The first episode of the X Factor aired on Saturday night (August 20th), clocking up 12.6 million viewers.Despite a brand new line-up and the absence of Simon Cowell, the opening show achieved the same viewing figures as it did last year, suggesting that the talent contest will succeed without Simon and Cheryl Cole.
Only Louis Walsh remains on the four-person panel, with Tulisa Contostavlos, singer in the band N-Dubz, Destiny Child’s Kelly Rowland and Take That front man Gary Barlow.
In fact, it seemed that not only did Gary sit in Simon’s seat, he too was not amused by many of the bizarre acts that make the auditions round of the show so popular.
Goldie Cheung was one such contestant, who was sick before her performance and went on to give an energetic performance that defied her mature years.
Stars of the night, however, included 16-year-old Janet Devlin, who sang Elton John’s Your Song and wowed all of the judges.
Another early favourite came in the way of Kitty Brucknell, whose performance of Lady Gaga’s Edge of Glory impressed the panel.
However, drawing comparisons to former contestant Katie Waissel, who was disliked by many viewers, Tulisa told the singing hopeful that people “will either love you or hate you”, when she sat down on the stage and talked over the judges.
Simon Cowell, who owns the X Factor format, has quit the show in order to launch a version in the US, and he expressed his delight at the opening night of the new series.
He told the Sun: “I’m thrilled with the numbers. The new judging team are doing a brilliant job and the show feels even better this year.”
However, figures did average out at 11 million, which was down 300,000 on last year, the Daily Mail reported.