ITV entertainment chief: X Factor changes 'went too far'

[zakman440]

ITV entertainment chief Elaine Bedell has acknowledged that some of the format tweaks made to The X Factor this year have failed.

Speaking at the Broadcast Commissioning Forum, Bedell said broadcasting the judges’ house round live was a decision “too far” as ITV, Syco Entertainment and Thames have attempted to keep the entertainment show fresh.

The changes, which include new hosts Olly Murs and Caroline Flack, have not helped The X Factor’s ratings, which slumped to record low of 5.6m (28.6%) for a first live finals episode on Saturday.

“We embarked on this series wanting some changes - this is one of the issues with long-running shows - you look to them constantly to think how they can be kept on their toes,” said Bedell.

“Possibly with The X Factor we went too far with the mix of live TV in the judges’ houses episode. Universally on the production side we felt that it wasn’t successful but now we are back to the live shows that we know and love.”

The director of entertainment and comedy added that the talent on on this year’s show is the best yet and is confident it will enjoy a “good run” to Christmas.

ITV will enter negotiations with Syco and Fremantle Media about the future of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent after the current of the former series concludes. The existing three-year deal has one series of each left to air.

“We have a longstanding relationship with Syco and Fremantle which has served us very well. BGT has been brilliant this year and bucked the trend by being up year-on-year,” said Bedell. “Following the series this year we’ll be sitting down to discuss their future.”

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/itv-entertainment-chief-x-factor-changes-went-too-far/5096544.article

I'm glad that they've recognised this. If it's not broken, don't try to fix it! As for the live shows, something about them still just feels a little flat to me. Hopefully they'll pick up some energy within the coming weeks.

[LukeB]

When will Big Brother

[Denver]

I feel at this point it's beyond saving it needs at least a few years rest.

[Jack_]

He's right, with the exception of bringing Peter Dickson back every change they've made this year has driven the show into the ground

- Getting rid of room auditions
- Only visiting two cities for auditions
- Getting rid of Louis
- Getting rid (or allowing him to leave) of Dermot
- Dragging Bootcamp out for five weeks
- Only having seven live shows
- Having Judges Houses live
- Not changing the live show set again when it now looks really outdated and they've wasted the budget making all these other unnecessary changes
- Not opening the phone lines at the start of the show
- Allowing the categories vote to be conducted on Twitter enabling tween girls to dictate the allocations

The list goes on. All awful decisions that didn't need to be made. It's amazing really because I thought last year's series was a return to form, and now there's a good chance this series will become the worst ever in terms of production, which is a shame because this is the strongest bunch of finalists there's been for a while.