I could see over 8m for Planet Earth tonight to be honest. I'm gonna guess

Planet Earth - 8.1m
The X Factor - 5.6m

Like the SCD line-up, a lot of who? names but you know the faces. I know Baker really well but my mum won't. Soap stars are well known if you watch them, I don't so know Lamb from Gavin and Stacey.

Agree with you on the predictions - 7.5m for PE2 and 6.1m for XF. Consolidate to 9m and 7m.

That Des a decent line up. As always the notoriety of a celeb only goes so far. It's if they have personality when in the jungle or dancing on Strictly. As you say Score that is always the most important thing across a series.

ITV are going to want to cut the budget of the show - that's the unfortunate truth. Would you rather that came on-screen, in the form of staging, judges (reduced salaries relegating the seats to B-listers) and general worsening of quality? This will only hasten the decline. XF is still a profitable show for ITV, it's in their interests to keep it that way in the long-term. With The Voice now on ITV, reducing airtime will do public appetite for the show a lot of good.

They're also going to want to experiment with new shows. Those initial weeks would be the ideal time to do this, as there are several weeks without SCD which allows them to try something new without it being swallowed right away.


A show that clashes with XF being hyped up as the next phenomenon which will bury X Factor? We've never seen that on the thread! *sigh*...
[Disclaimer: This is not me speculating over tonight's numbers]

You keep banging on about the SCD line-up. Who had you not heard off before they appeared on the show ?

Why would they want to cut a show down that does the business for them in key demographics the advertisers want to reach? That other show could come close to reaching?

You're wonderfully articulate but I'm wondering if you even know what you're talking about.

Because the demos might not look so pretty in a few years if they carry on airing it from August to December every year. This is about the short-term buck vs. hearty, sustainable profit.

It'll take a while for them to look less pretty than anything else that could replace the show. Even in its current state its demos are amongst the most lucrative to advertisers on TV.

They should focus on not ruining the programme after the audition phases, and look at scheduling again. And build a proper schedule with decent output before and after the programme.

TV Burp with guest presenters would be a great shout for before The X Factor, for example. Harry Hill himself has suggested this - why not?

That feels about right. I'd love to watch Planet Earth tbf, but I don't like Attenborough.

Jonathan Ross doing better now it's following X Factor rather than Newzoids. Also a tweak to the format has helped it. Guests come out and stay on the sofa, The Tonight Show in America has done this for years. Now JR is taking a page out of this and Norton's book. It makes a difference and a better show. Also with Chatty Man gone it means one less competitor for guests.

Great point. Even link something up to go with the first few auditions of XF shows.

, Attenborough is a national treasure

I think XF might struggle tonight against Planet Earth II. It's finally got Halloween and Bonfire Night out of the way and should have been ready tonight to try and claw back some viewers but Planet Earth II is a massive spanner in the works. I can't call it. It could do anything from 5m-8m - which in turn could reduce XF to a poor figure tomorrow. Speaking of XF. Does anyone know if the final is at Wembley this year or is it back to the studio now?

As for the IAC line-up. Seems fairly standard as ever. Not that is matters really. I'm sure it'll do fine as usual.

It's better than last year. Thankfully not full of reality TV 'stars'.

I believe The X Factor final is at Wembley again this year. TalkTalk fund quite a bit of it I think as they fill the arena with competition winners and their customers, so I don't think it takes as much out of the budget as you might expect.

On a similar note, I think if they are going to keep stripping the BGT live shows across a week it might be worth hiring out an arena for the week rather than finding a replacement studio. Could make the week into more of an event again. Wouldn't be doable for X Factor as they couldn't afford to hire an arena out for the full run, but for BGT it would be worth doing I think. Plus if Sky1's Got To Dance could afford to do it (in 2014 for their live week) I'm sure BGT can.

Wonder how The Next Great Magician will do.

Caught the start and it's captured my interest for now. The first magician setting himself on fire in a straight jacket whilst hanging upside down, brought my jaw to the floor.

Could it do 4m or is that too optimistic?

Antiques roadshow has been running about a million behind XF Sunday show. Call the midwife can get circa ten million in the 8 pm slot on Sunday. There is a sandwich of SCD with high ratings and Poldark series cliffhanger end, a real cliffhanger with circa 5 million viewers.

Planet Earth I would say 7 million not 8, but X Factor dented and down, closer to the 5 million mark. XF can catch up on +1. If PE2 has the last ten minutes, " making of" slot, to cover for international sales advert slots, I can see a fall off at 8.50pm.

With Michael McIntyre on Saturdays soon, BBC1 has raised the gauntlet, and XF will come under renewed pressure.

The thread has now resorted to debating which show has the most well known celebs, what ever next. I think we know how I'm a Celeb discussion will go here. I expect the negativity will outweigh the positive comments, regardless of what ever rating it gets.

Laura Whitmore.
Daisy Lowe.
Tameka Empson.
Danny Mac.
Claudia Fragapane.

The Next Great Magician will flop with under 2m. Its another one of those shows that Mulhern presents that is just completely uniteresting to the mass audience. Its a similar format to Get Your Act Together, in that it has its own final, which therefore means however this rates, it'll be in this slot for 6 weeks.

So SCD is getting another walk-over on Saturday and Sunday.

ITV really should have kept The Chase here and kept Magician for January.

The poor lead in to TXF will only further impact its rating. The X Factor needs support, not new untested programmes surrounding it. What with the steller BBC1 line-up, ITV tonight will be a total disaster. OTR and Magician will be under 2m, TXF low 6m and Tut under 3m.

ITV need to work so much harder in putting together a supportive schedule when the BBC is at its strongest. With a weak schedule on ITV, only strengthens BBC1.

I don't think I've heard of any of those? Unless the first one is the former IAC host?

Won't The Chase be better supporting a new programme in the Winter, rather than a new programme going into a new programme, which you've criticised in the past?

I can't imagine anyone deciding to watch TXF based on what is on isn't on before. Nobody is going to decide to tune in at this stage based on The Chase or Tipping Point being on before it.

To run all of those audition stages and then have three or four live shows would look odd. The Voice doesn't have this problem as they are all in the same studio and could easily be mistaken for being live.

People like to see the contestants sing live every week and form an opinion over the weeks. The auditions does well but stick 15 minutes of it against SCD and I'm not sure it'd be so crash hot.

As i have said before, one is Radio 1 and one is Radio 2. They used to be evenly matched but aren't anymore.
I'm not convinced BARB or Rajar accurately monitor young audiences and suspect Radio 1 does better than is claimed.

But Magician could have been a solid show given a chance. It'll do well to top 2m which seems like a waste. ITv should just give these shows a second season in the summer and see if they build. They're hardly expensive shows.

If Ninja had been put against SCD I doubt it would have survived. For the same reason I hope BBC1 doesn't destroy a new show against BGT.

I have no argument against that statement, but that doesn't mean the whole population likes/ has to like him.