There`s no-one else on these boards that comes even close to you for being a "fan" of one particular channel so you`ve made a rod for your own back there. If the vast majority of your posts are about and in defense of Channel 5 it`s hardly surprising the perception formed is one of an advocate for that channel is it?
Also, you could feedback to your pals at the channel that they`ve killed off another viewer for Helix. I probably would`ve continued with it but they managed to stuff 3 breaks into the first 30 minutes of ep 3 (even more into the first 2 eps last week) ruining what little flow it had so I`m done with it.
Sorry but are we forgetting BBC's ultimate fanboy?
Eastenders reaching the 8 million mark:- a bit of a anti-climax really, it's been talked out on here for so long, now it's happened...whoop whoop! So I'd like to officially start the debate when will eastenders reach 8 million...again!
By the way I think eastenders finally deserves that rating, as I'm not a fan but I have to admit I've been impressed with the Carter's as I have said previously!
C4 drama definitly is fantastic..
The Mill being one of the highlights of their own drama last year.
I found is much better then BBC's The Village.
It'll be back later this year with a 6 episode run
The Mill was the programme The Village was trying to be. The Village was terrible. What was impressive about The Mill was that it managed to get an audience opposite Top Gear.
Sorry but are we forgetting BBC's ultimate fanboy?
And we have a couple of ITV fanboys too. One in particular who thinks ITV is a little puppy and almost comes across as crying his little heart out each time it's criticised. There's nowt wrong in favouring a channel. It keeps the thread interesting.
You didn't read my subsequent post then? I wasn't by any means slagging off all C4 drama, why not read my posts in context before you unleash your wrath on me. I was merely making the point that Suspects would look out of place on C4, it's been made for a C5 audience. A very valid point in a thread about ratings.
BIB: I think that's perhaps exaggerating my post just a tad.
You said Suspects would be a shock to the system of "anyone who reguarly watched Channel 4 drama because it was raw and gritty" , implying that drama on 4 wasn't, which is absurd considering it's the only type of drama they have actually invested in recently (to their fault.)
Quite! I encourage it, the more opinions the better. But GoshBagosh wasn't expressing a negative opinion of a Channel 5 programme, they were writing off an entire programme on the basis of a 20 second trailer. If I did this I would also expect people to shoot me down. Frankly I wouldn't expect GoshBagosh to say anything remotely positive or constructive about it anyway, because that poster has never ever done so about anything the channel does.
Agree that I'm going to save my judgement until the premier episode although to be fair to Gosh it's not particuarly caught my interest.
This thread does seem to be getting bogged down in the pettiness and arguements recently - I don't want to contribute to that, lets just live and let live.
There`s no-one else on these boards that comes even close to you for being a "fan" of one particular channel so you`ve made a rod for your own back there. If the vast majority of your posts are about and in defense of Channel 5 it`s hardly surprising the perception formed is one of an advocate for that channel is it?
There's not an ounce of truth in that though, I'm afraid. The core of the thread is BBC v ITV and tedious fanboy led arguments which I don't get involved with. I contribute daily thoughts on the day's overnights (with an emphasis on C5 performance as it interests me for reasons I've explained before but not exclusively so), scheduling information as it's released and occasionally I do the roundups and report of international ratings. I'm yet to read anything by you in here that hasn't been unnecessarily personal, and I'm yet to read anything by GoshBagosh that doesn't follow a certain template (i.e. 'x did great', 'y did bad'). If the future of the Ratings Thread is posts like that, I dread to think what it'll be like when the few good posters left are eventually driven away.
Agree that I'm going to save my judgement until the premier episode although to be fair to Gosh it's not particuarly caught my interest.
This thread does seem to be getting bogged down in the pettiness and arguements recently - I don't want to contribute to that, lets just live and let live.
After Thursday a long holiday from DS beckons I think. If/when I come back my posts will be scaled back and my interactions with others limited to posters I have time for. It takes up too much of my time anyway, and when all you get in return is essentially abuse, it's not worth it. I can maintain an interest without getting involved in the day to day hostilities. Too many dictators, bullies and trolls ruining what was once a constructive and inviting thread.
The next is the schedule for Friday November 25th 1983. The day Children in Need aired. You will note that CiN was not an entire evenings event back then, and infact the evening was dominated by the 20th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who, The Five Doctors. When did CiN start becoming the event it is now?
Yes, when it started in 1980 (as a telly thing, the appeal itself started in 1927) Children in Need would pop up in between all the other programmes on BBC1 that night. Wogan always tells the story about how they asked if they could put the phone number on screen during all the programmes on the first one but It Ain't Half Hot Mum refused to let them. The programmes themselves would generally be a bit special, though, a la The Five Doctors, and on the DVD of that you can see all the CiN stuff before and after it.
The last time they did it like this was in 1985, where one of the programmes was Blankety Blank and for a bit of fun they did a bit of business where Les Dawson "linked up" with the CiN studio and asked if they could send across a panellist as they were one short, so Peter Powell "ran across" to the Blank studio (course, Blank was pre-recorded), which is the source of that famous out-take where Powell fell arse over tit on the stairs.
Late Late Breakfast Show at its peak rated higher than Noel's House Party. It cleared 16m.
Yes, but the first series was a total disaster, it was thrashed by ITV and was really close to being axed. The initial idea was to make it more like a primetime version of Swap Shop (like Slap Bang was SMTV in primetime) so Noel sat behind a desk and there were lots of interviews and music performances and so on. But it never worked, Noel's sidekick Leni Harper was dropped after three weeks and it only caught on after a radical revamp which got rid of the more ponderous aspects and just made it all daft.
Saturday Roadshow wasn't a hit and was beaten comprehensively by Blind Date each series. I think ITV was winning Saturdays then but Bob's Full House was doing well. 'Allo, 'Allo! might have suffered that year as I remember they repeated a Saturday series later in the year on Monday at 8.30pm where it rated better than its first airing. 16m some weeks for those.
That was the series of 'Allo 'Allo which was 26 episodes long with the intention of drumming up more interest abroad, though it wasn't the success they hoped and the following series returned to a conventional length. The episodes were 25 minutes long as well, I remember them being repeated after Wogan on Friday nights in early 1990, one of the first shows opposite the Friday Corrie.
What a trashy paper the Evening Times was. Hearts of Gold was an odd series as I've mentioned before, because the following series was on Sunday afternoons and they never managed to work out where to put it, always coming back on different nights, sometimes as a proper series and sometimes as one-offs, sometimes half an hour and sometimes an hour. Like they were forever trying to find a way to get it to work. Certainly didn't work on Saturday night.
That 1990 series of The Generation Game was quite a huge ratings hit, it gave BBC1 its best Friday night rating for years I seem to recall.
What was the reason for putting Gen Game and Casualty on the Friday? What made up the Saturday schedule that year that was considered a hopeful success by the BBC?
Friday was a big entertainment day in those days anyway, so the Gen Game being there wasn't too unusual. The Herald and Evening Times give up in August 1990 but Saturdays in that year included Every Second Counts, the Saturday Roadshow, All Creatures Great and Small and, promoted from Fridays the previous year, The Challenge Programe, as Anneka had it.
There was another series of the Gen Game on Fridays, in 1993, after it had been beaten by Blind Date on Saturdays the previous year. Fridays at eight wasn't always a good slot for the Beeb in those days but the Gen Game's ratings rocketed in that slot - because it was during the brief period when The Bill was on Saturdays instead, and ITV showed You Bet on Friday at eight instead. Everyone decided they liked the Gen Game better than You Bet, You Bet got dropped mid-run and continued on Saturdays in the new year and the Gen Game was "promoted" back to Saturdays in 1994, albeit swapping over with the House Party so the Gen Game was at six.
One of the most obscure Saturday night series of the eighties, this was an adaptation of a Philip Pulman book and was a sci-fi-tinged comedy drama aimed at children. Which will never be shown again due to the starring role by one G Glitter.
I dunno, it looks very like The Bill to me from the promo, and people are clamoring for that to return ;-) In all seriousness, 5 should be applauded for trying original drama on the channel and I'll give it a shot as the cast looks OK They have a big entertainment hitter with CBB and they can hopefully make use of the increased traffic to the channel to change perceptions of it, Ben Frow seems to be committed to it so I'm hopeful. 4 do some excellent drama (Black Mirror being an example) and there's no reason why 5 can't compete with that?
I think the more likely reason they are doing Suspects is the lack of new crime procedurals coming out of America. And it's an obvious fit with some of the other shows on the channel. I don't think they actually sat down and said "right, we need to address this lack of UK drama isssue." I don't think it was about that. As this thread demonstrates on a daily basis, you can't change perceptions that easily. But fair play to them for committing to 10 episodes which must be above average.
I don't think Frow should necessarily be looking to compete with the likes of Black Mirror which excites critics but doesn't generate much of an audience. It was important to go for something crime based. They can't afford to be too ambitious with something like this or it'll end in failure. They haven't got a budget generous enough that they can afford to experiment with pilots and stuff either.
Yes, when it started in 1980 (as a telly thing, the appeal itself started in 1927) Children in Need would pop up in between all the other programmes on BBC1 that night. Wogan always tells the story about how they asked if they could put the phone number on screen during all the programmes on the first one but It Ain't Half Hot Mum refused to let them. The programmes themselves would generally be a bit special, though, a la The Five Doctors, and on the DVD of that you can see all the CiN stuff before and after it.
The last time they did it like this was in 1985, where one of the programmes was Blankety Blank and for a bit of fun they did a bit of business where Les Dawson "linked up" with the CiN studio and asked if they could send across a panellist as they were one short, so Peter Powell "ran across" to the Blank studio (course, Blank was pre-recorded), which is the source of that famous out-take where Powell fell arse over tit on the stairs.
Yes, but the first series was a total disaster, it was thrashed by ITV and was really close to being axed. The initial idea was to make it more like a primetime version of Swap Shop (like Slap Bang was SMTV in primetime) so Noel sat behind a desk and there were lots of interviews and music performances and so on. But it never worked, Noel's sidekick Leni Harper was dropped after three weeks and it only caught on after a radical revamp which got rid of the more ponderous aspects and just made it all daft.
That was the series of 'Allo 'Allo which was 26 episodes long with the intention of drumming up more interest abroad, though it wasn't the success they hoped and the following series returned to a conventional length. The episodes were 25 minutes long as well, I remember them being repeated after Wogan on Friday nights in early 1990, one of the first shows opposite the Friday Corrie.
What a trashy paper the Evening Times was. Hearts of Gold was an odd series as I've mentioned before, because the following series was on Sunday afternoons and they never managed to work out where to put it, always coming back on different nights, sometimes as a proper series and sometimes as one-offs, sometimes half an hour and sometimes an hour. Like they were forever trying to find a way to get it to work. Certainly didn't work on Saturday night.
Friday was a big entertainment day in those days anyway, so the Gen Game being there wasn't too unusual. The Herald and Evening Times give up in August 1990 but Saturdays in that year included Every Second Counts, the Saturday Roadshow, All Creatures Great and Small and, promoted from Fridays the previous year, The Challenge Programe, as Anneka had it.
There was another series of the Gen Game on Fridays, in 1993, after it had been beaten by Blind Date on Saturdays the previous year. Fridays at eight wasn't always a good slot for the Beeb in those days but the Gen Game's ratings rocketed in that slot - because it was during the brief period when The Bill was on Saturdays instead, and ITV showed You Bet on Friday at eight instead. Everyone decided they liked the Gen Game better than You Bet, You Bet got dropped mid-run and continued on Saturdays in the new year and the Gen Game was "promoted" back to Saturdays in 1994, albeit swapping over with the House Party so the Gen Game was at six.
One of the most obscure Saturday night series of the eighties, this was an adaptation of a Philip Pulman book and was a sci-fi-tinged comedy drama aimed at children. Which will never be shown again due to the starring role by one G Glitter.
Thanks for this Steve. I loved Challenge Anneka. I had never heard of How to be Cool before. I am assuming it wasn't particularly successful.
Yes, when it started in 1980 (as a telly thing, the appeal itself started in 1927) Children in Need would pop up in between all the other programmes on BBC1 that night. Wogan always tells the story about how they asked if they could put the phone number on screen during all the programmes on the first one but It Ain't Half Hot Mum refused to let them. The programmes themselves would generally be a bit special, though, a la The Five Doctors, and on the DVD of that you can see all the CiN stuff before and after it.
The last time they did it like this was in 1985, where one of the programmes was Blankety Blank and for a bit of fun they did a bit of business where Les Dawson "linked up" with the CiN studio and asked if they could send across a panellist as they were one short, so Peter Powell "ran across" to the Blank studio (course, Blank was pre-recorded), which is the source of that famous out-take where Powell fell arse over tit on the stairs.
I knew there was a Dawson/Wogan phone call about Blankety Blank and couldn't remember if it was for Dawson's first Blankety Blank or somewhere else! Thank you for clearing that up. The Peter Powell trip should be on You Tube. Well worth seeing if you haven't!
Children In Need has grown into an all night affair but I did like it back then when other programmes were on the night. We all know about The Five Doctors. Might have been the same night it also linked to a spooky Knot's Landing episode.
Yes, but the first series was a total disaster, it was thrashed by ITV and was really close to being axed. The initial idea was to make it more like a primetime version of Swap Shop (like Slap Bang was SMTV in primetime) so Noel sat behind a desk and there were lots of interviews and music performances and so on. But it never worked, Noel's sidekick Leni Harper was dropped after three weeks and it only caught on after a radical revamp which got rid of the more ponderous aspects and just made it all daft.
The first series of The Late Late Breakfast Show was awful. It helped fuel John Peel's passionate hatred of Edmonds. The revamp was much better with features like Mr Puniverse, people jumping in and out of their underpants and a particular favourite The Golden Egg Awards. They should have stopped Give it A Whirl after the first serious accident. They got away with it then but Michael Lush's death could have been avoided.
That was the series of 'Allo 'Allo which was 26 episodes long with the intention of drumming up more interest abroad, though it wasn't the success they hoped and the following series returned to a conventional length. The episodes were 25 minutes long as well, I remember them being repeated after Wogan on Friday nights in early 1990, one of the first shows opposite the Friday Corrie.
The 88 series of 'Allo, 'Allo was one of their best. When the show was still firing on all cylinders. I liked Autumn Saturdays on BBC1 that year as they also had Russ Abbott. A good evening of comedy.
What a trashy paper the Evening Times was. Hearts of Gold was an odd series as I've mentioned before, because the following series was on Sunday afternoons and they never managed to work out where to put it, always coming back on different nights, sometimes as a proper series and sometimes as one-offs, sometimes half an hour and sometimes an hour. Like they were forever trying to find a way to get it to work. Certainly didn't work on Saturday night.
Dark days of BBC1 light entertainment. Hearts Of Gold and Challenge Anneka. No thanks!
Friday was a big entertainment day in those days anyway, so the Gen Game being there wasn't too unusual. The Herald and Evening Times give up in August 1990 but Saturdays in that year included Every Second Counts, the Saturday Roadshow, All Creatures Great and Small and, promoted from Fridays the previous year, The Challenge Programe, as Anneka had it.
There was another series of the Gen Game on Fridays, in 1993, after it had been beaten by Blind Date on Saturdays the previous year. Fridays at eight wasn't always a good slot for the Beeb in those days but the Gen Game's ratings rocketed in that slot - because it was during the brief period when The Bill was on Saturdays instead, and ITV showed You Bet on Friday at eight instead. Everyone decided they liked the Gen Game better than You Bet, You Bet got dropped mid-run and continued on Saturdays in the new year and the Gen Game was "promoted" back to Saturdays in 1994, albeit swapping over with the House Party so the Gen Game was at six.
Bruce couldn't beat Blind Date and the Saturday ratings for Gen Game were way down on Friday. BBC1 made a terrible mistake with House Party in series 2 when it moved to 6pm with Paul Daniels at 7pm. It gave Barrymore a free run. A week earlier House Party was on at 6.30pm and took out Blind Date at 6pm and Barrymore at 7pm.
One of the most obscure Saturday night series of the eighties, this was an adaptation of a Philip Pulman book and was a sci-fi-tinged comedy drama aimed at children. Which will never be shown again due to the starring role by one G Glitter.
Wednesdays at 10pm isn't a bad slot for Suspects, I'm guessing 5 wants to give it a good lead in and protect from 9pm big hitters like DCI Banks and Line of Duty, I want it to do well so we can have more original drama on the channel.
Just a few weeks to go until Jay Leno leaves The Tonight Show for the second and most likely final time
Who do you think will regularly win the American late night chat show ratings racer once Jimmy Fallon steps up as Leno,s replacement
I think there will be some loss of viewers but I think The Tonight Show will retain its lead, I wonder if CBS are thinking of shaking up the Late Show, Lettermans contract is until 2015 but I think we may be ready to retire, he said if Les Moonves, wants him to go, he'll go.
Eastenders reaching the 8 million mark:- a bit of a anti-climax really, it's been talked out on here for so long, now it's happened...whoop whoop! So I'd like to officially start the debate when will eastenders reach 8 million...again!
By the way I think eastenders finally deserves that rating, as I'm not a fan but I have to admit I've been impressed with the Carter's as I have said previously!
Hopefully EastEnders will be hitting 8m more regularly.
Cylon, Steve, I heard that Bruce was so fed up with scheduling The Gen Game on Fridays in 1993 and on Christmas Eve in 1993 and 1994 instead of Christmas Day, that he threw his toys out of the pram and quit the Gen Game and went back to ITV as a result. Is there any truth in that?
I think the more likely reason they are doing Suspects is the lack of new crime procedurals coming out of America. And it's an obvious fit with some of the other shows on the channel. I don't think they actually sat down and said "right, we need to address this lack of UK drama isssue." I don't think it was about that. As this thread demonstrates on a daily basis, you can't change perceptions that easily. But fair play to them for committing to 10 episodes which must be above average.
I don't think Frow should necessarily be looking to compete with the likes of Black Mirror which excites critics but doesn't generate much of an audience. It was important to go for something crime based. They can't afford to be too ambitious with something like this or it'll end in failure. They haven't got a budget generous enough that they can afford to experiment with pilots and stuff either.
I think a pilot season wouldn't be a bad idea, I'm sure if it was promoted as a season of new original drama then it might attract an audience.
Cylon, Steve, I heard that Bruce was so fed up with scheduling The Gen Game on Fridays in 1993 and on Christmas Eve in 1993 and 1994 instead of Christmas Day, that he threw his toys out of the pram and quit the Gen Game and went back to ITV as a result. Is there any truth in that?
Bruce is a very interesting character proved by the incident when he talked about Strictly ratings with journalists. And that was topped by a toecurling few minutes on Big Night Out defending the show and ratings. I wouldn't be surprised with this rumour.
But the BBC were right to schedule The Gen Game where they did. It had one big series on Friday then it suffered for several series on Saturdays. Which is funny as it was 'suffering' with 10m and many shows would love that today.
Just a few weeks to go until Jay Leno leaves The Tonight Show for the second and most likely final time
Who do you think will regularly win the American late night chat show ratings racer once Jimmy Fallon steps up as Leno,s replacement
Jimmy Fallon's ratings have risen over the last two weeks, it got its' highest rating in months last Friday. I think it will start by dipping below Letterman, but it will climb above it with time. NBC just have to give Fallon more time they gave Conan. Fallon also brings in a highly sought after demographic for Late Night at the minute, and if they watch The Tonight Show, then it will rise.
The Mill was the programme The Village was trying to be. The Village was terrible. What was impressive about The Mill was that it managed to get an audience opposite Top Gear.
Exactly...
The Village was alight, but The Mill was just better in every way.
Hopefully it will stay on Channel 4's schedule for a few series
But that's just it, I haven't. I'm often critical. If users choose to ignore those bits so they can make me out to be some sort of fanatical nutcase, whilst busy pushing an agenda of their own, so be it. I can only contribute by honest opinions and try to add value to the thread in whatever way that I can. I think the vast majority of regulars here can see that...
Something which is rather undercut by a habit to be somewhat defensive about Channel 5 and the rather odd post needlessly attacking Channel 4's drama output (which didn't even work as a generalisation) as some kind of defence of Channel 5's drama output.
You didn't read my subsequent post then? I wasn't by any means slagging off all C4 drama, why not read my posts in context before you unleash your wrath on me. I was merely making the point that Suspects would look out of place on C4, it's been made for a C5 audience. A very valid point in a thread about ratings.
I'm sorry but that post absolutely was you slagging off Channel 4's drama output (in some misguided attempt to defend Channel 5) and your subsequent post does nothing to change that. I also feel somewhat compelled to ask what about the Channel 5 schedule is 'gritty and raw'? That's how you described Suspects and apparently its a great fit for the Channel 5 schedule. I honestly can't see how those two statements can both be true. Indeed my concern for Suspects is that it looks remarkably off brand for Channel 5 which really isn't know for gritty and raw drama.
Just a few weeks to go until Jay Leno leaves The Tonight Show for the second and most likely final time
Who do you think will regularly win the American late night chat show ratings racer once Jimmy Fallon steps up as Leno,s replacement
Depends what metric you want to use.
I suspect Leno will win with total audience and the older demo but Fallon should win with younger viewers. This will essentially put NBC back exactly where they were when Conan took over the Tonight Show. He lost older viewers but brought younger viewers from Late Night with him which is exactly what NBC wanted him to do so its never made a whole lot of sense to me that they just didn't stick to their guns and keep Conan over Leno. They'd certainly be in a better position now since I think Conan was a safer pair of hands than Fallon who I've really grown to like on Late Night but I'm not sure its going to be a great transition to Tonight. Of course the wild card factor in all this will be Jimmy Kimmel who wasn't playing in this timeslot last time we had a Tonight Show change.
I think the more likely reason they are doing Suspects is the lack of new crime procedurals coming out of America...
Is there?
This season there's The Blacklist, Ironside, Chicago PD, Intelligence, Killer Women, Mind Game (or whatever they're calling that now), Almost Human, Gang Related and Rake that are all crime procedurals of some stripe. And that's just from the networks cable has even more to offer.
I don't think Frow should necessarily be looking to compete with the likes of Black Mirror which excites critics but doesn't generate much of an audience. It was important to go for something crime based. They can't afford to be too ambitious with something like this or it'll end in failure. They haven't got a budget generous enough that they can afford to experiment with pilots and stuff either.
Its difficult to know how Channel 5 should play original drama expansion.
On the one hand I can see a fair degree of merit for going for something that's going to play really well with critics but not necessarily excite or draw a big audience. Arguably that's the kind of show that's going to help change perceptions and ideas about what kind of content Channel 5 are producing and will likely make the press much more open to any future drama commissions. Of course the problem with that strategy is that it means that they'll probably have to be prepared to take a financial hit on it. The other alternative of course is to go for something much more obviously crowd pleasing which critics probably aren't going to care much for but audiences may very well tune into in decent numbers. The thing is I'm not sure Channel 5 have really done either. Suspects doesn't (to me at least) play like a big crowd pleaser or in the same style as some of their bigger imported hits but equally it doesn't seem like the kind of things critics are going to love either. Its sort of seems to be trying to occupy this middle ground between the options and I'm not sure how well that's going to work.
Having said that as I think I've said before I hope Suspects works for them. More broadcasters investing in more original British content is only a good thing and I think it would be nice for them to break some of their dependence on imports the lifespan of which they have no real control over.
Something which is rather undercut by a habit to be somewhat defensive about Channel 5.
You're right. I'll just bite my tongue over the constant one-liners slagging off everything they do. They add so much and me telling them to contribute something more constructive was completely unnecessary and to the obvious detriment of the thread. We'd miss such posts desperately.
In all seriousness, me falling for these one-liners and expressing my annoyance serves up a perfect opportunity for posters such as yourself to go on the attack and make all sorts of dubious statements about my integrity as a poster, which leads to further off topic posts and ego stroking.
Just to be absolutely clear about this though, I was not intending to be too damning on C4's drama output. Some of it is style over substance, not all of it. I did not make that clear enough. Much of it is of a high quality and programming to be proud of.
Comments
Sorry but are we forgetting BBC's ultimate fanboy?
By the way I think eastenders finally deserves that rating, as I'm not a fan but I have to admit I've been impressed with the Carter's as I have said previously!
The Village was quite grim but strangely addictive.
The Mill was the programme The Village was trying to be. The Village was terrible. What was impressive about The Mill was that it managed to get an audience opposite Top Gear.
And we have a couple of ITV fanboys too. One in particular who thinks ITV is a little puppy and almost comes across as crying his little heart out each time it's criticised. There's nowt wrong in favouring a channel. It keeps the thread interesting.
BIB: I think that's perhaps exaggerating my post just a tad.
You said Suspects would be a shock to the system of "anyone who reguarly watched Channel 4 drama because it was raw and gritty" , implying that drama on 4 wasn't, which is absurd considering it's the only type of drama they have actually invested in recently (to their fault.)
Agree that I'm going to save my judgement until the premier episode although to be fair to Gosh it's not particuarly caught my interest.
This thread does seem to be getting bogged down in the pettiness and arguements recently - I don't want to contribute to that, lets just live and let live.
Shane Ritchie was in panto in High Wycombe from mid-December to early January which explains Alfie's current trip to Australia.
Yes, when it started in 1980 (as a telly thing, the appeal itself started in 1927) Children in Need would pop up in between all the other programmes on BBC1 that night. Wogan always tells the story about how they asked if they could put the phone number on screen during all the programmes on the first one but It Ain't Half Hot Mum refused to let them. The programmes themselves would generally be a bit special, though, a la The Five Doctors, and on the DVD of that you can see all the CiN stuff before and after it.
The last time they did it like this was in 1985, where one of the programmes was Blankety Blank and for a bit of fun they did a bit of business where Les Dawson "linked up" with the CiN studio and asked if they could send across a panellist as they were one short, so Peter Powell "ran across" to the Blank studio (course, Blank was pre-recorded), which is the source of that famous out-take where Powell fell arse over tit on the stairs.
Yes, but the first series was a total disaster, it was thrashed by ITV and was really close to being axed. The initial idea was to make it more like a primetime version of Swap Shop (like Slap Bang was SMTV in primetime) so Noel sat behind a desk and there were lots of interviews and music performances and so on. But it never worked, Noel's sidekick Leni Harper was dropped after three weeks and it only caught on after a radical revamp which got rid of the more ponderous aspects and just made it all daft.
That was the series of 'Allo 'Allo which was 26 episodes long with the intention of drumming up more interest abroad, though it wasn't the success they hoped and the following series returned to a conventional length. The episodes were 25 minutes long as well, I remember them being repeated after Wogan on Friday nights in early 1990, one of the first shows opposite the Friday Corrie.
Sadly the Glasgow Herald archive on Google News doesn't include November 1988, but the Glasgow Evening Times does, so you can see the whole of that day on page nine here...
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C&dat=19881119&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
What a trashy paper the Evening Times was. Hearts of Gold was an odd series as I've mentioned before, because the following series was on Sunday afternoons and they never managed to work out where to put it, always coming back on different nights, sometimes as a proper series and sometimes as one-offs, sometimes half an hour and sometimes an hour. Like they were forever trying to find a way to get it to work. Certainly didn't work on Saturday night.
Friday was a big entertainment day in those days anyway, so the Gen Game being there wasn't too unusual. The Herald and Evening Times give up in August 1990 but Saturdays in that year included Every Second Counts, the Saturday Roadshow, All Creatures Great and Small and, promoted from Fridays the previous year, The Challenge Programe, as Anneka had it.
There was another series of the Gen Game on Fridays, in 1993, after it had been beaten by Blind Date on Saturdays the previous year. Fridays at eight wasn't always a good slot for the Beeb in those days but the Gen Game's ratings rocketed in that slot - because it was during the brief period when The Bill was on Saturdays instead, and ITV showed You Bet on Friday at eight instead. Everyone decided they liked the Gen Game better than You Bet, You Bet got dropped mid-run and continued on Saturdays in the new year and the Gen Game was "promoted" back to Saturdays in 1994, albeit swapping over with the House Party so the Gen Game was at six.
One of the most obscure Saturday night series of the eighties, this was an adaptation of a Philip Pulman book and was a sci-fi-tinged comedy drama aimed at children. Which will never be shown again due to the starring role by one G Glitter.
Who do you think will regularly win the American late night chat show ratings racer once Jimmy Fallon steps up as Leno,s replacement
I don't think Frow should necessarily be looking to compete with the likes of Black Mirror which excites critics but doesn't generate much of an audience. It was important to go for something crime based. They can't afford to be too ambitious with something like this or it'll end in failure. They haven't got a budget generous enough that they can afford to experiment with pilots and stuff either.
Thanks for this Steve. I loved Challenge Anneka. I had never heard of How to be Cool before. I am assuming it wasn't particularly successful.
Children In Need has grown into an all night affair but I did like it back then when other programmes were on the night. We all know about The Five Doctors. Might have been the same night it also linked to a spooky Knot's Landing episode.
The first series of The Late Late Breakfast Show was awful. It helped fuel John Peel's passionate hatred of Edmonds. The revamp was much better with features like Mr Puniverse, people jumping in and out of their underpants and a particular favourite The Golden Egg Awards. They should have stopped Give it A Whirl after the first serious accident. They got away with it then but Michael Lush's death could have been avoided.
The 88 series of 'Allo, 'Allo was one of their best. When the show was still firing on all cylinders. I liked Autumn Saturdays on BBC1 that year as they also had Russ Abbott. A good evening of comedy.
Dark days of BBC1 light entertainment. Hearts Of Gold and Challenge Anneka. No thanks!
Bruce couldn't beat Blind Date and the Saturday ratings for Gen Game were way down on Friday. BBC1 made a terrible mistake with House Party in series 2 when it moved to 6pm with Paul Daniels at 7pm. It gave Barrymore a free run. A week earlier House Party was on at 6.30pm and took out Blind Date at 6pm and Barrymore at 7pm.
Why do I not remember this one?
I think there will be some loss of viewers but I think The Tonight Show will retain its lead, I wonder if CBS are thinking of shaking up the Late Show, Lettermans contract is until 2015 but I think we may be ready to retire, he said if Les Moonves, wants him to go, he'll go.
I think a pilot season wouldn't be a bad idea, I'm sure if it was promoted as a season of new original drama then it might attract an audience.
Bruce is a very interesting character proved by the incident when he talked about Strictly ratings with journalists. And that was topped by a toecurling few minutes on Big Night Out defending the show and ratings. I wouldn't be surprised with this rumour.
But the BBC were right to schedule The Gen Game where they did. It had one big series on Friday then it suffered for several series on Saturdays. Which is funny as it was 'suffering' with 10m and many shows would love that today.
CBB did well, will probably be over 3m for the final tomorrow. BBC One did pretty well at 9pm, and ITV did not too bad either.
Jimmy Fallon's ratings have risen over the last two weeks, it got its' highest rating in months last Friday. I think it will start by dipping below Letterman, but it will climb above it with time. NBC just have to give Fallon more time they gave Conan. Fallon also brings in a highly sought after demographic for Late Night at the minute, and if they watch The Tonight Show, then it will rise.
The Village was alight, but The Mill was just better in every way.
Hopefully it will stay on Channel 4's schedule for a few series
1998. Must have been the last time Casualty was in the BARB Top 10 shows of the year, with 15.74m.
I'm sorry but that post absolutely was you slagging off Channel 4's drama output (in some misguided attempt to defend Channel 5) and your subsequent post does nothing to change that. I also feel somewhat compelled to ask what about the Channel 5 schedule is 'gritty and raw'? That's how you described Suspects and apparently its a great fit for the Channel 5 schedule. I honestly can't see how those two statements can both be true. Indeed my concern for Suspects is that it looks remarkably off brand for Channel 5 which really isn't know for gritty and raw drama.
Depends what metric you want to use.
I suspect Leno will win with total audience and the older demo but Fallon should win with younger viewers. This will essentially put NBC back exactly where they were when Conan took over the Tonight Show. He lost older viewers but brought younger viewers from Late Night with him which is exactly what NBC wanted him to do so its never made a whole lot of sense to me that they just didn't stick to their guns and keep Conan over Leno. They'd certainly be in a better position now since I think Conan was a safer pair of hands than Fallon who I've really grown to like on Late Night but I'm not sure its going to be a great transition to Tonight. Of course the wild card factor in all this will be Jimmy Kimmel who wasn't playing in this timeslot last time we had a Tonight Show change.
Is there?
This season there's The Blacklist, Ironside, Chicago PD, Intelligence, Killer Women, Mind Game (or whatever they're calling that now), Almost Human, Gang Related and Rake that are all crime procedurals of some stripe. And that's just from the networks cable has even more to offer.
Its difficult to know how Channel 5 should play original drama expansion.
On the one hand I can see a fair degree of merit for going for something that's going to play really well with critics but not necessarily excite or draw a big audience. Arguably that's the kind of show that's going to help change perceptions and ideas about what kind of content Channel 5 are producing and will likely make the press much more open to any future drama commissions. Of course the problem with that strategy is that it means that they'll probably have to be prepared to take a financial hit on it. The other alternative of course is to go for something much more obviously crowd pleasing which critics probably aren't going to care much for but audiences may very well tune into in decent numbers. The thing is I'm not sure Channel 5 have really done either. Suspects doesn't (to me at least) play like a big crowd pleaser or in the same style as some of their bigger imported hits but equally it doesn't seem like the kind of things critics are going to love either. Its sort of seems to be trying to occupy this middle ground between the options and I'm not sure how well that's going to work.
Having said that as I think I've said before I hope Suspects works for them. More broadcasters investing in more original British content is only a good thing and I think it would be nice for them to break some of their dependence on imports the lifespan of which they have no real control over.
In all seriousness, me falling for these one-liners and expressing my annoyance serves up a perfect opportunity for posters such as yourself to go on the attack and make all sorts of dubious statements about my integrity as a poster, which leads to further off topic posts and ego stroking.
Just to be absolutely clear about this though, I was not intending to be too damning on C4's drama output. Some of it is style over substance, not all of it. I did not make that clear enough. Much of it is of a high quality and programming to be proud of.
Can we move on? I sure hope so.