Ratings: ‘Poldark’ season 2, ITV’s ‘Victoria’ both slide; ‘The X Factor’ rises

When it comes to the ratings on British television, one of the last things we expected weeks ago was to be trumpeting the success of “The X Factor.” This is a show that has seen its numbers fall a good deal over the years, so we weren’t quite sure if it would ever recover,

While it may be a tad early at the moment to proclaim that the reality series is back, it’s fair to say that it is doing so much better now than it was at this point last year. The fifth audition show this weekend drew 8.3 million viewers, which is a number that would keep the show on the air for quite some time to come. This may also be further evidence that viewers want consistency at the judging panel and personalities they know as opposed to people suited for a younger demo.

For the record, much of those stories about “fix” claims and people being unhappy are mostly nonsense, since a tiny percentage of viewers actually bother to look up whether or not contestants have prior singing careers before coming on board.

As for some of the ratings elsewhere, “Victoria” on ITV (5.1 million viewers) managed to barely top the BBC’s “Poldark” (4.8 million), which once again makes us wonder why in the world these two shows are airing at the same time when they’re probably hurting each other. These episodes are both declines versus the prior week. While these are still good numbers for British TV, we did still hope going into season 2 that the live “Poldark” numbers would be over six million. (They were for the premiere when factoring in consolidated viewing figures.)