This is a very good schedule. I rather wish it was for real. Lots of goodies in this one, would definitely watch The Snow Men and Harry Hill and probably BGT.

Only criticism I would make is the timings are a bit weird - but maybe that was intentional to try and force viewers to stick with ITV?

Thanks for the feedback Dancc - I do think it would be very very strong with something for nearly everyone.

Yeah it was intentional - maybe not a great idea but I thought it would try and force viewers to stay with the BBC.

I like the schedule, but I would question whether ITV have the money to do all that at a time of traditionally low advertising revenues. BGT costs over £1m an episode, as would a landmark period drama. ITV only has about £2m a day to spend on programming, and that includes all of daytime and the news, as well as repeats which have fees attached. I'd guess that your schedule would cost over £3m for primetime alone and I know its a special day, but it's not one ITV are likely to win anyway.

Would BGT cost £1m if it was pre-recorded though?

I know it would be costly but I do think that ITV would do really well with that schedule, I think a considerable gain - obviously the advertising wouldn't be great (however I think the advertisers would bother with a BGT special) but it would certainly up ITV's reputation.

I know my family would watch a lot of those shows over the BBC's offering, my older family would certainly tune in for The Snow Men and the soaps, and Britain's Got Talent and Harry Hill appeal to a broad audience.

Technically ITV should not bother but for their reputation and public appeal they ought to, even if it's not going to make them a huge amount.

If it was pre-recorded when the studio was still up and Ant and Dec, Simon Cowell, etc agreed to be paid less for the special episode than for a normal episode, you could make some savings I suppose.

Yeah it would be pre-recorded after the finale, which would be less costly. And like I say, I think it'd pull a very good number for ITV and some good advertising revenue (albeit not amazing)

20,000 posts, eh? That's like 6 times the number of posts in this thread! I don't know whether I should congratulate you on that landmark or not. How do you feel?

The new documentary from the Kilimanjaro climbers, going back to Africa to distribute malaria nets, will air on BBC1 between Christmas and New Year, according to This Morning.

I wasn't going to mention it, lol.

I'm just surprised I managed to get to 20,000 posts without being banned. I've only had one account since 2004.

IAC did very well last night although I think it's heading for a 9m+ finale which is still good, BBC One held steady with Life, BBC Two did great with University Challenge and Miranda which I think will get a BBC One transfer next year but School of Saatchi did poorly which should signals to the controller of BBC Two that Art show don't work unless they are accessible, Channel 4 did well with The Queen although it was down from yesterday while Five fared well with The Gadget Show and Flashforward.

I wonder if Five will bring back FlashForward straight away in the New Year or wait until February or March because the US airings are likely to be affected by the Winter Olympics. I'm guessing documentaries or stuff like Paul Merton in Europe will fill that slot.

What young person would want to watch Popstar to Opera star? Isn't that for older viewers?

They are all on fixed contracts per year. I dont think cost is the problem with this. Its the fact that previous attempts at Christmas specials havent worked well (Pop Idol for example)

If I was asked to schedule ITV Christmas Day I would opt for a lower rating, critically aclaimed schedule. Its difficult to do now with so many channels (five will be doing A Christmas Carol & Wonderful Life, etc) but I liked the idea of JamesJ. I might even throw in a festive SBS or a concert perhaps of ITV talents. Get Harry Hill to host and feature SuBo and a few others. It wont beat the BBC but it would offer an alternative. I would also take the soaps off and use the episodes for other nights during the season. Maybe taking the high moral ground would shame the BBC into doing likewise

Problem is I can't imagine any older person wanting to watch it either. Anyone seriously into Opera/classical will scoff at it, so I think they will be depending on the Rhydian/G4 market to be honest.

No, we need to do this the old fashioned way with some good 'ol statistics... Ratings style!

01/2006 to 04/2008 - Part 1 - 0.009989m (reach: 1.23470m) * 0.008% commented on the thread in proportion to the 'reach'
04/2008 to 10/2008 - Part 2 - 0.009989m (reach: 0.04795m) * 0.208% proportion
10/2008 to 08/2009 - Part 3 - 0.022153m (reach: 0.96882m) * 0.023% proportion
08/2009 to 10/2009 - Part 4 - 0.004514m (reach: 0.22302m) * 0.020% proportion
10/2009 to current - Part 5 - 0.003337m (reach: 0.143601m) * 0.023% proportion

Total - 49,982 posts; 2.62 million views!

Brilliant ratings thread statistics. Did Part 4 really only last two months.

As for a conclusion from those numbers though: theres a lot of lurkers out there. Hello Lurkers!

ITV schedules have been signed off this afternoon by the looks of things - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/sc...ules-2009.html

Christmas Day for them is:

18:00 - Emmerdale (1 hour)
19:00 - Coronation Street (1 hour)
20:00 - TBA

Nah, not yet finally signed off. It also says:

It'd be leaving it extremely short for the TV guides if they were to change again, surely?

The magical date going around is today for final changes, so I won't be surprised if ITV's schedule is final.

Last year, ITV's schedule was finalised around 4.30pm and BBC's around 6pm. In 2007, ITV's was finalised around 7pm and BBC's were finalised on the Wednesday.

So there's still a bit of time left. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if ITV's soap times do remain as they currently are.

But surely that shouldn't be a reason why the older audience should be ignored...because they'll be dead soon enough?! Reading through the posts, I have to say I'm with PJ Millar on this one.

As for last night's ratings, I have to say I'm a little shocked at the soap ratings. I was expecting Corrie to top ten million by now and for EastEnders to have 500,000 - 1 million more, especially as it's the lead up to Christmas and their typical 'big storyline' (whatever it may be) and because of the big Thursday episode that's just been and gone.

As much as I do feel there is too much soap on nowadays, I do think it is a shame we don't see more special schedules over Christmas other than EastEnders.

Corrie and Emmerdale should be on Boxing Day IMO at the least. I don't see why Corrie can't be on Wednesday 23rd either.

The whole thing is such a mess with Corrie now airing on Monday x2, Thursday at 8.30pm and Friday x2. I long for the days of Sun/Mon/Wed/Fri at 7.30pm - nicely spaced through the week in a consistent slot.

Funny how ITV don't commission extra episodes other than the Christmas doubles. This year, there is not one extra episode of Coronation Street as Christmas Day falls on a Friday, where Corrie has a double episode normally anyway.

There are 3 extra episodes of EastEnders this year over the 2 week period. However I swear a few years back it aired Mon-Fri with two episodes on Christmas Day, yet this year it does not air at all on Wednesday.

In fact, Wednesday 23rd is disgustingly dull with just Emmerdale for half an hour at 7pm. Some will argue it's better for variety, however I'd prefer Corrie at 4 nights a week throughout the year then on every day over the Christmas period, where it would feel special.

The last update to ITV1's Christmas Day puts the two soaps between 6 and 8pm:

6.00pm Emmerdale
7.00pm Coronation Street
8.00pm ?? Christ knows

If that's the case, Corrie will be against Doctor Who at 7pm, unless they do:

6.00pm Doctor Who
7.00pm Strictly Come Dancing
8.00pm EastEnders (1 hour)

Because EastEnders can't air at 5.30pm before Emmerdale if that airs at 6pm.

It's doing brilliantly in a tough slot. I expect a move to BBC1 is definitely on the cards. It's a great show.

The contracts are actually per episode, as we learned from the "Philip Scofield v Fern Britton pay row "

I thought it was annual contracts, or contracts for 2 years, 3 years, etc, but it turns out they are paid, e.g. £45,000 per episode and then when they say a "£2m contract" its actually just a rough estimate of the number of episodes they will end up doing.

That's what I mean by renegotiating with Ant and Dec and Simon Cowell. Any time ITV say they want one more episode of BGT or X Factor they pay them at the pre-agreed rate, so I think they would have to pay them the normal rate for a Christmas special.

How many times are ITV going to 'unveil' this Christmas schedule?

I think I've read this press release about 3 times in the last month.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-schedule.html

ITV Press Centre has updated just now...

The Fattest Man in Britain - Sunday 20 December, 9:00PM - 11:00PM
A Night of Heroes: The Sun Military Awards - Monday 21 December, 9:00PM - 10:30PM
The Nolans: In the Mood for Dancing - Wednesday 23 December, 8:00PM - 9:00PM

I think that's a better slot for Fattest Man than the Xmas Eve slot the proviosional schedules had because it might've struggled against Gavin and Stacey.