It's hilarious. I think they have now mentioned 65 times on BBC1 in the couple of hours.

SCD teaser
Advert
SCD teaser
News update - inc. who's in Strictly
SCD teaser
Ident - Announcer - Go to the website to see who's in Strictly

True Blood has once again set a series high, with 5.33m viewers watching the HBO show, making it the third most watched show on cable for the week... even though HBO (a premium service) reaches far fewer homes than most cable networks. Last week, it had 4.46m. It is currently on FX in the UK and will air on Channel 4. Could be a massive hit... before Sky1 inevitably snatch it up!

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/08/25...r-record/25336

Elsewhere, The Big Bang Theory topped Two and a Half Men among 18-49's for the third straight week. Big Brother continues to do well, up a bit on last year.

FOX News placed 2 shows in the cable top 20 last week. Both were The O'Reilly Factor which attracted audiences of 3.7m and 3.8m to take 18th and 20th.

LIFETIME is doing well with Army Wives attracting 3.9m and Project Runways (long delayed) return making it into the top 10 with 4.2m. Drop Dead Diva is also doing good numbers.

USA won the week again with WWE RAW at #2, Royal Pains, Psych, Monk and NCIS repeats all making the top 20. TNT's drama slate continues to do OK, Hawthorne, Raising The Bar, Leverage and Saving Grace all between 3-3.5m. Nothing can get near The Closer, which had 7.3m. The revamped SyFy (previously Sci-Fi) is doing well with Warehouse 13 (3.3m overnight, 4.3m final).

Mad Men lost 29% of its premiere audience, but is still 45% up on the same episode last season. No news of Kourtney and Khloe take Miami, which saw them play the "lesbian kiss" card quite early in the season.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/08/25...le-shows/25330

Also, there are some WWE fans around here so this is worth a mention. They are considering a dedicated cable network although it's unclear how that would work around their contracts with USA Network, MyNetwork TV, WGN and SyFy which all seem fairly lucrative and fairly successful. It sounds more likely to be a bit like ESPN Classics and show old archive material. As mentioned above, WWE Raw is one of the most viewed shows on US cable every week and the company is worth an incredible $1.1 billion (though TV revenues are just a small part). They are also trying to soften their product to appeal to wider markets, get their guidance ratings lowered and thus lure in advertisers who wouldn't usually touch the more controversial shows (fortunately, a problem that doesn't really exist here).

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,6338695.story

True Blood is doing okay for FX and certainly has the benefit of airing behind new episodes of NCIS but I'm not sure if it will have the same appeal on Channel 4 but I could be wrong.

Considering Project Runway has been off the air for over the year, to debut high ratings is good news and I think Runway is going to be used to reshape Lifetime's image.

Warehouse 13 is doing great for SyFy but IMO it feels like a USA show with a twist. Syfy have a few projects in the working with Tin Man follow up Alice, Stargate Universe and Caprica.

WWE RAW does fantastic business for USA and I'm sure they'll fight tooth and nail to keep it. The loss of Smackdown would be a huge blow to MyNetworkTV but I think Syfy would do okay without ECW which is the lowest rated of the four WWE shows.

In that case all dances will have to be performed to Yakety Sax from The Benny Hill Show. "Tonight, all our celebrities will be dancing the Quick-Quick-Quicker-Than-That Step."

Looks like it will be a 90 minute slot then. Good old Jay Hunt. We constantly criticise her for her increasingly static schedule, but what with this plus Framed clashing with Corrie this Bank Holiday, there are signs of her being just the tiniest bit more adventurous.

Seems a good line-up to me. Chris Hollins and Laila Rouass were the only non-entities to me, which isn't bad compared to previous years. I'd never heard of Tom Chambers 12 months ago. Something for everyone there - I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for Jade, Laila (now i've googled her), Zoe and Ali particularly...

Tuffers and Calzaghe should be a laugh and could do well.

Craig Kelly - he's in Corrie? How odd that ITV has allowed one of the Corrie crowd to join in, not like them to be so gracious. Gabby Logan had to wait until she quit ITV before she could go on SCD after ITV threw its toys out of the pram.

I noticed at work today that the 'most-read' and 'most-emailed' items on the BBC News website all afternoon related to SCD. Strange that, what with SCD's audience (according to some) being exclusively made up of pensioners.


So? Why shouldn't the BBC create a bit of interest in its own shows and properly promote it so as to attract the widest possible audience?

They've spent all summer endlessly promoting BGT, X Factor, Big Brother across all media outlets, for some unknown reason....


I'd be tempted to launch the Friday SCD at 8pm to 9.30pm and either give EE a miss on Fridays for those two weeks, or show it at 9.30.

Would ITV make Corrie one hour from 7.30 for those weeks? If they did, then whatever they're showing at 9pm will lose the "Corrie crutch" that seemingly all 9pm ITV1 output now needs these days.

Haven't you heard of the army of silver surfers that spend the day trawling the internet in their retirement ?

Not sure they'd steal True Blood from FX (they don't seem to take from other pay-TV stations as much), but Sky's recent history of snatching hit US dramas is one thing really putting me off making the effort with new stuff. I don't want to get into things only for them to be stole a couple of series down the line.


In other news, as ITV2 have dropped it Supernatural will be shown on Living according to the Tube Talk blog. Can't say I've really watched it, but Supernatural doesn't seem to be a Living sort of show to me.

He's left Corrie.

Ah, that would explain it. I'm not a regular viewer of Corrie these days...

Well I never did have you down as much of a soap fan Robbie.

Actually, ITV on TV started promoting The X Factor a week and a half before it began, all the media outlets promoted it before - ITV don't have control of what the media do or don't promote.

BBC have started promoting, and what, the series doesn't start for a month. It's like as if they think "the earlier we promote, the higher ratings it'll get". Not true.

I suggest your boss checks your internet usage

There is just such excitement about z-list celeb's like Chris Hollins dancing. :yawn:

It's great that they're happy because IMO this has been the best BB since BB5. It's truly been brilliant.

Although I think they should lay it to rest next year and come back around between one to five years later.

At least they should skip a year and refresh the format.

I used to enjoy Corrie, when it was at its best in the 80s and 90s. Increasingly past its sell by date now and spun out at 5 shows a week.


My point was that the Beeb spends weeks promoting rival networks' shows across all its media outlets - website, kids shows, Radio 1, Breakfast, Jonathan Ross, etc.

That's their own decision - ITV doesn't influence BBC's editorial decisions.

Did I say they did?

There should have been a after that 1st paragraph. I'm pretty sure ITV know how to manipulate the tabloids for maximum publicity.

I don't mind Strictly as a programme (I sort of half follow it), but if I see another trailer for it tonight I'm going to stick my foot through the telly.. If every trailer features a celebrity and their dance partner that means they've got 16 of the blooming things. Luckily the only programme left to watch tonight is on Channel 4 (You Have Been Watching.)

GMTV and This Morning both have slots in their shows in which BBC programs are advertised.

I cant count the amount of National Television Awards, Comedy Awards, The Soap Awards. ALL engineered by ITV and all award BBC shows, regularly above ITV programs. Without fail.

Who is he?!

I always thought Strictly was able to attract decent names but they've had to scrape the barrel this year by the looks of things. More soap stars than usual.

I kind of feel the same, but then when you look back I didn't really know many of the previous year's lot before they went on the show. I'd never really heard of Alesha Dixon or Tom Chambers and they both won it.

I think some of the decisions have been based on who is going to be good entertainment rather than their celebrity - e.g. Tuffers - they dont need an I'm a Celebrity contestant, but they need someone who is going to be hopeless.

Bloke of BBC Breakfast, so I hear.

Well, apparently they're paying celebrities a fixed sum of 50k, which isn't all that much when you consider it could be a 4 month commitment. A decent name could earn much more than that for a fraction of the commitment.

I echo Cent though, really. I don't think it'll affect the ratings all that much. A super big name might have given a temporary boost but it'd soon wear off.

It doesent help people set their sights so high. I heard a whisper John Major was being lined up.

Not true, if you count the bill/holby as soaps, there are 4 soapstars this year the same as last year. In 2007 there was 3 and in 2006 there was 4.[This is when the show only had 14 contestants.]

Davina McCall has just been revealed as the host of Just Dance on Sky1 and Angella Griffin is hosting a new daily live daytime show for them.

It's a very D-List line-up for SCD, more what I'd expect from Hells Kitchen, but I wouldn't expect it to have a huge impact. The show is well established and there is loads of hype about Alesha Dixon and her first show. Many of the pro dancers are considerably more famous than the actual contestants anyway. Plus, while soapstars are generally regarded as C-List at best (and ex soapstars as Z-List) those shows get big audiences and they'll still attract a certain group of viewers. Remember the diabolical Soapstar Superstar?! That was pulling 7m viewers, IIRC!