On Thursday, Fox opted to air a brand new episode of its flailing reality competition series, The X Factor, despite the fact that it ran opposite Thanksgiving specials and football, which tend to do quite well. To amp things up a bit, the reality series put together a special double elimination that was designed to keep fans glued to the edge of their seats. Unfortunately, that backfired, leading The X Factor to yet another poor night in the ratings.
Fox had both The X Factor and Glee on the roster last night, and neither did particularly well. The X Factor pulled a 1.0 rating, and Glee did a little worse, bringing in a .9 rating. According to Deadline, that’s way off from the numbers the two programs pulled last year. Last year, Fox earned a 1.5 rating for Glee and a 2.8 rating for The X Factor. I guess executives should be given a little credit for the novelty of running original programming on a holiday, but it didn’t really work out.
Last night was a pretty low point for The X Factor. The singing competition has been in a downward spiral for quite some time. Facing budget cuts, the programming quality of The X Factor has gone down some in Season 3. The show opted to go with cheaper judges, cutting out the frequently boorish Britney Spears after Season 2 ended. While the changes were meant to economize the show’s expenses, it has affected the ratings. The Season 3 premiere was down 22%, and the ratings have continued to go downhill from there. On Halloween, The X Factor brought in a .8 rating. While the Thanksgiving ratings are a slight improvement, you have to think at this point that The X Factor is on its way to cancellation.
The other networks didn’t falter as much in the ratings. CBS smartly opted for reruns, although football ran a little bit into primetime, helping the network to an average 2.1 rating over the night. ABC successfully aired A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which earned a 1.6 rating. However, nothing could touch NBC’s special edition of Sunday Night Football, which probably should have gotten a rename for the night. Regardless, the programming did quite well, nabbing a whopping 5.6 rating and 17.6 million total viewers, according to THR. Despite a lack in original scripted or reality programming, most of the networks managed to entice a good amount of viewers after the turkey was carved and the pumpkin pies were eaten.
Something tells me FOX will update its approach to the holiday next year, while the other networks will opt for much of the same.
