I don’t know if there was a greater time to be alive as a millennial than the height of The X Factor.

Weekends were defined by Simon Cowell’s ITV juggernaut, watching the likes of Leona Lewis and One Direction plucked from obscurity to some of the biggest popstars on the planet.

Seven years since it rapidly declined from being the biggest television moment of this century to barely scraping more than four million viewers, it’s reportedly coming back to salvage ITV’s dreadful track record of finding new reality shows following a string of extremely expensive flops.

And now it’s rumoured to be coming back.

But as much as I’m desperate to relive the heyday years of rounding up friends every single Saturday and Sunday night to watch X Factor, those days are long gone and they’re never coming back.

When the show eventually died, it was a long overdue mercy killing. 

Ratings had fallen off a cliff; and I’d bet you’ve never heard of the final two winners, Rak-Su and Dalton Harris.

A lucrative record deal won in front of millions isn’t enough to guarantee success. It wasn’t by the end of The X Factor and it certainly isn’t now.

If the show is going to return, it has to look so radically differently to how it was before that it can barely even be the same show. And without the promise of a life-changing career, there’s no incentive as a viewer to watch.

Last year Cowell launched The Next Act, following his hunt to find ‘the next One Direction’ on Netflix. 

December 10 was the winning band (nope, me neither) but all the show proved was that the man responsible for shifting more than 600 million records has lost his Midas touch.

He was no longer on the pulse; the industry has changed but he no longer knew how to change with it. 

There’s been no appetite for a manufactured new band or artist in a decade.

Cowell was the beating heart of The X Factor but, if anything, he should be kept well away from any potential return – and he’s not the only former judge who no one wants to see. 

Sharon Osbourne is on a one-woman crusade to ruin the legacy of her family with her apparent backing of a Tommy Robinson demonstration, while Louis Walsh’s unfiltered cruelty has no place on television in 2026.

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But I’m not sure who the judges could even be. There are few popstars even relevant enough to credibly mould new talent and appeal across the vast generations who loved the original format.

Former X Factor winner and Little Mix’s brightest star Jade Thirlwall is the obvious choice. But given her turbulent relationship with The X Factor – she’s one of many artists to have slated their time on the show.

Raye, Charli XCX, Self Esteem or Jessie Ware fit the brief but, again, they’d be unlikely to want to go anywhere near The X Factor when they’ve built the trust and admiration of their fans without selling out.

ITV might turn to TikTok, where PinkPantheress arguably knows how to build a career through a 2026 lens better than anyone else in the UK right now, building her entire career from short clips before finding global fame.

But even then, she’s never going to jeopardise her credibility to gamble on a show and format that is so obviously past its prime.

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The X Factor’s return has to promote something never seen before: a life-changing prize that shatters anything offered on reality television before it. 

In 2026, signing for a major label no longer represents that. 

The only worthwhile rewards would be a record-breaking cash prize, a residency in Vegas or headlining slot at Glastonbury which, clearly, are never going to happen.

I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.

Television is desperate for something as astronomical as The X Factor.

Last month, ratings dropped to an all-time low on Saturday nights, with just 7.7 million people recorded in the entire 9pm hour across every channel. 

Given young people are no longer going out like my generation used to, that’s an apocalyptic number – a sign that audiences have given up on vital weekend viewing.

There is quite clearly an open goal for a TV format to come along and unite the nation on Saturday nights, but The X Factor just isn’t it. 

Its success will only ever be measured against its golden years, when almost 20 million people watched Matt Cardle triumph over Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction.

Only The Traitors can even remotely compete – a show that has been so enormous because it is everything an X Factor comeback couldn’t be: original, zeitgeist, and totally accessible to everyone.

I long for something to come along and dictate my weekend again; that brought friends and family together like nothing else but I don’t think The X Factor could ever mean that now, however good the format.

It belongs to a chapter of my life that’s long gone and I’m totally at peace with that.

If ITV want to salvage their weekend ratings it needs to be much more innovative than looking back at the past at a show that should have retired long before it did.

I’ll  be waiting – whenever they’re ready.

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