The thread is like Christmas. Its hardly started and everyone is bickering.

DS has updated its soap schedules with new info from the BBC and ITV and this is how it stands for Christmas Day.

1800 - Emmerdale (30 mins)
1830 - Corrie (1 hour)
1930 - EastEnders (30 mins)
1930 - Emmerdale (30 mins)
2100 - EastEnders (30 mins)

Surely not? Corrie at 6.30pm? Two Emmerdale episodes? I guess, if the BBC are sticking with it, it will go:

6.00pm The Gruffalo
6.30pm Strictly Come Dancing
7.30pm EastEnders
8.00pm Doctor Who: The End of Time Part I
9.00pm EastEnders
9.30pm The Royle Family
10.30pm Catherine Tate

Then on ITV1:

6.00pm Emmerdale
6.30pm Coronation Street
7.30pm Harry Hill's TV Burp
8.00pm Emmerdale
8.30pm Agatha Christie's Poirot
10.30pm Film?

Or if Emmerdale and EastEnders will clash:

6.00pm Emmerdale
6.30pm Coronation Street
7.30pm Emmerdale
8.00pm Agatha Christie's Poirot
10.00pm Film?

I lost interest at that point.

That BBC1 schedule is pretty much as I predicted 7 days ago, save that SCD and EE2 are the wrong way round. If ITV1's line up is really as pants as being predicted, then that's going to be one hell of a win for BBC1. Guess we'll see around 3pm tomorrow.

And no, JJ, I'm not "creaming myself" at TXF's continued ratings slide. I think that was you a week ago with your successive 16m, 17m, 19m predictions (in the space of one afternoon) for last Sunday's TXF.

I did have a little chuckle though. What remains of TXF2009 is of interest only to the die-hard fans now - albeit that there's probably 14m of them.

I see another z-leb quit Tits Out today. Has anyone actually been voted off yet? Will it make it through to Sunday?


That's amazing for BBC1 when ITV, so George keeps telling us, has made a conscious decision to give up on daytime and channel all its resources into shoring up evenings. By the end of the year you'd assume that both will be in the 22's for primetime - and BBC1 still comfortably the nation's most-watched channel overall.

Can ITV ever regain its crown?



I agree with George - that wasn't a bad line-up by ITV's standards. They decided to offer an alternative to BBC1's blockbusting line up which included between 6pm and 11pm (if memory serves):

- Only Fools and Horses special
- EastEnders double
- Birds of a Feather special
- Film: Ghost

From my memory bank of obscure old ratings (and BARB's website) , OFAH and BoaF got 19.6m and 19.4m respectively; EE probably 13m and 16m, and Ghost pulled a staggering 18.53m.

(Boxing Day Sunday was even better - something like:

6.15pm - Antiques Roadshow - 14m
7pm - Keeping Up Appearances Special - 17.5m
8pm - Casualty 17m
8.50 - BBC News 16.7m (honest!)
9.05 - One Foot in the Algarve 20.01m)

Anyway, Field of Dreams was actually praised as a decent film premiere for ITV, and despite getting 6m (I recall), ITV was then slated for its big film flop. Well I don't think even 16 years ago 6m for a film against 16-19m for BBC1's offerings could be seen as that bad!

Think the producers of I'm A Celebrity will be feeling the same way as the producers of Strictly Come Dancing currently - both wishing for their nightmare of a series to be over. Both to an extent bought it on themselves though - I'm A Celebrity... introducing Katie Price onto the scene; Strictly Come Dancing not reacting quicker to Jade Johnson's injury.

ITV1 did well - 13.5m is not to be sniffed at in this day of age, and neither is 8m+. The core audience is holding up, which is something. The spin offs suffered though - probably because of an unsurprising elimination followed by a lack of one.

BBC1 must be delighted with their schedule on Sunday's - it's proving a hit for the non-X Factor audience and pulling in the viewers.

Channel 4 did excellently with Robots; BBC2 did brilliantly with Top Gear doing very well in the 9pm slot (I think it'll win the slot from next week); Five held up as well as they could expect. A good night for all really, and does prove that all five channels can be relatively successful given the right scheduling.

IAC definitely seems to have had its fair share of troubles this year - another night where the vote-off has had to be postponed.

It was a good opportunity for an extended interview with one of the most interesting contestants though and they still only dedicated three minutes to his interview. With 90 minutes to fill (and a good chunk of that given over to stupid montages) they could have given him a bit more airtime.

I realise my jocular "Tits Out" is not really appropriate for IAC.














"Tits Up", perhaps?

Has Corrie ever been on at 630?
ITV really have no idea what they are doing
There's No way Emmerdale is going to survive the EastEnders clash on Xmas day
And if thats ITV's Christmas day well it really is piss poor
The only Differance is the times of Corrie and Emmerdale

Digital Spy has updated the soaps schedule for Christmas:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/sc...ules-2009.html

According to that, half hour clashes between EastEnders and Emmerdale at 7.30pm on Christmas Day, and at 7pm on New Years Day. And another EastEnders v Coronation Street clash on New Years Day, at 8.30pm.

The Bill takes the 9pm slot on Wednesday 30th December and New Years Eve.

EDIT: Reading between the lines, does that mean that Doctor Who is being lined up for 7.30pm on New Years Day, hence EastEnders being bought forward to 7pm, and back to 8.30pm?

Digital Spy's EE timings will turn out wrong for New Year's Day because Doctor Who is 75 minutes long. I think the following might happen:

18:45- Doctor Who: End of Time Part 2
20:00- EastEnders
20:30- Filler (Celebrity Mastermind/QI)
21:00- EastEnders
21:30- Gavin and Stacey

Unless they have another hour long show to show between 7.30-8.30, and Doctor Who's being aired another day, say Boxing Day. Mind you, even then EastEnders will be right over it's favoured slot.

Otherwise - I wonder whether they'll copy Christmas Day of last year, and have EastEnders at 9pm, therefore avoiding the ITV soaps? That or clash it with Emmerdale at 7pm, then air it in it it's usual 8pm slot.

EDIT: Yeah, like you said above.

Still think the Beeb are mad to hold DW pt 2 over to NYD and have it tangled up with the soaps on what is a more normal day than Christmas Day. They should put it out at 8pm on Sunday 27th and absolutely clean up - 14m+ would seem to be there for the taking (people watch any old crap at 8pm on Sundays, it seems), and probably the highest BBC1 audience of 2009.

New Year's Day gets them an early winning entry into the 2010 list though, which I'm sure you would like?

I wonder if it might not be worth ITV playing Corrie or Emmerdale at 3.10pm after the Queen. If nothing else, they might win the battle at 3pm.

More realistically though, I'd go something like:
6pm Emmerdale
7pm Corrie
7.30pm Marple/Poirot
9.30pm Corrie
10pm Movie Premiere or something like An Audience with...

What a stupid post D.M.N, so tradition now means ratings?. Its been on for 50 or so years and as honoured the greatest sportsman in the country. I think it does have a long tradition.

I think they should have a trilogy over Christmas Eve/Day and Boxing Day.

Use Waters of Mars as filler against the soaps (I know The Next Doctor failed as a repeat, but Waters of Mars was more widely received and is the start of Tennant's Doctor's downfall), place End of Time Part One on Christmas Day (say around 7.30pm) and End of Time Part Two on Boxing Day (around 7.45, with EastEnders either at 7.15 or 9.00).

It's interesting that Dancing on Ice, X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, I'm A Celebrity and The Apprentice all seem to be level or up on last year despite not having vintage series, IMHO. OK, BGT had SuBo, but apart from her it was a weak year in comparison to last.

In some ways, it might make it easier for them to maintain these numbers (BGT excepted) by simply putting on better series next year!

I think Britain's Got Talent had a stronger talent base than in 2008 - just look at the winner for proof of that!

I agree with the rest though - it's amazing how Dancing On Ice held up considering the winner appeared to be decided on Week One. Maybe everyone expected a twist like there was in 2008?

Only if you're up there with him.

It's always very interesting to see how BBC1 schedules its programmes on Xmas day given the massive ratings it can achieve across the whole day and not just for one programme.

I think a full day of high ratings from morning to afternoon right through until the evening is more impressive than one show getting 16/17m even if none of the shows on BBC1 Xmas day reach a similar figure.

BBC1 struck gold with the schedules a few years back (EastEnders-Doctor Who-Strictly Come Dancing-Comedy) and hasn't deviated since.

Which leads to a question to anyone on the thread - considering that BBC1 have an automatic pull on Christmas Day over it's rivals, would you try something new out on Christmas Day and see whether it can be given a boost before the series proper, rather than airing shows that are already popular?

Something like Outnumbered perhaps.

Of course, the first year of Green Green Grass, they parked the Xmas special at the centre of the Xmas Day schedule - 8pm - and it got tanked by Coronation Street. Although, obviously there is a huge, huge gap in the quality between brilliant Outnumbered and the abysmal GGG.

Then again, look at the ratings for Wallace & Gromit last year. That was a real , but also a

I wouldn't want to upstage him scizo.

I expected Wallace and Gromit to do well given it was the TV special in 13 years and 3 years since Curse of the Wererabbit I thought the film would do better in the ratings but it's not great compared to the first three.

I expect another special is due for 2010 or 2011 depending on Aardman's schedule and Nick Park coming up with another story.

Outnumbered would be great as a Christmas Day thing but I am looking to the special which is set on Boxing Day. It wouldn't surprise if Gavin and Stacey get occasional specials but I think it depends on Corden and Ruth Jones.

If Miranda gets a BBC One transfer then I would see that get a Christmas Special of some sort.

Exactly - Outnumbered would be a really interesting move into the Christmas Day schedule. And how about Merlin instead of Doctor Who? A new drama could take the 9pm slot (help - what drama's are BBC1 planning to launch in 2010?), and maybe a So You Think You Can Dance? Special could be aired in the Strictly slot - possibly with the Strictly professionals taking part as a kind of crossover?:

6.00 EastEnders
6.30 Merlin
7.30 So You Think You Can Dance? - The Strictly Challenge
8.30 EastEnders
9.00 *New Drama*
10.00 Outnumbered

It's nowhere near as strong as the current lineup BUT it could give the programmes involved a valuable core base leading into 2010?

I can see where your coming from but Christmas Day is all about maximising the audience and less on giving lesser shows a leg up. Outnumbered just doesnt have the popularity to command a Christmas Day slot yet. It was only averaging 4 million in its last series, only gaining a big audience when SCD overran one of the nights. If GGG tanked when it was averaging over 6 million for its show then Outnumbered would tank also if its only getting 4 million usually.