REVOLVER:THE X FACTOR is over.

The Voice is so over. Rejoice.

There have been no official announcements about the televisual future of either show, and they most likely will limp on for another season or two. But the bottom line indications are that they are redundant both artistically (stretching it, I know) and commercially.

We’ve yet to find out if the Irish Voice winner, Pat Byrne, will go on to become the next George Murphy – Universal has an album planned for later in the year – but we do know the format is in deep trouble all around the world. This week they had to cancel The Voice UK live tour (featuring all eight finalists) due to poor ticket sales. The show’s winner, Leanne Mitchell, couldn’t even get her debut single into the UK top 40. Will she even make it as far as a debut album?

In the US, last year’s Voice winner saw his debut album climb to all of No 134 on the Billboard charts before disappearing. The 2012 winner went in with a bullet at No 83 on the singles chart.

Over in X Factor land, this year’s winners, Little Mix, won’t release their follow-up single to Cannonball (officially the worst cover version of all time) until August. No serious act releases in the dead days of August. In the music world it’s an ignominy. There’s still no sign of an album out of them, if they even make it that far.

Still, we were relieved to hear that Little Mix will be “releasing” their autobiography on August 31st. Ready to Fly will document the girls’ “amazing journey in full, from their first auditions to living out their dreams”.

You’ve read that right: a “music group” who have only released one single (and a cover at that) have written an autobiography. Ready to Fly is being published by Harper Collins, which has in the past published the likes of Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters and William Makepeace Thackeray. But there you go.

And as for the winner of The X Factor the year before Little Mix, the hapless Matt Cardle has “parted company” from his record label. Rest assured, there will be another X Factor later this year – tickets for the 2013 live tour are already on sale for Dublin’s 02 for February 25th.

As TV execs worldwide wonder if they can bring The Voice back to our screens despite the atrocious performances of most winners, there is one group of people who desperately need the show to return – the judges.

Thanks to his appearances on the UK Voice, Dubliner Danny O’Donoghue has done more for The Script’s record sales and profile than a good three years hard slog on the touring circuit. Sales of the first Script album, which were still about 700 a week in the UK before The Voice aired, went up to 5,000 a week while the show was on. The band’s second amlbum had a similar increase in sales and actually re-charted.

When their song The Man Who Can't Be Moved was covered on the show (handy that), 90,000 new sales were added. Which was still trailing behind the 120,000 new sales for the song Ordinary People, which featured heavily on the show. Ordinary People was written by John Legend and O'Donoghue's fellow judge will.i.am.

Over on the US Voice, judge Adam Levine of Maroon 5 took the opportunity to move from chair to stage to perform his band’s new song, Moves Like Jagger, to the watching millions. After that marketing leg-up the song went on to sell in enormous quantities.

Throw the contestants off The Voice and what are you left with – yes, Top of the Pops redux.

Now, can someone get me Little Mix on line one? They need to be fitted for some chairs.

Mixedbag

LOVE:The Bruce Springsteen iPad app, courtesy of Uncut magazine.

HATE:The Rolling Stones playing their last ever gig at next year's Glastonbury.