[Dancc]

Originally Posted by iaindb

Oh dear, someone's taken offence at the Guardian's dismissive attitude to Channel 5.

Operation Daybreak and an NCIS double-bill not exactly the most inviting of Saturday night line-ups.

Nothing wrong with a bit of NCIS. Stuart Heritage appears as a panelist on Bit On The Side from time to time, so I rolled my eyes at his daft comment. Biting the hand that feeds, very smart move. He'll take their cash but then put them down like everyone else to try and get a cheap laugh in his lousy column. Had to laugh that a colleague of his described Justified as "amazing" in the comments section, a prog that airs exclusively in the UK on 5USA.

I disagree with his dismissive stance of BBC2 as well. There's nothing wrong with the schedule they are putting out tonight at all. A much loved classic comedy that still rates superbly well. Live sport to anchor the evening. And a very highly rated film in Doubt. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But it didn't fit with the theme of his column to acknowledge this.

[Hassaan13]

Originally Posted by NeilVW

Ratings so far for The Dumping Ground:

All individuals
04/01/13: 593k (4.2% share), consolidated to 625k (4.3%)
11/01/13: 615k (4.1%), consolidated to 684k (4.4%)
18/01/03: 429k (2.4%)

Children 4-15
04/01/13: 378k (20.3% share), consolidated to 404k (20.9%)
11/01/13: 424k (22.6%), consolidated to 466k (23.9%)
18/01/03: 279k (13.7%)

The premiere was a double-header which has been recorded by BARB as one programme.

It seems a drastic drop-off for ep 3 after a nice rise for ep 2 - did the snow have any effect, I wonder, with more adults at home and more adults wanting to watch news updates instead?

Each show is repeated twice during weekend daytime where they have so far been performing fairly well: into the 200s in total viewers, and 2-3% overall shares. Last Sunday's fell below the slot average for the first time however.

I think the snow was a factor. It should return to normal next week, especially considering the episode is apparently focusing on a gay couple wanting to foster one of the children so that should be a good talking point.

I saw an overnight figure of 576k (4.1/4.7% - not sure which was correct) of the double episode. Where did the figure of 593k come about?

[F1Ken]

Originally Posted by iaindb

Wasn't there a time when Blockbusters was screened 6 days a week on ITV (Monday to Saturday)? Something BBC1 and ITV1 should have considered for Pointless or The Chase.

My mum's viewing tonight:
5.30 Wheel Of Fortune (Challenge)
6.00 Play Your Cards Right (Challenge)
6.30 Dad's Army (BBC2)
7.00 You've Been Framed (ITV+1) (Nearly typed ITV1+1 there)
8.00 In It To Win It (BBC1)
8.50 Casualty (BBC1)

Once upon a time Casualty would have been a shoehorn for 14m or more on a night like this. At the very least it should be producing 7m tonight. Under 5m last week was a tut-tut figure.

It's not going to happen though is it. Casualty and Holby should be cut both to Two blocks of 12 eps. That 24 each 48 together and they should both run on a Tuesday at 8. Great British Bake off should move to BBC One and fill the slot when they are off. You could fit expensive programs in that slot as well. 9pm Saturday nights would then be freed up for new Saturday night dramas and entertainment. Maybe a chat show like Graham Norton.

They cant keep going on like this for ever there will come a point were a huge decision will have to be made. But I think cutting medical drama to 48 weeks is more than enough.

You would free a bit of budget up for something new and you have held on to two steady performers. That is all they are now steady eddies.

5m for casualty tonight pushing 6 maybe??

Ken

[F1Ken]

Originally Posted by Dancc

Nothing wrong with a bit of NCIS. Stuart Heritage appears as a panelist on Bit On The Side from time to time, so I rolled my eyes at his daft comment. Biting the hand that feeds, very smart move. He'll take their cash but then put them down like everyone else to try and get a cheap laugh in his lousy column. Had to laugh that a colleague of his described Justified as "amazing" in the comments section, a prog that airs exclusively in the UK on 5USA.

I disagree with his dismissive stance of BBC2 as well. There's nothing wrong with the schedule they are putting out tonight at all. A much loved classic comedy that still rates superbly well. Live sport to anchor the evening. And a very highly rated film in Doubt. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But it didn't fit with the theme of his column to acknowledge this.

BBC Two have a good schedule In my opinion. All though I do love my snooker.

Is my dad's fault he got me into it as a boy! Better viewer than player though!

Ken

[Hassaan13]

All this business about shows 'celebifying themselves' and killing it, there are some shows which it would work for. Aside from Family Fortunes and Splash, The Chase wouldn't have any of the humour and positive atmosphere it has for the primetime specials if there were regular people playing. I do hope they show regular episodes of The Cube soon.

[AnthonyC]

Originally Posted by iaindb

Well-made, gimmick-free documentary with spiffingly posh BBC accents. Love the incidental music. It seems that all black-and-white documentraies used the same composer who just sent them all the same piece of music.

Programme produced by Anthony Jay, the co-writer of Yes, Prime Minister.

And did anyone notice that Ridley Scott was the designer on the Tonight programme and got listed on the credits. It is the one and same Ridley Scott.

[James J]

Originally Posted by F1Ken

It's not going to happen though is it. Casualty and Holby should be cut both to Two blocks of 12 eps. That 24 each 48 together and they should both run on a Tuesday at 8. Great British Bake off should move to BBC One and fill the slot when they are off. You could fit expensive programs in that slot as well. 9pm Saturday nights would then be freed up for new Saturday night dramas and entertainment. Maybe a chat show like Graham Norton.

They cant keep going on like this for ever there will come a point were a huge decision will have to be made. But I think cutting medical drama to 48 weeks is more than enough.

You would free a bit of budget up for something new and you have held on to two steady performers. That is all they are now steady eddies.

5m for casualty tonight pushing 6 maybe??

Ken

Why would the BBC slash the episode runs of these shows so dramatically when they would struggle to find enough new stuff to replace it that would do as well in the ratings?

They'd either have to inject an unreasonably high amount of money into it, or produce cheap shows that don't perform as well.

Enough viewers watch and like these shows. Maybe a slight reduction for Casualty but Holby is the equivalent of two EastEnders episodes per week.

If anything it's ITV that should be introducing 12 episode hour long dramas pre watershed, with a hope of ratings success and subsequent longer commissions.

[Dancc]

Originally Posted by F1Ken

BBC Two have a good schedule In my opinion. All though I do love my snooker.

Is my dad's fault he got me into it as a boy! Better viewer than player though!

Ken

I've never been much into snooker, for me it's been a recent thing. I'm still not massively into it but it's certainly something I could watch and get into of an evening. It's a very relaxing sport to watch, unlike football which isn't usually good for my blood pressure! (today excepted, the Reds' 5-0 demolition of Norwich will do me nicely)

[F1Ken]

Originally Posted by James J

Why would the BBC slash the episode runs of these shows so dramatically when they would struggle to find enough new stuff to replace it that would do as well in the ratings?

They'd either have to inject an unreasonably high amount of money into it, or produce cheap shows that don't perform as well.

Enough viewers watch and like these shows. Maybe a slight reduction for Casualty but Holby is the equivalent of two EastEnders episodes per week.

If anything it's ITV that should be introducing 12 episode hour long dramas pre watershed, with a hope of ratings success and subsequent longer commissions.

How do we know that though? And the fact of the matter in TV you have to invest to see returns. What I am saying is that they cant go on running these show in to the ground because they are just leaking viewers.

They should at lest try to do something fresh! The point you made is exactly the reason why they wont do anything. And quite frankly I think it's a dangerous strategy.

Ken

[F1Ken]

Originally Posted by Dancc

I've never been much into snooker, for me it's been a recent thing. I'm still not massively into it but it's certainly something I could watch and get into of an evening. It's a very relaxing sport to watch, unlike football which isn't usually good for my blood pressure! (today excepted, the Reds' 5-0 demolition of Norwich will do me nicely)

It's good to watch with a nice strong beverage and a pair of slippers with the fire going(If you have one. Us country foke do! It's cold you know. ).

I wish more would watch. It's good I suppose that it was over 1m yesterday at 7. It was well under for the UK championship earlier in the year.

Ken

[Georged123]

Originally Posted by rzt

Just had a look at the 16-34s, you're right the drop in that demo was very sharp (-29%). Ordinarily I would agree with you totally, 3m for a scripted show is just not anywhere near enough for a second series. But I have a feeling the other two comedies launching in the next few months will also not do well with similar kind of ratings around the 3m mark. As you pointed out in one of your posts, ITV has neglected the comedy audience over the last decade and it'll be tough to get them back - so we'll find out soon if that 3m mark is the kind of "base level" for new ITV comedies. If that turns out to be the case, ITV can't just cancel all three of them, they need to show their faith in one of them, otherwise it'll just be an endless stream of new comedies airing for just a single series. That decision might ultimately come down to how repeats do and other factors. But as you say, the signs aren't good for Great Night Out because in terms of the slot, you can't get much better on ITV than a post-Corrie one and of course there's a big chance ratings for it will continue to fall over the next few weeks.

I think if this were a traditional, 30 minute sitcom then they might have a tiny chance of it building but with it being a 60 minute comedy drama then I can't see it being the sort of thing to build an audience.

I think generaly ITV have played it all wrong. They should have shown a 30 minute sitcom in the week Corrie moved back to Wednesdays. They could have promoted it as Corrie moving home and its slot being taken on Thursdays with a brand new sitcom, something like Viscious with a big name cast to help it even more, instead they launced a generic looking comedy drama over 3 months later. It's not really the bold statement that was needed.

Originally Posted by vauxhall1964

While ITV abandoning comedy was crazy is there any evidence that chasing male viewers will deliver them the massive hits they badly need? Great Night Out suggests doing so drives millions away. TV's big hits these last few years have all been very female-led: Miranda, Downton, Call the Midwife, X Factor, Strictly, Mrs Browns Boys (well, 'man in women's clothing'-led!).

Alienating a large amount of viewers is never a good thing. BBC1 don't go chasing male viewers at all but still produce many shows like The Apprentice, Doctor Who, Ripper Street etc that all do well with male viewers.

Originally Posted by NeilVW

The RAJARs are out a week on Thursday, 31 January. I really cannot get to grips with Grimmy either; but then I'm 33 so I've also slipped out of the 18-29 target audience. I'm not supposed to "get" him I suppose

Im well inside that demographic and nothing on his show has appealed to me, quite the opposite in fact. I genuinely hope the figures are dreadful for the disdain shown towards old Moyles listeners.

[Fudd]

Originally Posted by Georged123

Alienating a large amount of viewers is never a good thing. BBC1 don't go chasing male viewers at all but still produce many shows like The Apprentice, Doctor Who, Ripper Street etc that all do well with male viewers.

Maybe ITV should look at how well, relatively speaking, the Death Row documentary did along with other prison dramas and see if they can launch a drama based on that - more Prison Break than Bad Girls though!

[Brekkie]

Originally Posted by Dancc

To be honest, whilst the article was mildly amusing in places, I'm tempted to upgrade tonight's TV choices if The Grauniad doesn't approve. It's become such a whiny stuffy publication lately. No wonder they are losing readers hand over fist and have to keep upping the cover price every 5 minutes.

How did I know that C5 comment was like a red rag to a bull. And to be fair going further down the EPG none of the digital channels are really offering anything great either - though More4 have an aptly timed repeat of Snowstorm, a documentary from last time the news went bonkers over snow.

Originally Posted by Georged123

I think if this were a traditional, 30 minute sitcom then they might have a tiny chance of it building but with it being a 60 minute comedy drama then I can't see it being the sort of thing to build an audience.

I think generaly ITV have played it all wrong. They should have shown a 30 minute sitcom in the week Corrie moved back to Wednesdays. They could have promoted it as Corrie moving home and its slot being taken on Thursdays with a brand new sitcom, something like Viscious with a big name cast to help it even more, instead they launced a generic looking comedy drama over 3 months later. It's not really the bold statement that was needed.

I completely disagree - it isn't a sitcom, it's a light hearted comedy drama and it being 60 minutes isn't the issue. Most people who watch it seem to like it, so it's not going to significantly improve by being slashed in half - and having watched both episodes I've not sat their thinking this is dragging.

Yes, ITV need to get back in the sitcom game but that doesn't mean they should completely drop comedy dramas, something which has worked well for them over the years.

[Salv*]

I would say Splash will get 6.1m tonight.

[D.M.N.]

Originally Posted by D.M.N.

Great Night Out - Breakdown - Episode 1 inc +1
21:00 - 4.62m (18.8%)
21:05 - 4.30m (17.3%)
21:10 - 3.77m (15.6%)
21:15 - 3.81m (15.5%)
21:20 - 3.76m (15.1%)
21:25 - 3.74m (15.3%)
21:30 - 3.36m (13.6%)
21:35 - 3.63m (14.6%)
21:40 - 3.57m (14.4%)
21:45 - 3.42m (13.8%)
21:50 - 3.32m (13.2%)
21:55 - 3.69m (15.1%)

Great Night Out - Breakdown - Episode 2 inc +1
21:00 - 3.83m (14.5%)
21:05 - 3.56m (13.5%)
21:10 - 3.36m (13.1%)
21:15 - 3.16m (12.1%)
21:20 - 3.35m (12.9%)
21:25 - 3.10m (12.0%)
21:30 - 3.02m (11.6%)
21:35 - 3.21m (12.2%)
21:40 - 3.23m (12.6%)
21:45 - 2.86m (11.2%)
21:50 - 3.18m (12.4%)
21:55 - 2.69m (11.1%)

[NeilVW]

Originally Posted by Hassaan13

I saw an overnight figure of 576k (4.1/4.7% - not sure which was correct) of the double episode. Where did the figure of 593k come about?

CBBC is never tape-checked on an overnight basis as far as I'm aware. The double episode of TDG on 4 Jan was billed as running from 16:30 to 17:30, and the audience in this period was 576k (4.1%).

After 7 days BARB have had time to collect exact timings from the broadcasters, and so we now know it ran from 16:33:25 to 17:26:40. Tape-checking to the nearest minute gives you 16:33 to 17:27. For Live + VOSDAL we only have data in 5-minute blocks, so the figure used is the audience between 16:35 and 17:25, which was 593k/4.35%.

The consolidated figure of 625k/4.3% includes not only recordings viewed on days 2-8 but also an adjustment so that the figures are aligned with timings correct to the nearest minute (16:33 - 17:27). Looking at the breakdown, it won't have been a large adjustment on this occasion.

EDIT: Further analysis suggests the adjustment just mentioned deducted 3k:

576k (4.10%) - Live + VOSDAL (full slot)
593k (4.23%) - Live + VOSDAL (tape-checked to nearest 5 mins)
628k (4.35%) - Consolidated (tape-checked to nearest 5 mins)
625k (4.33%) - Consolidated (tape-checked to nearest 1 min)

[Dancc]

Originally Posted by Brekkie

How did I know that C5 comment was like a red rag to a bull. And to be fair going further down the EPG none of the digital channels are really offering anything great either - though More4 have an aptly timed repeat of Snowstorm, a documentary from last time the news went bonkers over snow.

I'm right though, no?

Anyone could do a column like Stuart Heritage does. Being negative about everything is oh so easy. Look no further than this forum for that.

His job should be to sift through the crap and pick out the gems, that's the hard part. Gems that can turn up on any channel in the cluttered multichannel landscape. And don't necessarily have to carry subtitles...

[Georged123]

Originally Posted by AnthonyC

And did anyone notice that Ridley Scott was the designer on the Tonight programme and got listed on the credits. It is the one and same Ridley Scott.

Was it better than Prometheus?

[iaindb]

Originally Posted by Fudd

Maybe ITV should look at how well, relatively speaking, the Death Row documentary did along with other prison dramas and see if they can launch a drama based on that - more Prison Break than Bad Girls though!

That's an idea. Maybe ITV should try adapting a few hit US dramas or comedies. They had big success when the adapted Who's Te Boss into The Upper Hand, although all subsequent adaptions bombed.

Maybe a British version of Two And A Half Men with Steve Coogan, Alan Davies and Outnumbered's Daniel Roche as the half.

[penguinperson]

As you guys sometimes look to twitter to guess ratings the first TV heat for Norway in Eurovision is trending in the UK lol

[NeilVW]

Originally Posted by penguinperson

As you guys sometimes look to twitter to guess ratings the first TV heat for Norway in Eurovision is trending in the UK lol

I think that kind of proves the point about the limited usefulness of Twitter in this regard!

[iaindb]

Originally Posted by penguinperson

As you guys sometimes look to twitter to guess ratings the first TV heat for Norway in Eurovision is trending in the UK lol

UK viewers so desperate to escape tonight's terrible TV they're re-positioning their satellite dishes so that they can watch Norwegian TV instead.

[Brekkie]

I guess no word yet on how the BBC are going to ensure they don't have to pay for next years contest.

And randomly changing point but why on earth are they airing the Comic Relief Bake Off this week when the event itself isn't until mid-March.

[NeilVW]

Originally Posted by iaindb

UK viewers so desperate to escape tonight's terrible TV they're re-positioning their satellite dishes so that they can watch Norwegian TV instead.

I'm using the opportunity to re-appraise The Simpsons Movie on Channel 4.

[penguinperson]

Originally Posted by Brekkie

I guess no word yet on how the BBC are going to ensure they don't have to pay for next years contest.

And randomly changing point but why on earth are they airing the Comic Relief Bake Off this week when the event itself isn't until mid-March.

No word constant rumours on Girls Aloud or Kimba by herself