Pointless: 3.15m (25.8%)
BBC News at Six: 4.06m (27.4%)
BBC Regional News: 4.88m (31.0%)
The One Show: 3.17m (18.2%)
EastEnders: 5.67m (31.3%)
DIY SOS: 4.48m (22.6%)
Who Do You Think You Are?: 5.30m (25.7%)
BBC News at Ten: 4.59m (27.3%)
BBC Regional News: 4.13m (26.8%)
Mr O'Carroll can just do no wrong ratings wise can he heh
Pointless: 3.15m (25.8%)
BBC News at Six: 4.06m (27.4%)
BBC Regional News: 4.88m (31.0%)
The One Show: 3.17m (18.2%)
EastEnders: 5.67m (31.3%)
DIY SOS: 4.48m (22.6%)
Who Do You Think You Are?: 5.30m (25.7%)
BBC News at Ten: 4.59m (27.3%)
BBC Regional News: 4.13m (26.8%)
A good night for the BBC.
WDYTYA did well, and I imagine the Mary Berry episode will too.
ITV have just given BBC1 complete control of each night. (despite EE with a poor figure and share). Continuel soap blocks on ITV (and now declining) allow BBC1 to gain from the spare viewers.
ITV got 1.5m (1.7 inc +1) for it's "Prom Crazy" prog at 9pm - beaten by CBB with 1.7m (1.9m).
Terrible.
.
I said it yesterday but ITV needs to at least try to make good and interesting programmes, otherwise when they actually do no one will watch because people are just going to assume whatever they show is bound to be rubbish, its getting towards 4 months now since they even pretended to make an effort.
ITV got 1.5m (1.7 inc +1) for it's "Prom Crazy" prog at 9pm - beaten by CBB with 1.7m (1.9m).
Terrible.
.
A deservedly so. Its the kind of cheap, tack that would belong on Channel 5 5 years ago. Since they have improved their factual now.
Its embarrassing. This must be the year that ITV have fallen below 2m most. For the biggest commercial network, they really are playing a very stupid game. This is going to bite them on the backside later this year in their not careful.
Mr O'Carroll can just do no wrong ratings wise can he heh
I'm still a bit baffled as to why Mrs Brown's Celebrities was retooled for Rob Brydon, I have nothing against him but it would have been a bona fide hit with The Browns at the helm I would have thought?
BBC One
13:45 - Doctors: 1.32m (20.3%)
17:15 - Pointless: 2.72m
18:00 - News: 4.02m (27%)
18:30 - Regional News: 4.85m (29%)*
19:00 - The One Show: 3.58m (19%)*
19:30 - EastEnders: 6.33m (32.6%)
20:00 - Celebrity MasterChef: 4.29m (20.5%)
21:00 - DIY SOS: the Big Build (r): 3.67m (17.5%)
22:00 - News, Regional News, Weather: 4.50m (24%)*
BBC Two
19:30 - Only Connect (r): 1.40m (7.2%)
20:00 - Dara O'Briain's Science Club: 1.08m (5.2%)
21:00 - The Men Who Made Us Thin: 1.06m (5.1%)
* four-part series averaged 1.11m (5.4%)
ITV
18:30 - News: 3.12m (19%) inc +1*
19:00 - Emmerdale: 6.12m (33.4%), +1: 122k
* inc +1: 6.24m (~34.1%)
19:35 - Kids Without Dads - Tonight: 2.72m inc +1*
20:00 - Emmerdale: 5.76m (27.5%), +1: 339k
20:30 - Paul O'Grady's For the Love of Dogs (r): 2.78m (13.3%) , +1: 118k
21:00 - Poaching Wars with Tom Hardy: 1.31m (6.2%), +1: ~90k
* inc +1: 1.40m (6.6%)
* 12-month slot average: 3.70m (16.5%) inc +1
Channel 5
13:45 - Neighbours: 628k (9.5%)
17:30 - Neighbours (r): 761k (6.2%)
21:00 - Celebrity Big Brother: 1.78m (8.5%), +1: 245k
* inc +1: 2.02m (9.7%)
22:00 - The Man Who Ate Himself to Death: 1.30m (7.6%), +1: 101k
* indicates a full-slot rating where tape-checking would change the rating, i.e. the programme did not run to time
Multichannels (repeats not indicated, never tape-checked)
BBC Three
22:30 - EastEnders: 601k (3.9%)
23:00 - Family Guy: 734k (6.7%)
23:25 - Family Guy: 716k (8.4%)
23:45 - American Dad!: 528k (7.9%)
ITV2
22:00 - Celebrity Juice: 1.05m (6.0%), +1: 172k
* inc +1: 1.22m (7.0%)
* top multichannel rating of the day
* last autumn's series opener: 1.48m (7.9%), +1: 315k on Thu 30 Aug
ITV3 (inc +1)
20:00 - A Touch of Frost: 590k (2.8%)
ITV4 (inc +1)
19:30-22:30 - UEFA Europa League Live: Tottenham Hotspur v Dinamo Tbilisi: 1.01m (5.0%)
* 2nd-highest multichannel rating of the day
E4
18:30 - The Big Bang Theory: 807k (4.9%) inc +1
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 559k (3.0%), +1: 83k
* inc +1: 642k (3.5%)
20:00 - The Big Bang Theory: 553k (2.6%) inc +1
Film4 (inc +1)
18:55 - FILM: Night at the Museum 2 (2009): 457k
More4 (inc +1)
19:55 - Grand Designs: 216k
5*
18:30 - Home and Away: Summer Bay's Sexiest: 69k (0.4%)
Dave (inc Ja Vu)
20:30 - Storage Hunters: 320k
Drama
21:00 - New Tricks: 437k
Yesterday (inc +1)
21:00 - Perfect Storms: Disasters That Changed The World: 310k
Quite a few digs from tabloid critics today who have seen the first X Factor shows stating that there is far too much of a love-in from the editing team on Cheryl at the expense of Mel B who barely gets much coverage. Cheryl even gets a round of singers covering just her songs.
EastEnders was ahead in Thursday evening's soap ratings (August 28) with a dramatic day for the Beale family, overnight figures show.
5.66m (31.3%) tuned in at 7.30pm on BBC One for the aftermath of Ian's secret being revealed and Cindy giving birth. BBC Three's repeat screening secured 227k (10.3%) at the later time of 1.30am.
Emmerdale claimed 5.53m (31.7%) at 7pm on ITV as the day of Donna's funeral arrived, while 5.31m (27.0%) returned at 8pm and 208k (1.0%) on +1 as high emotions on the difficult day led to a fight between Ross and Marlon.
Hollyoaks attracted 770k (4.9%) at 6.30pm on Channel 4 as Nancy reported her attack to the police, while a big turning point in the story was seen by 711k (4.1%) on E4's first look at 7pm and 100k (0.5%) on E4+1.
Over on Channel 5, Neighbours appealed to 618k (8.9%) at 1.45pm and 715k (5.7%) at 5.30pm, while Home and Away mustered 261k (3.7%) at 1.15pm, 536k (3.6%) at 6pm and 347k (2.2%) with 5*'s first look at 6.30pm.
Elsewhere, Doctors continued with 1.29m (18.7%) at 1.45pm on BBC One.
Quite a few digs from tabloid critics today who have seen the first X Factor shows stating that there is far too much of a love-in from the editing team on Cheryl at the expense of Mel B who barely gets much coverage. Cheryl even gets a round of singers covering just her songs.
The problem with ITV is I don't think the people like Fincham, Crozier etc seem to actually acknowledge the failures of the network. It may be time for a new controller for ITV1, as Fincham has only produced limited successes and not done enough with the core schedule. Daytime is a mess, so perhaps the various sub-teams don't work well together on the main channel.
At every level, the channel needs looking at; it is not enough to say 'but we did Broadchurch and Downton' when weeknights are so weak and weekends not a lot better. Not to mention failure after failure in daytime, and breakfast woes. Risks need to be taken, not just in programming commissions but also looking at the entire schedule and not being afraid to make sweeping changes.
Potential positives for ITV coming up seem to be in Drama alone. Broadchurch 2 should be a firm banker for ITV with Tennant/Colman practically selling that for themselves; Downton Abbey still averaged over 10 million every episode last year, 12.2m for the finale in the officials, so it should continue to perform this year. Hopefully they have a secure hit on their hands with The Great Fire as well and other returning/new series. Then there's the new 8pm cop-show, basically bringing back The Bill in all-but-name, but certainly filling a much missed void and potentially clawing back a bit of territory during the week. Comedy with Birds of a Feather 2 has potential. But it still all seems terribly thin on the ground.
I really think ITV should move to reinstate Coronation Street onto Sunday nights; every time this is suggested on here various FMs state they prefer weekends soap free, or it wouldn't do as well as it does during the week. I tend to disagree; of course randomly inserted Sunday eps aren't going to perform as well, but if it were permanently moved back to Sunday I think its audience would be as strong after a short bedding in period - but most importantly it would make another day of the week relevant again to 8 million people. With Dancing on Ice gone, there is even less reason why Sunday can't have a Corrie episode again. They can then work on stellar content from 8-10pm every week, be that new 2-hour dramas or the X Factor / Downton block. If they moved the second Friday episode to Sunday, the Friday 8.30pm slot would be free for comedy like Birds of a Feather and successfully reclaim the audience from 8pm EastEnders to make for a more even playing field at 9pm. ITV could experiment with The Chase Celebrity at 8.30pm Friday nights, leading into comedy (like Vicious) at 9.30pm.
Guessing the new year-round weekly cop show will go Wednesdays at 8pm following Coronation Street, emulating The Bill's successful slot and with no Waterloo Road to threaten it. This can only be a good thing for ITV if they can get some viewers into a different returning show. It can hopefully aim for 4-5 million viewers per week and be a good lead-in to the 9pm slot every week on Wednesday.
As for News, it's clear News at Ten will never come close to more than 50% of the BBC's bulletin. But ITV could enforce a proper regulation that the NAT starts bang-on 10pm, with no adverts delaying it, and perhaps they should do this at the expense of ad revenue, at least initially, and a big publicity effort to let viewers know ITV have a real, confident alternative to the BBC at 10 which also starts on. the. dot. The 6pm configuration works well for ITV with regional/national and so should be left alone. As others have mentioned, moving the lunchtime news back to 12.30pm would give ITV a head-start on the BBC's One bulletin and leave the schedule free and open between 1 and 6pm. Obviously 5pm should show The Chase as much as humanly possible, as this is a solid performer.
Overall I don't know why there doesn't seem to be so many new commissions by ITV. Is their budget really that stretched? Why don't we have a raft of new shows coming up, and why are the returning options so thin on the ground? Why have moves not been made to add an anchor to Sunday nights by undoing Simon Shaps' "soap free weekend" disaster? Yes, soap-free Sundays had a place for a short while when Dancing on Ice was moved from Saturdays (in itself a bad move) but aside from that ITV was stronger overall when Corrie stood at 7.30pm on Sunday, leading into Heartbeat/The Royal/Where the Heart Is and then 9pm content. It stands to rectify that error now DOI is gone, by reinstating Corrie on Sundays and focusing on decent content from 8-10pm, be it in the form of two shows (perhaps LE + drama) or a 2-hour drama.
Finally, Good Morning Britain and Lorraine's slots should be merged, with Lorraine continuing but the programmes' slots being merged to allow for a fairer indication of the ratings from 6-9.30am. So while the whole show would be counted as one thing, it would have the usual 6-7am News, 7-8.30am GMB and 8.30-9.30am Lorraine format - just all recorded as one show directly against the BBCB slot.
Anyway no doubt I'll get a couple of responses saying my ideas are crap, wouldn't work, that Corrie shouldn't be back on Sundays permanently because one-off episodes haven't rated brilliantly there; that it doesn't matter that GMB is not one 3.5h timeslot like BBCB, because it's shit anyway; that the new 1h cop show is destined to fail anyway; and that this % of people don't watch ITV anymore, it's beyond repair, la la la.
Just trying to think about ways they could actually play to their strengths and perhaps add a bit more cohesion and strength to the network. That doesn't help the fact there are so little (seemingly) new commissions coming up, but it does help the fact the schedule itself could benefit from at least trying a few new configurations. Is it really conceivable Peter Fincham is totally happy with the job he is doing? He needs to wake up, methinks, and nudge Adam Crozier awake while he's at it.
Simon Cowell discusses how the BBC wants to "damage" "The X Factor" on ITV by scheduling "Strictly Come Dancing" directly against it at 8pm. "They should be grown up about it and admit it, I think when people do that the people they are annoying are the viewers, and they say this isn't a ratings war. They didn't have to put it on at the same time as us, they did and it means that people then have to make a choice, where before I think it was more of a gentlemans type of agreement, they don't want this show to do well, they don't want people to watch it.The expectations on us are huge, I think that when we were arrogant in the past we lost out, we are not necessarily expecting to win although we would like to.".
And ITV didn't have to schedule a one-hour Coronation Street on that night either, thus further restricting the BBC's scheduling options. As The Independent quoted:
The BBC said it was “important that Strictly launches in primetime” and accused ITV of slipping an hour-long Coronation Street into the schedules, ahead of The X Factor, which it had hidden during previous exchanges of its programme plans.
<snipped>
The BBC defended its scheduling policy. A spokesman said: “We always try to avoid direct clashes but it's important that Strictly launches in primetime and with the extra episode of Coronation Street coming in, it's unfortunately left us with very little room to move on this occasion.”
The extra hour long soap episode, which doesn’t normally air on Sundays, wasn’t disclosed in earlier exchanges, BBC sources insisted, whilst Strictly was always in the schedule.
Quite a few digs from tabloid critics today who have seen the first X Factor shows stating that there is far too much of a love-in from the editing team on Cheryl at the expense of Mel B who barely gets much coverage. Cheryl even gets a round of singers covering just her songs.
The problem is it has a pretty negative perception of the show generally now. Just anecdotally, comparing the reactions to Bake Off (Basically everyone in the office talking about it, enjoying it, praising it) to XF ('More Staged Rubbish, you don't watch that do you etc....) there's not a huge amount of good will towards it, even compared to Britains Got Talent. The press have picked up on that and no matter how much Simon likes to pretend otherwise, when the press turn on you its on its way out- It's had an excellent run, but it's on a similar trajectory to Big Brother imo in that it'll only be the hardcore's left! If ITV renew the contract in 2016 I'll be very surprised (Obviously it needs something to replace it though)
Comments
Terrible.
.
Mr O'Carroll can just do no wrong ratings wise can he heh
A good night for the BBC.
WDYTYA did well, and I imagine the Mary Berry episode will too.
ITV have just given BBC1 complete control of each night. (despite EE with a poor figure and share). Continuel soap blocks on ITV (and now declining) allow BBC1 to gain from the spare viewers.
I said it yesterday but ITV needs to at least try to make good and interesting programmes, otherwise when they actually do no one will watch because people are just going to assume whatever they show is bound to be rubbish, its getting towards 4 months now since they even pretended to make an effort.
Maybe he should be presenting SCD?
He'd be better dancing, imagine the ratings.:D:D
A deservedly so. Its the kind of cheap, tack that would belong on Channel 5 5 years ago. Since they have improved their factual now.
Its embarrassing. This must be the year that ITV have fallen below 2m most. For the biggest commercial network, they really are playing a very stupid game. This is going to bite them on the backside later this year in their not careful.
I'm still a bit baffled as to why Mrs Brown's Celebrities was retooled for Rob Brydon, I have nothing against him but it would have been a bona fide hit with The Browns at the helm I would have thought?
Thursday 29th August 2013
Traditional terrestrials
BBC One
13:45 - Doctors: 1.32m (20.3%)
17:15 - Pointless: 2.72m
18:00 - News: 4.02m (27%)
18:30 - Regional News: 4.85m (29%)*
19:00 - The One Show: 3.58m (19%)*
19:30 - EastEnders: 6.33m (32.6%)
20:00 - Celebrity MasterChef: 4.29m (20.5%)
21:00 - DIY SOS: the Big Build (r): 3.67m (17.5%)
22:00 - News, Regional News, Weather: 4.50m (24%)*
BBC Two
19:30 - Only Connect (r): 1.40m (7.2%)
20:00 - Dara O'Briain's Science Club: 1.08m (5.2%)
21:00 - The Men Who Made Us Thin: 1.06m (5.1%)
* four-part series averaged 1.11m (5.4%)
ITV
18:30 - News: 3.12m (19%) inc +1*
19:00 - Emmerdale: 6.12m (33.4%), +1: 122k
* inc +1: 6.24m (~34.1%)
19:35 - Kids Without Dads - Tonight: 2.72m inc +1*
20:00 - Emmerdale: 5.76m (27.5%), +1: 339k
20:30 - Paul O'Grady's For the Love of Dogs (r): 2.78m (13.3%) , +1: 118k
21:00 - Poaching Wars with Tom Hardy: 1.31m (6.2%), +1: ~90k
* inc +1: 1.40m (6.6%)
* 12-month slot average: 3.70m (16.5%) inc +1
Channel 4
18:00 - The Simpsons: 1.15m inc +1*
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 879k (5.3%)
20:00 - Location, Location, Location: 1.49m (7.1%), +1: 354k
21:00 - Burgled: 1.50m (7.1%), +1: 264k
* inc +1: 1.76m (8.4%)
* 12-month slot average: 1.57m (7.1%) inc +1
Channel 5
13:45 - Neighbours: 628k (9.5%)
17:30 - Neighbours (r): 761k (6.2%)
21:00 - Celebrity Big Brother: 1.78m (8.5%), +1: 245k
* inc +1: 2.02m (9.7%)
22:00 - The Man Who Ate Himself to Death: 1.30m (7.6%), +1: 101k
* indicates a full-slot rating where tape-checking would change the rating, i.e. the programme did not run to time
Multichannels (repeats not indicated, never tape-checked)
BBC Three
22:30 - EastEnders: 601k (3.9%)
23:00 - Family Guy: 734k (6.7%)
23:25 - Family Guy: 716k (8.4%)
23:45 - American Dad!: 528k (7.9%)
ITV2
22:00 - Celebrity Juice: 1.05m (6.0%), +1: 172k
* inc +1: 1.22m (7.0%)
* top multichannel rating of the day
* last autumn's series opener: 1.48m (7.9%), +1: 315k on Thu 30 Aug
ITV3 (inc +1)
20:00 - A Touch of Frost: 590k (2.8%)
ITV4 (inc +1)
19:30-22:30 - UEFA Europa League Live: Tottenham Hotspur v Dinamo Tbilisi: 1.01m (5.0%)
* 2nd-highest multichannel rating of the day
E4
18:30 - The Big Bang Theory: 807k (4.9%) inc +1
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 559k (3.0%), +1: 83k
* inc +1: 642k (3.5%)
20:00 - The Big Bang Theory: 553k (2.6%) inc +1
Film4 (inc +1)
18:55 - FILM: Night at the Museum 2 (2009): 457k
More4 (inc +1)
19:55 - Grand Designs: 216k
5*
18:30 - Home and Away: Summer Bay's Sexiest: 69k (0.4%)
Dave (inc Ja Vu)
20:30 - Storage Hunters: 320k
Drama
21:00 - New Tricks: 437k
Yesterday (inc +1)
21:00 - Perfect Storms: Disasters That Changed The World: 310k
Sky 1 (inc +1)
21:30 - Chickens: 199k (0.9%)
* last week's premiere: 301k (1.5%)
* 12-month slot average: 121k (0.5%)
All-day shares (inc +1)
BBC One: 21.4%
BBC Two: 4.4%
ITV: 13.7% approx
Channel 4: 5.7% approx
Channel 5: 5.0%
Others: 49.8% approx, including:
- ITV2: 2.8%
- ITV3: 2.5%
- ITV4: 2.2%
- E4: 2.0%
- BBC Three: 1.6%
- Film4: 1.6%
- 5USA: 1.4%
- Dave: 1.3%
Sources: DS (1, 2, 3), Broadcast, ITV Media, Channel 4 Sales, Screenwatch
ITV still below 2m at 9pm. EastEnders down over 600k. Emmerdale down. DIYSOS up YOY.
Pointless (R) 3.15m (25.8%)
Tipping Point 1.93m (22.3%)
Celebrity Big Brother 1.90m (9.2%)
Gift Wrapped 1.49m (12.8%)
Two Tribes 1.19m (8.0%)
Eggheads 1.00m (6.3%)
Judge Rinder 0.95m (14.6%)
Perfection (R) 0.88m (13.9%)
Come Dine With Me (R) 0.70m (6.0%)
The Chase (R) 0.62m (9.2%)
Celebrity BBBOTS 0.55m (6.0%)
Deal or No Deal 0.41m (5.4%)
Countdown 0.33m (5.1%)
Win It, Cook It 0.24m (2.6%)
Last week 5.4% for Five vs 5.29% for C4.
Not the best of weeks to deliver a MacTaggart.
Five the new Four?
Thanks.:)
The Chase's return to the 5pm slot can't come soon enough. I dont think Gift Wrapped should be recommissioned.
Judge Rinder still doing well and Tipping Point holding well despite the absence of the TC
Pointless doing well.
5.66m (31.3%) tuned in at 7.30pm on BBC One for the aftermath of Ian's secret being revealed and Cindy giving birth. BBC Three's repeat screening secured 227k (10.3%) at the later time of 1.30am.
Emmerdale claimed 5.53m (31.7%) at 7pm on ITV as the day of Donna's funeral arrived, while 5.31m (27.0%) returned at 8pm and 208k (1.0%) on +1 as high emotions on the difficult day led to a fight between Ross and Marlon.
Hollyoaks attracted 770k (4.9%) at 6.30pm on Channel 4 as Nancy reported her attack to the police, while a big turning point in the story was seen by 711k (4.1%) on E4's first look at 7pm and 100k (0.5%) on E4+1.
Over on Channel 5, Neighbours appealed to 618k (8.9%) at 1.45pm and 715k (5.7%) at 5.30pm, while Home and Away mustered 261k (3.7%) at 1.15pm, 536k (3.6%) at 6pm and 347k (2.2%) with 5*'s first look at 6.30pm.
Elsewhere, Doctors continued with 1.29m (18.7%) at 1.45pm on BBC One.
Great news. The less of Mel B the better.
At every level, the channel needs looking at; it is not enough to say 'but we did Broadchurch and Downton' when weeknights are so weak and weekends not a lot better. Not to mention failure after failure in daytime, and breakfast woes. Risks need to be taken, not just in programming commissions but also looking at the entire schedule and not being afraid to make sweeping changes.
Potential positives for ITV coming up seem to be in Drama alone. Broadchurch 2 should be a firm banker for ITV with Tennant/Colman practically selling that for themselves; Downton Abbey still averaged over 10 million every episode last year, 12.2m for the finale in the officials, so it should continue to perform this year. Hopefully they have a secure hit on their hands with The Great Fire as well and other returning/new series. Then there's the new 8pm cop-show, basically bringing back The Bill in all-but-name, but certainly filling a much missed void and potentially clawing back a bit of territory during the week. Comedy with Birds of a Feather 2 has potential. But it still all seems terribly thin on the ground.
I really think ITV should move to reinstate Coronation Street onto Sunday nights; every time this is suggested on here various FMs state they prefer weekends soap free, or it wouldn't do as well as it does during the week. I tend to disagree; of course randomly inserted Sunday eps aren't going to perform as well, but if it were permanently moved back to Sunday I think its audience would be as strong after a short bedding in period - but most importantly it would make another day of the week relevant again to 8 million people. With Dancing on Ice gone, there is even less reason why Sunday can't have a Corrie episode again. They can then work on stellar content from 8-10pm every week, be that new 2-hour dramas or the X Factor / Downton block. If they moved the second Friday episode to Sunday, the Friday 8.30pm slot would be free for comedy like Birds of a Feather and successfully reclaim the audience from 8pm EastEnders to make for a more even playing field at 9pm. ITV could experiment with The Chase Celebrity at 8.30pm Friday nights, leading into comedy (like Vicious) at 9.30pm.
Guessing the new year-round weekly cop show will go Wednesdays at 8pm following Coronation Street, emulating The Bill's successful slot and with no Waterloo Road to threaten it. This can only be a good thing for ITV if they can get some viewers into a different returning show. It can hopefully aim for 4-5 million viewers per week and be a good lead-in to the 9pm slot every week on Wednesday.
As for News, it's clear News at Ten will never come close to more than 50% of the BBC's bulletin. But ITV could enforce a proper regulation that the NAT starts bang-on 10pm, with no adverts delaying it, and perhaps they should do this at the expense of ad revenue, at least initially, and a big publicity effort to let viewers know ITV have a real, confident alternative to the BBC at 10 which also starts on. the. dot. The 6pm configuration works well for ITV with regional/national and so should be left alone. As others have mentioned, moving the lunchtime news back to 12.30pm would give ITV a head-start on the BBC's One bulletin and leave the schedule free and open between 1 and 6pm. Obviously 5pm should show The Chase as much as humanly possible, as this is a solid performer.
Overall I don't know why there doesn't seem to be so many new commissions by ITV. Is their budget really that stretched? Why don't we have a raft of new shows coming up, and why are the returning options so thin on the ground? Why have moves not been made to add an anchor to Sunday nights by undoing Simon Shaps' "soap free weekend" disaster? Yes, soap-free Sundays had a place for a short while when Dancing on Ice was moved from Saturdays (in itself a bad move) but aside from that ITV was stronger overall when Corrie stood at 7.30pm on Sunday, leading into Heartbeat/The Royal/Where the Heart Is and then 9pm content. It stands to rectify that error now DOI is gone, by reinstating Corrie on Sundays and focusing on decent content from 8-10pm, be it in the form of two shows (perhaps LE + drama) or a 2-hour drama.
Finally, Good Morning Britain and Lorraine's slots should be merged, with Lorraine continuing but the programmes' slots being merged to allow for a fairer indication of the ratings from 6-9.30am. So while the whole show would be counted as one thing, it would have the usual 6-7am News, 7-8.30am GMB and 8.30-9.30am Lorraine format - just all recorded as one show directly against the BBCB slot.
Anyway no doubt I'll get a couple of responses saying my ideas are crap, wouldn't work, that Corrie shouldn't be back on Sundays permanently because one-off episodes haven't rated brilliantly there; that it doesn't matter that GMB is not one 3.5h timeslot like BBCB, because it's shit anyway; that the new 1h cop show is destined to fail anyway; and that this % of people don't watch ITV anymore, it's beyond repair, la la la.
Just trying to think about ways they could actually play to their strengths and perhaps add a bit more cohesion and strength to the network. That doesn't help the fact there are so little (seemingly) new commissions coming up, but it does help the fact the schedule itself could benefit from at least trying a few new configurations. Is it really conceivable Peter Fincham is totally happy with the job he is doing? He needs to wake up, methinks, and nudge Adam Crozier awake while he's at it.
And ITV didn't have to schedule a one-hour Coronation Street on that night either, thus further restricting the BBC's scheduling options. As The Independent quoted:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/strictly-come-dancing-v-x-factor-simon-cowell-blasts-bbc-for-breaking-gentlemens-agreement-in-scheduling-war-9697026.html
BBC1- WDYTYA- 5.30m
BBC2- Natural World- 1.28m
ITV- Prom Crazy- 1.67m
CH4- Stammer School- 984k
CH5- Celebrity Big Brother- 1.90m
CH4 at 10pm- First Time Farmers- 652k incl +1
CH5 at 10pm- Suspects- 697k excl +1
BBC3:
Cuckoo- 532k
Siblings- 476k
Is that the second time CBB has put C5 second at 9pm this series?
Yes, I think so. On Tuesday at 10pm it also came 2nd in the slot, so it has come 3rd in its slot three times this series.
The problem is it has a pretty negative perception of the show generally now. Just anecdotally, comparing the reactions to Bake Off (Basically everyone in the office talking about it, enjoying it, praising it) to XF ('More Staged Rubbish, you don't watch that do you etc....) there's not a huge amount of good will towards it, even compared to Britains Got Talent. The press have picked up on that and no matter how much Simon likes to pretend otherwise, when the press turn on you its on its way out- It's had an excellent run, but it's on a similar trajectory to Big Brother imo in that it'll only be the hardcore's left! If ITV renew the contract in 2016 I'll be very surprised (Obviously it needs something to replace it though)
Very good retention for Siblings.
Cuckoo is down but respectable-ish