‘The X Factor’ UK: Sharon Osbourne’s return attributed to premiere ratings jump

Well, this is something that you do not see very often in the singing-competition genre: A new season actually building an audience from the previous year. If only America could figure out what is going on overseas in Britain, they would be in great shape.

The tenth-season premiere of “The X Factor” on Saturday improved on the past premiere by 500,000, and ultimately had a crowd of 9.2 million people watching. Just to give you an interesting comparison here, the British show had a bigger audience than some “X Factor” USA shows, and that is with America having a significantly larger population. Meanwhile, the news only got better for the second episode, as 9.9 million people caught the first show featuring an audience at Wembley Arena.

One the major reasons for this sudden bump in support is being attributed to the presence of Sharon Osbourne on the panel. The former judge returned for the 10th season, where she is pulling doubly-duty alongside what she does already at “The Talk.” Within the span of a couple of days, the feeling is almost that she is the star of the panel, and is even taking some attention away from last year’s darling child Nicole Scherzinger, who has unfortunately decided this year that her focus is going to be telling people that they are a “yes” for something like their hair, but not a “yes” for “The X Factor.”

The challenge will of course be finding great talent, as the judges become less important to viewership as the season progresses. One question that we found ourselves asking this morning was what in the world happened to that super-giddy singing group that advanced out of the first round?

We’ll be back next weekend with more from the show, so be sure to check back for more of that.

Photo: ITV