Excellent for Family Fortunes and X Factor. Family Fortunes really suits that slot.

Graham Norton is doing BBC1's New Years Eve show, apparently cutting to BBC Scotland for the live celebrations at midnight...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1836...-bbc-deal.html

If that is true I think its a great idea. Boost for Graham Norton, an improvement on the bland New Years things from the past and getting Edinburgh screened nationally would be cool. It's always a pretty good atmosphere with the fireworks at the castle and the street party below.

Harry Hill got over 5m viewers and ITV used the entire advert break to read out the X Factor voting lines.

I doubt they would make anything like as much money as they would if they chucked a few ads on then.

Maybe they were at their limits or something.

The Norton show will be pre-recorded though

Wow at both CF and ASFF with a combined audience of 13.2m both doing above average, and then at 8 O'clcok BBC1 and ITV1 had an audience of 18.6m between them and 2/3rds of all viewers. However much people criticise BBC1 sunday night schedule for bring static, which it is, it does clearly offer a decent variety for those people who either don't know any other channel than BBC1 or do not like the X Factor.

That is exceptional for Harry Hill repeat and Family Fortunes. Really, really exceptional. Harry Hill was on form this week as well! So, hopefully, it means even more next week.

Doc Martin slightly down, despite another huge X Factor lead-in. I suppose it's still doing brilliantly though considering.

And yes, X Factor improves despite no big, big name.

ITV must've got another huge primetime share, and I hope we get South Bank Show ratings. It has been doing quite well recently.

2 million last week, if I recollect. Maybe the axe needs reversing.

Well yeh, you just wouldn't get the guests at New Year.

I don't think it matters. The alternative is Natasha Kaplinsky on a boat.

Well, you shouldn't comment then.

ITV's ratings are fantastic! For a repeat of a show shown less than 24 hours to get over 5m is brillaint, Family Fortunes ratings are fantastic. Doc Martin slightly down from last week, but 8.7m is still impressive!.

CountryFile is now a solid hit for BBC1, and Antiques Roadshow holding up really well against one of the biggest programme of the year.

I do. You're comment was one of the ones i did read, and as i thought it was incorrect thought i'd comment.

So that's a combined audience of 12.1 million for Harry Hill excluding all the ITV2 repeats! That's pretty astonishing for a show which was only managing a few million just a few years ago. The clocks going back seemed to boost the 7pm slot a bit.

Also over 7 million for Family Fortunes when it's not in an XF sandwich is amazing. Though I think even though the XF was after it, it boosted FF as people turned on the TV before.

Doc Martin seems to have peaked now, but still bringing in a huge audience and ITV's top rated drama and on par with what it was achieving in 2007.

BBC1 held up really well, especially with nearly 6m for Countryfile and for AR to manage over 5m against the top rated show of the year is excellent.

I always thought the XF would keep on increasing. It just doesn't seem to matter what the guests are-more people are tuning in as the competition increases and I revert to what I said yesterday...will it ever stop peaking??!

To think this time last year Countryfile was airing at 11am to a few million viewers at best and now a year on it's airing in primetime and finishing as BBC One's highest rated programme on a Sunday. Quite a transformation.

ITV are becoming increasingly dominant on Sundays though. They need to keep this momentum up in January with DOI else it will be a waste.

X Factor did amazingly, as deserved. Dizzying ratings for Xtra too... 2m - must be a record for this early in the competition?

Brilliant night for ITV1 yesterday, with some massive ratings. X Factor's highest rating ever and it might also be All Star FF's highest as well. Amazing to see a repeat get >5m just a day after the original airing, well done the TV Burp team. Doc Martin's also going strong, despite the small drop from last week.

Countryfile did brilliantly for BBC1 at 7pm and has made a superb transition from daytime to primetime. Antiques Roadshow remaining steady around 5m. It's down from the 7m+s we've seen in previous series, but the competition is extremely tough.

What about ITV... The Prisoner, Bouquet of Barbed Wire, Mr & Mrs, Survival, Family Fortunes, etc. Maybe not as many as the BBC, but ITV has had their fair share.


Strictly's not on its last legs. It's official ratings are currently on par with last year, and even accounting for a smaller end of series surge it will probably end up as the second most watched Strictly ever. Not on its last legs.


What "more exciting comedy" has ITV made in the last couple of years? Their only comedy hits are: Benidorm, TV Burp and You've Been Framed - all created more than 2 years ago.


There's also been: Boy Meets Girl, May Contain Nuts, Monday Monday, Gunrush, The Fixer, The Colour of Money = all huge flops. The BBC haven't had any new programmes flop as much in the ratings (iirc).

Some interesting links about X Factor's performance:


http://www.xfactorcentral.net/news/r...-hit-highs.xfc

And a table of ratings which breaks the show down into each section: http://www.xfactorcentral.net/ratings.xfc

XF5 apparently averaged 9.7m in the overnights, this year is 1.4m up.

It's interesting, anyway, because it could well match the BGT figure, if not beat it IMO. The figures are high enough and it's going to be winter. i.e. more bums on seats because it's cold!!

I'm praying that the final will be on another snow night (like with Whitechapel earlier in the year). I'm fascinated to see just how high the audience could go after the 19m we got for BGT on the hottest day of the year.

Really, really good night for ITV1, they really do rule Sundays now. BBC1 still did well and I'm quite liking the way the two channels are aiming at completely different audiences on Sundays at the moment. I think the choice is really benefiting viewers.

Brilliant for The X Factor - and what a superb repeat rating for TV Burp. Family Fortunes did brilliantly to get above 7m.

BBC One held up well though - Countryfile did extremely well.

According to ITV on Twitter - peak was 15m - meaning best every performance for XF.

What will the final hit? 18m? 19m? 20m?

I think the final could easily reach 20 million plus.

Fascinating article from The Grauniad today about how one scribbled note changed TV forever, inspiring the likes of Pop Idol/TXF/BGT and so on:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...-cowell-fuller

So are the BBC screening Scotland's NY celebrations nationally? and if so why?

Fantastic performance once again for XF. Doc Martin and FF doing brilliantly aswell. ITV well and truely reclaiming Sunday.

Has anyone got any audience info on the first two nights of the ratings jugganaut that is Most Haunted Live on Living TV?...

Actually, its doing more than reclaiming it. The figures are overwhelming and HH,FF and Doc Martin are all benefiting by the association. BBC1 is holding up about as well as it possibly could though still appearing to be overwhelmed. The probelm the BBC has is that when X Factor finishes it wont be too far off that DOI starts linking in Wild at Heart and another 3 months of domination. The effect of all this and the incessant -almost brainwashing-promotion of XF is that the public will less and less associate BBC with entertainment-thus new shows like SYTYCD will be hampered.
I think there is a chance SCD results will go back to Sundays next year -or at least will be split from the main show.
The scribbled note story is fascinating-I wonder how often the BBC has been too cautious or what X Factor would have looked like had it been made in-house at the BBC.
One think for certain is that if the BBC want a future in entertaining the masses they need to look for someone with some industry nous and clout.

You are right and I guess it is the ultimate alternative to the mass entertainment brands on ITV. However its promotion was almost an act of waving a white flag as presumably this is going to be static in this slot for as long as it gets 4-6 million.

DOI will maintain the momentum-though maybe not quite a sky high-but whatever happens I dont think these ratings could ever be described as wasted.

Just a note - it appears MG have made a balls up on Saturday's figures.

It has TV Burp, Merlin and Strictly lower than what they have been reported on here, Broadcast and Brand Republic.

It has been a great weekend for ITV. The 7pm hour is still doing great on Saturday and Life Stories bounced back this week. The Sunday schedule is doing incredibly well.

I really think they could do without the whole Popstar to Operastar show in January and just split DOI across Saturday and Sunday. SYTYCD should do fine against ITV's weak Saturday line-up. The US version is very young skewing and doesn't get high overall ratings, the BBC need that to change a bit for the UK.


The BBC aren't really unique in being too cautious at times. Though it is interesting that Lorraine Heggesey now benefits from all these shows that she had wanted to take in-house (as CEO of Talkback Thames).

Every US network passed over Pop Idol. Some of them passed several times (ABC said no on 3 occasions). Even FOX showed little interest. It was eventually Elisabeth Murdoch, who was a fan of Pop Idol, who told her father that FOX had to make the show and make it exactly like the UK show.

One of the first things Simon Shaps did when he arrived at ITV was scrap Britain's Got Talent.