So last year it a drastic decline of 1m, and this year it declined by only 0.5m. The ratings will go down either way because of how long the show has been on, the best they can do is make that decline smaller - which they have. Last week they even got higher ratings than almost every episode last year, and that was with the Strictly launch show being on at the same time.

Getting rid of Cheryl/Rita/Nick/Olly and bringing back the original panel + Nicole and Dermot was definitely a good move!

Jonathan Ross doesn't compete with X Factor, he is on ITV as well and follows X Factor.

It competes with Xtra Factor, which is the point I was making, as to why Xtra Factor ratings have gone down in recent years.

These competition shows are so tired, they just need to end it and stop inundating iTunes with songs nobody will care about months later

If the new panel was working, it wouldn't have shed a further 500k viewers.

I'd rather be on a series which had a 1 million decline on 2014 rather than a 1.5 million decline on 2014!

Also, no one watches the Strictly launch show. Once the first actual episode is on, XF is toast.