X Factor did solidly but Spider-Man 3 must have dented it because it was slightly down, Family Fortunes did good as well, BBC One had a good night with Countryfile, AR and Garrows Law, Top Gear was down but still good for BBC Two although I think they'll be back at 8pm next series and Channel 4 had an okay night with CDWM and Embarrassing Bodies but the repeat of Derren Brown did terrible.

Will be interesting what Pocahontas got to see if it helped Spider-Man 3 at all.

X-Factor Weekend, both shows 2 hours in duration... 1930-2130....

Strange to see the XF not hitting series highs considering Saturday and Jedward leaving. Mind you, I don't think ITV will be particularly concerned with numbers like them.

Of greater problem is I'm A Celebrity. It'll clearly get a short term boost with 'her' departure, but ITV will likely be following very closely the numbers this week to see it can sustain those people who've tuned so far.

BBC One held up as usual last night, and I think Garrow's Law has done very well to hold the numbers it has under a heck of a ratings squeeze from all sides. I hope it returns in a friendlier slot in the future.

Top Gear seems a bit tired, both in content and ratings terms - but its obviously still a mile ahead of anything else BBC Two have got.

Good. Hopefully they really go for it with the Sunday show in terms of special guests.

Surprised they didn't do X Factor from 7pm on Sunday. They're pushing SuBo back a bit now (10.30pm seems like a late finish for that kind of show).

It will put paid to any chance of the final topping BGT for an average. But ITV would have been crazy to pass up an opportunity like this.

I think they would have been better running a Life Stories with Cheryl Cole at 9.30pm on Saturday rather than having her own show before X Factor.

A new show for BBC One next year called 'Secret Fortune':

Source: http://quizzlestick.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/test-post/

It's an 8x60 commision and will be presented by Nick Knowles. Speculation is that it'll be one of the National Lottery shows next year. It sounds an awful lot like Deal or No Deal.

Also here's a few daytime ratings from Friday 20th December:

BBC1: Bargain Hunt (12.15-13.00) 2.0m (32%), Keep Your Enemies Close (16.05-16.35) 0.4m (3%), The Weakest Link (17.15-18.00) 2.4m (15%)
BBC2: Are You an Egghead? (16.25-17.10) 1.6m (13%), Eggheads 2.1m (11%)
ITV1: Dickinson's Real Deal (14.00-15.00) 1.2m (17%), Goldenballs (17.00-18.00) 1.6m (10%)
C4: Countdown (15.30-16.15) 0.8m (9%), Deal or No Deal (16.15-17.00) 2.1m (18%)


I think the long duration for the shows will prevent TXF from beating BGT's 17.3m. But financially, it makes sense for ITV to make the shows as long as possible.

If you look at the descriptions, the two episodes of The Impressions Show are best ofs, so they can go anywhere, and given the mess the Beeb are making of scheduling them, I think they'll shove them one night where there's an awkward gap. Like most people I don't expect to see 'stEnders on Boxing Day - or Strictly, I don't see why that won't be on Christmas Day.

Just looked at Media Guardian and it seems Miranda got 2m for a repeat, the show has become a bit of a sleeper hit and it's good that it is doing well but it is a Marmite show with some people hating and some people loving it, I'm in the latter.

would it be right C4 had its worst weekend in many many years?

I notice from C4 sale they only posted 2 shows from sunday..it really was a shocking weekend for them.

Some Channel 4 programmes over the Christmas / New Year period...

Saturday 19th
The Noughties (look back at the noughties, also on Sunday, not decided yet on progs)

Tuesday 22nd
CDWM Xmas Special
Big Bang Theory, new series

Christmas Eve
Alan Carr Chatty Man Xmas Special

Christmas Day
Only When I Dance (what is this?)


Tuesday 29th December
Alan Carr Chatty Man's New Year's Special

Wednesday 30th December
The Turin Shroud
The Real Lost Symbol

New Year's Eve
Noughties Music Countdown

New Year's Day
Big Fat Quiz Of The Year

I think it would do amazing later after the people watching after are included.

Anyway, looking at the rating the UK is becoming more like the USA in terms of ratings!

Really poor for the X Factor, only 13.7 million is just rubbish.

axe, axe, axe

It looks rather good tbh. The Come Dine with Me special should do well and Alan Carr should do well on Christmas Eve.

I've looked on google and it looks like Only When I Dance is a documentry ... here we go .. C4 giving us the best on Christmas Day as usual

As silly as it sounds one can't help feeling a tad disappointed that The X Factor slipped last night. Particularly with that result and the fact that it had managed its best Saturday audience of the series. Still a brilliant rating that every other show would die to have but for The X Factor...well I have high expectations now.

Glad they've sorted out the final schedule for The X Factor - two hours is much better, although the average won't be as high as BGT's.

That's actually rather brilliant for the IAC spin-off. I think the Katie Price effect must be helping it a tad - more viewers switching over as soon as she's picked for a trial - although that will be gone from tonight.

The Osbourne experiment didn't work though. ITV News would have done far better.

A bit shocked to see many people saying X Factor did 'poorly' and 'disappointing'. Still the most watched show of the week by 4 million viewers and yet again ITV have taken the top 3 shows of the week culminating in what has been their best week since BGT week I think. XF was quite obviously dented by the premiere of a huge film and I think without XF there Spiderman would have managed 4m+. Stupid scheduling imo for Spiderman.

Though with XF down, very surprising to see IAC UP on its premiere from a week ago and reaching another series high finally reaching that magic 10m mark. Beats last years previous best.

Also I think it wasn't just XF that Spiderman dented, because as far as I can see everything was down last night, bar IAC.

I do take back what I say about The Osbourne show though. Tanked with spectacular results! To lose over 80% of the lead in is pretty immpressive and I think it's safe to say it won't be making an ITV1 transfer.

Awful weekend share wise for CH4 in the 4% range for Sat & Sun. I do think it may benefit from airing How Clean Is Your House repeats in one of the poor rating slots, because I'm sure many would be interested to see how Kim Woodburn really acts on this show after being exposed to 11m+ people on IAC.

Doesnt look that bad really. Ill be watching the Alan Carr shows, The Big Fat Quiz and The Noughties show looks alrite. However i suspect C4 are giving up on Christmas Day which i dont blame them for. The dance documentary sounds very unappealing to me and reminds me of the other year when they put on a 2 hour religious show which got around 800,000 in primetine on Christmas Day. But at least it is alternative and anything would get squashed against BBC One on the main day.

After doing a bit of analysis, I agree with you there:

Antiques Roadshow: 5.8m >> 5.4m (down 400,000)
The X Factor: 14.3m >> 13.7m (down 600,000)
Ray Mears's Northern Wilderness: 1.9m >> 1.6m (down 300,000)
Come Dine With Me: 1.4m >> 1.3m (down 100,000)

So Channel 5 took 1.4m away from other terrestrials in the 8pm hour.

I think people (including myself) just look at X Factor's rating - notice immediately that it is down and make it seem like some crisis, which isn't the case! After all, 13.7m is still an amazing rating.

Will it beat BGT though considering its over 2 hours for both shows? The peak will be higher, the average won't though...

I think Five should have saved it for next year but it still did very well, the Spider-Man films do seem do draw an audience. The first one got 3m for its premiere, the second one got 2.4m and this one got 2.6m, 4m does seem a bit high, I would have thought it would have gotten 3m without X Factor, would be interesting to see the breakdown though.

Five have done well with scheduling films before X Factor, the Disney ones have been doing decent business.

Looks great. Big Fat Quiz is always a highlight of mine over the festive period.

Love The Big Bang Theory! Is that when the new series (presumably S3) starts, a few days before Christmas? Bit odd but I'm not complaining- nearly finished season 2 on DVD, just a few more episodes left to get through. It would be ideal if it started a few weeks sooner?

Just checked BBC Press Office for any update for Sunday 13th December - both SPOTY and Small Island are still listed as 'Time to be confirmed'.

Not sure when we'll get final confirmation.

Count me as a fan too, it's a shame it's likely getting a 10pm slot because it would do really at 9pm, wonder what the companion show will be?

I wonder how they'll work it round The X Factor - the two hour slot is going to cause issues for both programmes. I guess they could try giving SPOTY a half hour jump on The X Factor by starting it at 7pm. It may hold on to it's viewers because people won't be bothered about The X Factor until the business end. That will sacrifice Small Island at 9pm, but there's no other way they could do it, bar just airing a My Family repeat and basically giving up at 9pm, and trying to grab The X Factor audience at 9.30pm with Small Island.

Sunday 22nd November 2009

The Usual Suspects: The X Factor down but not by a huge amount. The fact that the Saturday show had it's best ever ratings means the drop isn't too concerning. I'm A Celebrity loves the lead in the show provided, and has Coronation Street and Katie's departure tonight. BBC1's triology of Countryfile Antique's Roadshow and Garrow's Law held up as well as ever.

Top Gear seems to be recieving more criticism but it's still holding up and is definitely BBC2's most highly rated programme by far.

The Film Challenge: As expected, Spiderman 3 performed well. Like all commercial channels Five need to make use of the pre-Christmas boom so it makes sense for it to air there. With ITV having such a strong pre-Christmas schedule, the other commercial networks are going to struggle to know where to place programming. I guess Five could've gone for early Tuesday evening leading into CSI, but even then it'd clash with EastEnders/Holby City.

Just as a comparison, Five's opposition to The X Factor last week was only getting 0.8m (Towering Inferno) - so it's easily arguable that much of the audience switched from ITV1 to Five.

The Filler: Harry Hill's TV Burp net audience is over 10m with the show's combined which is terrific for it. Family Fortunes is also doing very well for ITV1.

The Surprise Success: Nothing too shocking from last night's schedules really - I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here Now! is enjoying something of a revival after a couple of poor series on ITV2 though.

The Big Disappointment: I'm sure ITV were hoping that Osbourne's Adrenaline Junkie would hold up better than that, especially with that kind of lead in!

ITV Press Office has confirmed:

EDIT: BBC have now also confirmed

Saturday 12th December 2009
BBC One
17:30 - Hole in the Wall
18:00 - Merlin
18:45 - Strictly Come Dancing
20:00 - Lottery
20:10 - Casualty
21:00 - Impressions Show/Strictly (not sure what order)
22:00 - BBC News

ITV1
17:00 - ITV News and Weather
17:30 - Totally You've Been Framed!
18:00 - Harry Hill's The Best of TV Burp
18:30 - Cheryl Cole's Night In
19:30 - The X Factor
21:30 - The British Comedy Awards 2009
23:00 - ITV News and Weather

Sunday 13th December 2009
BBC One
19:00 - SPOTY
21:00 - Small Island

ITV1
18:00 - ITV News and Weather
18:15 - Harry Hill's The Best of TV Burp
18:45 - All Star Family Fortunes
19:30 - The X Factor
21:30 - I Dreamed A Dream - The Susan Boyle Story
22:30 - ITV News and Weather

In italics has not been 'officially' confirmed, but based on previous week's, I suspect this will happen

By far, that is ITV's biggest weekend this year. Should be interesting at 9:30am on here on Sunday 13th and Monday 14th December!

Did someone say there was an outage last night?