Executives from FOX and “American Idol” have weighed in on the disappointing “X Factor” ratings, with the parties largely responding as expected.<\/p>\n
FOX is standing behind the show, which premiered to less than half the viewership of last season’s “American Idol” opener. Its research Twitter touted, “#XFactor premiered to a 4.2\/12 A18-49 & 12.1m viewers; most-watched FOX fall debut in five years.”<\/p>\n
It noted that “The X Factor” was the best Wednesday night-of-premiere week performer since “Melrose Place” in 1995; it gave the network its first premiere Wednesday win since the 1993 “Melrose” opener.<\/p>\n
EW, meanwhile, quoted FOX’s reality chief Mike Darnell in saying “we’re happy with the numbers…the expectations were ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
Those expectations for an “American Idol”-sized performance, however, were backed by “The X Factor”‘s Simon Cowell himself, who said he was hoping the show would do 20 million viewers.<\/p>\n
As far as “American Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is concerned, “Factor”‘s failure to win its timeslot is worthy of a laugh.<\/p>\n
He (@dizzyfeet) Re-Tweeted a fan’s comment, “LOL that XFactor did not even win its timeslot. I can hear @dizzyfeet cackling right now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n