There's only one network he could work for in the UK anyway - assuming he wants to focus on the monetary rewards of a 'pile it high, pile it cheap' strategy and plugging out the same old shows year after year with a minimum of effort.

Er... we know they're not slow with the remote since ITV's lead-ins barely ever work out for them.

Any ratings out for last night's EastEnders yet?

Tonights Predictions

HHTB - 7.7mil
TXF - 12.2mil

SCD - 8.9mil

Friday's Soap Ratings
13:45 - Doctors: 1.62m (23.2%)
17:30 - Neighbours: 1.35m (9.2%); 201,000 (1.1%)
18:00 - Home and Away: 1.01m (5.7%); FL: 485,000 (2.7%)
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 1.29m (6.6%); +1: 108,000 (0.5%); FL: 427,000 (2.2%)

19:00 - Emmerdale: 6.66m (32.8%)
19:30 - Coronation Street: 8.5m (38.4%); 134,000 (3.3%)
20:00 - EastEnders: 9.38m (40.7%); 676,000 (3.6%)
20:30 - Coronation Street: 9.66m (40.4%); 134,000 (4.8%)

Source: DS

EastEnders 9.38 (40.7%)
EastEnders 676,000
Corrie 8.5 (38%) & 9.66 (4.4%)
Emmerdale 6.66 (32.8%)
Doctors 1.62
Neighbours 1.35 / 201,000
Hollyoaks 1.29 /108,000 /427,000
H&A 1.01 / 485,000

I think if the BBC shown adverts Eastenders could have topped 10m

For anyone interested, here is Thursday's 15-Minute Breakdown: http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1829/breakdown.jpg

Very interesting to note that BBC Two beat BBC One from 20:15 to 21:30 on Thursday - and was in fact leading the 9pm slot for the first half hour!

And, even though that looks like a sharp drop for Question Time towards the end, the breakdown goes as:

23:15 to 23:30 - 7.7m (54.5%)
23:30 to 23:45 - 5.8m (48.8%)
23:45 to 00:00 - 2.8m (32.2%)

That graph also shows that many people tuned in to New Tricks when it was half over, presumably tuned to BBC1 by default waiting for the news?

Probably switching over from MasterChef.

Very good for Benidorm; I can't remember the last ITV sitcom to get 6 million viewers. I hope it's kept going one way or another after this series, and reading between the lines, I'd say that it's the writer, Derren Litten, rather than ITV, who isn't so keen for another series, but I don't think ITV are going to let it go easily.

As for tonight, I think The X Factor could be on for its highest live Saturday show yet, as it has an hour after Strictly to gain 12m or so. I'm thinking an 11.5m average for tonight.

Probably the last ITV sitcom that was a ratings hit was The Upper Hand which ended in 1996.

God forbid ITV have a populist sitcom

Something the BBC haven't managed in...a decade?

I'd say BBC1 has My Family which started in the noughties. I actually quite like Benidorm it's this generations Duty Free!!

Friday 23rd October Overnights
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.62m (23.2%)
18:00- BBC News At Ten: 4.26m (21.0%)
18:30- BBC Regional News: 5.15m (26.4%)
19:00- The One Show: 4.51m (21.2%)
20:00- EastEnders: 9.38m (40.7%)
20:30- A Question of Sport: 3.83m (16.0%)
21:00- Have I Got News For You: 5.16m (21.7%)
21:30- The Armstrong & Miller Show: 4.13m (17.7%)
22:00- BBC News at Ten: 4.26m (21.0%)
22:25- BBC Regional News: 4.40m (23.5%)
22:35- Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: 3.52m (25.1%)

ITV1
18:30- ITV Evening News: 3.68m (18.8%)
19:00- Emmerdale: 6.66m (32.8%)
19:30- Coronation Street: 8.50m (38.4%)
20:30- Coronation Street: 9.34m (39.2%)
21:00- Benidorm: 6.05m (25.6%)

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 1.29m (6.6%) , +1: 108,000 (0.5%)

Five
17:30- Neighbours: 1.35m (9.2%)
18:00- Home and Away: 1.01m (5.7%)

BBC Three
21:00- EastEnders: 676,000 (3.6%)

E4
19:00- Hollyoaks: 427,000 (2.2%)

ITV2
00:40- Coronation Street: 134,000 (3.3%)
01:10- Coroation Street: 134,000 (4.8%)

Fiver
18:30- Home & Away: 485,000 (2.7%)
19:00- Neighbours: 201,000 (1.1%)
------------------------------------------------------
Good rating for EastEnders, and the second Corrie did well also. Benidorm's doing fantastically. I'm glad A&M is virtually on par with last week. Jonathan Ross's rating looks better than other recent episodes.

Thanks to MattJ for the ratings.

So who has got the Corrie rating right for the second edition? Digital Spy has it higher.

DS's rating excludes the final 5 minutes of Corrie. The 9.34m rating takes the full half hour into account.

Excellent comparison

Alas...My Family, Green Green Grass. 70s style sitcoms for kids and old folks?

I think there's still an audience for these types of shows once they are scheduled well. And I think both rated higher than every single sitcom nominated for Best Sitcom at The BAFTAs earlier this year except Outnumbered.

Why couldn't Wossy have had last night's ratings last week? Then he would have beat Piers Morgan across the weekend. Last weekend Piers had 3.10m and JR had 3.09m though JR had a higher share (22.53% to 16.07%). I think Piers could be back above 4m this week with Katherine Jenkins.

HIGNFY and Armstrong & Miller both down slightly, but not disastrously. I expected HIGNFY to be lower cos last week's guest presenter, Martin Clunes, has more mainstream appeal that this week's presenter, David Mitchell.

What wrong with that?

The seventies was a golden age of Sitcoms precisely because it had to be pre-watershed.

Ant and Dec are at the BBC!

Well, lest it worries all the ITV types on this thread, it would seem A and D were in the audience tonight as Ricky Groves blurted out that he wanted to meet them directly after his dance. This happened last year too, though as no doubt BBC cameras would cause irreperable skin damage, the golden duo were kept Strictly off camera.

No worries lads-when you have seen sense and joined the BBC-you will then(and only then) definitely be legends!

Hope you are reading this RS!

Brucie announces his retirement and Ant & Dec become the new hosts of Strictly.

Yep, because BBC1 have a host of fantastic light entertainment programming to give the duo like...er...um...*scratches head*

They can barely find enough shows to keep Graham Norton going.

There are many things the BBC are good at. Light entertainment is not one of them.

Good for Benidorm last night, though Have I Got News For You and Armstrong and Miller held up well. The soaps seem to be at a good level too, especially EastEnders and the 8.30pm Coronation Street.

Lol yes.

Whatever opinions people have of Ant and Dec, I still reckon their best years are yet to come. The fast paced Takeaway style cannot go on forever and I reckon they will eventually move to sketch based shows with big guests harking back to Morecambe and Wise. There isnt another double-act out there who have their influence over viewers unless there is an act of God involving Dick and Dom.

I still think that one day the will sign for the Beeb.

Its a matter of opinion whether Norton was ever designed for Light Entertainment. They have given him a number of shows and he is good at live tv, but apart from a few of the Lloyd -Webber ones they have all been less than memorable.
Presenters/acts are all important, and its a daft state of affairs that the BBC have had to resort to Norton/Ross/various lifestyle/daytime types to head up what are supposed to be high profile family slots.
I agree though that the BBC and L/E dont easily mix this century and are hardly a gold plated draw for the few headline names around.