X Factor

X Factor (combined with Take Me Out) is certainly not strong enough for Autumn Saturday nights any more. BBC are dominating autumn weekends, Strictly grabs the audience from the off and keeps it. It doesn't get any easier next week when Michael McIntyre starts. So ITV's autumn weekend schedules need major attention but that has been the case now for many years.

X Factor : The Band as a limited event for a week might do ok. It will undoubtedly have a Corrie lead-in every week night and it's unlikely to be competing directly with other entertainment programming. That could be the future for the XF brand, maybe a couple of stripped series a year. A Band series and a Celeb Series and make way for something else on Saturday nights.

But why keep it as a stripped series when it's only getting 3m viewers? I'm a Celeb gets 11m.

The Band will fail because it isn't suited to a stripped format - the acts just won't have the time to grow and develop.

And they aren't allowing enough casting time, so expect a lot of sub-par contestants.

I’m sure they have a pool of people they know about who they can bring in.

But that defeats the format, as it's supposed to be open auditions, not entry by invitation. The tabloids rightly call them out on it when someone is revealed to have been scouted.

The vast majority of X Factor and BGT auditions are people who have been scouted and it's been that way for a number of years. The non-broadcast open auditions aren't anywhere near as fruitful as they once were and the shows wouldn't be very good at all if they didn't have scouting. There's really nothing wrong with the practice either.

Yes, I've no issue with scouting at all (which in reality is a producer seeing someone online or at a gig and inviting them to audition) but for bands being put together you need more than a few weeks to get it right. The manufactured pop bands of the 90s often lived together for a year or so before being unleashed on the public.

X Factor ratings for last night were 1.28m according to Upload TV on Twitter. Apparently that doesn’t include HD or +1, I’m not sure how much extra that would include in the ratings, though.

They’ve also scrapped the wildcard for the eliminated acts. Dermot announced this live and didn’t seem too impressed with Simon on that. Cowell just shrugged his shoulders.

The fact that hardly anybody talks about it thesedays - I haven’t seen any of this series reviewed on Gogglebox either, which must be a first, kind of days it all. It’s a shame as it was once a very good show, but Simon has ruined it.

Honestly it’s cruel now. Just axe it. Triumphant return in 2025.

I’ve loved it over the years. It’s produced some great moments, but I had it on last night and I can barely remember anything about it*.

Bring it back in a few years - no Simon, no Louis, no Sharon. Maybe bring back Gary Barlow.

* wine had been consumed

In comparison
Strictly 9.3m
Michael McIntyre's Big Show 6.6m
The Hit List 3.7m

Great night for BBC One, Strictly slightly down from 10 million last week however the Strictly Results on Sunday nights this year have been getting higher than the live show.

Just 2m apparently - seems most people still watch in SD.

On that number, you’d expect HD & +1 to add about a million on top.

Still poor though, I’m wondering how a normal series would have performed.

That’s been the pattern for years though, lower rating, so change something, results in lower ratings, change it back, results in even lower ratings...