Good figures for Waking The Dead last night, obviosuly benefiting from the Casualty lead-in. I see that the lead-in next week is a new series of Antiques Roadshow. They'll really need to promote it as being a new series though, so it can get back to the 5-6m it was getting last winter.

Big news with BBC One picking up SYTYCD?. I just hope they don't screw it up. I suppose having Nigel Lythgoe and Arlene will help it, but please don't give it to Norton. Either bring Cat Deeley over from the States, or possibly either Steve Jones or Claudia Winkelman. Also, if this was in the pipeline, then why didn't they leave Arlene in the Strictly line-up and give Alesha a judging role on SYTYCD? Surely Arlene is more suited to Stictly and Alesha SYTYCD?

I've also noticed that the new Wizard of Oz show is being produced out of house by Talkback Thames. Good decision in my book. As mentioned above, BBC Entertainment keeps messing up formats and Talkback Thames have a good track record of reality formats with The X Factor, BGT and The Apprentice. They did produce Grease Is The Word though!!!

They're going all out for the America's Got Talent finale.

Guests are Susan Boyle, Shakira, Leona Lewis, Rascall Flatts and Cirque Du Soleil.

I saw a tiny bit of AGT when I was in the states, but it looked pretty boring to be honest. Never seen it on ITV2 either.

They'll need a good guest list as it's a 2 hour show, so there's a lot of time for them to fill. I wonder how high the audience will be, as its ratings seem to have dipped since the live shows began (the reverse of BGT). I'm thinking 12.5m and a 3.5 in 18-49s tonight and 14m and a 4.2 on Wednesday.

It isn't the best show, and can be dull. It also feels like X Factor 4 with all the sob stories they churn out each week (a truly ridiculous amount during last year's series), and it also feels like it's an older person's show than the British version. It is better than it used to be, though.

So Flashforward clashes with Waking the Dead. Five must think viewers don't like both. Never mind, WTD gets my vote - Flashforward will be available somewhere else.

Strong audience for Waking the Dead, up from last week due to the better lead-in from Casualty. Marple took a knock due to the better competition, and I think 4.5m is quite bad for a show like that. The South Bank Show really does rate poorly so I can sort of understand why ITV have done what they have.

As for last week as whole, ITV's primetime average was 23.2% - the channel's best since BGT week and fifth best week of the entire year so far in terms of primetime share (no doubt helped by the England match and X Factor). BBC1's primetime average was 21.3%, quite good compared to weeks in late-July and August.

The BBC have a pretty good talent show on its hands with So You Think You Can Dance. It should get good ratings if executed well and I expect it to start airing around January time.

ITV's Saturdays currently look really bare for Q1 next year with Demons, Primeval, Colour of Money and Saturday Night Takeaway (reportedly) all gone! I know they have a few new formats lined up, but I don't expect them to launch more than 1 show at a time on Saturdays so there'll still be plenty of space around. Like others have said, maybe the Dancing on Ice performance shows will move to Saturdays. If that does happen, the results probably won't be live when aired the next day, but then again that didn't cause any decline to Strictly's results ratings.

Maybe ITV could go with something like this?:
Saturdays- 18:30 The Whole 19 Yards, 19:30 Dancing on Ice, 21:30 Film
Sundays- 19:00 New Ant and Dec Gameshow, 20:00 Dancing on Ice Results, 21:00 Wild at Heart/Other drama

I'm really looking forward to Flashforward, and the trailers really do look great! Five must have paid a huge amount of money for it as the Sky controller said in his interview with DS a few weeks ago that in the bidding process it had gone to "silly money". It must be a big sum for Sky to say that!

Monday really was the only available slot as Tuesday's taken by CSI, Wednesday is that Farm thing, Thursday's football and Friday's not particularly good. I think Five should have put that Farmer thing on Mondays and Flashfoward on Wednesdays, but then again it might not have held up well against ITV's football as that has a high 16-34 male demographic audience (similar to FF's I would imagine).

I think FlashForward will be do well for Five with 2-3m being my predictions, I would be surprised if it topped The Mentalist's debut episode. It is a departure from their US dramas but at least they are branching out a bit.

Five also have NCIS: Los Angeles although they haven't announced it but it will be interesting where it's scheduled and I wouldn't be surprised if Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J come over to promote it.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/celebrit...m-a-celeb.html

There's an offer ITV can't refuse.




The Great British Public seem to have a natural aversion to programmes that are a blatant copy of other channel's hits. Hence the failure of GITW, Fame Academy, Trinny and Susannah Undress The Nation and all the various ITV versions of Dragon's Den. Even ITV's blatant rip-off of Who Do You Think You Are flopped (forget title). The only rip-off that succeeded was Dancing On Ice.

That'd be some coup. But imagine the producer's faces if the public vote him out first.


Dancing on Ice wasn't a direct rip off like the others though. There was enough variation on it to make it a success in it's own right. I guess they are lucky in a sense though, with the BBC trying to pre-empt it with Strictly on Ice.

I find myself thinking much the same every time I see the ratings for BGT-XF reported...


I've heard of Cirque du Soleil. Who are the others?


To be fair, a sizeable chunk of Marple's core audience probably did pass away between episodes 1 and 2 airing...




Are you auditioning to be George?

That'd be of old age. Those watching Casualty would've died between 1 and 2 of boredom.


Only trying to be fair. As I said earlier it was such a good show, the BBC even tried it. I reckon they would've made a series out of it if ITV hadn't claimed the rights to it.

When does I'm a Celebrity start?

Usually it's late November.

EDIT: Series 4 started November 21st, 2004, Series 5 started November 20th 2005, Series 6 started 13th November 2006, Series 7 started 12th November 2007 and Series 8 started 16th November 2008. So more mid November than late.

Wonder when it's going to air.

Will be fun to see how they fit it on Thursdays which is clogged to the brim with Corrie, Emmerdale and The Bill from 7pm

A quick half hour at 7.30pm?

I suspect they'll drop The Bill for the duration of IAC.

Keep a show that barely gets 4m or put one in that can claim 8m. Tough choice there.

You're right. That'll be why it was a hit, then. That and Holly Willoughby's eye-popping cleavage

If Robbie was voted out first, it wouldn't be a serious problem because the show runs for a week or so before the evictions (or whatever they call them) begin.



Obviously The Bill gets booted out for three weeks. ITV would consider that decision a no-brainer.

Well, that indeed is a bonus.

Did I say that, er, I mean - Torvil and Dean increase the figures too.


I don't know whether I'd like to watch or switch off his interview. Ant and Dec'd cram in as many Robbie songs as they could into it.


It might do well from having a break.

For whatever reason, US shows lose viewers towards the final. American Idol is strongest at the auditions, so is So You Think You Can Dance? America's Got Talent always has done the same.

The results shows are weak, padded and prone to major losses when confronted with bigger competition (see Glee last week).

The blame goes two ways, IMO. NBC are the obvious targets. What kind of idiots reschedule a show in its finale week?! They also drag the show out through quarter finals and semi finals and the format really doesn't support repeat performances. But they needed it to last until this week to launch Jay Leno! They also waited too long to launch this season and missed the peak of Susan Boyle hype. Originally, they didn't allow an audience at auditions. Each show is too long as well. For comparison, NBC ordered about 35 hours this year. Britain's Got Talent is 18 hours. Plus, NBC air recaps and repeats every Tuesday and Wednesday at 8pm before the main show at 9pm. Syco maintain that they haven't been allowed to make the show they want to make (which should be like BGT).

But production wise, it's not as good. There's still something missing with the judges. It skews too old. I saw a bit of the live set this year and it's dreadful looking. The contestants aren't as good either.

Monday: 3.1 - 12 million
Finale: 2.9 - 11 million

I don't think it can support a 2 hour finale.

Looks like the merry-go-round may be starting, according to media reports, Andy Duncan poised to leave C4, probably tomorrow. Finance Director, Anne Bulford to be interim replacement.

Tony Ball likely to be installed at ITV, probably tomorrow.

Btw, the MTV VMA's had 11 million viewers last night. The highest for the show since 2002. Looks like Russell Brand might get a third year.

More importantly, it's the biggest premiere of the US TV season tonight as The Jay Leno Show launches. NBC apparently want similar numbers to his last night on The Tonight Show (11.9m and a 3.4).

Perhaps more importantly... Kanye West is scheduled as a musical guest alongside Rihanna and Jay-Z. People might tune in hoping to hear what he has to say for himself.

You'd think they'd see the success of the British version and try to revamp it along those lines. The judge's have no chemistry (though TBF I never expected Simon, Amanda and Piers to have chemistry), the presentation is too wooden, and the set seems too dark and brooding. There's no life to it which exists in Britain's Got Talent.


Has Fincham actually left ITV then?

No, Ball is (or soon will be) Chief Exec, not director of television.

Leno will do well tonight with AGT as a lead in and curiosity but it will struggle against new and established shows when they launch next week, as has been mentioned it will interesting what effect it has on Conan and Jimmy Fallon or indeed Letterman and Kimmel.

I do like Leno and he was great on Top Gear but something tells that this show will only last a season or two at best.

Oh replacing Grade. Sorry.