X-Factor 2014

Tonight sees the return of the X-Factor to our television screens. The show is now in its 11th year and the format is becoming predictable to say the least. People with stars in their eyes will appear on our screens some of which will be so awful they should never have been let near a microphone while others will have some sort of talent for singing karaoke, and then there might just be one really good singer that the show goes on to ruin. 

You might think I'm being rather sceptical of the show but it is becoming tired and as a show it has lost it's own X Factor in recent years. It really has failed to deliver on the promise it uses get people to appear on the show, i.e to make them international stars. Although, some of the acts have gone onto do something they really never have found that enduring music star or act that goes on and on, or makes onto the world stage. Maybe that is because it lives in the popular music genre and it is basically run by a popular music mogul and it done for money and not for art.

In recent years the audience has declined since its peek in 2010 when Simon Cowell stopped judging the show when he moved to lead the judging panel on US version of the X Factor. This drop in the audience had led to people wondering if ITV would pull the plug on the show which takes up so much of it schedule on a Saturday evening.  

Year	Average Audience
2004	7.40 million
2005	8.43 million
2006	8.27 million
2007	8.57 million
2008	10.51 million
2009	13.00 million
2010	14.13 million
2011	12.41 million
2012	9.63 million
2013	9.45 million

This year sees major changes in the judging panel with the return of Simon Cowell who will be hoping to get the shows audience figures back to some where near their former highs and stop the rot. He is joined by the returning Cheryl Cole, new judge Mel B and Louis Walsh who is the only judge that has appeared in every series of the show.

It will be interesting to see how it does this autumn. Will it be the damp squid that it has been for the last few years or will they be able to do something with  the shows now tired format and bring it back to life, or will this once family favourite just be just something to avoid?