Nick Grimshaw and Rita Ora bring X Factor to an all time ratings low
Simon Cowell’s overhaul of the X Factor failed to impress viewers with its return this weekend.
The reality stalwart attracted in lowest audience for a launch show in over a decade as it aired on Saturday night.
The “new-look” show – which introduced new judges Nick Grimshaw and Rita Ora – attracted an average audience of just 7.1 million viewers during its début.
Overall figures rise slightly to 7.6 million if ITV1+1 is included.
It is the lowest audience for a launch show since 2006 and almost 2 million viewers down on the launch episode of last year’s X Factor – which drew around 9.5 million viewers including ITV1 +1.
And things got even more dismal on Sunday night, as the show lost another million viewers.
X Factor’s Sunday night show attracted an average of 6.5 million viewers, thought to be the show’s lowest in history.
However – although millions of viewers may have abandoned the show – thousands of those that did watch apparently had no idea that Radio 1 DJ Grimshaw is gay.
Grimmy took to the panel on Saturday night for the opening of the new series of X Factor, but many Twitter users apparently were unaware that he came out some years ago.
While thousands tweeted, apparently unable to get an answer to the question “is Nick Grimshaw gay?”, many were directed to this PinkNews article.
In the article, from August 2012, he confirms he is gay, and says that he quite fancies Frank Ocean.
The topic trended over the weekend, as many struggled to figure out whether the DJ is gay or not, with quite a few female viewers struggling to deal with the information.
