Will you be watching the The X Factor this weekend?

ITV1 talent show 'The X Factor' returns to our screens this weekend, marking the first appearance by new judge Cheryl Cole.

The ailing commercial broadcaster will be hoping the perennial favourite can spearhead an autumn revival, coming on the back of a record low for ratings. This week, ITV1 suffered its lowest weekly audience share since current records began with a 16.1% of the audience, more than 6% behind BBC One.

However, Marketing reported this week that brands have been reluctant to pay premium prices to advertise around the X Factor.

Will you be tuning in on Saturday? Have you stopped watching ITV1? If you have, what are you watching instead? And will Cole make a good X Factor judge?

Absolutely not. I will be blind drunk at the rugby. Hurray!

With luck I'll be celebrating a David Bentley hat-trick on Saturday evening, but I'll catch the X Factor repeat on ITV2 at some point over the weekend/next week. ITV1 badly needs its Saturday night tentpole back. Recent shows such as Trinny and Susannah Undress The Nation just don't cut the mustard.

Not bothered about it myself but I bet quite a few blokes will be happily watching Cheryl after 'letting' their girlfriends put it on the telly.

Bugger all else to watch? The Olympics is just getting into full gear...

The Olympics is a competition in which talented people who have dedicated their lives to a pursuit of excellence compete in front of a global audience.

The X-Factor is a competition in which talentless people who fancy a short-cut to the big time compete in front of an aduience of nitwits.

I'm also looking forward to seeing how Cole plays it. Hopefully, under Scolari, he'll get forward more and learn to cross.

people who watch x-factor are clearly losers

thanks for that witty insight Dave 

Yeah, come on Dave - it's mean to poke fun at thickies.

The belief that the X Factor is watched by "thickies" is a misconception. It attracts a wide ranging audience particularly the middle classes.

No

Being middle class does not, by any stretch of the imagination, preclude someone from being a twit.

Shouldn't we be encouraging children to watch sports and improve our hopes for 2012, rather than filling their heads with garbage?! Sitting them in front of the TV on a saturday night, perhaps with a KFC family bucket (yummy) isn't good enough I'm afraid. Will Americanised kids beauty pageant shows be next?!

Also, we’ll all have a good laugh at the slightly less than normal people at the audition stages. But isn’t it actually a form of bullying that will only filter down to the playground?! Just a thought

I feel like I'm breaking into a surreal pub conversation between you boys. I shall be watching the auditions. And as per usual, will be cringing / being awestruck as dictated by the choices of the X factor production team, then bitching about how they have managed to become even more polarised than ever before whilst secretly wishing I had a voice that could make Sharon Osbourne cry (even though she's not on, that's still my benchmark).