others did very well. It is frustrating that they've got a lot right this year but a few errors have cost them a lot. Tonight won't have rated well but hopefully the viewers that did tune in liked what they saw, that's how you stop the numbers from falling further.

I think they definitely should get a new set next year. It's not that the current one is bad, but it hasn't changed for years and with them making other changes this year (including the opening titles) it felt like they should have changed it this year (even though I get why they didn't).

Interesting idea about changing the middle rounds. I don't have a problem with the format of judges houses and I think that one on one (judge and contestant) reveal of whether they're through or not on the sofa at judges houses still works incredibly well - they just need to make it feel less contrived. I'd also go back to doing all the performances on Saturday and results on Sunday, it worked better. They could look at other changes to those middle rounds as well as to the live shows. I think they've changed the format of the results shows nicely this year (although they only properly got the format down from week 2 onwards) but the Saturday shows remain much the same. At least they're an enjoyable watch though. I remember watching one of them live last year and noticing how utterly joyless the whole thing seemed (I think it was the week where Nick Grimshaw launched his weird attack on Anton), that's at least changed this year.

Anyone seen the trailer for Television's Opening Night on BBC4 this Wednesday? They are planning to recreate the very first night of television from 1936. The clip shows presenter Dallas Campbell reading the opening night schedule. "Comedians and dancers. It's basically The X Factor", he says. No it isn't, you dimwit! That's Britain's Got Talent.

Except - I don't watch it myself, but some people have complained about the standard of the acts that the judges put through to the live shows so maybe "comedians and dancers" IS an apt description of X Factor this year.


(Kidding)

Sorry what I meant was that the average buyer of a paper is not your age, it's someone much older. The average newspaper buyer is closer to the SCD demo than XF. If a paper knows its readers tend to like something, they tend to like it too.

Now XF was a story that papers used to sell papers to harder to reach people or use as click-bait. BBro was the best example of this when it genuinely boosted papers for a while. They still do to some extent as DSpy clearly shows.

I've only seen bits of XF so far and we are just about to settle down and watch it with a bit of dinner. Glad to hear the social buzz is positive but that all be forgotten when it posts 5.6m tomorrow morning. But in the world that doesn't disect ratings like sad gits like us - it will matter and can only help.

Ah that makes sense. I agree with you.

Though FWIW you don't know how old I am. For all you know, I could be 106!

The more I think about the scheduling of Planet Earth 2 the more I love it. Sunday 8pm, up against X Factor and avoiding I'm A Celebrity.

We may even see Planet Earth beat X Factor in the overnights, at least for a week or two. As others have said, these epic natural history series have a habit of starting high then slipping back. But if Planet Earth can hold onto a 5m+ overnight (marching the performance of Antiques Roadshow in this slot.) then that would be a good result.

This is precisely why I think the six chair challenge has no place in the 'feelgood X Factor' they were cultivating so well up until that point this year.

Ratings fell off a cliff after it, because it's not entertaining or emotional in the right way, but one of those things that makes you feel a bit dirty after watching it.

It must be axed next year, I vociferously believe it was the point the show went wrong this year. There are a million ways they can expand boot camp to have more stages. And it makes the live shows much more exciting if they're the first time the acts face a live audience.

Nothing would improve The Crap Factor, It is over.

Exaggeration of the year goes to..

Very constructive. smh

It's so "over" it's still the top show on ITV after Coronation Street in the ratings... right...

... I'd give that accolade to you, and I think others would too.

It dropped nearly 1.5m somewhere between auditions and the lives, go figure. A combination of the gladiatorial nightmare of cruelty that is the six chair challenge ruining the fun factor and the decisions at judges houses, I'm sure, but the chairs didn't help.

You should pick your battles more wisely as actually I'm quite fond of The X Factor, and want it to improve... I loved the auditions this year and was really vocal about that. I just say it how I see it - if you think I'm biased or have a negative agenda I suggest you do your homework.