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X Factor tries to sing, but it’s ACA’s night.

First figures for multi-million dollar The X Factor are sluggish, as the Current Affair interview about its fallen host dominates the night.

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The premiere episode of The X Factor pulled a lukewarm 1.18m viewers for its 90 minute season premiere last night.

After all the publicity, not to mention the multi-million dollar pricetag, the numbers will be a concern to Seven. It just managed to beat Undercover Boss (1.12m), Two and a Half Men (1.07m). Even The 7:30 Report had 1.02m.

This is the second time The X Factor has been mounted in Australia. In 2005 it premiered on TEN to an audience of 1.45 million. This year’s premiere is even lower than last year’s Idol of 1.3 million.

The big winner for the night was the story behind the fallout of the show’s host, as A Current Affair‘s interview with Bert and Patti Newton soared to 1.74m. It totally dominated Today Tonight‘s 1.23m. It was the highest rating ACA since September 4, 2006, the day Steve Irwin died.

Seven did manage to win the night but with those kind of figures it will be keen to get the live performance shows on the air.

Week 36

40 Responses

  1. Why do Seven struggle so much with this genre?? With the Home and Away lead-in, which is perfect for this show, they must be very upset and somewhat concerned. Sick of the publicity overkill for this show…we haven’t seen nothing yet off the back of those figures!

  2. Perhaps its just that we are over talent reality competition shows for now. Maybe they have had their day.

    What will make or break the X Factor will be if there is any significant talent to come out of it as it gets into the main competition.

    And yes – agree was too much like Idol – right down to the bad singers that go on to be remembered longer than some of the good ones, the contestnats from the country who have never been on an “aeroplane” before, and the stand outs that instantly get 4 yesses.

  3. it was very drawn out. 90 minutes when there was only a handful of decent singers? and the tediousness of going over each judges opinion on everything was just frustrating!

  4. Well I didn’t have to wait too long. It was on 7TWO around 8am this morning!! How many more “encores”? Midday replacing the movie, weekend x 2 or 3 ?

  5. Huh? I can’t believe some people watching this thought it’d be that much different from Idol! Seriously? I watched it knowing it’d be an Idol clone. How much different can shows like this be? Duh!

  6. I’d say Ten Is trying to get to the live soons ASAP, judging by having all the auditions eps crammed into one week. I think in the UK, the audition eps are spread out over five to six weeks and the first live show doesn’t air until about eight weeks into the season. I’d say our first live show will be Sunday week.

  8. Australia’s Idol X Factor Got Talent – all seem to morph into one. Didn’t see it but no doubt Seven will run it again this week and on 7TWO over the weekend. That’s the issue with these “encires”. No sweat if you missed its “premiere”, as many “encores” are sure to follow. No need to even bother recording now.

  10. After a failed attempt to see anything funny about Paul McDermott in GNW, I switched over to X Factor at some point after 8.30 and saw some melodically-challenged woman trying to put a few notes together while Kyle and Natalie try to keep a straight face. I thought what a yawn, haven’t we been through all this sort of train-wreck stuff with Idol? Surely we’ve moved on from that sort of ‘entertainment’. I don’t think I’ll be back watching X Factor.

  12. I was hoping X Factor would be great, going by the UK format but I was underwhelmed and disappointed. What a poor ratings effort for a much hyped premiere. Will be hard to see how it will build an audience after showcasing such mediocre talent and boring judging. Jnr Masterchef should smash it in a couple of weeks.

  15. i thought it was really good, but those ratings are a bit of a shock. there was so much talk on twitter about it last night, mostly positive. with that i was expecting this morning we would have a new hit. quite the opposite, it has to grow a lot for 7 to be pleased, but if it drops any further it could be the flop of the year.

  16. I watched it as I wanted to give it a chance. The show has a Huge following in the UK and is wildly successful, but I think it’s biggest problem in Australia will be unearthing any real talent.

    Take a look at anyone on last night’s show and compare them to talented people like Leona Lewis who was a UK X Factor winner – they just don’t compare. Even the people who got a “yes” all round from the judges didn’t really have anything to take my breath away.

    The last thing Australia needs is a talent show where the Top 12 Acts are mediocre singers with little or no “X factor” at all…

  17. it’s idol with bigger lights and more moron teens screaming for no reason. it was just sap storries to get people to like the singers and not much else

  23. Luke-warm is an apt description of its premiere. If it builds from here it will be OK, but if it declines it could well be a disaster. I had no intentions of watching but caught the last 15 minutes and it looked good. IMO much better than Australia’s Got Talent. I’ll probably check it out tonight

  25. Another Channel 7 reality singing show flop.

    A bit like Flopstars.!!!

    As for judge Kyle, what a first class d******d. Look at this record all failures!!!

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