Why are people suprised at this rating?

I thought 10 million.

10m in a 22:35 slot? expectations are way to high! Why did you think 10 million, what was it based on?

BBC News on average gets around 4.5m ish, EastEnders Can get anything from 7.5m - 9.5m ish in prime time slots, Strictly gets around 7.5m -8.0m ish ..... So where did you get this 10 million from?

10m??? what??? It sustained a very high and good share throughout. If the ratings were 10m the share would've been unbelievably high for that time slot.

Great rating for QT, better than i expected. I thought at the most, maybe 6-7m as it definetely had the legs for it, after watching the 6pm news, but another extra million or 2?!!

Masterchef on BBC2, won it's timeslot, so delighted, was a really great final.

I don't think the ratings are hugely surprising. You don't have all that publicity (and yesterday it was relentless) and then draw a measly 4 million viewers. It was clearly of a lot of interest to a lot of people.

Wow @ QT! Checking my Facebook and it seems the vast majority of people were talking about it!

Thursday 22nd October 2009 - Terrestrial
BBC One
12:15 - Bargain Hunt: 2.1m (35.1%)
13:00 - BBC News at One: 2.8m (40.5%)
13:30 - Regional News and Weather: 3m (41.5%)
13:45 - Doctors: 1.7m (24%)
17:15 - The Weakest Link: 1.7m (12.2%)
18:00 - BBC News at Six: 4.2m (24%)
18:30 - Regional News and Weather: 5.4m (28%)
19:00 - The One Show: 5m (25%)
19:30 - EastEnders: 8.4m (38.1%)
* 19:30 to 19:55 - 8.7m (39.6%)
* 19:55 to 20:00 - 6.9m (30.6%)
20:00 - Watchdog: 3.6m (15%)
21:00 - New Tricks: 4.1m (17.4%)
22:00 - BBC News at Ten: 5.9m (28.2%)
22:25 - Regional News and Weather: 6.5m (33.1%)
22:35 - Question Time: 7.8m (50.2%)
* peak: 8.2m (47.4%) @ 22:45
23:35 - This Week: 2.3m (29.3%)

BBC Two
18:00 - Eggheads: 1.8m (10.4%)
18:30 - Strictly Come Dancing - It Takes Two: 2m (10.5%)
20:00 - Masterchef The Professionals: 3.9m (16.2%)
* peak: 4.7m (19.3%) @ 21:15
21:30 - Never Mind the Buzzcocks: 2.5m (10.8%)
22:30 - Newsnight: 300,000 (1.8%)

ITV1
17:00 - Britain's Best Dish: 1.9m (14.2%)
18:00 - Regional News and Weather: 3.5m (19.6%)
18:30 - ITV Evening News and Weather: 3.7m (19.3%)
19:00 - Emmerdale: 6.3m (31.7%)
* 19:00 to 19:25 - 6.63m (33.3%)
* 19:25 to 19:30 - 4.65m (23.7%)
19:30 - Countrywise: 4.2m (19.3%)
20:00 - Emmerdale: 6.7m (29.2%)
20:30 - Coronation Street: 7.7m (31.4%)
* 20:30 to 20:55 - 7.97m (32.5%)
* 20:55 to 21:00 - 6.35m (25.9%)
21:00 - The Bill: 3.9m (16.4%)
22:00 - News at Ten and Weather: 2.3m (11.3%)
22:35 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories: 700,000 (5%)

Channel 4
16:10 - Deal or No Deal: 1.9m (18.8%)
17:00 - The Paul O'Grady Show: 2m (14.4%)
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 1.37m (7.1%)
* +1: 124,000 (0.6%)
19:00 - Channel 4 News: 775,000 (3.7%)
20:00 - Location, Location, Location: 1.7m (7.1%)
21:00 - The Bigamist Bride: My Five Husbands: 1.65m (7.3%)
22:35 - FILM: Saw III: 650,000 (5.5%)
* +1: 97,000 (1.9%)

Five
17:30 - Neighbours: 1.34m (9.2%)
18:00 - Home and Away: 1.07m (6.1%)
19:30 - UEFA Cup Live: 1.1m (4.9%)
22:20 - FILM: Blade: 600,000 (4.7%)

Thursday 22nd October 2009 - Multichannel
BBC Three
22:00 - EastEnders: 718,000 (3.8%)

ITV2
21:00 - Peter Andre: The Next Chapter: 1.04m (4.7%)
22:00 - Fearne And... Paris Hilton: 569,000 (3.2%)
23:00 - Coronation Street: 305,000 (2.2%)

E4
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 434,000 (2.3%)

Fiver
18:30 - Home and Away: 599,000 (3.4%)
19:00 - Neighbours: 322,000 (1.7%)

Few observations:
- The One Show doing well share and viewer wise.
- Both Watchdog and Weakest Link down, have people fallen out with Anne?
- Countrywise doing well.

Countrywise - 4.2m - Is that the highest rating ever for Countrywise? It seems rather high as I thought it got around 3.5m usually.

And only 200k between The Bill and New Tricks! The gap is getting smaller.

That gap between Corrie and EastEnders is unusually wide. This Thursday slot just is not working. I wonder if it'd do any better at 8pm rather than 8.30pm.

That'll be the Masterchef effect.



This report on BBC funding for children's TV...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcas...ns-output.html

... refers to BBC1 developing a new half-hour programme for 5.30 (what? just the one?) to let them move CBBC programmes back to the times they had when Neighbours was around. So Weakest Link to move back to BBC2?

They could try and revive an old quiz show like Telly Addicts or Blockbusters. What's the betting it'll be a ONE Show spin-off?

2 ready made options for that slot really, promote eggheads or place Masterchef there, because with Waterloo Road and Watchdog on Wednesdays and Thursdays, apart from utilising the Sunday schedule I can't see how they will schedule 2.5 hours a week of Masterchef.

I presume the Weakest Link may move earlier in the schedule when Land Girls was on recently it was on at 2:15 following Doctors. Presumably they could schedule something like

1.45 Doctors
2.15 Weakest Link
3.00 Diagnosis Murder
3.45 CBBC

Perhaps a better move for BBC1 would be to move some of CBBC's output into Primetime in the dead slots against Corrie perhaps Monday and Friday at 19:30. They could move either Drama such as Sarah Jane Adventures or Blue Peter (which would complement the One Show because in effect it is just an Adult Version of Blue Peter and I suspect the IQ of the average Blue Peter viewer is higher than TOS viewers)

Wait, DS have only just reported Question Time's rating in a new news article. Why does it need a new article - do certain shows ratings get undue prominence now - or did DS just not notice it?

It's really impressive, but then again, I'm not entirely surprised given the kind of coverage. I think the protests yesterday definitely helped as it made the show into the leading story on all the news bulletins.

I wonder would a Brown vs Cameron debate do better? I'm not even sure. I think people tuned in expecting fireworks last night which those 2 just don't provide! Then again, the US Presidential debates get huge numbers.

It's only taken them 7 hours to catch up with the biggest ratings story of the month. (Yes, even bigger than last Sunday's X Factor beating the peak audience for last year's final.) Well done DS.

I imagine this would get a peak-viewing slot.

I think it would do okay but I hope that it would not be like the US where it's simulcast on the major networks plus the news channels. When the Mayoral Debates happen in London, it's usually in a post news slot which I think is fine.

Probably Tuesday at 9 on both ITV and BBC presuming they each get 1 debate each.

CBS:
8pm – Survivor – 12.9m (4.0)
CSI/The Mentalist In repeats

ABC:
8pm – Flash Forward – 9.8m (3.1)
9pm – Grey’s Anatomy – 14.7m (5.2)
10pm – Private Practice – 10.0m (3.7)

NBC:
8pm – Community – 5.2m (1.9)
8.30pm – Parks & Recreation – 5.0m (2.1)
9pm – The Office – 8.5m (4.2)
9.30pm – 30 Rock – 6.7m (3.2)
10pm – The Jay Leno Show – 5.0m (1.7)

FOX:
8pm – ACLS Baseball – 10.3m (3.3)

18-49:
ABC – 4.0
FOX – 3.3
CBS – 3.0
NBC – 2.4

Total Viewers:
ABC – 11.5m
CBS – 11.4m
FOX – 10.3m
NBC – 5.9m

Tvbythenumbers
Zap2it

Considering there was baseball, everything did fine and some shows were even up. and it's worth noting that The Mentalist did better than CSI in repeats and beat a new episode of PP in viewers.

The 8pm comedies are really hurting NBC and even 30 Rock is only doing okay and whoever at NBC said that Leno would do better with repeats was obviously wrong.

'Doctor Who: Waters of Mars', although not officially confirmed looks set for 14th November. Reasons:

- a clip of the Xmas Specials will be shown on 20th November on BBC One for Children in Need, therefore airing Waters of Mars on after that would be pointless
- BBC Pictures, apparently, has Waters of Mars down as Week 46, which is week beginning 14th November
- Doctor Who Magazine is said to be previewing Waters of Mars in their next edition, which comes out on 12th November.

Therefore, Doctor Who is probably going to air on 14th or 15th November.

BUT...

If on Saturday 14th November, it may end up moving Merlin and Hole in the Wall off the schedules and in turn could find itself clashing with TV Burp and The X Factor. I should note that TV Burp gets over 6m, so any Doctor Who against TV Burp could find itself dented.

EDIT: Before TV Burp on the Saturday is England vs Brazil. Who definitely wouldn't want to be up against that.

Merlin isn't getting good treatment this series, is it?

Just a note, for anyone thinking that Sunday 15th November maybe viable:

- if on @ 7pm, it'll clash with Family Fortunes, and possibly the start of The X Factor
- if on @ 8pm, it'll clash with The X Factor
- if on @ 9pm, it'll clash with a new series of Top Gear* and a new series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

* - note: Top Gear is moving to 9pm as Jeremy Clarkson does not want Top Gear to clash with The X Factor

They could screen it on Sunday at 6pm (I'm assuming it lasts for a hour like the last episode). The motor racing last Sunday peaked at 8.9m at 6.30 so the audience will come to something special.

The Doctor would easily see off Family Fortunes if they clashed. Not too many viewers would shed tears if they missed one episode of ASFF. They wouldn't put him on against X Factor, because that would dent his ratings and 9pm is far too late.

The Doctor would also easily see off TV Burp. A one-off special trumps the 6th of the series and besides Burp has a primetime repeat on Sunday. But I suspect the Doctor would have to be earlier than Burp to fit in Strictly. If Merlin is forced to take the week off, then compensation could be provided with a Boxing Day slot for the series finale.

Just made an edit to the above post:

EDIT: Before TV Burp on the Saturday is England vs Brazil. Who definitely wouldn't want to be up against that.

Bit late to the party here but just to echo what most are saying, Question Time performed incredibly well. Rating of the week that one, if not the month.

Well above its usual and miles above the slot average, surpassing all expectations. (well, except for that one poster who was expecting 10m) The average prediction on the Ratings Game was 3.1m compared to the actual rating of 7.8m, a huge improvement.

P.S. I found out first through the front page story on DS- so imagine my surprise when I came on here to find you lot slamming them for the lack of coverage they were giving it.

I'd like to draw your attention to the performance of Kim Cattrall's edition of Who Do You Think You Are? which beat the Holland vs England friendly scoring 5.87m in the overnights and 6.27m in the officials.

I know that would be a pretty poor rating for Dr Who but WDYTYA was on in the middle of August and I imagine Dr Who would be much more of a must-see.

Holland and Brazil are two totally different teams. Because it's Brazil, it is a much more bigger draw than Holland, and as thus could massively dent Doctor Who.

Look when they last met at the beginning of June 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jun/04/overnights1

19:30 to 22:00 - 8.4m (40%)
* match: 9.4m (44%)
* peak: 10.3m

OK, it was the first game at the new Wembley and thus had the novelty factor, and I defintely don't think it'll have that much, but it could still have 7/8m @ 5pm which would do considerable damage to Who.