14 DAY TRIAL // Simon Cowell hoped that season 2 of X Factor USA would fare much better in the ratings if he changed pretty much everything about it: so he brought Britney Spears and Demi Lovato on board as judges.
Even so, it didn’t help in the race against rival show, NBC’s The Voice, which just beat X Factor in the ratings, as The Huffington Post reports.
“In the overlapping 8 p.m. hour when the shows faced off against each other, 10.7 million people watched The Voice, while 7.5 watched the season premiere of Fox's The X Factor. In the key adults 18-49 demographic, ‘The Voice’ scored a 3.3 rating, while the The X Factor registered a 2.7,” the e-zine says.
The winning move was due mostly to the fact that NBC decided to extend the premiere week of season 3 of The Voice to a third night, thus coming in direct competition with X Factor.
On Ellen DeGeneres before X Factor kicked off, Cowell lamented the decision, saying it was very much a very low, unfair one.
Be that as it may, competition is competition, whether dirty or less so.
“The X Factor rebounded in its second hour, as viewership spiked 41 percent once The Voice was off the air. Over both hours The X Factor averaged 8.5 million viewers. Overall, both shows averaged a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demo,” HuffPo writes.