As I say, it will recover. And what is likely to be an official figure of 5m (perhaps a tad more even) is pretty good for a nature documentary shown at 9pm!

"Alarming" is not the word I'd use.

Ha, by your reckoning then, Criminal Justice performed abysmally, opening to just 4.4m.

It's the axe for that franchise then.

Any word on the current ratings for Heroes - or can the numbers now be counted on the fingers of one hand ?

I'd be interested to know how Ugly Betty's season premiere did on Friday too, if anybody knows?

Heroes 5.7m
Ugly Betty 5.1m

Fairly poor for both really "/

As for last nights Brisitsh ratings, what a low and dull night!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...night-itv-news

Article about how the Tonight show is facing cuts and may be brought closer to ITN. It says that each episode will be made for less than £30,000. Weren't people on here saying earlier that Millionaire costs about £200,000 an episode or something? Given the fact that Tonight gets 3.5 million on a Friday (or it did last time I saw the figures) ITV will be making a fair bit of cash on what is normally a genre considered to be loss-making.

They might as well just have Sir Trevor McDonald reading the Daily Mail out loud. It's pretty obvious that their readers are the ITV News' target audience anyway.

Well ITN is part owned by the Daily Mail!

Tuesday 20th October Overnights
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.74m (23%)
19:30- EastEnders: 8.77m (40.4%)
20:00- Holby City: 5.42m (23.2%)
21:00- Around The World In 80 Days: 3.6m (15.9%)
22:35- My Supermodel Baby: 1.7m (13.5%)
23:20- Film 2009 with Jonathan Ross: 800,000 (9%)

BBC Two
20:00- MasterChef: The Professionals: 2.94m (12.5%)
21:00- Horizon: 1.37m (6%)
23:20- Robbie Williams: Electric Proms: 530,000 (7.4%)
* peak share: 9.2% at midnight

ITV1
19:00- Emmerdale: 6.82m (33.3%)
20:00- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?: 3.28m (14.2%)
21:00- Seven Days On The Breadline: 3.72m (16.4%)

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 1.58m (8.1%)
20:00- How To Look Good Naked: 1.69m (7.3%)
21:00- The Force: 1.34m (5.9%) , +1: 162,000 (1%)
22:00- Daredevils: 760,000 (4.7%)

Five
17:30- Neighbours: 1.59m (10.5%)
18:00- Home and Away: 1.14m (6.4%)
20:00- Nature Shock: 1.21m (5.2%)
21:00- CSI: Miami: 2.62m (11.6%)

BBC Three
21:00- Don't Tell the Bride: 728,000
22:00- EastEnders: 959k (5.5%)

BBC Four
21:00- The Real Cabaret: 282,000

E4
19:00- Hollyoaks: 414k (2.2%)
21:00- Ugly Betty: 399,000

Fiver
18:30- Home and Away: 549k (3%)
19:00- Neighbours: 184k (1%)

More4
22:00- True Stories: 117,000

Sci Fi
22:00- Dollhouse: 115,000 (0.7%)
23:00- Dollhouse: 89,700 (1.09%)

Sky1
20:00- Stargate Universe: 635k (2.9%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 22.6%
ITV1: 16.6%
BBC Two: 7.6%
Five: 7.2%
Channel 4: 5.5% (+1: 0.8%)
------------------------------------------------------
EastEnders did well last night with its highest Tuesday rating in months. I'm a bit surprised to see 7 Days on the Breadline top the 9pm hour with 3.7m. I suppose it's better than what a lot of recent Tuesday 9pm ITV shows have been getting. Millionaire continues to underperform at 8pm in my opinion.

Most watched programmes of the week
1 - 13.82m - The X Factor (Sun, ITV1)
2 - 9.94m - Coronation Street (Mon 19:31, ITV1)
3 - 9.27m - EastEnders (Mon, BBC1)
4 - 9.21m - Doc Martin (Sun, ITV1)
5 - 8.82m - Strictly Come Dancing (Sat, BBC1)
6 - 7.40m - Emmerdale (Thu 20:00, ITV1)
7 - 7.13m - Harry Hill's TV Burp (Sat, ITV1)
8 - 6.37m - All Star Family Fortunes (Sun, ITV1)
9 - 6.35m - The Mirror Pride of Britain Awards (Wed, ITV1)
10- 6.17m - Benidorm (Fri, ITV1)

Impressive week for ITV1 with 8/10 entries. ITV's entire week averaged 19.8%, their third best week of the year.

Alternative Chart
1 - 4.25m - FlashForward (Mon, Five)
2 - 3.23m - MasterChef: The Professionals (Thu, BBC2)
3 - 3.09m - University Challenge (Mon, BBC2)
4 - 2.89m - Autumnwatch (Fri, BBC2)
5 - 2.85m - Jamie's American Road Trip (Tue, C4)
6 - 2.62m - Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two (Wed, BBC2)
7 - 2.53m - Blitz: The Bombing of Coventry (Tue, BBC2)
8 - 2.43m - Location, Location, Location (Thu, C4)
9 - 2.42m - CSI Miami (Tue, Five)
10- 2.41m - The Simpsons (Fri, C4)

Second week in a row that FlashForward's topped this chart, up 0.15m from the first episode. It's Five's 21st most watched television broadcast ever, even over-taking The Mentalist:

1. Euro 2000 Qualifier (England vs Poland), 08/09/1999, 5.63m - 24% share
2. World Cup Qualifier (Albania vs England), 28/03/2001, 5.59m - 24% share
3. Independence Day (film), 07/09/1999, 5.41m - 26% share
4. The Rock (film), 08/02/2000, 5.05m - 24% share
5. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (film), 14/11/2004, 4.94m - 19.7% share
6. Miracle on 34th Street (film), 07/12/03, 4.85m - 19.6% share
7. UEFA Cup (Celtic vs Liverpool), 13/03/2003, 4.61m - 18.4% share
8. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 17/03/2009, 4.55m
9. Joey (US sitcom), 13/02/2005, 4.53m - 17.1% share
10. Euro 2000 Qualifier (Bulgaria vs England), 09/06/1999, 4.51m - 27% share

11. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 31/01/2006, 4.49m - 18.8% share
12. Euro 2000 Qualifier (Luxemburg vs England), 14/10/1998, 4.38m - 18% share
13. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 07/02/2006, 4.37m - 18.8% share
14. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 11/02/2008, 4.36m
15. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 13/01/2009, 4.36m
16. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (film), 24/07/2005, 4.32m - 21.7%
17. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 19/07/2005, 4.32m - 21.4%
18. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 14/02/2006, 4.26m - 18.5%
19. Erin Brockovich (film), 10/03/2003, 4.26m - 20.9% share
20. Gladiator (film), 19/10/2003, 4.25m - 20.9% share

21. FlashForward, 05/10/2009, 4.25m
22. CSI Miami, 30/06/2009, 4.22m
23. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (US drama), 22/03/2005, 4.22m - 18.7% share
24. Joey (US sitcom), 13/02/2005, 4.22m - 16.5% share
25. The Mentalist, 24/03/2009, 4.21m

Source: www.barb.co.uk

STV have unveiled their new season of programming, which is basically all the usual old 'Scot at War' crap, but excitingly also includes Underbelly!

In terms of acquisitions that's a big step up from South Park and Fitz.

FlashForward has become a monster hit for FIVE with the main showing pulling in a huge timeshift considering the small audience (i.e its timeshift is the same for that of shows like XF). Also not only that the Friday 10pm repeat pulls in over 1m and makes the FIVE top 30 and two other repeat showings have made the FIVER top 30 with combined total of over 0.7. The show including repeat showings is pulling in over 6m viewers for FIVE which should surely make it very profitable for them.

Also impressive to see the repeat of TV Burp over 4.5m for ITV1 and making the top 30, bringing the total audience to almost 12m and that excludes all of the ITV2 repeats!

And finally pretty impressive for the Benidorm repeat to top 1m on ITV2 and a shame this is looking to be the last series.

I guess Clarkson gets the final decision - which means it will be on at 9.


Am I the only one surprised that two days running, BBC One has not only lost the 9pm slot, but also shed a lot of viewers along the way?

So, we can extend ITV's good weekend in the 9pm slot to Tuesday. It should win the 9pm slot tonight, but it seems like The Bill will break the chain tomorrow.

Saturday night X Factor shortens slightly on 31/10/09.

BBC One

18:30 Merlin
19:15 Strictly Come Dancing
21:15 Lottery
21:20 Casualty

ITV1

19:00 New You've Been Framed
19:30 Harry Hills TV Burp
20:00 X Factor
21:45 Piers Morgans Life Stories : Dannii Minogue

That edition of Life Stories should do well, no doubt with some cross promotion directly from XF.

Changes ahead for 'Tonight' on ITV1.

An ITV spokesman said: "From January, ITV's flagship current affairs strand, Tonight, will be given a consistent new weekly slot at the heart of ITV's peak time schedule and will run throughout the year.

ITV Studios will continue to produce the majority of Tonight editions, but will collaborate more closely with the broadcaster's news supplier ITN, on a number of shows. ITV's regional news teams around the country are also expected to become more involved in Tonight reports and investigations.

It is understood that Alex Gardiner, ITV Studios controller of current affairs, will become more closely involved with the show, taking over executive producing duties for every edition. A new series producer will also be appointed.

"Tonight will be produced by ITV Studios' current affairs department, as well as ITN, which will produce a number of programmes across the year. The new editorial approach to the programme will establish a close working relationship between the production teams for ITV's network and regional news, and ITV's current affairs output.

Source : MediaGuardian

TG at 9pm will also be for the benefit of the HD channel - CountryFile at 7, Antiques Roadshow at 8, Top Gear at 9.

Ratings for Around The World were about what I expected taking into account its week 1 audience and the not-very-enthuiastic reaction. Breadline did a bit better than I expected. remains to be seen whether it holds that audience for the next 2 weeks.

And yes, ITV1 could have had a whole week of 9pm victories but for The Bill, but maybe it'll surprise (shock?) us.

Looks as if the DOI new Friday night show will be going out at 8pm in Tonight's slot opposite Eastenders as I thought. That'll be an interesting clash for this thread.

This report makes it sound as if Tonight is going to get a brand new slot, but I would have thought it would continue to go out on Monday at 8pm. Anyone got any other thoughts on where it might go?

I can see Life Stories managing 5m that night. To boost it further, I think it'd be a good idea to have 'Dannii vs Sharon - the truth' (or something like that) ads running throughout X Factor, which would probably give the ratings a nice little boost.

EDIT: BBC1's schedule has shifted 25 minutes earlier in the final update, so the new schedule is:

18:05 Merlin
18:50 Strictly Come Dancing
20:45 Lottery
20:55 Casualty

Meaning that the Strictly/X Factor clash is now down to just 45 minutes, with X Factor having an hour afterwards against the lottery and Casualty, so it could be on for its biggest Saturday rating of the series. The clashes do seem to be getting shorter, and on 7th November, BBC1 have The Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, so the clash will be minimal that night, boosting ratings for The X Factor.

As for Tonight, the budget cuts don't surprise me, and as for the new slot, I'm guessing Tuesdays at 8pm, either extended to an hour or paired up with a new factual format.

As for last night, 80 Days isn't doing as well as I thought it would, whereas Breadline actually got about a million more than I expected. It was also a far better programme than I expected it to be too, so well done them. If it keeps at 3.5m+, then I can see it becoming a returning factual format for ITV, which they could do with.

I'd have thought that the DOI spin off is only meant as a bit of filler that'll get 3-4m, but I haven't heard much about it so I could be wrong.

The BBC BSI strikes again. Small Island appears to have been superseded in the Sunday 9pm slot by Garrow's Law.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pro...tml#sun_garrow

Why? Does the BSI just get easily bored?

Thursday 7:30? Or is Grimefighters just too much of an irresistable hit?!

Also Spooks is back on Wednesday 4th November at 9pm for a new 8 part run.

Who would have thought it .

I presume they don't want Small Island airing against Doc Martin, and see Garrow's Law as a completely different type of drama, that stands a chance of holding up against Doc Martin, unlike Emma. It just means that Small Island will face I'm a Celebrity instead, and whilst that is a huge show, it has a completely different audience to that of Small Island.

FlashForward is to Five what Lost is to Sky1, a gamble which paid off, the dip on Monday will no doubt be made up by timeshifting and it's the sort of show that appeals to advertisers and I imagine that the 8-10pm slot is where they make their money with Gadget Show at 8pm and FF at 9pm.

I'm unsure how Britain's Best Brain will do until I see it but I hope it does well.

Yeah. I guess they figure that crime drama in Waking the Dead did OK against Doc Martin while a relationship drama, Emma, has been crushed. The reasoning sounds pretty decent to me, though its tough to launch any new show against an established big bitter (with a massive lead-in) - so I'd expect Garrows Law to have to settle for 4.5-5 million.