The X Factor 2018

Isn't that a (crap) pun in reference to them being gameshows?

To build on a comment I made last week - brilliant show tonight, technical issues aside. The panel are genuinely great, and the talent is really good. It’s such a shame it’s lost so many viewers as it’s back to its best I reckon.

Of course this completely accidental technical fault was completely not done as a ploy to get the X Factor in the tabloid and news headlines and on Social Media to get people talking about it again.



As the saying goes... "When the shows in doubt... Get the Technical Difficulties out."

It’s a column that probably needs to be put out of its misery - Iain’s ‘holier than thou’ smugness shines through every paragraph.

Sound problem forces cancellation of eviction vote on last nights #XFactor after both @danny_tetley & @AntArtist89 performances impacted...Itv will be hoping the controversy boosts ratings tonight after saturday show falls to a new low, 3.7m viewers

— Liam Hamilton (@LiamHamilton16) November 4, 2018

Oof, that's no good. Even though it still generates talk on social media, they really need to rest the show. No matter how many changes or good contestants, the format is tired. It wears thin hearing a 16 yo singing and being hailed as the next Mariah, when in actual fact they are two a penny.

ITV could just move it to Sunday nights completely if they are afraid of axing it. Free up Saturdays for variety.

But the format of Strictly, which has arguably changed even less over a similar length of time, isn’t tired? Your post reads like that of someone who doesn’t watch X Factor.

Is the whole thing perhaps a bit of a paradox? No-one watches anymore, so whoever wins has no real chance of becoming a music 'star' or anything like that, which then reflects badly on the show compared to the heyday in the late 00s? The whole pretence of the show no longer works because it doesn't have the power to discover the 'next big thing' like it once did, no matter how good the calibre of contestants may be. And whilst viewing figures are low, the show will continue in its inability to produce a winning act of note.

In contrast, there are no real stakes involved with Strictly. As the contestants are already celebrities and there's no prize beyond the trophy, Strictly can't be criticised (beyond the initial selection of celebrities) for not having contestants that weren't as good as those in years gone by. And as everyone will know different celebrities each year, there's a natural ebb and flow for the viewer in terms of how good they rate the line-up, meaning that viewers might regard some years better than others, but with this cancelled out to an extent by other viewers.

I've watched it from the start.

Strictly wins the ratings battle because they know what works for them and so they know not to change. It appeals to a wider audience.

TXF is chasing an audience that doesn't exist.

Very good points. It should be said, however, that Rak-Su’s latest song is getting a fair amount of play on the radio.

I say rest the show for 2 or 3 years, and bring it back with a fully-committed Robbie as head judge and Simon taking a behind the scenes role. No Cheryl, Sharon or Louis.

I've just watched back the recording of the show, and without looking at it in detail it sounds like the audio frames are playing back with very short gaps between them.

The big question here is if they show recording was played as live to playout, or if they had the recordings delivered to them.

If it was delivered to playout, the issue must have been with the recorded file. Playout operate with full redundancy, in other words they would have at least 2 video servers playing the show in sync. I've no doubt playout's first resort when the issues arised would have been to flip between the two, which means both of them must have had the same audio issue, and therefore the recording was the issue.




I don't entirely agree with this. I agree that The X Factor is becoming increasingly tired and is losing viewers year on year, I myself stopped watching it years ago, but the show has produced popular acts in recent years. Notably Rak-Su won the show last year, and their debut single went to number 2. Their latest track hasn't performed well on the charts, but it is receiving significant radio airplay which has to count for something.

Will they repeat the audio fault in this afternoon's ITV repeat? I suppose, for it to be fair reflection of what happened yesterday, they will have to repeat the technical difficulties?

"We are still sorry for the temporary interference in sound again."