That's how it's been to some extent since day 1. The joke acts are usually in a way the safest in the early stages. People wake up a little later on.

Ed is simply Strictly's 2016 version of TXF's Honey G.

They are both there purely for comedy entertainment purposes. Neither will make it to the finals of their respective shows (or have i just stuck my neck out there)

Perhaps Honey G will do a Cher Lloyd and release a single or two.

Wrong again - it was Dannii Minogue who kept making not so subtle comments. Maybe she was put up to it, but it was her.

Like I said last week there is a dearth of entertainers that can pull audiences in regardless of the format compared to the 70/80s.

Will most people sit down (against all odds) to a format presented by the likes of ITV-alumni Christine Lampard, Holly Willoughby and Ben Shephard?

Bradley Walsh is the only one I can think of and he struggles with the variety format and Celebrity Chase. His family gameshow with Cowell was fine maybe if on BBC it would have done better.

Michael McIntyre's Big Show did moderately well for the time of year but wasn't a live show.

Give CBBC's Sam & Mark a breakthrough mainstream show I say. Just some thought away from XF/SCD

I respect Ed Balls for trying though. Strictly is probably a hell of a lot of work.

Honey G, on the other hand, must just turn up on the Saturday night! She never actually sings. She does the same little rap over the backing singers.

MTP is just a filler in a death spot. If ITV thought it was any good they would find a better place for it. As Andy said, whatever you put there is more than likely to fail.

SCD set and costumes were excellent but dancing not so good. The better dancers had a bad night. Will be the end of the road soon for Ed. Jeremy Vine was last years joke act and I don't think he made it as far as Blackpool.

XF was very hit and miss. Some very good performances but some dire ones. I don't know if the sound is different in the studio but I thought a couple of acts would get criticised for being off key. They got praised......

Programmes generally get the ratings they deserve. Nothing wrong at all about last nights.

I agree about Ed. He took a chance and threw himself into the spotlight after things went wrong with Labour.

From Steve Williams:

Lottery 4.18m
Casualty 4.43m
MOTD 3.55m
Dad's Army 1.77m
The Code 270k

Exc+1:

Meet the Parents 1.23m -HD
X Factor 4.03m -HD
Xtra Factor 230k
Ross 1.99m -HD
How to Build A Human 940k
Catsdown 860k
Football on 5 Pt 1 530k

You're comparing facing a SCD results show and Countryfile with facing THE Strictly show. You seem to hate a show you've never watched bar a clip on Gogglebox.

Yes the Chasing Point should be used against Strictly on Saturday and Sundays so the two new shows can be protected.

No, just some ads during MTP.

Simon Cowell appeared on Sale of the Century wasn't it, not Blind a date!


No they didn't, it was just trailers.

You say that, but I don't have a great interest in films, so prefer B list line ups than the A list film star Hollywood line up Graham Norton has. There should be a lower percentage of Film stars on that and a higher percentage of UK stars, music stars etc.


I'm sure you say that every week

Along with the One beating ITV Ten, and something to do with Tom Bradby, Christine Bleakley, Robert Peston regardless of the topic in hand.

Perhaps. I suggested Harry Potter as they tend to rate well, particularly in the run up to Christmas. Also there's a new spinoff (Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them) out in cinemas soon. Movies tend to do better on TV when there's another instalment in cinemas so that might have helped.

I'm not sure if they've currently got the rights to them either. Film rights are more complicated than ever these days.

Ross's ratings have gone up thanks to being on at a better time. Shocking.

Don't Sky Cinema still have the rights?

Also, the chances of ITV getting the Pixar films are slim - Sky have just launched 'Sky Cinema Disney Pixar' as one of their temporary channels.

Jonathan Ross was really good last night, and I agree that sometimes Norton's guests can sometimes seem distant, I think Ross gets the balance of guests just right.

Xtra Factor rates terribly, doesn't it

It;'s not about the quality of the show; it's about the rating. Not only did it start poorly, it's losing viewers week on week. The X Factor needs as much help as it can get now, both in terms of lead in and lead out. Strictly had a 4.8m in and 4.2m out; The X Factor had a 1.7m and a 2.9m out. Building a schedule cannot hurt - TV Burp proved that it isn't night on impossible to line up a show against Strictly which brings in a decent audience.

Sundays tend to rate significantly better than Saturdays. I can kinda see why, after an elimination there's way more to talk about.

Making just doing a half-hour Sunday show following the results is the way to go.

There's a wider thing about spin-off shows. I don't really bother with The Apprentice: You're Fired this year either, but I will for the final. BGMT is skyscrapers ahead of any reality spin-off IMO, after a series of that it's hard to get interested into any of the lesser-produced ones like Xtra.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...mon-cowell-itv
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbi...ent-on-tv/amp/

XF costs ITV up to £25m per year.
XF gets £10m from TalkTalk.
If 10 hours of Bake Off on C4 can attract £30m in adverts, what are 30 odd episodes of XF that get 6-8m ratings for up to 2 hours make?
Oh and the phone votes.
Minus production and other costs.

Yeah, ITV needs to dump it. Someone tell the Saudis to shut down the oil wells too.

Clearly somebody is taking note of ratings - Xtra Factor was trailed 10 minutes before the end of the show last night, and not right at the end. I guess they were hoping to catch people's interest before they switched off.

I'd just have Xtra Factor on a Sunday night. Or maybe have the Saturday show before the main show, giving you a preview of what's to come?

I am sure that I read this week that ITV with TXF can charge up to £300k per 30 second slot. Certainly a money spinner

Yeah, I got that wrong. This is Simon Cowell though..

https://youtu.be/TEl2xmGWcaI

I'm not surprised. Then when you add in product placement for the LastMinute.com mini-breaks, the Lenovo tablets and the YouView box, I don't think ITV are doing too badly.

Then there's also a social media sponsor JustEat.com.

I used to watch Xtra Factor, but no more. My favoritr spin off is from IAC, but I don't like the hosts when they changed it a few years back.

And XF making money, it's not going anywhere. Money over pride.

Ah okay, thanks. Cheryl must have torpedoed someone else then.
Danni wasn't a good judge. She looked great but really was not and Let It Shine is going to take plenty of grief over her.