ITV holds X Factor with 12m viewers
Mark Borkowski, a PR and marketing expert, said the public still warmed to well-made reality shows despite claims the format was exhausted from the Scotsman –
“You can criticise, but at the end of the day the advertisers rub their hands with glee because they’ve got a clear identity of an audience and there is no shortage of people who want to sponsor it,” he said.
“It’s event TV, everybody is talking about it and it’s one thing that ITV have got right. And, to a certain extent, so has the BBC with shows like Strictly Come Dancing.”
http://news.scotsman.com/music.cfm?id=1875942006
ITV holds X Factor with 12m viewers
FERGUS SHEPPARD MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (fsheppard@scotsman.com)
ITV last night claimed a ratings coup as it revealed more than 12 million people tuned in to watch former pizza restaurant waitress Leona Lewis win the final of the talent show The X Factor.
The peak audience figure made it one of ITV’s strongest performances this year, ahead of the jungle endurance test I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
The commercial broadcaster gave two and a half hours of its schedule on Saturday night to The X Factor, which pitted 21-year-old Lewis against 18-year-old Liverpool singer Ray Quinn.
About 10.2 million viewers tuned in for the first part of the show, broadcast at 7pm, and the later results programme, shown at 9:30pm, drew an average of 10.4 million. However, ITV said that audience spiked to 12.6 million as the Londoner was declared the first female winner.
ITV said this year’s X Factor had proven more popular than the 2005 and 2004 series and the network promptly secured the rights to broadcast the show until 2009, announcing it had signed a three-year deal with Simon Cowell, the show’s creator and one of its judges, famed for his acerbic comments.
A spokesman for ITV said: “To have almost 13 million people tuning in to see Leona win is fantastic and shows that ITV is still at the forefront of entertainment programming.”
However, the battle of the big talent shows is not over yet. BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing culminates next Saturday and the hugely popular show, in which professional dance tutors and celebrity partners compete in pairs, may yet match ITV’s figures.
While the finals of The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing went head to head last year, the BBC’s dance contest was in its semi-final stages on Saturday.
Like The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing is divided into two parts – the talent contest and a later update in which those going through to the next round were announced.
BBC1 is pinning its hopes on the fact that, with The X Factor out of the way, it has a clear run next week for the final of its show, in which Mark Ramprakash and partner Karen Hardy will compete with Matt Dawson and Lilia Kopylova.
ITV has been repeatedly slated by critics for an over-reliance on reality and talent shows. One of the most derided, Celebrity Love Island, was axed this year after its second series.
Mark Borkowski, a PR and marketing expert, said the public still warmed to well-made reality shows despite claims the format was exhausted.
“You can criticise, but at the end of the day the advertisers rub their hands with glee because they’ve got a clear identity of an audience and there is no shortage of people who want to sponsor it,” he said.
“It’s event TV, everybody is talking about it and it’s one thing that ITV have got right. And, to a certain extent, so has the BBC with shows like Strictly Come Dancing.”
As The X Factor winner, Lewis has been awarded a £1 million recording contract and the machinery of the pop world has already swung into action.
Her first CD single, A Moment Like This, was already being printed in the last moments of the show and 50,000 copies of the download version of the track had been sold within 30 minutes of it going on sale on Saturday night.
Radio stations yesterday began playing A Moment Like This and it will be available in the shops by Wednesday.
The song has already generated one million advance orders and is tipped to unseat Take That’s Patience to become this year’s Christmas number one. Last year’s X Factor winner, Shayne Ward, got to number one on the back of the programme with his debut single That’s My Goal.
Eight million viewers voted in the final of The X Factor with 60 per cent of that support going to Lewis, who performed four songs, including Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You, Celine Dion’s All By Myself and Take That’s A Million Love Songs.
The competition between the finalists was the last stage in a process which saw 100,000 people initially apply to audition before Mr Cowell and fellow judges Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh.