The X Factor and Strictly

To be honest Strictly has been ahead nearly every week since 2011 therefore I don't understand why the BBC News website run articles on this. I mention it on this forum as I think it needs mentioned how well Strictly is doing especially in its 15th series and with all the competition it has nowadays not just from TV and it doesn't show any sign of decline no matter who is hosting it, who judges it or who competes in it.

On another note how poor is entertainment shows on the BBC on Saturday nights outside of Strictly season. Michael McIntyre Show is excellent but is also in the autumn and Mrs Brown's Chat Show did well however this that doesn't fit into the family friendly Strictly bracket and Let it Shine, Let's Sing and Dance for Comic Relief and Pitch Battle have all failed and they haven't yet replaced The Voice.

And everytime a singing show fails they just commission another.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatre casting shows were all good - not to mention that they gave us Connie Fisher and Jodie Prenger.

Then Talpa's singing show arrived on the scene...

(Admittedly, this may have been completely unrelated. And I did enjoy this show at first, too. But you don't even hear of the visually impaired Ulster lass these days, do you?)

It saddened me how poorly they did Pitch Battle - there's a great a capella show waiting to be made, but sadly that wasn't it (perhaps Sky will hit the jackpot with Sing, which starts this Friday). The format was clunky, the talent miscast and it was all horribly overproduced. I don't suppose it will return for a second series. Nor, unless it receives a major reworking, does it deserve to.

Already axed I think.

Two more announced singing talent shows to come though - The Chart with Zoe Ball and Roman Kemp and Altogether Now with Rob Beckett. Both will flop I'm sure.

Neither Roman Kemp or Rob Beckett are the sort of names that will attract the large number of over 65 viewers that flock to the majority of BBC One's biggest weekend shows.

Only 1 show with any singing commissioned this year.


The Chart was a pilot and hasn't been commissioned.
All together now is more of a 'Don't forget the lyrics' style gameshow with a cash prize. It isn't a talent show afaik

Quite a lot of coverage last week in the papers including a 2 page spread in the Mail about ITV having to move it if ratings fall even further. I see they've already pushed it back to 8.15 this weekend.




I'm not surprised the ITV heartland audience must be throughly sick of singing shows.

January to March -The Voice
March to June- Britain's Got Talent (but mostly singers)
June to July- The Voice kids
Sept to December - The X Factor

Thank god Dancing On Ice is coming back in the new year that's all I can say...

BGT isn't "mostly singers"

Also you assume an "ITV heartland viewer" didn't watch The Voice when it was on BBC One and have only now just discovered it.

Just put on the X Factor for the first time in a while and, good grief, I thought I was watching parody of American product placement. Countless camera angles to include the Turkish Airlines logo, as well as the Air Lingus logo at every possibility.

I suppose that was fair enough until when one of the groups arrived at their destination they were greeted with a random man brandishing a phone with a huge 'Three' logo plastered over it proudly exclaiming "Here's a phone from Three to call Sharon with". It was the most ham-fisted attempt at product placement I have ever seen.

I'd love to see that for myself but I don't think I could stomach scrubbing through two hours of it.