The BBC2 BSIs seem to be involved in scheduling this week's new comedy series

"Miranda" airs on Monday at 8.30, not a slot known for comedy on BBC2

The second series of "Beautiful People" airs on Friday at 10.00, also not known for BBC2 comedy

They obviously don't rate them or they would have aired in established comedy blocks like Thursdays or Wednesday at 10pm etc.

I think the new slots are good ideas actually. A lot of comedies haven't worked in the Thursday or Wednesday slots, so experimenting with new ideas isn't a bad idea.

Also didn't Beautiful People only just scrape 1m for its first series? Friday 10pm seems like the best slot for it really.

Time for a news channels update, looks like Sky News was the preferred channel for coverage of Stephen Gateley's funeral:

Saturday 17th October

Sky News
0600 Sunrise 93,000
1000 Saturday Live with Chris Roberts 144,000
1200 Weekend Lunchtime 456,000
1300 Weekend Lunchtime 553,000
1400 News, Sport and Weather 108,000

BBC News
0600-1800 below 140k

Overall shares for w/e 18th October: 0.8% BBC, 0.7% Sky.

Source: BARB.

The new 100th episode of Taggart will air on Monday 7th December according to some reports today.

That's the week after I'm a Celebrity ends. There's also three further episodes of Taggart that are yet to air.

any word on Acorah and Jacko?

God, the last three pages of this thread are mightidly dull!


I agree on More4 News, but completely disagree about the News at Noon. The best bulletin on TV all day IMO, and very distinctive compared to the BBC and ITV afternoon bulletins, and ignoring breakfast TV and rolling news essentially the first news bulletin on TV all day. Might not have been pulling the numbers but I'd have axed the weekend bulletins before axing News at Noon.


Yeah - that's why I was coming to this thread. Why ITV1 didn't put it on at 5.20pm (still early, but then part of the Saturday night schedule), with Harry Hill at 8pm and The X Factor at 8.30pm I don't know - or even slotted it in at 7pm on a football free Wednesday night.


Has Paul O'Grady been rating better this week without Paul O'Grady?

No surprises there, as from what I remember, Taggart aired on Mondays between IAC and Christmas last year, too. If they hype up it being the 100th episode, it'll probably get 6m. Knowing ITV they won't though. I suspect the three further episodes will air on December 14th, 21st and 28th.

It'll be interesting to see if it returns. So far, the 6 episodes of the current series that have aired have averaged 4.9m. If the remaining four air as I've predicted they will, that average will probably rise above 5m. I don't know how much Taggart costs, but I wouldn't have thought it costs as much as some other ITV drama, so a return seems feasible, as it always does decently wherever ITV put it, and it is reliable. It also repeats fairly well, so if it was up to me, I'd recommission it, but whether ITV will is another thing, and they may axe it just because of the war with STV, which would be a shame, as it wouldn't really fit in elsewhere.

The last episode of Taggart shown probably suffered a bit ratings wise from being on on a Sunday everywhere but Scotland where it was shown the following day making it's ratings into a seperate week, dont quite understand why STV did that.

The BBC should take Hole in the Wall upmarket by extending it to 60 or 90 minutes, running it every night for three weeks, and showering the celebs with bugs and making them eat kangaroo knackers.

STV are going it alone by making more new episodes of Taggart regardless of ITV's eventual decision over whether to keep showing it.

Hole In The Wallaby

UKTV have already expressed interest in taking on Taggart if ITV's not interested. Maybe Five would give it a network screening if the price was right. STV would be okay about going it alone cos the series sells well abroad.

Yeah, I expect it'll get a network screening eventually.

Wasn't there talk of a deal with UKTV?

And as per DS:

* 20:30 to 20:55 - 8.96m (38.0%)
* 20:55 to 21:00 - 5.95m (26.6%)

What that shows, for me is that Benidorm's audience must be mainly stable throughout the hour.

There not though.This episode was Written as an Hour-Long episode they obiously wrote it and planned it long before Emmerdale moved to 8pm and corrie took on it's new Thursday slot.
Splitting the Hour-Long episode will be stupid i reckon
with a Wedding and murder happening they allways intended this episode to be an Hour-long

I would think ITV are very pleased with how Benidorm rated this series.

Danielles Death Was an Hour-Long(730-830 on a Thursday).They used the missing episode from Comic relief night and made it into an hour
Exactly what they are doing with this one

here's what ITV/BBC said about the clash back in 2001

Rival soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street have faced their first Friday night showdown as EastEnders begins screening four times a week.
BBC One broadcast EastEnders at 8pm, clashing with ITV's Coronation Street, which moved from its usual 7.30pm slot to make way for an hour-long episode of Emmerdale.

Viewing figures for the soap clash will not be released until next week, although the National Grid said on Friday the eagerly awaited head-to-head failed to produce a huge power surge.

But bosses of both dramas made sure that fans had a difficult choice of which one to watch with edge of the seat storylines in both soaps.

In EastEnders the drama of Mel's kidnap continued as Dan made a ransom demand of £100,000 from both Steve and Phil.

But Corrie hit back with the unfolding story of runaways Roy and Hayley who are avoiding the authorities after bolting to protect their foster son Wayne.

One-off clash

Although bookmakers are taking bets on which will come out on top, the excitement will be short-lived.

The clash is likely to be a one-off as Coronation Street has been broadcast at 7.30pm on a Friday since 1996, and EastEnders will go out at 8pm.



The Street's Tracy Shaw is rival female talent to Tamzin Outhwaite


The BBC announced that EastEnders was increasing from three to four nights a week in July.

If followed intense speculation about a new episode to compete with Coronation Street.

But ITV bosses criticised the BBC's initial 10 August scheduling for the first fourth episode as being unfair on viewers.

ITV's director of programmes David Liddiment said: "Many people enjoy both EastEnders and Coronation Street - why would the BBC want to reduce viewer choice in this way?"

The BBC insisted it had always had its eye on the 8pm slot and that the moving of Coronation Street to a later time on that date was coincidence.

What's the word on ratings for Loose Women and Thius Morning?

I don't think it's a good idea to be moving the News at Ten out of its slot at all. I just think the Friday move is more justifiable because a) News at Ten wasn't always on a Friday and b) ITV have regarded it as part of the weekend in the past so they can get away with doing it on a Friday.

Moving it two nights in a row would be pushing it slightly. The fact they've done it on the Friday though surely proves they're not actively seeking to clash with EastEnders? It's just one of those things.

I think I've said all that can be said about this now though and it's obvious not everyone's going to agree on the matter.

Except that it's not been unusual in the past 20 odd years for EE to run an hour long episode on Thursday nights when there's a big story coming to a climax. So I cannot accept that a one hour 7.30-8.30 Thursday slot is not "a usual slot" for EE. ITV1 have deliberately moved Emmerdale out of the way and substituted it for Corrie to try and give Tits Out a leg up, and dent the last half of EE to boot.


And The Bill also. Surely the stars of one of ITV's main regular dramas can't be Z list?


I was being a little sarcastic, as I hoped was obvious.

But there's a serious point - how can we trust what BARB publish if we, er, can't trust BARB?


I agree. Many people tune in only for the last 5 minutes of TXF's 3 hour weekend marathon anyway.

Most Dr Who fans will immediately dash off to various internet messageboards and fan sites at 8.02pm anyway won't they?


I think ITV has missed having someone of the calibre of Liddiment as network controller. Whilst aggressive in deploying his ammo against BBC1 (and ensuring ITV remained almost invincible in ratings terms), he did seem to have viewers interests at heart, had a bit of respect for the Beeb, and a real public service broadcasting ethos.

Incidentally, any news on the ongoing search for a Chairman and Chief Exec for ITV? Surely someone out there must want the jobs, they can't be that much of a poisoned chalice?

Have they asked you yet, GeorgeS?

If you recall, the only reason ITV moved the News to Ten on Friday's earlier this year was because Pushing Daisies was flopping badly in that slot.

Well exactly. They never originally intended it to be a Friday bulletin.

Some of us will depart to watch Dr Who Confidential on BBC3 - but not enough to have much of an effect on X Factor. Just like ITV2's Xtra Factor has surprisingly little effect on the ratings for Doc Martin.