Well, it looked a scheduling howler to air R&C on the Wednesday night between Christmas and New Year, one hour in to a 2 hr drama on ITV - and so it proved.
Yes, the polar bears did very well but attracted the non-drama audience. With 5.2m already hooked into the latest ITV murder mystery (ie, "oh look it's thingamabob", "what was he is in again?", "isn't he married to whatsername", etc... ), R&C was clearly up against it.
George Dixon - you are the biggest numpty on the planet. Sure, R&C was hardly brilliant but it could have got another 2m easy with a better slot. Hang your head in shame...
Ouch at Rock & Chips:eek:..I expected at least 2m more. Obviously the scheduling hurt it badly. There have been plenty of better slots than that where it would have reached a much larger audience. Not quite sure how the Polar Bear doc won its slot, very surprising.
Much better for Marple-1m up on its Monday performance. The 8pm start time and weaker drama competition obviously helped and it will be interesting to see if viewers are bored of the Marple Marathon by Sunday. ITV have had a great 2 weeks with every 9pm programme apart from the Comedy Annual above 4m-something I can't remember happening in a long time and better programmes and scheduling this year have helped-also benefiting from a largely bizarre BBC1 schedule. Come Rain Come Shine, WWTBAM, Benidorm, POG & the soaps have all performed excellently over the Christmas period and I would guess we'll be seeing more of the above next year.
Anyway,........... the Polar Bears show was good last night so BBC1 got something right
I think the Celeb Mastermind show is not doing the numbers the Beeb were expecting and that part of BBC1s problem this week but it cant explain it all.
There must be a big captive audience there this week, but they just arent that interested in what the big channels are offering.
We talk about some reality TV shows suffering because of their poor choice of celebrities, but I have to say Mastermind appears to stretch the definition of "celebrity" to breaking-point. Too many people that nobody would know other than Radio 4 listeners,:rolleyes: Maybe BBC1 should try a different quiz to strip over Christmas next year.
Unexpected result last night, with BBC1 and ITV1 nip and tuck between 20:00 and 22:00.
Well, you say unexpected but when the BBC schedules were confirmed, the scheduling of R&C on the Wednesday, with no significant lead-in, and one hour into Marple was a major source of surprise and contention on this thread - nearly everyone could see what a mistake it was and how it would depress R&C's audience.
There must be a big captive audience there this week, but they just arent that interested in what the big channels are offering.
As you surely know full well, the ratings are always depressed between Christmas and New Year - always have been as long as I can remember, even in the 80s.
When has ANYTHING ever rated well in this hinterland period?
That's why there was such surprise about R&C when the BBC schedules were confirmed.
Well, you say unexpected but when the BBC schedules were confirmed, the scheduling of R&C on the Wednesday, with no significant lead-in, and one hour into Marple was a major source of surprise and contention on this thread - nearly everyone could see what a mistake it was and how it would depress R&C's audience.
So is it that "unexpected"?
According to the DS Ratings Predictions Game - yes.
Only 4 players predicted less than 6m (slightly strangely, four of the earliest people to post predictions). I predicted 6.7m. By last night I was convinced I'd overpredicted, but not by as much as I actually did.:eek:
Poor rating for Rock & Chips - the scheduling was questionable, of course, but let's not forget the first episode also started mid-way through some ITV drama opposition (even tougher opposition than Marple) and managed 7.5m so the drop was bigger than what I was expecting. Not a totally bad evening for BBC1 though, The Polar Bear documentary rated very well and much better than the daytime-esque cooking shows which have been in that slot recently.
I'm surprised Marple rated that well - it's the show's best rating since 2008. I suppose finishing it at 10pm was better than 11pm when the audiences usually tail off. Once again a poor evening for Channel 4 with nothing apart from the movie over 1m, they've had a terrible Christmas period (even worse than usual). I see there's been commercials for 'Famous and Fearless' on ITV1 so Channel 4 are obviously pushing it to do well - I think it'll do okay next month (2m-ish) although the scheduling once again by C4 is dire. Good evening for Channel 5 - the Where Did It All Go Right programmes always seem to bring in a million and the 'Celebrity Moments' show also got a healthy audience.
but let's not forget the first episode also started mid-way through some ITV drama opposition (even tougher opposition than Marple) and managed 7.5m so the drop was bigger than what I was expecting.
"some ITV drama opposition"?
You mean Dancing on Ice and Wild at Heart? Rock and Chips, let's not forget I think actually nearly beat both of them on that night, so its quite a substancial drop for it. Anyways back onto more important matters...
The Decline of Daybreak
24/12 - 587,000
27/12 - 488,000
28/12 - 420,000
29/12 - 405,000
Marple's tape-checked rating will be higher than that because it finished early according to those up-thread.
Will be interesting to see a breakdown, because the raw figures suggest a small victory for ITV in the 9pm hour, which I'm sure will surprise a few at ITV HQ today...
EDIT: Or not, according to DS. Although the last 5 minutes would have dented Marple's 9pm hour average, I would imagine.
So-so night for BBC2, solid for C4 until 9pm, while C5 did well, keeping above 1m.
A quick bit of calculator work shows this for Marple:
20:00 to 22:00: 5.19m
20:00 to 21:55: 5.29m
20:00 to 21:00: 5.41m
21:00 to 22:00: 4.97m
21:00 to 21:55: 5.16m
So it was ahead of Rock and Chips by the narrowest of all margins between 21:00 and 21:55, but it's so close I think we should just call it neck and neck.
Higher than expected for Marple though, I can't remember the last time it was over 5m. Worth noting that STV opted out too, so had they shown it it would have firmly beaten Rock and Chips, which was much lower than I expected. Very good for the Polar Bear documentary, and interesting to see how a repeat of The Lakes got nearly 4m. In total that episode will have got about 8m, which for a cheap bit of factual that costs just £25,000 an episode that's seriously good going and will have made a nice bit of profit for them.
Nice to see Mary Poppins rated well in the afternoon too.
It finished at 21:52 - for the period it was airing it looks like it was a tie against Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice (8pm) and Rock & Chips (9pm).
'We have a tie' isn't normally a way to resolve a ratings dispute, is it?
Although in this case, it looks so close we may have to call it such.
At least I don't think BBC1 will be Toast tonight, shouldn't need any calculators to work out the margin of victory versus Ad of the Year on ITV1. Or at least I'm expecting the latter to be under 3.5m.
As for Daybreak, I doubt ITV particularly care how it's doing this week, it's the Christmas holidays and not many people are up at that time in the morning. It should be back up to 0.8m or so next week which would be okay.
'We have a tie' isn't normally a way to resolve a ratings dispute, is it?
Although in this case, it looks so close we may have to call it such.
At least I don't think BBC1 will be Toast tonight, shouldn't need any calculators to work out the margin of victory versus Ad of the Year on ITV1. Or at least I'm expecting the latter to be under 3.5m.
I'm not sure about Ad of The Year as a similar documentary last year had an overnight of 4.4m, and it has a Corrie lead in this year so it could do alright. It'll still be comfortably beaten by Toast though which I'm expecting to get 5.5-6m.
At least I don't think BBC1 will be Toast tonight, shouldn't need any calculators to work out the margin of victory versus Ad of the Year on ITV1. Or at least I'm expecting the latter to be under 3.5m.
I'll wager that Toast will get lower ratings than R&C, around 4.7-5m, although it will clearly win its slot.
I heard a continuity announcer last night refer to it as "the life story of foodie Nigel Slater" - given his recent ratings, they'd have been better not mentioning that...
Not at all surprised at the relatively low figure for Rock and Chips. If you didn't look in the TV guides I doubt you would have known it was going to be on, such is the BBC's lamentable failure to publicise it and the weird between Christmas and New Year slot they put it in. Would have been far better to put it on Boxing Day or New Years Day, IMO.
We talk about some reality TV shows suffering because of their poor choice of celebrities, but I have to say Mastermind appears to stretch the definition of "celebrity" to breaking-point. Too many people that nobody would know other than Radio 4 listeners,:rolleyes: Maybe BBC1 should try a different quiz to strip over Christmas next year.
The problem with Celebrity Mastermind is that it isn't just stripped over Christmas, but over all next week as well meaning it is a 10 part series.
Hence they are fast running out of celebrities that people have actually heard of. A shorter series would be better but they'd have to go back in time and do the same last year as well.
Not at all surprised at the relatively low figure for Rock and Chips. If you didn't look in the TV guides I doubt you would have known it was going to be on, such is the BBC's lamentable failure to publicise it and the weird between Christmas and New Year slot they put it in. Would have been far better to put it on Boxing Day or New Years Day, IMO.
If I was being charitable to the BSI, there was some degree of logic in a "midway" slot because the storyline went from just before Christmas up to New Year's Eve. I can see why they wouldn't air a New Year's Eve climaxing storyline on Christmas Eve/Day/Boxing Day - likewise, by NYD, a storyline covering Christmas Day would be past history.
However, I think 9pm on NYD would have been the best slot for it, with an EE lead-in and a bit more visibility on the promotion side.
Well, you say unexpected but when the BBC schedules were confirmed, the scheduling of R&C on the Wednesday, with no significant lead-in, and one hour into Marple was a major source of surprise and contention on this thread - nearly everyone could see what a mistake it was and how it would depress R&C's audience.
So is it that "unexpected"?
Marple has never been some sort of ratings powerhouse though, at least not recently. The fact that so many editions are being shown this Christmas shows that ITV don't see them as being a major hit either.
I expected Rock and Chips to beat Marple by at least a million, if not 2m.
Comments
Yes, the polar bears did very well but attracted the non-drama audience. With 5.2m already hooked into the latest ITV murder mystery (ie, "oh look it's thingamabob", "what was he is in again?", "isn't he married to whatsername", etc...
George Dixon - you are the biggest numpty on the planet. Sure, R&C was hardly brilliant but it could have got another 2m easy with a better slot. Hang your head in shame...
Much better for Marple-1m up on its Monday performance. The 8pm start time and weaker drama competition obviously helped and it will be interesting to see if viewers are bored of the Marple Marathon by Sunday. ITV have had a great 2 weeks with every 9pm programme apart from the Comedy Annual above 4m-something I can't remember happening in a long time and better programmes and scheduling this year have helped-also benefiting from a largely bizarre BBC1 schedule. Come Rain Come Shine, WWTBAM, Benidorm, POG & the soaps have all performed excellently over the Christmas period and I would guess we'll be seeing more of the above next year.
We talk about some reality TV shows suffering because of their poor choice of celebrities, but I have to say Mastermind appears to stretch the definition of "celebrity" to breaking-point. Too many people that nobody would know other than Radio 4 listeners,:rolleyes: Maybe BBC1 should try a different quiz to strip over Christmas next year.
Well, you say unexpected but when the BBC schedules were confirmed, the scheduling of R&C on the Wednesday, with no significant lead-in, and one hour into Marple was a major source of surprise and contention on this thread - nearly everyone could see what a mistake it was and how it would depress R&C's audience.
So is it that "unexpected"?
As you surely know full well, the ratings are always depressed between Christmas and New Year - always have been as long as I can remember, even in the 80s.
When has ANYTHING ever rated well in this hinterland period?
That's why there was such surprise about R&C when the BBC schedules were confirmed.
Been a really poor week for them.
I wonder if it will improve next week?
would be useful if you added the quarter hour split *sneeze* *sneeze*
According to the DS Ratings Predictions Game - yes.
Only 4 players predicted less than 6m (slightly strangely, four of the earliest people to post predictions). I predicted 6.7m. By last night I was convinced I'd overpredicted, but not by as much as I actually did.:eek:
I'm surprised Marple rated that well - it's the show's best rating since 2008. I suppose finishing it at 10pm was better than 11pm when the audiences usually tail off. Once again a poor evening for Channel 4 with nothing apart from the movie over 1m, they've had a terrible Christmas period (even worse than usual). I see there's been commercials for 'Famous and Fearless' on ITV1 so Channel 4 are obviously pushing it to do well - I think it'll do okay next month (2m-ish) although the scheduling once again by C4 is dire. Good evening for Channel 5 - the Where Did It All Go Right programmes always seem to bring in a million and the 'Celebrity Moments' show also got a healthy audience.
Although I believe Adrian and Christine are on holiday this week, in which case they're exempt from blame.:D
"some ITV drama opposition"?
You mean Dancing on Ice and Wild at Heart? Rock and Chips, let's not forget I think actually nearly beat both of them on that night, so its quite a substancial drop for it. Anyways back onto more important matters...
The Decline of Daybreak
24/12 - 587,000
27/12 - 488,000
28/12 - 420,000
29/12 - 405,000
A quick bit of calculator work shows this for Marple:
20:00 to 22:00: 5.19m
20:00 to 21:55: 5.29m
20:00 to 21:00: 5.41m
21:00 to 22:00: 4.97m
21:00 to 21:55: 5.16m
So it was ahead of Rock and Chips by the narrowest of all margins between 21:00 and 21:55, but it's so close I think we should just call it neck and neck.
Higher than expected for Marple though, I can't remember the last time it was over 5m. Worth noting that STV opted out too, so had they shown it it would have firmly beaten Rock and Chips, which was much lower than I expected. Very good for the Polar Bear documentary, and interesting to see how a repeat of The Lakes got nearly 4m. In total that episode will have got about 8m, which for a cheap bit of factual that costs just £25,000 an episode that's seriously good going and will have made a nice bit of profit for them.
Nice to see Mary Poppins rated well in the afternoon too.
20:00 5.5m 22.0%
20:15 5.4m 21.1%
20:30 5.4m 20.8%
20:45 5.3m 20.1%
21:00 5.2m 20.3%
21:15 5.2m 20.4%
21:30 5.2m 20.3%
21:45 4.3m 17.5%
It finished at 21:52/21:53 - for the period it was airing it looks like it was a tie against Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice (8pm) and Rock & Chips (9pm).
'We have a tie' isn't normally a way to resolve a ratings dispute, is it?
Although in this case, it looks so close we may have to call it such.
At least I don't think BBC1 will be Toast tonight, shouldn't need any calculators to work out the margin of victory versus Ad of the Year on ITV1. Or at least I'm expecting the latter to be under 3.5m.
I'm not sure about Ad of The Year as a similar documentary last year had an overnight of 4.4m, and it has a Corrie lead in this year so it could do alright. It'll still be comfortably beaten by Toast though which I'm expecting to get 5.5-6m.
No, we wait for the official ratings to come in 10-14 days time and then we will have our answer.
I'll wager that Toast will get lower ratings than R&C, around 4.7-5m, although it will clearly win its slot.
I heard a continuity announcer last night refer to it as "the life story of foodie Nigel Slater" - given his recent ratings, they'd have been better not mentioning that...
In which case it'll be worth baring in mind that STV didn't bother with Marple which'll knock about 0.4m off it's official rating.
Same for the Polar Bears documentary as Holby City was on there at 8pm yesterday in Scotland.
The problem with Celebrity Mastermind is that it isn't just stripped over Christmas, but over all next week as well meaning it is a 10 part series.
Hence they are fast running out of celebrities that people have actually heard of. A shorter series would be better but they'd have to go back in time and do the same last year as well.
I didn't realise that but there will at least be a fair comparison between those two then.
If I was being charitable to the BSI, there was some degree of logic in a "midway" slot because the storyline went from just before Christmas up to New Year's Eve. I can see why they wouldn't air a New Year's Eve climaxing storyline on Christmas Eve/Day/Boxing Day - likewise, by NYD, a storyline covering Christmas Day would be past history.
However, I think 9pm on NYD would have been the best slot for it, with an EE lead-in and a bit more visibility on the promotion side.
Marple has never been some sort of ratings powerhouse though, at least not recently. The fact that so many editions are being shown this Christmas shows that ITV don't see them as being a major hit either.
I expected Rock and Chips to beat Marple by at least a million, if not 2m.
E4 [inc +1]
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 706,200
19:30 - FILM: The Simpsons Movie: 888,400