The television ratings game could be a funny one, and that proved true Wednesday night.
Despite facing a full slate of Big Four broadcast competition for the first time this season, FOX’s “The X Factor” posted season high ratings. The two-hour broadcast, which attracted 7.6 million viewers, averaged a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating.
Though not a blockbuster rating by any means, especially in comparison to what NBC’s “The Voice” delivered Monday and Tuesday, the improved number comes amid concern that the show would take a big hit from its new timeslot competitors.
Helping matters, of course, is the fact that none of the competition performed especially well. ABC’s “The Middle” and “Back in the Game” performed modestly at 8PM, while “Revolution” underwhelmed and CBS’ “Survivor” continues to show its age. “Factor” actually won the 8PM timeslot.
And, despite facing more intense (but still a bit underwhelming) competition at 9PM, including “Modern Family” (4.1), “Criminal Minds” (2.8) and “Law & Order: SVU” (2.5), “Factor” improved its hourly average for hour number two. Clearly, those who watched the past two weeks’ worth of “The X Factor” were not simply killing time until new seasons started on the other networks.
While it would be intuitive to attribute the previous “X Factor” disappointments to “America’s Got Talent,” which ran against the second hour of last Wednesday’s episode, that argument is not entirely valid. “America’s Got Talent” neither ran against the first hour of the past two Wednesday editions of “XF” (which was at a season high level this week as well), and it did not compete with the show on Thursdays.
