X Factor

What are you on about? I think x faxtor a pile of crap..




Itv can still shevel it.

And from this week, the Sir David Attenborough nature blockbuster acts as Strictly results lead-in.

Getting the viewers from 6.15 and keeping them until after 9 is quite a formidable line-up for ITV to try and go up against.

Yeah, we've known from the start that the series only has six episodes. If it had results shows, it would be ten episodes.

A shame they didn't have Doctor Who to add to the Sunday line up this year.

They are also heavily pushing His Dark Materials (or "BBC and HBO Present: His Dark Materials" as all the promotions say), but that is going in the Antiques Roadshow timeslot starting from the 3rd Nov.

They must have a lot of faith in it because they've already started filming Series 2.

In other news, tabloid journalist buys next week’s TV mag.

Are there only 4 live shows then?

Well, indeed, but there is a bit of a point to this story, because when they were announcing it there was a bit of spinning because people started suggesting The X Factor was being axed because there wasn't a normal series this year, but ITV and Cowell were adamant that The X Factor was still going strong and it just so happened that it would be celebrities this time out. So if you start saying that it's the equivalent of a normal series, then if it turns out to not be in the prime slot it's filled for the past ten years, that is a bit of a story.

I mean, I'm pretty sure it was self-evident to everyone that it wasn't a proper series and so wouldn't have all the usual gubbins, and from a personal perspective that's absolutely fine, because it emphasises that this series is a bit of idle fun and doesn't really matter, and I find that quite refreshing given one of the least appealing aspects of The X Factor in recent years has been how it takes itself too seriously and considers itself of absolute importance.

But The X Factor in particular, and ITV in general, have fed dozens of stories to the papers in the past about the Beeb's aggressive scheduling and any potential low ratings, which is all very well, but then you have to suck it up when the papers put the boot into you.

Next day live results shows are an extravagance when it's not ITV's top entertainment brand anymore. May as well save the budget for something else. But Sunday's are a write-off now anyway, they've given up. Harry Potter, Catchphrase & repeats of those David Walliams Alright On the Night clip shows for the next few weekends.

It's indicative of a general theme as ITV's autumn is terrible. A distinct lack of new dramas, an abundance of royal documentaries, repeats, Harry Potter & third tier entertainment show like Take Me Out on Saturday night. Feels like they are just plodding along until I'm A Celeb. Was there a big spend on the Rugby World Cup?

And generally speaking did they give up on scheduling anything new on Friday nights? Seems they just have repeats all year round in the post soap slot.

Where are the "live's" happening? LH2? New set? So many question marks LOL

Start this Saturday at LH2.

It became very clear when BGT The Champions launched, and it was on Saturdays only with Millionaire taking the second TXF slot on Sunday

It then became very clear a second time when TXF Celebrity launched and that was also on Saturday’s only. Note that it isn’t just the results that would appear on a Sunday, all the other stages before the live shows doubled up on Saturdays and Sundays as well, so if they were planning to do so, they would have done it two weeks ago.

Basically it’s taken the tabloids about 8 weeks to realise ITV are not running the usual schedule at weekends this autumn!