The X Factor

On the heels of ITV’s announcement that The X Factor creator Simon Cowell will be returning to the UK edition as a judge this year, Fox has announced that the U.S. version of the singing competition will not be renewed for a fourth season.

Fox’s The X Factor posted its lowest part one finale rating yet last night. Factor drew a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., down from a 2.8 for the same show last year. In fact, Factor declined a tenth from last week’s penultimate performance show. Little wonder people are buzzing over whether the third-year show will be back next season. Its ratings fell sharply during the second half of the season, after its schedule was shifted during Fox’s coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Fox’s The X Factor, which returned to lower ratings for its third season last week, found some of its lost audience in early DVR playback and looked a bit healthier relative to its competition.

Fox is turning to a trusted News Corp. hand to oversee the overhauls of American Idol and The X Factor while the network searches for a replacement for outgoing alternative topper Mike Darnell.

Glee, The X Factor and Grey’s Anatomy were the big TV winners at the 39th annual awards show Wednesday night that was hosted by The Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco.

Looks like Britney Spears’ X Factor gig will be a one-and-done kind of deal. The Hold It Against Me singer is on her way out as a judge for Fox’s hit reality competition, which wrapped its second season on Dec. 20.

The X Factor may be down from last year, but it still has been the strongest ratings performer for Fox this fall, so the network is renewing the singing competition for a third season.

Fox will extend primetime on Oct. 23 to re-air that installment of The X Factor that was preempted this week by a rain delay for the Giants-Cardinals NLCS game.

After a scheduling move by NBC pitted the network’s The Voice and Fox’s The X Factor during their premiere week, the two singing competition series will go head-to-head again on Tuesday after Fox rescheduled Wednesday night’s episode because of baseball rain delay.

Even the Emmy Awards broadcast on ABC couldn’t beat the two million-plus social media impressions tallied for Fox’s The X Factor. Still, the Emmys made an impressive showing, with the Tracy Morgan fainting stunt firing up Twitter for a few minutes. But then, that’s what it was supposed to do.

Britney Spears and Demi Lovato will take to the judges’ panel when the American version of The X Factor returns for a second season, Fox said Monday at the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers.

The singer will collect $15 million overall for the gig — approximately $13 million to judge music-industry aspirants alongside Simon Cowell and record executive L.A. Reid, and the rest as a bonus for performing on the show, an individual with knowledge of the deal says.

Britney Spears is close to a deal to join Simon Cowell on the judging panel of The X Factor in Season 2. Spears had been in talks for the gig for over a month, but the two sides are now headed for the final stretch after a big breakthrough over the weekend when major deal points were agreed upon.

Television’s No. 1 program is showing signs of audience fatigue as American Idol begins its 11th season in a glutted market that includes The X Factor and The Voice.

The persona that worked well for her on American Idol, at least to a good part of the audience, wasn’t so much an option on X Factor, which has a whole different rhythm.

As significant changes are coming to The X Factor this fall, a top executive involved in production suggested the Fox show needs to be more distinctive from the other talent competition series. “Our job for the next season is to really figure out what’s different about X Factor,” said Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of FremantleMedia North America.

As American Idol begins its new season on Fox on Wednesday, it faces competitors in The X Factor, also on Fox, and The Voice on NBC. The new test is this: Will viewers still gravitate to Idol in the same numbers when they know there are two prominent alternatives?

The singing competition TV show The X Factor has about half the viewers of American Idol, but it has lifted Fox’s ratings and it appeals to a comparatively younger audience.

Fox won yet another Thursday on an evening where CBS was in repeats and ABC showed holiday specials. Fox averaged a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating and 8 share, 43% ahead of No. 2 ABC at 2.1/9. Fox’s The X Factor was the night’s highest-rated show with a 3.1 rating, up 19% over last week’s results episode (which aired on Wednesday due to Thanksgiving). It was the second straight night that Factor ranked No. 1 for the evening.

The first-year Fox song competition hit The X Factor has acknowledged that one of its contestants, Leroy Bell, was caught singing along to a pre-recorded song track during the opening montage of Thursday night’s episode.

For the first time this season, The X Factor went from two hours to one, but it was still enough to lift Fox to another Thursday night win. The network just barely held off CBS last night, the second Thursday of the November sweeps, averaging a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating and 9 share in primetime, compared to CBS’s 3.3/9.

Fox’s The X Factor returned to its regular Wednesday timeslot last night after being preempted several weeks for postseason baseball and lifted the network to a win on an evening when ABC and CBS also had strong schedules. Factor averaged a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., down from a 4.4 for its most recent episode last week on Tuesday.

Fox has given the go-ahead on a sophomore season of the Simon Cowell reality competition series.

Fox flexed some muscle last night with a dominant win by new reality show The X Factor, which cut the number of contestants to 12. Factor averaged a 4.3 rating from 8 to 10:30 p.m., with its first live show of the season. That was up 13% from last week’s episode, which also aired on Tuesday, and marked the show’s best rating since its premiere last month.

Next week, viewers of The X Factor can vote for a singer via Twitter in a partnership intended to strengthen the symbiotic relationship between television and the website.

Simon Cowell’s American Idol rival is off to a consistent if not spectacular start in a crowded fall marketplace despite nettlesome interruptions from postseason baseball. More important, the program has enabled Fox to control Thursdays in the fall for the first time ever.

The X Factor lifted Fox to its fourth straight Thursday win last night, though the show was down from last week. Factor averaged a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., down from a 3.8 last week. A number of other shows were up week to week after facing the record-breaking game five between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers last week on TBS.

Due to the expansion of The X Factor, the Zooey Deschanel comedy will return in its usual time slot next month. The season finale of Terra Nova has been scheduled for Dec. 19 at 8 p.m.

With a 90-minute edition of The X Factor last night, Fox edged out CBS and ABC on what’s becoming one of the tightest nights on broadcast. Fox averaged a 3.5 adults 18-49 rating and 10 share in primetime, with CBS in second with a 3.3/9 and ABC a close third at 3.2/9. Factor drew a 3.9 rating from 8 to 9:30 p.m., holding 95% of last week’s audience for a two-hour edition of the show.

NEW YORK (AP) — Simon Cowell admits he regrets saying ratings less than 20 million for the U.S. version of “The X Factor” would be a failure. The show’s September […]

Despite lower ratings for The X Factor, Fox won its second straight Wednesday. Factor pulled an average 3.9 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, down 11% from last week’s 4.4 in its debut. This is the first time Fox has ever won the first two Wednesdays of the season.

The watchdog group says the network’s airing at 9 p.m. ET of The X Factor contestant Geo Godley dropping his pants and exposing himself represented “a conscious decision by the producers … to intentionally air this content in front of millions of families during hours when they knew full well that children would be watching.”