Bring back the sing-off! Viewers are not impressed with the new X Factor format
ITV's Saturday night singing show had a bit of a makeover but the viewers want the show to go back to basics
The X Factor needs to bring back its traditional Sunday night sing-off and stick to Saturday night performances – that's the verdict from fans who watched this weekend's revamped live shows and were less than impressed with the new format.
Why stretch the live performances across two nights?
2017's live shows see the contestants' performances (which traditionally all aired on a Saturday night) being split across two evenings.
Acts from two categories (this weekend it was the Groups and Overs) perform on a Saturday night with one contestant sent home that evening. The acts from the remaining two categories (this weekend it was the Girls and the Boys) then perform on a Sunday night, with one more contestant axed at the end of the broadcast.
Viewers didn't like the change, with 65% of those polled saying they thought splitting the performances across two nights wasn't a good idea.
In fact, the majority of viewers seemed to find the whole thing exceedingly confusing – as did host Dermot O'Leary.
The new sing-off is silly
The traditional sing-off between the bottom two (the acts with the least number of public votes) has been scrapped, and replaced with a sing-off between the two acts with the MOST public votes.
Saturday night's 'winner' goes head to head with Sunday night's 'winner' for a musical prize and the first live shows resulted in Grace Davies jetting off to see Pink after winning the 'Prize Fight' sing-off against Rak-Su.
Fans just can't get on board with the new format. 71% of those polled say they think the sing-off is a silly concept.
Bring back the bottom two!
If there's one thing fans miss the most, though, it's the traditional X Factor results show and that good old sing-off between the bottom two acts. Who cares if it often threw up some of the most controversial results of the competition? It was all about the drama and taking the vote to Deadlock.
Who can forget that infamous bottom two battle between Ella Henderson and James Arthur in 2012? The viewers miss the drama and they want it back.
That's the message from 70% of readers polled, anyway.
The X Factor continues on ITV on Saturday and Sunday nights
