Matt Edmondson has spoken out about the future of ‘The X Factor’, after his series at the helm of spin-off show ‘The Xtra Factor’ last year proved to be the last.
It’s fair to say the current series of the ITV talent show hasn’t exactly been a vintage year, with viewing figures falling to an all-time low during the audition round.
Speaking to HuffPost UK on ‘BUILD’, Matt admitted that filming the new series of ‘Release The Hounds’ had meant he was unable to catch any of this year’s ‘X Factor’, and asked us whether it was worth him catching up.
When we pointed out that the current series had received “mixed” reviews (to put it kindly), Matt said: “Ah, ‘The X Factor’ always gets mixed things.
“What it obviously is lacking is me and Rylan [Clark-Neal, his former ‘Xtra Factor’ co-host] mucking about afterwards. That would boost the ratings by… three… four viewers.”
We then asked what he thought about critics who felt the show’s time on the airwaves was over, Matt suggested there could be life in the format yet.
He claimed: “It’s had peaks and troughs, there a year’s that it’s gone down, there are years when it’s been the biggest thing on TV. I still think, despite the fact I haven’t watched any of it, that it’s incredibly watchable.
“And also it feels like a bit of the furniture, doesn’t it? It feels like a bit of the TV landscape that it would be sad to say goodbye to.”
He then added: “But it is hard… I think big Saturday night telly is a really hard thing to nail, and to get right.
“Obviously ‘Strictly’ is doing really well, but ‘Strictly’ has that thing of being a live event from the very first episode, and ‘The X Factor’ doesn’t. You can catch up with ‘The X Factor’. And when ‘The X Factor’ goes live, hopefully, that’s when it becomes a national can’t-miss talking point. But until then, you can miss it because you can watch it on catch-up.
“They’re coming back for one more year, contractually, that I do know. After that, who knows? It’s telly, literally anything could happen.”
After years of going up against one another in the ratings battle, the past few series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ have trounced ‘X Factor’ when it comes to viewing figures.
Shortly before this year’s launch, ‘X Factor’ boss Simon Cowell conceded that the competition between the two shows was over, declaring: “I’ve learnt to keep my mouth shut about that.
“We can’t compete with their overall audience because they’re much older. What’s important for us is to keep the young audience interested in the show.’”
Watch Matt Edmondson’s full ‘BUILD’ interview below: