Perspective is needed here. TXF is a 12 year old entertainment show that relies on a core demograph to be a success. The core demograph is getting older and as such are probably not as interested in TXF as they used to be. It still attracts new audiences in that group though, but new viewers are more aligned with social media and internet viewing than their predecessors were a decade ago. Therefore, I'd say that the X-Factor's rating of almost 7 million was pretty fantastic. ITV will be pleased and there was no such calamitous failure for it. It appeals to those who really enjoy it and they're sticking with it.

Strictly has an audience less reliant on social media and the internet and so on, and also attracts new viewers who have grown older and/or have changed their viewing tastes over the last few years. That's why their ratings are likely to be better when it is broadcast live. I don't think it's useful or beneficial to anyone to just slag off either show without first putting things in context. .

I had forgotten about the long running time of TXF. (where is the doh! smiley)

ITV should keep TXF away from a Friday. if there is an extra episode to be shown, maybe they could drop the 8.30pm Corrie on just that one Monday and clash with Eastenders ?

It would make that one off Monday

7.00pm Emmerdale
7.30pm Corrie
8.00pm The X Factor
9.00pm Cold Feet

X Factor 6.8m
Casualty 5.1m

If anyone's interested I can provide this week's lottery numbers.

Well done James! Excellent predictions. How do you think tonight will go? I'll say:

Countryfile - 6m
Antiques Roadshow - 5m
Are You Being Served - 5.7m
Porridge - 5.4m

Ellie Simmonds - 2.1m
X Factor - 5.8m
Victoria - 5.2m

Everything a bit depressed with it being a BH Sunday with the older skewing stuff holding up best, X Factor doing what it has done on opening Sunday for the past 2 years and the 9pm offerings both doing well but neither knocking it out of the park.

Nice one! I thought X Factor may have increased slightly on last year's launch, due to Sharon and Louis coming back and having an older panel, maybe clawing back some older viewers.

But I still think X Factor did well in the grand scheme of things and putting everything into context. Really good for The Xtra Factor too - I'll check it out later, haven't seen it yet.

I feel like Xtra Factor live was really good although I'd probably replace getting the older contestants back to stumble through a song they can't remember the lyrics to with an unseen audition after each break and they must be happy with the initial rating.

Thanks! I am going to call X Factor up on catch up before I predict. The quality of the opening show will, for me, determine my prediction. I can see it being up on last night though.

I think last nights positive reviews will give XF a +7m figure tonight which would have it beat last year's opening weekend overall

BIB Certainly last night's schedule was.

Firstly in what way was is Go For It innovative? Its just Get Your Act Together mark 2. And some LE from ITV you can just tell is going to flop. And it did.

The X Factor is weak enough without giving poor lead ins, and lead out's. I think most will agree TXF last night was a boat in a sea of underperforming shows/film.

Ninja Warrior UK has not been over-exposed so would have complemeted TXF well last night.

Point 4 I didn't say anything like that at all. ITV should be pushing money into new formats, but many of them you wonder why? A lot of stuff is commissioned which is just filmsy dross. I know that most things have been done, but surely these bosses aren't paid to come up with simple stuff like Go For It.

Phil Collinson's 1st ep has an immediate change in pacing, writing and storyling. That is whay I was expecting something similar with Kate Oates. I'm want her to succeed, but her first 'work' is babies and affairs.

Did you watch Go For It? If Go For It drops below 2m (or low 2m) over its run (say ep 2) would you keep it in that slot?

Next week's schedule on Saturday is so much better. Newziods is given a good slot and TXF is surrounded by new programming that varies. LE, Talent, comedy/ent., music. Most years Saturday is just LE followed by LE, followed by LE.

I think TXF will be up a touch to 6.9m. Victoria will be depressed slightly by the 'comedies'.

Victoria: 6m.

Pretty much where I thought it would land. I predicted 7.0m on the RPG so not far off. I thought it would be down - but after just watching last night's show it didn't deserve to be. It was back to it's best. A likable panel that really worked, good acts and overall an excellent first episode.

I hated last year's series from start to finish. It was dreadful. I was on the verge of giving up. But after watching last night's series opener, it feels like we have the old XF back! I have a feeling regardless of all this, it will still be down tonight. This is the night the younger viewers will be out and that will most likely affect tonight's number.

Does anyone have the rating excluding +1 please?

As I keep saying, you have no idea whatsoever of what Oates' first work is. Unless you have been given exclusive information that nobody else has of course... You keep trying to take your opinion and make it fact. You think that was her first work, nobody truly knows.

I'll download it like many others.

Hmm.... Wasn't the whole point of Simon Cowell sacking EVERYBODY from last year and bringing back all the old faces to REVERSE the ratings decline of the last few years? Wasn't Nick Grimshaw supposed to be ratings poison? And yet there he is with the higher viewing figures? There we are with another ratings drop.

Okay - tongue out of cheek now......

I think the problem that The X Factor has - aside from tougher competition this year against last - is that it's an old programme. Viewers have pretty much seen it all before and so it becomes increasingly difficult for some people to engage with the competition. They're not really finding any singers that make people go

Having said that, I still expect X Factor to be up week-on-week next Saturday given that it's up against what must be the weakest BBC1 competition it's faced in years - a weak lottery show that would struggle to get 3m viewers if it was up against a primetime edition of yesterday morning's "ITV-comes-off-air-for-an-hour".

I think

Countryfile - 6.2m
Antiques Roadshow - 5.1m
Are You Being Served - 4.9m
Porridge - 4.5m

Ellie Simmonds - 2.3m
X Factor - 6.2m
Victoria - 5.9m

Why the BBC insists on giving Nick Knowles primetime Quiz shows is beyond me. I'd rather pull out my haemorrhoids by hand than endure his gargantuan ego for an hour! I hope The X-Factor absolutely thrashes and thrashes and thrashes him.

That's exactly it. There's only so far they can take a show like this, we've seen it all before and bringing back an old panel rather proves the point that they have ran out of ideas as to how to freshen it up successfully, and are just sticking closely to the formula that worked so well during its most successful years in the hope of more manageable declines.

I would also add from the bits that I saw - which admittedly was not a lot - Sharon didn't seem her usual self, no doubt feeling the strain of her well documented marriage problems. For that reason I'm not sure she's going to bring as much to the table as she did when she was last on the show.




One of the silliest stunts ITV has ever pulled in its history. Nobody is going to switch the telly off and go for a run or something just because Jeremy Kyle isn't on. What a load of old nonsense!

I was going to ask if any other channels got a boost, then I remembered how badly ITV's main channel performs on a Saturday morning and thought better of it.

I have a feeling Family Reunion will be around 2.0-2.5m next week. Probably nearer 2m.

Who Dares Wins would have been 3.0-3.5m.

Makes me think they're going to keep Who Dares Wins for early 2017, and just use Family Reunion and McIntyre this autumn.

I won't go through and pick your argument apart, as I'd be here all week. But to say Go For It is anything like Get Your Act Together is stupid, other than they have the same host. Get Your Act Together had celebrities learning talents from professionals, whereas Go For It is talented amateurs stepping up their game and performing under pressure to win some money. They're not the same at all. If Go For It is like anything, it's like You Bet.

Anyway they didn't spend much money coming up with it. It's a Talpa format, which they now own, so probably cost them nothing. It's been successful in other countries.

At all the posts going to town over one set of overnight ratings. I'd say wait 3 - 4 weeks and let's see how it goes.

How did the ITV switch off do?

Good figure for Casualty. Dancc, I disagree with your analysis - I put its rating at the HIGHER end of expectation, given that it's been limping along with well under 4m these last few weeks. Could be above 6m in the consolidated which for many dramas would be considered a very good result.

I wonder if it can keep up the momentum. Next week it avoids X Factor and goes up against Newzoids. I stand to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure Newzoids has been a poor player in the ratings before. I'm sure I was surprised when ITV re-commissioned it (but fair play to them for doing so.) Not sure it will do much this series, even with an X factor lead-in.

Well yes, that is ultimately it. They might as well just try and cling on to the viewers they have left and give them what they want. But yes, like any aging show, new ideas are in short supply and it's about managing the decline. Last night's episode seems to have gone down well, perhaps just because it's an improvement on what they served up last year.

As for Sharon, maybe she was struggling to speak with her new teeth! Clearly had a trip to Rylan's dentist! She wasn't in all of last night's show as around 30 minutes of it were taken up by the Edinburgh auditions which she didn't attend due to other commitments. I'd agree she wasn't as loud and bolshy as we've seen in the past although we only saw a handful of auditions. They did seem to focus more on Nicole last night. She fits well into the panel though and the marriage issues seem to be working towards a resolution so she may be in a better place now than back when the auditions were filmed. She was good fun in some of the backstage bits they aired though. I think she'll be fine and as a collective they work well. Not sure if Mel B's guest stint (she filled in for Nicole at one of the audition days) will rock the boat at all.

Yeah, that's a real bugbear of mine too. I'm not sure anybody watching Auditions #1 really wants to know their life stories from the very outset. Why would they?

Indeed it would be much more impactful if you learned more about their backgrounds and pasts as the series went on. It's not as if there's any real jeopardy involved in this part of the process either, so it doesn't work on that level.

It essentially boils down to overproduction, which I absolutely hate. The auditions episodes are not rocket science really: just squeeze as many auditions in as you possibly can, stick Dermot on narration duties, and have a few fun segments inbetween. Simple!

I'm sure I read somewhere (probably on DS) that unbelievable as it seems he is on a golden handcuffs deal with the BBC so they have to find things for him to do.He has the charisma of a brick wall.