[sjames]

It's disappointing to see The Voice Kids axed as I enjoyed it a lot more than the main show which I gave up on long ago. I think the problem with it as others have mentioned is that the last couple of series have felt too rushed with the way they cut the number of episodes. To go straight from auditions to the final is weird with no middle bit. It definitely needed an extra episode or two.

I don't know what the ratings were like on the most recent series, but I wonder if having it so soon after the Christmas series felt like it was being rushed out to get it over and done with?

It would be interesting to see what a reboot of The X Factor would actually look like. You’d assume they wouldn’t commit to weeks and weeks of live shows which feels risky and out of sync with an increasingly catch up driven audience. I also can’t imagine they’d commit to anything like the c40 hours of TV it used to run for. I imagine they’d focus more on the pre-recorded rounds, auditions should really be in the rooms, then possibly a new reality element for the middle stages before a few live shows (maybe a stripped week like BGT?). They’d definitely need to modernise it, with less of the “searching for a star” rhetoric as with the way the charts are now, odds are they won’t find one.

A combination of the early X Factor series and the recent BBC 3 series Project Icon I think would work. A lot of talent shows now focus too much on positivity, everyone's great even if they can't sing a note. What made Pop Idol and X Factor different in the early years was the honesty - that needs to come back.

So I'd have the room auditions, some kind of mini boot camp to cut down the contestants putting them through their paces in a series of challenges to find their strengths and weaknesses. The judges are watching this secretly and then decide who they want on their teams - no categories, mixed age range to make it more competitive.
Then would be the live shows which can still have themes, but during each week the contestants then have other challenges to do to see how they cope, like filming a music video, engaging with followers on social media to make some viral, doing interviews etc, all to give them the skills for after the show ends.