Simon Cowell has vowed to ring the changes on ITV’s The X Factor after his much-anticipated return to the talent show failed to halt its ratings slide.
Cowell said he would make significant changes to the show which has seen its ratings drop by around a million viewers despite his return alongside another former judge, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (formerly Cole).
The presenter and TV and music producer, who signed a new three-year deal with ITV last year worth nearly £150m, said: “If you keep doing the same thing every year, eventually people will get fed up.
“I have a vision in my head of what it should be and what the audience will respond to, and I think ITV are up for a change as well. It is a show I would love to be on.”
Cowell said he was likely to return as a judge but declined to confirm whether any of the other current panel, which includes former Spice Girl Mel B and Westlife manager Louis Walsh - would return.
“If it goes the way I want it to go, it would be a very different show to judge than we have ever done before … Things have to change,” he added.
The X Factor remains one of ITV’s biggest shows along with Cowell’s other long-running series, Britain’s Got Talent. ITV ditched another talent-show format, Rising Star, before it had even aired in the UK after it flopped overseas.
But The X Factor’s ratings have been in long-term decline, from a high of 17 million viewers for Matt Cardle’s win in 2010 to last year’s final, won by Sam Bailey, watched by an overnight audience of 9.6 million viewers.
This year’s series – its 11th – was again beaten by BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing, which had a lead of around a million viewers.
Fleur East is the favourite to win this weekend’s final, nine years after she appeared on the show as part of girlband Addictiv Ladies, having wowed the judges last week with her cover of Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk. Van driver Ben Haenow is second favourite, with Italian Andrea Faustini, who turned up for his audition proclaiming his love of pugs, the outsider.
Boyd Hilton, the TV editor of Heat magazine, said the programme had become too drawn-out and over complicated.
“Simon’s instinct is always to go bigger and glitzier and sometimes in this series there were three episodes a week, which I think was ridiculous,” he said.
“They have milked it too much with episodes that have gone on too long, and parts of it have felt overblown and cruel. They need to pare it down a bit, with a judging panel that feels slightly closer to reality.”
Mel B may miss Saturday night’s X Factor final due to an unnamed illness. An X Factor spokesman, said: “She is still unwell and at this stage we don’t know if she will be able to do the show.”
The X Factor finals are one of ITV’s biggest earners and are expected to generate £17m from TV advertising this year, with a 30-second ad spot costing between £170,000 and £200,000. However, it is down from a bonanza of around £25m in revenues at the programme’s height in 2010.
This series averaged 9 million viewers in the consolidated ratings, which include people who record it and watch in the seven days after transmission. But commercial impacts – the number of adverts watched by viewers at normal speed – is down 8% to 10% year on year.
Phil Hall, joint head of investment at media buying and planning agency MediaCom, said: “Is it the programme it was five years ago? No. But in saying that, massive event programmes are still vital to advertisers.
“The X Factor has not lost its relevance or importance and there is a lot of demand from advertisers desperate to get into it. But we wouldn’t want to see its audience levels slip any further.”
The show has also suffered from failing to unearth an act to match its last genuine star discovery, One Direction in 2010, who have gone on to become one of the biggest-selling acts in the world.
“What it comes down to is you have got to find really, really talented people, that’s what makes this show exciting,” said Cowell. “This country loves all the craziness and whatever but deep down they want to see a star emerge.”
Cowell also confirmed that he would return to the US to work for Fox, the US network which axed his American version of the X Factor earlier this year. “I have a fantastic relationship with Fox, I think we will be doing some stuff with them, yes,” he added.
