It's that time of year again as the 6th series of the X Factor kicks off on Saturday 22nd August. Expect the usual mixture of auditions ranging from the terrible to the great, and no doubt a few sob stories along the way too.

The two biggest changes this year are the addition of a live audience being present at the audition venues and at the boot camp stage (like the Britain's Got Talent auditions). Plus this year's result show will be screened live on Sunday nights instead of following on later that Saturday. An idea ITV were apparently keen to do last year, but instead of a live show on Sunday they wanted to pre-record the results on the Saturday and screen them Sunday (like how Strictly does now), but Simon wasn't happy with the idea of a pre-recorded show as the chances are the results would get leaked.

The judging panel & presenters remain the same this year.

Anyone looking forward to it's return or dreading it's comeback?

I'm looking forward to it returning, if only because there ain't much else on Saturday nights at the moment (or Sunday). Sure the show might be a bit OTT and the editing can leave a lot to be desired (I wonder how many 'last contestants of the day will get through this year ), but it's still entertaining.

I'm looking forward to it, actually. I think the BGT-style audiences being there for the early stages is a very good modification, as it's always fun to see how the audiences react to the different acts. Mind you, if they're not careful, it'll get too much like BGT!

The results show being on a Sunday is a bit of an odd thing to do, but I suppose it frees up their Saturday schedule somewhat, and provides a filler for Sunday evenings. I think it's better they do it live too; I don't think the results of SCD ever got leaked really, but I can see X Factor's results getting leaked (due to it being more popular than SCD) if it was pre-recorded on the Saturday.

Well, after the fiasco with last year's results, I'm not sure if I wanna see this again

Same goes for Strictly

The first show of Auditions will be shown tomorrow night at 7:00pm

Can't believe it's almost here again

Nearly all the acts that got to the live shows are releasing singles now. It's getting American Idol.

No doubt we will fail to have another Christmas number 1.

I think it's way too early to start those...

SCD results were leaked regularly and the Sunday ratings shows were massive flops as a result. Cowell vetoing pre-recorded Sunday shows is probably the best thing he's ever done for the show, and it's no coincidence that X-Factor overtook SCD in the ratings in 2008. (Given the constant attacks on SCD's changes for 2009 by the right-wing media - convenient that an 'ageism' row can be manufactured by papers who hate the BBC and have an old and intolerant readership - I expect it to win the battle this year, and by an increased margin.)

One change, which distinguishes it from BGT in precisely the right way; there's now an age limit of 16.

I won't be watching the freak-show rounds, but I'll probably watch the live shows this year, not least because I'm interested to see how the contestant with Asperger's Syndrome copes. Quite a few members of this forum have Asperger's Syndrome (myself included), and all of us seem to have slightly different experiences of living with it, so it'll be interesting to see how Scott will cope. I know that personally I couldn't cope, but most of that is because of the performance environment being too loud and bright for my comfort.

I think that's good; we all see what happened to Holly (was that her name?) who performed live on Britain's Got Talent earlier this summer.

These auditions are so much like Britain's Got Talent that I was expecting the judges to buzz them! I was surprised the audience didn't "boo" more than they did actually... maybe they were told not to do it (although I don't see how they could control an audience of thousands!).

quite like the new audition process

and lol at the two sisters at the start

I liked BGT... I dislike X Factor and I switched over to Total Wipeout after about 5 minutes... X Factor bores me so badly.

Well, I thought there were some good moments

There was at least 4 who have great potential, it'll be interesting to see what happens next

The guy at the end was a great performer and to see Simon stand up was a big compliment I quite enjoyed the new style show....don't want another girl this year...hopefully a group might win.

I'm obviously not talking about this year's contestants...

Oh right, I thought it was

I did read somewhere that apparently the audience were told not to boo by the warm-up guy, but of course they can't really stop them if they did.

I enjoyed the show, but i'm still not sure about the live audience & the use of backing tracks at the audition stages. There just feels like there's something missing from the auditions now with such a large audience.

There appears to be a lot of backlash from X Factor fans about the changes made. The launch show achieved average ratings of just under 10m (easily the biggest rated show of the night), but it'll be interesting to see how well it fares this week with all this apparent criticism.

Plus the auditions are still predictable with how they edit everything. I mean Simon & Co have a run of bad people one after another (despite the judges moving seats & changing clothes during that time ) so they have a break before the very last auditionee of the day, who amazingly happens to be the best they've seen (according to the judges). Sure Danyl could sing, but there's just something about him...

Well, I'm not complaining about the show's new looks and the format, I think it's great

Imagine someone being able to sing in front of the 4 judges, no problem, then sings in front of an audience, but lets the nerves get the better of him/her, this is a great way to see who can cope with 4 judges and an audience and who can't

With this new method, we've already seen so many potentials, and there'll be more to come as the weeks go on

You never know, it could make for a very exciting Series with so many top contenders

urrrrrm.... what happened to refusing to watch it????

That was before I saw all the new changes, I'm a fan, once again

Well, here we go for another round of auditions