First impressions: I'm not too keen on it. Bring back last years set.

I agree, looks to be a bigger audience, and although the stage is bigger too, it just seems a bit "busy".

Bit of a rip off of the American Idol stage.....

Wow, it looks amazing. Much better than any of the past sets imo.

yeah, its simon cowell gone mad, too much pop idol usa the actual stage is smaller , the judges are closer and its too low, you can see the cameramen and grips in the middle of the long shots, last year the stage was raised and it looked much better.

maybe next year they should keep it simple and have a big arch sweeping across the top of the set like used in Eurovisions a few times - plan, final look

wow that stage looks cool. Anyway I think the new stage looks a bit like like the outside of some crazy cinema. But I can't see it too well on my crappy 2 inch pocket tv.

Yeah it reminds me of Times square aswell for some reason lol

Exactly what I thought

Anyone who can really work those walkways and get amongst the crowd like Taylor and Chris did on this years AI has to stand a chance of winning. Didn't see much evidence of it tonight though, most of them moved around like constipated rebbits caught in the headlights...

I agree, only Robert seemed really comfortable on that stage, even Ben, who I thought was fab, seemed a bit uncomfortable....hopefully the acts will make more use of the stage as the show progresses...

I think the stage is far to big length ways and to small width ways.

The stage stretches right across the studio but is very small width ways and I much prefer the series two stage.

The Series One Stage was quite average.
The Series Two Stage was very good for the show.
The Series Three Stage was too modern and copied and not practical for the show.

Certain elements look like they've been ripped off Hong Kong's biggest TV Station named TVB where they have a Music awards show for Artists over there, mostly that flashing neon that displays the artists name, its been on that show for the whole year so far.....

Seems a bit too flash and as some have said, not all that pratical for the show.

It's far too big! And the judges table is far too big just for the three of them - which leads me to thinking there will be guests on the panel, in the future.

One thing I noticed was that there wasn't enough space for when they walked on to perform. They seemed to have to stand there and wait for the music to finish.

It doesn't seem as high-tech as last years. Last year you could see graphics on the floor. I noticed it on X Factor Battle of the Stars when Gillian McKeith came on there was a visual of her on the floor (I wanted to put my foot through it mind!)

And where has the X gone?

I think I counted 27 plasma TVs, and 5 massive LED screens.