Simon Cowell in talks to renew The X Factor for another five years
The ITV singing competition could remain on TV until 2022 claims The X Factor judge
Simon Cowell has suggested that The X Factor could continue to air on ITV until 2022.
According to head judge Cowell, the show has been offered a new contract after increasing its share of younger viewers.
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- Absent judges, technical problems and last-minute format changes: just what is going on with The X Factor?
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“We’ve just been offered an extension on both shows because of the 16 to 34-year-old audience,” Cowell said in an interview with The Sun.
“We could probably do three years or five years. It makes a lot of money. We got to a point years ago where we were able to compete with Strictly because there was that huge audience.
“We’re losing people now but fortunately the young audience has actually grown this year and all the advertisers and the sponsors want that income on a Saturday.”
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ITV declined to comment when RadioTimes.com approached the broadcaster for further information.
Viewing figures for The X Factor have been well down compared to the series' heyday: the most recent episode pulled in just 3.85 million viewers, a fraction of the 10.78 million that watched BBC's Strictly Come Dancing on the same night.
However, for The X Factor's key 16-34 audience, the show is averaging 1.3 million viewers and a share of 42%, compared with Strictly, which is averaging 1.1 million and a 37% share.
Cowell added that he is considering format changes for next year's show.
“I think with all things you’ve got to change the format a bit sometimes, which is part of our job, the fun part of our job," he said.
“ITV have been amazing actually this year. We had this really good run on BGT with the live shows and we coped without Ant.
“We’ve got the new dance show on the BBC [The Greatest Dancer, coming soon to BBC1], and two other music shows, which I think will be announced soon and we’re going to do over the next two years as well.”
The X Factor has been on the air since 2004 and has spawned stars successes as One Direction, Little Mix, James Arthur and Olly Murs.
The X Factor is on 8.10pm this Saturday on ITV
