BBC News continues to thrash ITV News, that's what. With more than twice the number of viewers for the main bulletins. And on May 7 the BBC's election night coverage will put an overwhelming distance between itself and the ITV equivalent.
Another reason Britain's Got Talent is soaring this year is it's against Atlantis for part of the episode followed by a lottery quiz which people are happy to dip in and out of. The 8pm start time has helped too alongside, for a change, a decent lead in. I'm previous years it's had a 7pm start, Doctor Who and The Voice all against it plus You've Been Framed as a lead in. I'm not knocking the figures at all; they're holding strong and if people hated it they would simply switch off. But it is getting an easier ride than previous series.
I'd point out that until about the end of 2013 You've Been Framed was a perfectly good lead-in, it only started tailing off massively around a year or two ago (as they started running it on ITV2 all the time which reduced its appeal).
Also most series of BGT have faced a lottery quiz so it isn't anything new and it only faces Atlantis for 30 minutes. It hardly ever faced The Voice really. A few 20 minute overlaps in 2012 and then the launch in 2013 went head to head with it but that was it. Doctor Who is hardly tough competition either, that wouldn't have done any damage. ITV entertainment always does just as well against Doctor Who as against a lottery quiz as the audiences are so different.
And BGT's domination (and rise from previous years) is even more impressive when you consider that it's on series 9. X Factor had tumbled down to 8 million in its ninth series.
BGT seems to have settled around the 10 million mark and shows no sign of decline. I have a feeling it will probably outlive TXF, which will probably go when the contract ends next year, and whose ratings have fallen by 40 per cent in this decade.
The key to BGT's success is it's more likeable than TXF, no sob stories, overkill, or yawnsome bootcamp rounds. Also it seems to have a wider appeal than TXF due to the variety of acts.
BGT seems to have settled around the 10 million mark and shows no sign of decline. I have a feeling it will probably outlive TXF, which will probably go when the contract ends next year, and whose ratings have fallen by 40 per cent in this decade.
The key to BGT's success is it's more likeable than TXF, no sob stories, overkill, or yawnsome bootcamp rounds. Also it seems to have a wider appeal than TXF due to the variety of acts.
You make some very good points sir!
It will be interesting to see what happens when the contracts end next year, hopefully BGT's ratings stay like this because then we could definitely be seeing a 3-year renewal! Simon is gonna have much tougher time getting ITV to renew X Factor considering it's lost (on some occasions) 7-8 million viewers in 5 years!Things could change this year of course but I wouldn't put money on it!
And I agree BGT just has more appeal, the different variety each year makes things less predictable, plus don't forget the judges and Ant&Dec! :P It's just a much more joyous more family-oriented show!
The big advantage of BGT is that it really doesn't matter who wins the final. There dosn't seem to be the same level of cynicism or manipulation going on.
Now I don't know what goes on behind the scenes of the XFactor, but it just seems to have become a vehicle to push certain artists that Sony wish to sign. It's one long advertorial, with certain unfavoured acts thrown under the bus when the higher-ups don't want them to do well.
Whether viewers explicitly notice this or not, what they do pick up on is the nastiness and fakeness of certain aspects of the show - the judges' vote being a case in point.
BGT, on the other hand, is a jolly talent show, fronted by 2 very likeable stars. It's the reason why Pop Idol was fun and relatively innocent. XFactor is mired in murk and politics, imo.
You make some very good points sir!
It will be interesting to see what happens when the contracts end next year, hopefully BGT's ratings stay like this because then we could definitely be seeing a 3-year renewal! Simon is gonna have much tougher time getting ITV to renew X Factor considering it's lost (on some occasions) 7-8 million viewers in 5 years!Things could change this year of course but I wouldn't put money on it!
And I agree BGT just has more appeal, the different variety each year makes things less predictable, plus don't forget the judges and Ant&Dec! :P It's just a much more joyous more family-oriented show!
The way TXF is going, it could fall below 7 million this year and 6 million next. I'll imagine Cowell will decide to pull the plug when the contract renewal comes up next year as he doesn't like failure and the show will have been on for 12 years. Also it is expensive for ITV to show and should it stop turning a reasonable profit, then they will want it to go.
BGT is more like a modern day New Faces or Opportunity Knocks, both well loved shows in the seventies, which had a similar range of acts from MOR pop singers to ventriloquists. I wouldn't say I was a big fan, but I do watch it when there's nothing else on.
The way TXF is going, it could fall below 7 million this year and 6 million next. I'll imagine Cowell will decide to pull the plug when the contract renewal comes up next year as he doesn't like failure and the show will have been on for 12 years. Also it is expensive for ITV to show and should it stop turning a reasonable profit, then they will want it to go.
BGT is more like a modern day New Faces or Opportunity Knocks, both well loved shows in the seventies, which had a similar range of acts from MOR pop singers to ventriloquists. I wouldn't say I was a big fan, but I do watch it when there's nothing else on.
It looks like, the XF will continue to fall, because the promises of big changes, yet again looks not to be happening, if Cheryl is coming back.
I'd point out that until about the end of 2013 You've Been Framed was a perfectly good lead-in, it only started tailing off massively around a year or two ago (as they started running it on ITV2 all the time which reduced its appeal).
Also most series of BGT have faced a lottery quiz so it isn't anything new and it only faces Atlantis for 30 minutes. It hardly ever faced The Voice really. A few 20 minute overlaps in 2012 and then the launch in 2013 went head to head with it but that was it. Doctor Who is hardly tough competition either, that wouldn't have done any damage. ITV entertainment always does just as well against Doctor Who as against a lottery quiz as the audiences are so different.
They flogged You've Been Framed to death with the airings on ITV2 as well. It'll never be that stable support that it was because of it.
The lottery quiz is nothing new but it has a much weaker lead in than previously; Doctor Who offered much stronger support to the night than Atlantis currently is. 20 minute clashes can still hurt a show, as show by Strictly's clashes with The X Factor so The Voice's presence would have held Britain's Got Talent back slightly - back in 2012 (or was it 2013? Or both?) it beat Britain's Got Talent in the overnights.
They flogged You've Been Framed to death with the airings on ITV2 as well. It'll never be that stable support that it was because of it.
The lottery quiz is nothing new but it has a much weaker lead in than previously; Doctor Who offered much stronger support to the night than Atlantis currently is. 20 minute clashes can still hurt a show, as show by Strictly's clashes with The X Factor so The Voice's presence would have held Britain's Got Talent back slightly - back in 2012 (or was it 2013? Or both?) it beat Britain's Got Talent in the overnights.
The Voice beat BGT in 2012 a few weeks as spinning chair fever gripped the nation. BGT ended that year thrashing it 2:1 and The Voice didn't win a single overnight in 2013.
Wow! BGT is absolutely storming it this series so far - moving 10.1m, 10.1m, 10.5m and another 10.1m for last night. Solid as a rock so far. I honestly was expecting more of a dip last night due to Bank Holiday weekend.
This is unbelievable. Its excellent to see ITV get good numbers at last. It can still be done!
The ghost of Harry Hill's Stars In Their Eyes has been exorcised. ITV has two hit shows on Saturdays and Ninja has done better than people has expected.
Does anyone know how the rest of BGT is going to be scheduled this year?
Presumably, auditions 5 & 6 will be airing Saturday 9th and 16th May respectively.
But what about the 7th auditions show? The 23rd May is Eurovision I believe - so will ITV air BGT on the Sunday (24th) instead?
And how is the live week going to go this year? Any football midweek? And will be final be the week after?
Episode 7 traditionally airs on a Sunday (often due to football I think). It'll probably be on the Sunday to avoid Eurovision and then the first semi final will come on Monday. And yes, I suspect they will do the final a week after the last semi, as that is now the norm.
Does anyone know how the rest of BGT is going to be scheduled this year?
Presumably, auditions 5 & 6 will be airing Saturday 9th and 16th May respectively.
But what about the 7th auditions show? The 23rd May is Eurovision I believe - so will ITV air BGT on the Sunday (24th) instead?
And how is the live week going to go this year? Any football midweek? And will be final be the week after?
They've never moved Britain's Got Talent for Eurovision before, if my memory serves me correctly, so I don't think this year will be any different.
The Champions League final is on 6th June so there can't be a week's break this year; England have a football match on the Sunday so they can't move it there either. The Europa League final will be on 27th May but with no British interest they'll air that on ITV4.
Based on that I think it will be stripped right across the week from 25th - 31st May. Though I thought I read something about Simon Cowell saying that the show would be live shows would be stripped between 24th May to 31st May which suggests a further round. I haven't seen this confirmed, though.
They've never moved Britain's Got Talent for Eurovision before, if my memory serves me correctly, so I don't think this year will be any different.
The Champions League final is on 6th June so there can't be a week's break this year; England have a football match on the Sunday so they can't move it there either. The Europa League final will be on 27th May but with no British interest they'll air that on ITV4.
Based on that I think it will be stripped right across the week from 25th - 31st May. Though I thought I read something about Simon Cowell saying that the show would be live shows would be stripped between 24th May to 31st May which suggests a further round. I haven't seen this confirmed, though.
So if there's an extra round - then the last auditions will have to air on the Saturday. Not sure Bank Holiday Sunday is the best day to launch the live shows though.
Stripped 24th to 31st May - does that mean a Sunday final then?
So if there's an extra round - then the last auditions will have to air on the Saturday. Not sure Bank Holiday Sunday is the best day to launch the live shows though.
Stripped 24th to 31st May - does that mean a Sunday final then?
I'm not certain what they're doing. I certainly can't see them having it on two Sundays as they won't want to interrupt Home Fires. The normal format would suggest it running Monday 25th-Saturday 30th but Simon said something about a semi-final. Might be something, might be nothing, I'm not sure.
They might go something like Monday 25th-Sunday 31st I guess. Perhaps they might do some sort of 2 night final (so the top 10 perform on the Saturday then the results on Sunday, maybe with the top 3/5 performing again?). Hopefully Applause Store will put the dates on their website soon which should shed some light.
One other thing - the ITV AB email for June said the BGT Final would be airing in June. However I think that must be wrong as I don't see how it could fit in the schedules. These AB's are reliable most of the time but have been wrong occasionally before so we'll see.
So if there's an extra round - then the last auditions will have to air on the Saturday. Not sure Bank Holiday Sunday is the best day to launch the live shows though.
Stripped 24th to 31st May - does that mean a Sunday final then?
Sorry, meant 24th May - 30th May. I'm pretty sure the rumour was start on the Sunday and finish on the Saturday because that took me by surprise. I thought it'd be more likely to start on the Monday and finish on the Sunday if anything.
Simon said the live shows run Monday 25th-Sunday 31st when he was on Radio 1. It makes sense not to have the final on Saturday 30th as that's the day of the FA Cup Final at 5:30pm on BBC One and they won't want that overrunning into the BGT Final.
I'm not certain what they're doing. I certainly can't see them having it on two Sundays as they won't want to interrupt Home Fires. The normal format would suggest it running Monday 25th-Saturday 30th but Simon said something about a semi-final. Might be something, might be nothing, I'm not sure.
They might go something like Monday 25th-Sunday 31st I guess. Perhaps they might do some sort of 2 night final (so the top 10 perform on the Saturday then the results on Sunday, maybe with the top 3/5 performing again?). Hopefully Applause Store will put the dates on their website soon which should shed some light.
One other thing - the ITV AB email for June said the BGT Final would be airing in June. However I think that must be wrong as I don't see how it could fit in the schedules. These AB's are reliable most of the time but have been wrong occasionally before so we'll see.
They're going to have to give Home Fires a break before it's final episode - with Ireland v England on June 7th where episode six should air. If Britain's Got Talent airs on 24th May or 31st May they can easily air it between 7pm and 9pm with Home Fires at 9pm.
Simon said the live shows run Monday 25th-Sunday 31st when he was on Radio 1. It makes sense not to have the final on Saturday 30th as that's the day of the FA Cup Final at 5:30pm on BBC One and they won't want that overrunning into the BGT Final.
That makes more sense; maybe I misheard before. I'm pretty sure he said there wouldn't be a break either which suggests an additional round.
Simon said the live shows run Monday 25th-Sunday 31st when he was on Radio 1. It makes sense not to have the final on Saturday 30th as that's the day of the FA Cup Final at 5:30pm on BBC One and they won't want that overrunning into the BGT Final.
I'd rather the weekday shows ran 8.00-10.00pm (stuff Corrie, it is BGT's big week, let it sort it's own problems out rather than sponging off a bigger show) but they won't do that.
They're going to have to give Home Fires a break before it's final episode - with Ireland v England on June 7th where episode six should air. If Britain's Got Talent airs on 24th May or 31st May they can easily air it between 7pm and 9pm with Home Fires at 9pm.
That's true, which is annoying. Unless they have the first 5 episodes run Sunday 3rd-31st May as normal and then have episode 6 on Monday 1st June, so the day after episode 5 as a 2 night finale. That would probably work better and help it hold any momentum it might gain from airing after BGT on the 31st.
They've never moved Britain's Got Talent for Eurovision before, if my memory serves me correctly, so I don't think this year will be any different.
The Champions League final is on 6th June so there can't be a week's break this year; England have a football match on the Sunday so they can't move it there either. The Europa League final will be on 27th May but with no British interest they'll air that on ITV4.
Based on that I think it will be stripped right across the week from 25th - 31st May. Though I thought I read something about Simon Cowell saying that the show would be live shows would be stripped between 24th May to 31st May which suggests a further round. I haven't seen this confirmed, though.
At least ITV won't have to worry about the Champions League next year. I think them losing this contract could be a blessing in disguise as it has hampered them in the last few years, having to show foreign teams with minimal interest, when they'd love to show big rating entertainment like BGT.
I'm not sure that's correct. ITV used to be able to pull underperforming shows, because they had sufficient content in reserve. With ITV programme spend now quite low, compared in real terms to 2006, they really have little option but to let these flops play out. The same situation is occuring in the US right now. American networks would aggressively pull stuff after 1 or 2 weeks. Now they have no option but to play them out, as it's the least expensive option. The result, however, is a network schedule full of shows people don't want to watch. It's a vicious cycle.
Good points, although it does have artistic merit of course in that the programmes are allowed to continue to serve the audiences, albeit small ones, that are intrerested in them. They can use the big profits as a bit of a failsafe, though, so they're not compelled to make every drama a long runner to ensure they're profitable, and so on.
Anyway my suggestion would be it was the first thing that came to hand that was 25 minutes long
It's exactly that, I think. The announcer mentioned it was the Bank Holiday weekend before it so they presumably thought they could get away with it as a bit of festive fun. Certainly not the oldest thing that's been seen on primetime BBC1, the Indiana Jones films still get regular primetime outings.
I notice ITV were below 2m again last night at 9pm. Another programme that only appeals to a BBC audience when on BBC1.
Fraud Squad is not on BBC1. Similar programmes on similar themes are on BBC1, but not that exact programme with that exact content and made in the exact same way, so comparisons can't be made.
ITV has lost 6% of its breakfast audience since the launch of Good Morning Britain - although there have been signs of improvement in the first quarter of 2015.
Well, I thought it was massive bad luck for them because I've been saying for the last year that what Good Morning Britain needed was a story like the royal baby which is of interest to people who don't generally watch news in the morning and so they can attract a new audience and try and keep them from then on. I vividly remember when Princess Beatrice was born on 8/8/88 our family watched TVam to see it whereas we would normally listen to the radio in the morning, the same principle would work here. And then the baby's born at the bloody weekend.
BBC Two's evening continued with 1.63 million (8.1%) for The Natural World at 8pm, followed by 1.09 million (6.3%) for The Clare Balding Show.
These ratings for Clare Balding are puzzling me a bit, the first one got a pretty big rating and then last week it was down to under a million, and now it's gone back up again. It seems incredibly volatile and while the guests presumably are a factor they surely can't affect it that much.
Yes, it's all well and good that ITV beat the BBC to the punch on this one occasion - every dog has its day and all that - but nobody really noticed in truth, those that did appear to have largely shrugged their shoulders and normal service shall be resumed very quickly. So why are we going on about it as if it's something extraordinary or remarkable? It's neither.
The BBC were in the middle of a feature film but covered it extensively on BBC News and later bulletins. More than adequate, most people would agree.
Arguably ITV's schedule was made for alteration as practicably no-one would have complained about the change. I think it boils down to how much value is attached to a few minutes footage of a baby which was presumably carried on the news channel anyway. I am just about in favour of the ongoing monarchy but seeing the child meant next to nothing to me and I wonder if cancelling/breaking into WALL E would have drawn more complaints than leaving it alone.
Hmm. It's not been BBC1's finest hour, right from the moment it was announced during Saturday Kitchen when James Martin said they were going over to the news, then said they weren't, then they did anyway, jumping in halfway through Nicholas Witchell's announcement. You have to say, by the way, TiVo and Sky+ and so on really have been a godsend for telly anoraks to keep on top of how breaking news is broken, allowing me to wind back to see BBC1 break it while I was watching BT (and indeed got the news broken by Darren Fletcher).
I was a bit surprised they went into WALL-E, but at the end of the day, it was clear ITV had the chance to give it extended coverage because they had nothing else of any value on there so there was no problem in just going on. And then when it did happen they were an hour into the film so it would have probably annoyed more people than it would have pleased, not like a One Show clip show when nobody cares. We had that moaning when they interrupted Mrs Brown for Mandela and I think there's something to be said for the fact WALL-E is a kids' film (it's one of my two year old niece's favourites) so breaking into it would probably have baffled and bored much of the audience.
There was a bit of a precedent in when the Good Friday Agreement was announced in 1998, and BBC1 were ten minutes from the end of Ben Hur having already shown it for three hours. It would have been ridiculous to stop the film after that length so they did the newsflash on BBC2.
As I said when George was born, this is a proper ITV story of massive interest to their most loyal viewers, and they've always been big on royal news so it was probably right they gave it more coverage than the Beeb. HOWEVER, any kudos ITV may get must be tempered by the fact they dropped the regional news completely. Yeah, they didn't know exactly when it was going to happen but when, at 5.30, they said they would be coming out "in about 45 minutes to an hour", that would surely have given them the chance to show the regional news then. And if not, the fact they still showed You've Been Framed at 6.30 when they could have shown the regional news then (around the time they show it during the week, and still before the Beeb) is also pretty crap. No excuse for it.
Whether viewers explicitly notice this or not, what they do pick up on is the nastiness and fakeness of certain aspects of the show - the judges' vote being a case in point.
BGT, on the other hand, is a jolly talent show, fronted by 2 very likeable stars. It's the reason why Pop Idol was fun and relatively innocent. XFactor is mired in murk and politics, imo.
I would agree with this a lot. We hear a lot of people moan that shows like The X Factor are nasty and horrible and the audience are baying for more humiliation and more extreme formats, but the audience are always quick to complain if they think a show is too contrived and nasty, and the ratings prove that.
I'd rather the weekday shows ran 8.00-10.00pm (stuff Corrie, it is BGT's big week, let it sort it's own problems out rather than sponging off a bigger show) but they won't do that.
Though that would make it difficult to air Coronation Street's episodes without clashing with EastEnders. Unless ITV go with 19.00 Emmerdale; 19.30 Coronation Street; 20.00 Britain's Got Talent, trying to force BBC One to move EastEnders to 8pm - though it'd probably be better off hedging it's bets opposite Coronation Street.
If they want to combine Britain's Got Talent's performance and results (which I agree they should do) then they should probably go with 19.00 Emmerdale; 19.30 Britain's Got Talent; 21.30 Coronation Street.
That's true, which is annoying. Unless they have the first 5 episodes run Sunday 3rd-31st May as normal and then have episode 6 on Monday 1st June, so the day after episode 5 as a 2 night finale. That would probably work better and help it hold any momentum it might gain from airing after BGT on the 31st.
I agree; that would be much better. I wonder what ITV have lined up for 18th May? They can't start anything due to Britain's Got Talent running on 25th May.
At least ITV won't have to worry about the Champions League next year. I think them losing this contract could be a blessing in disguise as it has hampered them in the last few years, having to show foreign teams with minimal interest, when they'd love to show big rating entertainment like BGT.
Except ITV don't have any 'big entertainment' shows except for Britain's Got Talent, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and, to a lesser extent, The X Factor. Other than during Britain's Got Talent's final week, neither Cowell show airs on a Tuesday and I'm A Celebrity... only runs for three weeks of a year.
Comments
Credit where it's due?
I'd point out that until about the end of 2013 You've Been Framed was a perfectly good lead-in, it only started tailing off massively around a year or two ago (as they started running it on ITV2 all the time which reduced its appeal).
Also most series of BGT have faced a lottery quiz so it isn't anything new and it only faces Atlantis for 30 minutes. It hardly ever faced The Voice really. A few 20 minute overlaps in 2012 and then the launch in 2013 went head to head with it but that was it. Doctor Who is hardly tough competition either, that wouldn't have done any damage. ITV entertainment always does just as well against Doctor Who as against a lottery quiz as the audiences are so different.
BGT seems to have settled around the 10 million mark and shows no sign of decline. I have a feeling it will probably outlive TXF, which will probably go when the contract ends next year, and whose ratings have fallen by 40 per cent in this decade.
The key to BGT's success is it's more likeable than TXF, no sob stories, overkill, or yawnsome bootcamp rounds. Also it seems to have a wider appeal than TXF due to the variety of acts.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the contracts end next year, hopefully BGT's ratings stay like this because then we could definitely be seeing a 3-year renewal! Simon is gonna have much tougher time getting ITV to renew X Factor considering it's lost (on some occasions) 7-8 million viewers in 5 years!Things could change this year of course but I wouldn't put money on it!
And I agree BGT just has more appeal, the different variety each year makes things less predictable, plus don't forget the judges and Ant&Dec! :P It's just a much more joyous more family-oriented show!
Now I don't know what goes on behind the scenes of the XFactor, but it just seems to have become a vehicle to push certain artists that Sony wish to sign. It's one long advertorial, with certain unfavoured acts thrown under the bus when the higher-ups don't want them to do well.
Whether viewers explicitly notice this or not, what they do pick up on is the nastiness and fakeness of certain aspects of the show - the judges' vote being a case in point.
BGT, on the other hand, is a jolly talent show, fronted by 2 very likeable stars. It's the reason why Pop Idol was fun and relatively innocent. XFactor is mired in murk and politics, imo.
The way TXF is going, it could fall below 7 million this year and 6 million next. I'll imagine Cowell will decide to pull the plug when the contract renewal comes up next year as he doesn't like failure and the show will have been on for 12 years. Also it is expensive for ITV to show and should it stop turning a reasonable profit, then they will want it to go.
BGT is more like a modern day New Faces or Opportunity Knocks, both well loved shows in the seventies, which had a similar range of acts from MOR pop singers to ventriloquists. I wouldn't say I was a big fan, but I do watch it when there's nothing else on.
This is unbelievable. Its excellent to see ITV get good numbers at last. It can still be done!
It looks like, the XF will continue to fall, because the promises of big changes, yet again looks not to be happening, if Cheryl is coming back.
They flogged You've Been Framed to death with the airings on ITV2 as well. It'll never be that stable support that it was because of it.
The lottery quiz is nothing new but it has a much weaker lead in than previously; Doctor Who offered much stronger support to the night than Atlantis currently is. 20 minute clashes can still hurt a show, as show by Strictly's clashes with The X Factor so The Voice's presence would have held Britain's Got Talent back slightly - back in 2012 (or was it 2013? Or both?) it beat Britain's Got Talent in the overnights.
Also great rating for Ninja Warrior too.
The ghost of Harry Hill's Stars In Their Eyes has been exorcised. ITV has two hit shows on Saturdays and Ninja has done better than people has expected.
Presumably, auditions 5 & 6 will be airing Saturday 9th and 16th May respectively.
But what about the 7th auditions show? The 23rd May is Eurovision I believe - so will ITV air BGT on the Sunday (24th) instead?
And how is the live week going to go this year? Any football midweek? And will be final be the week after?
They've never moved Britain's Got Talent for Eurovision before, if my memory serves me correctly, so I don't think this year will be any different.
The Champions League final is on 6th June so there can't be a week's break this year; England have a football match on the Sunday so they can't move it there either. The Europa League final will be on 27th May but with no British interest they'll air that on ITV4.
Based on that I think it will be stripped right across the week from 25th - 31st May. Though I thought I read something about Simon Cowell saying that the show would be live shows would be stripped between 24th May to 31st May which suggests a further round. I haven't seen this confirmed, though.
So if there's an extra round - then the last auditions will have to air on the Saturday. Not sure Bank Holiday Sunday is the best day to launch the live shows though.
Stripped 24th to 31st May - does that mean a Sunday final then?
I'm not certain what they're doing. I certainly can't see them having it on two Sundays as they won't want to interrupt Home Fires. The normal format would suggest it running Monday 25th-Saturday 30th but Simon said something about a semi-final. Might be something, might be nothing, I'm not sure.
They might go something like Monday 25th-Sunday 31st I guess. Perhaps they might do some sort of 2 night final (so the top 10 perform on the Saturday then the results on Sunday, maybe with the top 3/5 performing again?). Hopefully Applause Store will put the dates on their website soon which should shed some light.
One other thing - the ITV AB email for June said the BGT Final would be airing in June. However I think that must be wrong as I don't see how it could fit in the schedules. These AB's are reliable most of the time but have been wrong occasionally before so we'll see.
Sorry, meant 24th May - 30th May.
They're going to have to give Home Fires a break before it's final episode - with Ireland v England on June 7th where episode six should air. If Britain's Got Talent airs on 24th May or 31st May they can easily air it between 7pm and 9pm with Home Fires at 9pm.
That makes more sense; maybe I misheard before. I'm pretty sure he said there wouldn't be a break either which suggests an additional round.
In that case my guess is:
Monday 25th-Friday 29th: 7.30-9.00pm and 9.30-10.00pm
Saturday 30th: 8.00-10.00pm
Sunday 31st: 7.00-9.00pm
I'd rather the weekday shows ran 8.00-10.00pm (stuff Corrie, it is BGT's big week, let it sort it's own problems out rather than sponging off a bigger show) but they won't do that.
That's true, which is annoying. Unless they have the first 5 episodes run Sunday 3rd-31st May as normal and then have episode 6 on Monday 1st June, so the day after episode 5 as a 2 night finale. That would probably work better and help it hold any momentum it might gain from airing after BGT on the 31st.
At least ITV won't have to worry about the Champions League next year. I think them losing this contract could be a blessing in disguise as it has hampered them in the last few years, having to show foreign teams with minimal interest, when they'd love to show big rating entertainment like BGT.
Good points, although it does have artistic merit of course in that the programmes are allowed to continue to serve the audiences, albeit small ones, that are intrerested in them. They can use the big profits as a bit of a failsafe, though, so they're not compelled to make every drama a long runner to ensure they're profitable, and so on.
It's exactly that, I think. The announcer mentioned it was the Bank Holiday weekend before it so they presumably thought they could get away with it as a bit of festive fun. Certainly not the oldest thing that's been seen on primetime BBC1, the Indiana Jones films still get regular primetime outings.
Fraud Squad is not on BBC1. Similar programmes on similar themes are on BBC1, but not that exact programme with that exact content and made in the exact same way, so comparisons can't be made.
Well, I thought it was massive bad luck for them because I've been saying for the last year that what Good Morning Britain needed was a story like the royal baby which is of interest to people who don't generally watch news in the morning and so they can attract a new audience and try and keep them from then on. I vividly remember when Princess Beatrice was born on 8/8/88 our family watched TVam to see it whereas we would normally listen to the radio in the morning, the same principle would work here. And then the baby's born at the bloody weekend.
These ratings for Clare Balding are puzzling me a bit, the first one got a pretty big rating and then last week it was down to under a million, and now it's gone back up again. It seems incredibly volatile and while the guests presumably are a factor they surely can't affect it that much.
Hmm. It's not been BBC1's finest hour, right from the moment it was announced during Saturday Kitchen when James Martin said they were going over to the news, then said they weren't, then they did anyway, jumping in halfway through Nicholas Witchell's announcement. You have to say, by the way, TiVo and Sky+ and so on really have been a godsend for telly anoraks to keep on top of how breaking news is broken, allowing me to wind back to see BBC1 break it while I was watching BT (and indeed got the news broken by Darren Fletcher).
I was a bit surprised they went into WALL-E, but at the end of the day, it was clear ITV had the chance to give it extended coverage because they had nothing else of any value on there so there was no problem in just going on. And then when it did happen they were an hour into the film so it would have probably annoyed more people than it would have pleased, not like a One Show clip show when nobody cares. We had that moaning when they interrupted Mrs Brown for Mandela and I think there's something to be said for the fact WALL-E is a kids' film (it's one of my two year old niece's favourites) so breaking into it would probably have baffled and bored much of the audience.
There was a bit of a precedent in when the Good Friday Agreement was announced in 1998, and BBC1 were ten minutes from the end of Ben Hur having already shown it for three hours. It would have been ridiculous to stop the film after that length so they did the newsflash on BBC2.
As I said when George was born, this is a proper ITV story of massive interest to their most loyal viewers, and they've always been big on royal news so it was probably right they gave it more coverage than the Beeb. HOWEVER, any kudos ITV may get must be tempered by the fact they dropped the regional news completely. Yeah, they didn't know exactly when it was going to happen but when, at 5.30, they said they would be coming out "in about 45 minutes to an hour", that would surely have given them the chance to show the regional news then. And if not, the fact they still showed You've Been Framed at 6.30 when they could have shown the regional news then (around the time they show it during the week, and still before the Beeb) is also pretty crap. No excuse for it.
I would agree with this a lot. We hear a lot of people moan that shows like The X Factor are nasty and horrible and the audience are baying for more humiliation and more extreme formats, but the audience are always quick to complain if they think a show is too contrived and nasty, and the ratings prove that.
Though that would make it difficult to air Coronation Street's episodes without clashing with EastEnders. Unless ITV go with 19.00 Emmerdale; 19.30 Coronation Street; 20.00 Britain's Got Talent, trying to force BBC One to move EastEnders to 8pm - though it'd probably be better off hedging it's bets opposite Coronation Street.
If they want to combine Britain's Got Talent's performance and results (which I agree they should do) then they should probably go with 19.00 Emmerdale; 19.30 Britain's Got Talent; 21.30 Coronation Street.
I agree; that would be much better. I wonder what ITV have lined up for 18th May? They can't start anything due to Britain's Got Talent running on 25th May.
Except ITV don't have any 'big entertainment' shows except for Britain's Got Talent, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and, to a lesser extent, The X Factor. Other than during Britain's Got Talent's final week, neither Cowell show airs on a Tuesday and I'm A Celebrity... only runs for three weeks of a year.