Yahoo News X Factor's Dermot hopes show will last another decade
Despite a massive slump in ratings in the past few years, X Factor host Dermot O'Leary remains optimistic about the show's future.
The presenter said he hoped as long as "talent" kept coming, the show would have legs for another decade.
The ITV show pulled in its low audience figures for its 2017 series when compared to its Saturday night rival Strictly Come Dancing, with an average of 6.3 million tuning-in per episode, and the final only drawing in 5.3 million.
"Does it hurt?" Dermot told Radio Times of the slump. "Um, I'd love to get back up to eight million again. "You want to rate well, of course you do."
However, when pressed on whether the show could last another 10 years, the presenter added: "As long as the talent keeps coming, yeah. And the talent keeps showing up."
Dermot also praised the talent this year, adding:: "I was really annoyed with some of the people this year, cos I was like, 'Why didn't you audition last year?'"
"When I first started people would turn up and say, 'Tell me who you want me to be'. Now you get people going, 'Here's my first album, here's my YouTube channel', and the show's become a facilitator for that, and that's a good thing."
Yet there seems to be no love lost with rival Strictly Come Dancing, Dermot admitting that he does not watch the BBC show due to scheduling conflicts.
When asked about catching up on iPlayer, however, the presenter added: "No. That would be a sense of betrayal."
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