Are you suggesting that Simon Cowell was jealous that Strictly had a lovely, juicy race scandal to raise its profile?

Amy Winehouse on Strictly - a car crash waiting to happen.

Next time some channel repeat The Best Of Benny Hill (a TV compilation put together in 1974 for cinema release) you should view the Tommy Tupper sketch (Benny's version of Simon Dee). That drunk actress he interviews is sooooo Amy Winehouse.

Mixed bag for X Factor tonight. Cowell was stirring from the start, Cheryl (who lost her way at the live shows last year) was actually very good playing off him. Dermot gave one of his most confident live performances that I've seen. Though as an actual on screen presence (in the Mr Nasty role), Cowell is a shadow of what he once was.

They got a great ending and there is some talent in there. People like Lucie who got songs poorly suited to her voice but could do well in future weeks. New set looks brilliant as well. Danyl is going to be one of their best contestants ever. Not necessarily in the singing sense, but the range of reactions was incredible. Like Diana last year, he's the talking point.

There are some real duds in there, though. The boys category combines poor performances with being mind numbingly tedious.

Not sure how much the latest scandal will change things, what's a bit more press when they have so much already? But it should help. If they scripted it, get the Oscars out because they played it perfectly! It was incredibly awkward.

One real error was that I think Lloyd, probably the worst of the night, was on when Strictly finished. Hardly going to entice viewers.

I had to rewind. Couldn't believe what she'd said and how inappropriate it was.

Has Louis had some work done? He looked awfully strange tonight.

It was cruel of her. She might have meant it as a joke but that's beside the point; she shouldn't have brought it up, end of. The poor guy looked devastated, after he'd just done one of the best performances in six years of the show.

As for your earlier post about Neighbours, I didn't expect it to maintain its audience on Five, it was just a little comment in jest as I was slightly bemused about you mentioning Five beating ITV for five minutes, when ITV beat Five for the other 1435 minutes of the day.

Worse than John and Edward? Not sure about that. But Lloyd was certainly a weak link in Cheryl's category. It irked me a bit that she had a dig at Louis over putting the wrong act through when she let the likes of Lloyd through over Duane. That was a bigger injustice. At least with Louis he didn't have any other talent worth putting through, whereas she did.

The England highlights programme was good. Shame nobody knew about it until the last minute, but I imagine the ratings will still be good with a strong Casualty lead-in and viewers tuning in for news.

They were both awful. But Lloyd had the added negative of being extremely dull as well. They'd both get booed off stage at a high school talent show.

She might have done him a favour in a sense. He was coming across as quite arrogant in the run up to the live shows, maybe this will help the public warm to him. She was still out of order mind.

And yes, perhaps I am guilty of cherrypicking. But we're all guilty of a bit of that from time to time. It's a big achievement for Five to outrate ITV1 even for 5 minutes. The power of Neighbours is strong, that was my point, and it's still a force to be reckoned with in daytime.

Memo to the BBC: Don't take on the Cowell Spin Machine - you'll always come off second best. Do I think both the race row and sexuality row were pre-planned? In my best Churchill the Dog impression...oh yes.

I hope the judges will cool down as the series go on with The X Factor - thought the show was too judge-centred tonight. Last year it was more about the acts.

On last night's ratings - strong again for Benidorm and I'm concerned for Armstrong and Miller next week. Criminal Justice stayed consistent throughout the week. EastEnders was a great episode and got 9m+ combining both BBC1 and BBC3.

The press are in no position to judge considering how they reacted to the non-story in the first place.

Then again, the tabloids are in no position to judge Kandy Rain either considering what's on page 3, but heck, that didn't stop them.



Anyway, back on topic - I wonder how no repeats tomorrow might affect ratings for the results. They're losing a million viewers from the ITV2 airing (who'd probably have switched straight to ITV1 afterwards) and probably the same again from the afternoon ITV1 airing.

I think this week too they'll be many who've watched on Sundays earlier in the series and are expecting to do the same this week, so when they discover it's a no show I wonder whether they'll bother with the results show.


So I'm not going to put my neck on the line with actual figures, but I think the results show will as a consequence rate slightly lower than tonight's performance show.

What 'train wreck' would that be? Or are you just spinning the ITV line again?

Talking of disasters, when's The Bill going to break the 5m barrier, George?

It will get to see 2010 won't it....?


On the face of it, good that Benidorm only lost 10% of its audience after the dire, laughter-free train wreck of episode 1. But this will offer encouragement to HIGNFY for next week, particularly if Benidorm loses another 10% of its audience.


And he still is, let's not forget! I know George and his ITV cronies would have us believe that SCD has gone from a 8-9m hit show to a barely-watched flop with less than 4m (like The Bill, for example), but SCD does remain a popular hit show, one of the most popular on the box.


I agree with you there. It serves a useful reminder of what a great channel ITV1 once was...


Typical BBC, aggressively scheduling football highlights against Sir Piers Parkinson's latest highbrow offering...


Well, they made enough of them over the years that it drove them to near bankruptcy and the axeing of anything requiring a bit of money spending on it in favour of lowest common denominator trash.


Yes, the Beeb should have simply paid good money to offer the public the football highlights everyone has been demanding and not make any effort to tell anyone it was on...


Bollocks. And TXF-BGT differs from that in what way?

Contrary to popular opinion, I don't regularly watch SCD.

But I did tonight. Really couldn't see any difference to what has gone before in previous years - save that the annoying Arlene woman has been replaced by the lovely Alesha, who seemed to make some perfectly valid, pertinent and reasonable comments.

I really don't see why SCD consistently gets such a kicking (as it always has) from the very many ITV cheerleaders on this thread. If it's such a pile of pants, why did your beloved network so shamelessly rip-off the format with its own carbon copy show which eats up so much airtime January-March each year?

And breathe, Robbie, and breathe...


Still think they should put The Bill on Tuesday's rather than Thursday's. Mind you, then BBC1'd just air the big hitters on a Tuesday instead of a Thursday.


I agree, Strictly is no where near a train wreck. It'd be good for it to have a week without bad publicity. Maybe the next one will be the one.

No wait, we still have Joe and Jo there so Sargeantgate Mark II will continue.


After a horrific couple of years, I think ITV1 is starting to see the wood from the trees again. It's nowhere near perfect, but there's good programming there - some of it not getting the ratings it deserves.


Don't mock - it may have been the only time people got to see Cilla Black break down on TV.


True - mainly the football. Though the football does bring in a high number of males aged 18-34 so that's an improvement in terms of the key demographic.


They could have got Bruce to announce the news slightly better than he did though. It was cringeworthy. Especially as the audience didn't seem to care less.


I love it when you have a go at the 'ITV cheerleaders'. You haven't got a softspot for the BBC at all, have you?

I do agree that SCD's getting an unfair kicking, but it's no more than The X Factor often gets. Reality TV is very much like marmite - you either like it or hate it.

Because you're always so complimentary about The X Factor.

Got more New Tricks repeats on Thursdays for the next couple of weeks, though. Sure, it had the main run of NT, but since then, its been up against little more than repeats, filler stuff and a moderately rating stripped drama. If the BBC were chasing it round the schedule, I think you'd have seen Spooks, Gavin and Stacey or another big show turning up in the slot.

I do agree Tuesdays would be better - if only because it would look better in comparison to whats there at the minute. Ultimately, they've fouled up with the move to 9pm, but they can't move it back without messing around the soap line-up.


In fairness, theres a fair chance of the same thing happening on X Factor with John and Edward. Of course, that should be much more of a controversy given that TXF, unlike Strictly, is a competition for a serious prize and isn't just a bit of light entertainment fun.

Of course, because it isn't the BBC, people would be much more likely to take it as a bit of fun, rather than spin a scandal out of it.

I agree. Somehow The X Factor seems to get away with it series on series...Chico, The McDonald Brothers, Same Difference...yes, they've been like marmite, but the show hasn't had the press coverage or criticism over that, unlike Strictly Come Dancing.

More predictions Robbie? What are you betting on HIGNFY beating Benidorm - the car, the dog or your collection of signed pictures of Bruce Forysth?

I'm not sure if the sad news we've had overnight regarding Stephen Gately may effect ratings for tonight's X Factor. I doubt it will, but it might - I suspect some kind of tribute will be shown for him.

Anyway, an hour until the overnights - so hopefully an hour till we can start predicting properly how well tonight does!

It will obviously be big, particularly with Louis managing Gately. The irony of the Minogue outing someone on the show makes its a very weird coincidence.

His death, along with the Dannii thing (which seems so trivial now in comparison), will provide a boost to tonight's ratings a bit, probably. It'll be hard to gauge how much though, we're dealing with such big numbers and so many factors that could contribute to a high figure already.

To do it right perhaps?

Some numbers 10.10.09

Harry Hill 6.7m / 27.5%
X-Factor 11.3m (peak will be close to 13m) / 43.8%
Piers 4.4m

Merlin 5.1m / 26.9%
SCD 8m / 32.4%

England highlights approx 4.1m

Thanks dubsj. Very good night for ITV1 there - brilliant for TV Burp up against Strictly. The gap between Strictly and The X Factor - 3.3m!

dubsj, how did Casualty do?

Brilliant for X Factor; to get over 11m when most of the show clashed with Strictly is astonishing, and the gap between the two shows is staggering. I wonder how far ahead X Factor was whilst they were head to head.

TV Burp only 1.3m behind Strictly, that is something. Piers did decently against the football, too.

Casualty 4.6m / 19.6%

I wonder how much Strictly decreased throughout the show? About 500,000 for TV Burp - 1 million for X Factor?

Casualty held up OK I guess - but I won't be surprised to see it under 4m next Sunday.

Piers was also up against Xtra Factor (1.5m).

Strictly peake at 9.3m in the first hour, but finished around 7.5m...