The X Factor: A turn-off for viewers? Photo credit: ITV.
The X Factor turns viewers off
The X Factor 2012 is not off to the greatest of starts, with ratings at an all-time low after the fourth audition programme, reported The Telegraph: “Despite Simon Cowell flying in from Los Angeles to personally oversee the editing of his talent programme, ratings for the 2012 series have continued to fall with the ITV show almost three million down on this stage last year.” But the show may get a ratings boost from the return of former judge Cheryl Cole. According to The Daily Mail, Cheryl is set to assist Gary Barlow at the judges’ houses stage.
X Factor auditions 2012: Spice Girls superfans the IT Girls.
The Thick of It ‘disappointing’?
The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston declared himself disappointed with the first episode of the hotly anticipated fourth series of political comedy The Thick of It. “Successful satire alone doesn’t make great comedy… It needs great characters, great performances, great writing, great lines, great jokes – all of which The Thick of It has always served up in supersize portions. Until now,” said Wollaston.
See a clip from the fourth series of The Thick of It.
ITV’s du Maurier adaptation ‘addictive’
The Scapegoat, loosely based on a Daphne du Maurier novel, was full of plot holes and implausibly melodramatic, wrote Michael Deacon in The Telegraph; “still, if you overlooked the holes, it was quite addictive.”
Watch The Scapegoat trailer.
Dinosaurs on a spaceship
The latest episode of Doctor Who saw the gang contend with dinosaurs in space, with some help form Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. It was a “childish and fun” instalment, said Neela Debnath in The Independent; but don’t expect the jollity to last for long: “For those who may be disappointed by this week, there will be far more darkness to come and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was gentle respite from the impending tragedy that is to befall the Ponds.”
The BBC trailer for next week’s Doctor Who, A Town Called Mercy.
