If Gervais turned When The Whistle Blows into a series instead of Extras he would have had a bigger hit. I thought Extras was awful until they gave Stephen Merchant more to do in the second series. Now HE was funny.
I like Ricky Gervais but not his attitude towards traditonal sitcoms, there is room for all kinds of sitcoms and there are equally bad single camera sitcoms as there are multicamera sitcoms.
If Gervais turned When The Whistle Blows into a series instead of Extras he would have had a bigger hit. I thought Extras was awful until they gave Stephen Merchant more to do in the second series. Now HE was funny.
I did like Extras, but I thought WTWB was the funniest bit of it and I don't think Gervais would really have got the fact that millions felt the same way. I bet he is baffled by MBB. Although he can do distasteful and offensive comedy himself, I suspect he probably looks aghast at MBB going from 3m rated late night graveyard dumping ground to 12m at Christmas the following year.
A million pages gleefully predicting Mr Selfridge's demise, about one or two posts skipping past the massive time shift in the finals released for last week's!
Is there a BBC News Special tonight?, if there isn't I might be forced to contact Newswatch
That said Ken, even as a staunch BBC1 supporter, surely you wouldn't want them to become too dominant. Apart from anything else it takes away their incentive if the competition is that easily beaten.
There is a growing feeling that they are started to run away with things now and that closeness between themselves and ITV is forever gone. And whilst I much prefer BBC1's output to ITV, and I also think the bigger ratings stories are often not for shows airing on these channels, I do think it would be a shame from a ratings point-of-view if that were to become the case.
Hmm? Pretty sure it was getting bigger ratings as recently as last spring. Indeed so:
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 12 JANUARY 2013 2031) 5.54m
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 17 MARCH 2012 2049) 5.76m
And the last time it was on at this time of year...
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 15 JANUARY 2011 1959) 6.24m THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 22 JANUARY 2011 2001) 6.18m
So I've been a little disappointed with its figures this time around personally against dire competition. This might sound silly but could it be partly to do with the fact that they no longer show the Lotto draws on Wednesday and so it's got some people out of the habit of watching them on TV and instead they look online first?
I do apologise you are indeed right. It's still doing okay though.
Your point about BBC One running away with it and ITV dying it seems is a very good point. It is sad and it isn't good for us at all.
When I used to look at ratings I would look at ITV first because they had the Big shows and the bigger numbers now I look at BBC One straight away. ITV are falling away so fast it's really scary when you look at this it just shows how much they have both fallen but how BBC one had been clinging on to the top of the 20% cliff so to speak ITV has lost it's footing and fallen faster in recent years.
The two big years channel share wise for me are 2002 when BBC overtook ITV and 2004 when Multichannel overtook BBC One with an astonishing rate of increase! but look at the last few years it's starting to plateau.
That graph is quite interesting for us nerds really and for me I find it sad. I liked the era of BBC vs ITV and ITV were on top and BBC1 was chasing them down. What would it take for ITV to overtake BBC one for a few weeks?
X factor and BGT and IAC with new episodes of the chase, Benidorm, Downton abbey and Doc Martian. Then they would surely be able to overtake BBC One!
Sad thing about that graph. Look where BBC Two was in 92 and look were ITV is now. That's how well they have held on to there audience. where's the loyalty there! I used to have ITV on all the time BBC One was the stuffy John Birt boring channel for most part of the 90's.
I did like Extras, but I thought WTWB was the funniest bit of it and I don't think Gervais would really have got the fact that millions felt the same way. I bet he is baffled by MBB. Although he can do distasteful and offensive comedy himself, I suspect he probably looks aghast at MBB going from 3m rated late night graveyard dumping ground to 12m at Christmas the following year.
I'd love to see WTWB made into a series.
Gervais's finest moment has been The Office and everything else has been a variation of that with diminishing returns. He can't act either and just plays himself. David Brent isn't a great character it's him, a man that makes bad taste jokes and wants to be loved.
CTM changed the landascape last night. Given ITVs awkward junction it made female viewers choose - record CTM and keep watching ITV - or switchover for CTM and maybe give Ripper Street a second chance.
Ripper was not female friendly at all from ep 1 (all we watched). If it has improved since then and become more watchable for women then its audience might go up next week with those who recorded Mr Selfish this week.
So the consolidated figures for the two will be interesting. Of course, people could have watched CTM and turned back for Mr S but if they were recording the DOI results I wonder if they would risk seeing the result or just carry on watching the BBC for a bit to try out Ripper.
For the BBC its an odd schizoid night really with a female skewed drama followed by a male skewed one. With couples that could be an advantage. Depends who controls the remote.
But ITV have not helped themselves with the timings. They offer viewers an option to turn over to CTM when DOI finishes as the results are only a 30 min easily recordable show then 45 minutes away. I suspect a very high overlap audience between DOI and CTM so that is risky for the rest of the night,
Also Mr S is an odd show watchable but not essential viewing. You really have to like the lead actor. If he grates then you may well not bother. And he is an acquired taste - a couple of my friends tell me that is why they gve up after last week's secondf episode. Episode 2 was also nowhere near as good as the first and could be another factor in why episode 3 saw a drop.
For me the jury is out on whether Mr S will be a long term hit. I have found it a tad repetitive - not good after just 3 episodes. If the BBC were following CTM with something less gruesome than Ripper I would think Mr S would be in trouble but that exrtreme choice on the other side might be the thing that saves Mr S from an eroding disaster.
Rather gutted by the Selfridge rating to be honest, it's such a strong show, deserves better! In my opinion I prefer it to Downton!
I wouldn't get too worried - ITV have put a lot of money into it and unless it really collapses it's almost certain of a second run, especially if it is selling well internationally - which considering they were able to flog Titanic with ease I suspect it is.
In many ways with ITV's focus seeming now to be more on ITV Studios than the ITV channel - so although ratings do matter it's probably as much about being able to sell a show for the highest possible price than to get the return from advertisers to fund a second season.
By the way the Sun today claims that Simon Cowell looks set to back the Harry Hill led 'X Factor' musical and that he has been advised it is really good and funny. His only concern is who will play himself in the 2014 stage show....and, quelle surprise, that there might need to be a TV show to find the man to BE Simon Cowell in this musical.
A million pages gleefully predicting Mr Selfridge's demise, about one or two posts skipping past the massive time shift in the finals released for last week's!
Unless you're suggesting that the million+ viewers who disappeared between episode 2 and 3 are all going to timeshift (in addition to the audience that timeshifted the first two episodes) I'm not entirely sure what your point is. Assuming the show maintains the timeshift its seen for episode 1 and 2, which seems somewhat questionable if a million overnight viewers have tuned out, then its still going to be down more than a million week-on-week. That's a huge week-on-week drop that's hard and frankly stupid to ignore.
If EastEnders is down more than a million week-on-week tonight do you think people won't pass comment? If Miranda and/or Mrs Brown's Boys drop more than a million week-on-week are we supposed to just ignore that because both timeshift well?
Unless you're suggesting that the million+ viewers who disappeared between episode 2 and 3 are all going to timeshift (in addition to the audience that timeshifted the first two episodes) I'm not entirely sure what your point is. Assuming the show maintains the timeshift its seen for episode 1 and 2, which seems somewhat questionable if a million overnight viewers have tuned out, then its still going to be down more than a million week-on-week. That's a huge week-on-week drop that's hard and frankly stupid to ignore.
If EastEnders is down more than a million week-on-week tonight do you think people won't pass comment? If Miranda and/or Mrs Brown's Boys drop more than a million week-on-week are we supposed to just ignore that because both timeshift well?
People do pass comment on EastEnders but are usually ridiculed for it.
Tut tut, taking us off topic when it suits. Naughty Brekkie!
How's Channel 4 getting on, by the way? Oh, it's not..............:o
The Rylan issue is a non-issue that will be blown up into a big issue by a few who don't like the show anyway. I won't waste my time commenting on it further in a Ratings Thread.
Funny that. The Daily Star not wasting their time running with a genuine BB scandal either - unlike most the other tabloids.
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 12 JANUARY 2013 2031) 5.54m
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 17 MARCH 2012 2049) 5.76m
And the last time it was on at this time of year...
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 15 JANUARY 2011 1959) 6.24m THE NATIONAL LOTTERY - IN IT TO WIN IT (SAT 22 JANUARY 2011 2001) 6.18m
There's something odd with In It to Win It's ratings. Since last year, and I noted this a few pages back, BARB has been splitting it into three portions.
- In It to Win It (part 1)
- Lottery draws
- In It to Win It (part 2)
Two of those portions are not put on the BARB website because they are too short to be counted!
So the In It to Win It ratings look lower than what they really are.
EDIT - Actually, they look higher than what they really are!
Saturday 12th January
20:00 to 20:20 - 4.43m (18.1%) - 20 minutes
20:20 to 20:30 - 5.14m (20.7%) - 10 minutes
20:30 to 20:50 - 5.54m (22.1%) - 19 minutes
I like Ricky Gervais but not his attitude towards traditonal sitcoms, there is room for all kinds of sitcoms and there are equally bad single camera sitcoms as there are multicamera sitcoms.
There's room for all types of sitcoms but for too long the suits have gone for what they like and almost sneered at the traditional fare.
Gervais's finest moment has been The Office and everything else has been a variation of that with diminishing returns. He can't act either and just plays himself. David Brent isn't a great character it's him, a man that makes bad taste jokes and wants to be loved.
He is a great writer but I agree not a good actor, Stephen Merchant IMO is much funnier.
I did like Extras, but I thought WTWB was the funniest bit of it and I don't think Gervais would really have got the fact that millions felt the same way. I bet he is baffled by MBB. Although he can do distasteful and offensive comedy himself, I suspect he probably looks aghast at MBB going from 3m rated late night graveyard dumping ground to 12m at Christmas the following year.
I'd love to see WTWB made into a series.
I'm assuming you posted this with tongue firmly in cheek.
WTWB was supposed to be a send-up of the endless stream of unfunny sitcoms (mainly from ITV) featuring silly wigs, glasses and people shouting out catchphrases. Further underlined by the moronic "fans" of the show, sitting in the audience wearing T-shirts with slogans on.
There's something odd with In It to Win It's ratings. Since last year, and I noted this a few pages back, BARB has been splitting it into three portions.
- In It to Win It (part 1)
- Lottery draws
- In It to Win It (part 2)
Two of those portions are not put on the BARB website because they are too short to be counted!
So the In It to Win It ratings look lower than what they really are.
EDIT - Actually, they look higher than what they really are!
Saturday 12th January
20:00 to 20:20 - 4.43m (18.1%) - 20 minutes
20:20 to 20:30 - 5.14m (20.7%) - 10 minutes
20:30 to 20:50 - 5.54m (22.1%) - 19 minutes
Great ratings for BBC, winning every night at 9oclock. And major new hits with Ripper Street and Blandings. What a fantastic start to the year its been for AUNTY. Just compare it to Itv who have had two flops or underperformers in Great night our and Selfridge and Splash has hurt their reputation. Danny Cohen must be loving it.
I'm assuming you posted this with tongue firmly in cheek.
WTWB was supposed to be a send-up of the endless stream of unfunny sitcoms (mainly from ITV) featuring silly wigs, glasses and people shouting out catchphrases. Further underlined by the moronic "fans" of the show, sitting in the audience wearing T-shirts with slogans on.
No, I'm not having a laugh.
It was genuinely very funny, I'm well aware of what it was sending up, but the irony which was probably lost on Gervais was that it was probably more amusing than most of what he wrote for Extras itself.
Interesting! I think it could be BBC One's best January in many years. It's now got Call the Midwife, snow, and all the hits that have already begun, which don't appear to be dropping off at all.
BBC2 is down by more than BBC1 is up. Do the math. That is all.
I'm expecting quite high ratings for tonight's Corrie 2 parter, as it's Fiz & Tyrone's wedding. Will be interesting to see if the Great British Comic Relief Bake-Off takes away some viewers from it.
Comments
I like Ricky Gervais but not his attitude towards traditonal sitcoms, there is room for all kinds of sitcoms and there are equally bad single camera sitcoms as there are multicamera sitcoms.
I did like Extras, but I thought WTWB was the funniest bit of it and I don't think Gervais would really have got the fact that millions felt the same way. I bet he is baffled by MBB. Although he can do distasteful and offensive comedy himself, I suspect he probably looks aghast at MBB going from 3m rated late night graveyard dumping ground to 12m at Christmas the following year.
I'd love to see WTWB made into a series.
A million pages gleefully predicting Mr Selfridge's demise, about one or two posts skipping past the massive time shift in the finals released for last week's!
Is there a BBC News Special tonight?, if there isn't I might be forced to contact Newswatch
I do apologise you are indeed right. It's still doing okay though.
Your point about BBC One running away with it and ITV dying it seems is a very good point. It is sad and it isn't good for us at all.
When I used to look at ratings I would look at ITV first because they had the Big shows and the bigger numbers now I look at BBC One straight away. ITV are falling away so fast it's really scary when you look at this it just shows how much they have both fallen but how BBC one had been clinging on to the top of the 20% cliff so to speak ITV has lost it's footing and fallen faster in recent years.
The two big years channel share wise for me are 2002 when BBC overtook ITV and 2004 when Multichannel overtook BBC One with an astonishing rate of increase! but look at the last few years it's starting to plateau.
That graph is quite interesting for us nerds really and for me I find it sad. I liked the era of BBC vs ITV and ITV were on top and BBC1 was chasing them down. What would it take for ITV to overtake BBC one for a few weeks?
X factor and BGT and IAC with new episodes of the chase, Benidorm, Downton abbey and Doc Martian. Then they would surely be able to overtake BBC One!
Sad thing about that graph. Look where BBC Two was in 92 and look were ITV is now. That's how well they have held on to there audience. where's the loyalty there!
Anyway I'm rambling. I'll shut up now!
Ken
Gervais's finest moment has been The Office and everything else has been a variation of that with diminishing returns. He can't act either and just plays himself. David Brent isn't a great character it's him, a man that makes bad taste jokes and wants to be loved.
Ripper was not female friendly at all from ep 1 (all we watched). If it has improved since then and become more watchable for women then its audience might go up next week with those who recorded Mr Selfish this week.
So the consolidated figures for the two will be interesting. Of course, people could have watched CTM and turned back for Mr S but if they were recording the DOI results I wonder if they would risk seeing the result or just carry on watching the BBC for a bit to try out Ripper.
For the BBC its an odd schizoid night really with a female skewed drama followed by a male skewed one. With couples that could be an advantage. Depends who controls the remote.
But ITV have not helped themselves with the timings. They offer viewers an option to turn over to CTM when DOI finishes as the results are only a 30 min easily recordable show then 45 minutes away. I suspect a very high overlap audience between DOI and CTM so that is risky for the rest of the night,
Also Mr S is an odd show watchable but not essential viewing. You really have to like the lead actor. If he grates then you may well not bother. And he is an acquired taste - a couple of my friends tell me that is why they gve up after last week's secondf episode. Episode 2 was also nowhere near as good as the first and could be another factor in why episode 3 saw a drop.
For me the jury is out on whether Mr S will be a long term hit. I have found it a tad repetitive - not good after just 3 episodes. If the BBC were following CTM with something less gruesome than Ripper I would think Mr S would be in trouble but that exrtreme choice on the other side might be the thing that saves Mr S from an eroding disaster.
In many ways with ITV's focus seeming now to be more on ITV Studios than the ITV channel - so although ratings do matter it's probably as much about being able to sell a show for the highest possible price than to get the return from advertisers to fund a second season.
Ken
If EastEnders is down more than a million week-on-week tonight do you think people won't pass comment? If Miranda and/or Mrs Brown's Boys drop more than a million week-on-week are we supposed to just ignore that because both timeshift well?
People do pass comment on EastEnders but are usually ridiculed for it.
There's something odd with In It to Win It's ratings. Since last year, and I noted this a few pages back, BARB has been splitting it into three portions.
- In It to Win It (part 1)
- Lottery draws
- In It to Win It (part 2)
Two of those portions are not put on the BARB website because they are too short to be counted!
So the In It to Win It ratings look lower than what they really are.
EDIT - Actually, they look higher than what they really are!
Saturday 12th January
20:00 to 20:20 - 4.43m (18.1%) - 20 minutes
20:20 to 20:30 - 5.14m (20.7%) - 10 minutes
20:30 to 20:50 - 5.54m (22.1%) - 19 minutes
/coat
There's room for all types of sitcoms but for too long the suits have gone for what they like and almost sneered at the traditional fare.
2.1m for the snooker peaking with 2.5m.
That's good. Considering the UK championship final got 1.2m I would say that is a result.
Ken
He is a great writer but I agree not a good actor, Stephen Merchant IMO is much funnier.
WTWB was supposed to be a send-up of the endless stream of unfunny sitcoms (mainly from ITV) featuring silly wigs, glasses and people shouting out catchphrases. Further underlined by the moronic "fans" of the show, sitting in the audience wearing T-shirts with slogans on.
How confusing. Thanks, I wasn't aware of this.
You really are Perfectic :rolleyes:
No, I'm not having a laugh.
It was genuinely very funny, I'm well aware of what it was sending up, but the irony which was probably lost on Gervais was that it was probably more amusing than most of what he wrote for Extras itself.
BBC2 is down by more than BBC1 is up. Do the math. That is all.
Coming back to this, does anyone know when BBC1 last had a clean sweep at nine every night Monday to Sunday, outside the Olympics?
Was it 1955, the week before ITV launched?