X Factor returned to 7.6m viewers and rose to 9.6 MILLION including catchup. They performed even higher for the final. Now tell me they get 'awful' ratings.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...mshaw-rita-ora

Clearly not the 8 million you quoted either, UK TV ratings: X Factor drops nearly 2 million compared to last year's opening episode
Rita and Grimmy make their debuts, but only 7 million people watched the opening episode live.
there were shows as low as 4.5 million.

I love the way that's the only thing you comment on because you know the rest of your post is based on a load of bull.

Lost Two million on its opening show 2015/14 used to get 16 million, those are awful ratings, well past its sell by date!

Not true, but as you like XF and post in that forum, I am not going to bother on some of your other comments, the show us dying, and it's very old skewed judges are out if touch with the teenager target market for pop.

This is how badly XF performed last year.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-f...atings-battle/

It got 8m including Sunday's show. It did drop by 2 million but all 2 million of them seemed to watch it through catchup. Yes, they were, when the show moved to Fridays because of the RWC and the schedule was messed up. My point is, this thread is based on false facts and you got the ratings wrong by 3 million (Live) and 5 million (when included with catchup).

Face it, The X Factor is still popular.

So now you are adding catch up and agree it lost two million viewers and yes it was low, but as they moved it to Friday's, Your figure was wrong as well.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-f...atings-battle/

Let's face it for Simon to sack three judges, sack the presenters, and bring back old judges, it's not popular and he is panicking it will be bad thus year as well.

You clearly don't pay attention to the ratings of most other shows. Coronation Street and Eastenders used to get those viewers but now they struggled to get 7m! All ratings are down for almost every show! No, because most 13-year-old shows don't remain as popular throughout their course but 9.5m viewers is better than 99% of all other British shows. No show gets 16 million viewers now, besides from sports events.

I always acknowledged the ratings dropped haha. I did read the article headline before posting it on here! You're missing the point. 7 million viewers isn't bad for ANY show but you can't ignore the fact it adds 2 million through catchup! You've forgot to mention Strictly used to get 13 million viewers, it only reached 11 million once (11.01m to be exact), Strictly dropped 2 million viewers too. All shows have dropped.! I know Strictly wins the ratings war but next time use facts when slating the opposition.

Hi Simon

Time to stop flogging the dead horse don't you think?

Jake has a point. X Factor is clearly more talked about as it serves a different audience, more talked about though media and social media etc. It's not performing that bad, sure it's down, but aren't most shows? I love both shows, I missed last years X Factor as I didn't like the judges, ill be tuning in this year when I'm back from holiday but who cares which show performs better? Louis was clearly joking, like Bruno was last year. Get over it.

I'll take that as a joke haha but what I'm saying is all facts. Any show that gets 9.6m viewers, catch up or without catch up is brilliant! I love Stricty too but i find it so pathetic when people argue over a show!

Using strictly to promote the Z factor lol.

Louis Walsh once again proving he'll say whatever he's asked to, as long as he's paid enough! Last year, he was a free agent, and wasn't shy in basically laughing his ass off at XF's poor performance, and in fact said he and Dermot preferred Strictly. Now he's back on the payroll, he's a good company man, and has decided that Strictly was awful and boring!

As for the debate about ratings, 7 or 8 million isn't shabby, in today's climate, but it's not what it ought to be - especially considering the media blitz that goes on prior to the start of XF. My local commercial radio station has basically ignored any Strictly announcements in the past couple of weeks, and the presenters have suddenly decided to have the XF as every SINGLE between-song discussion. Don't tell me that's a coincidence, IMO they are toeing the party line of their bosses, and promoting the prescribed show that the radio group have always supported. It's like This Morning trying to pretend that Strictly doesn't actually exist, if they don't mention it!

It remains to be seen how XF launches, and whether the 'nostalgia' factor of bringing back old judges and presenters will have any impact on the show's ratings. I'm not seeing anything in the Strictly line-up that makes me think this year will be any less popular than before. I suspect another trouncing of XF, and a lot more excuses from Cowell and the die hards!

Just finished reading Gifted and Talented by Wendy Holden. Lots of references to Strictly Parties in there not much for XF. So I suspect desperation more than reality is the driver of any such claims.

Does anyone actually take anything that Louis Walsh says seriously?????

Said purely for headlines.

I don't understand why they don't 'rest' the X Factor for a year, give the public a chance to miss it.

I stopped watching it about 3 series ago when they made one contestants back/sob story entirely about him being from a one parent family, erm you and millions of others, mate. It's become tired and cynical.

I appreciate that I may not exactly be their target audience but as a parent to teenagers and someone who works with them, the youth seem to be losing interest too.

Just a shame nobody actually watches X Factor, Louis.

Agree,

As " anyone" can see X Factor died in the ratings last year, link above, they are so desperate with the over 60's judges ( bar poor Nicole), to try to claw back viewers after its embarrassing performance last year. Dermot is in The Sun today saying Simon was do desperate to get him back, and Simon made a terrible mistake.

Louis is just trying to hype up XF to get some discussion now, as thry are really worried SCD will trash them again this year.

I suspect because the sort of people who are X Factor's core audience are more likely to not miss it, and instead just move on to the next thing. It's too much of a risk - ITV need it because it still gets big ratings (and boosts the ratings of their other big winter shows like IAC and whatever their big Sunday night period drama is) and also because Cowell has them locked into a deal where they can't air Britain's Got Talent, which is still a success despite this year's series doing poorly, unless they also air X Factor.

Simon for his part, for all that people like to pretend that he's DESPERATE and his EMPIRE IN HIS RUINS doesn't care, really, I would imagine. Got Talent franchises are active in over 30 countries and X Factor in about 25. He's raking in money off all of them and I doubt is over-bothered whether he loses one, even if it's his home court - he certainly buggered off to America quick enough when he thought X Factor might get purchase there. He's always been a low risk, pile it high, sell it cheap sort of guy, and when The X Factor does eventually fold here, he'll still be rich and safe in his LA mansion and won't feel it one bit.

Lol

XF is a dead flop, they are simply stringing along until the inevitable. They're more a factory for reality stars than anything to do with music, anyway. Louis sounds delusional.

The thing is, had the show folded whilst he wasn't an on-screen presence, I think the bolded might have been true, but I suspect now it's different. Simon has always struck me as someone who puts a lot of stock in whatever he is most visible in - if that was just BGT, then that would be the thing he'd want to succeed above all else.

However, I think this is a case of 'everything or bust' this year - he's pretty much bet the house on a successful format of original judges and host bringing back the audience they've lost. Whilst ITV have said they've renewed the show already, I think there'll be caveats if the show loses any more ground - shorter series, and maybe a change of timeslot. The Strictly rivalry may have just been a headline grabber in previous years. I suspect that, this year, it may be a deal breaker if they lose the battle.

I'm mildly interested to see how The Voice transfers across and how that (and The Kids Voice or whatever they are calling that particular abomination) affects things for X-Factor, though.

Simon would never have come back to X Factor Uk had X Factor USA been the smash hit he expected it to be. He's only back on the panel now because it flopped over the pond really.

Yes very true.....I think he is out of touch now and should retire, he is too old. ( for a pop music show aimed at kids).

Yes that's true but X Factor has dropped a long way down. If you look at where both shows come on the weekly rankings, the averages are quite stark:

SCD = 1.9
XF = 15.2

XFactor - for all it's hype - could only average 15th most popular show for any given week. The vast majority of the time, SCD was 1st or 2nd (quite often the main and results show were the 1st and 2nd most watched shows of the week!).