I don't think Channel 4 did this for huge ratings.

It's was just another little experiment.

Really?

Go on...

But against Life which is, sadly, seriously underperforming.



Antiques Roadshow would be a good alternative to TXF Final. There's no point in BBC1 competing against it and no justification for it, either. After all, commercially-minded ITV don't even compete against the Strictly final.


That's their excuse and they're sticking to it.

If you are employed and go to work on Friday you would oprobably have made a donation at that stage anyway. I dont see how an 8 hour "entertainment" marathon would suddenly make me donate more?

If the BBC partnered with other broadcasters such as is done for the disasters emergency appeals the amount raised would be substantially more. Since this hasnt happened, I presume the BBC want to retain exclusivity of CiN programming for ratings reasons.

After all there are many people who never watch the BBC at all

The first CIN, which had five or ten minute slots in amongst the normal programming, raised £1m.

Ah, share it with ITV. I should have known...

Would ITV happily slot, say, an hour or two of "BBC Children In Need" into its schedule, even if it did get 11m? Presumably they wouldn't be able to show ads, as that would be making money out of a charity...

I disagree that's the reason they're in the state they are now. Whatever people thought of Big Brother, it wouldn't stop them preventing shows they want to watch because for 100 odd hours a year they air a show they don't agree with.

Indeed as I've said before the opposite is kind of true - under Andy Duncan he kind of made C4 look like a charity, holding out a begging bowl and commissioning "worthy" programmes.

Go back 5-10 years and C4 were not afraid to commission programmes purely on a commercial basis and crucially support them (and often find a tedious PSB link too!) And on the whole, these programmes were nurtured properly and not exploited to such an extent that they very quickly became tired (ala Secret Millionaire).

It isn't really rocket science as how to start turning C4 around - indeed their schedule when it works if fairly simply - Lifestyle at 8pm, popular factual at 9pm and drama at 10pm, with comedy on Friday nights and films at the weekend. What really needs improving is simply decision making - knowing when a programme is ready for the axe, and when a programme should be looked after to secure ratings for the future.



I think they might be better going the other way and airing 8-10pm, hoping for viewers to switch to them after The X Factor as frankly they have more filler than The X Factor anyway, and the only part of the show people care about is the winner at the end. Indeed opting for 9-11pm might not be a bad idea either.

George, as you very much know with sporting events, when BBC and ITV simulcast things, BBC nearly all the time trounces ITV at a ratio of 3:1 or nearer to 4:1.

8-10pm is a nice idea, but it would mean Small Island 2/2 misses a week and Top Gear at 10, so clearly a no-no.

I think 7-9.15pm is the best idea, with Small Island 9.15-10.45 acceptable, and Top Gear 9.15-10.15 on BBC2.

Do it, BSI, do it...

And then ITV will do:

18:45 - Harry Hill's TV Burp
19:15 - Family Fortunes
20:00 - Susan Boyle Show
21:00 - The X Factor Final
22:30 - ITV News

It's not the sole reason for their decline, but it's the reason I quit with Channel 4 this Summer, I used to watch Ch4 ALOT!! Similarily I have switched off ITV completely as I cannot bear TXF or Tits out. I can't think of anything I ever watched on it to start with , but won't watch it now on principal, I think it's dreadful.

The schedule had Keeping Up Appearances (40 mins) and 'Allo 'Allo! (45 mins) in it a few days ago, and it had a longer EastEnders ominbus too, plus Life at 6pm.

Looks like my prediction was good! I bumped this in the interest of balance because Brekkie only bumps stuff that I get wrong.

Seriously though, truly terrible for C4.

Looks like SCD is well and truly cursed - Jade Johnson out so they're going to be one couple shy for the rest of the run.

They need more couples I think and approach the final with too many at the end than too few. No doubt ITV's spokesmen on here will be exultant...

Maybe another 'voting mishap' will save the day?

Perhaps.

Voting mishaps a BBC1 thing, voting fraud an ITV1 thing.

Wasn't suggesting simulcasting - where did you get that idea from?


Hang on a minute. Your arguement has been that "charity" is the key thing here. Now you are on about promoting "BBC on ITV? I thought the thing was done to collect money for childrens charities, not to promote the brand of the BBC? Did I miss a memo here?

Surely if your suggestion that ITV should help with BBC Children in Need then you're suggesting simulcasting?

No BBC could do a Friday; ITV another night. The combined effort would reach a much wider audience. Five & Ch 4 could do some programming as well.

Five minute peak alert for The X Factor coming up now

It's been "breaking news" that that ex-EastEnder non-entity has been voted off that dancing show with hasbeens for some time now. :sleep:

Strictly is far past its best isn't it? Even my mum's an X Factor fan now, she thinks Strictly is stale as!

Oh god, TXF is so bad at the moment!

One of the worst live shows ever.

EDIT -- Thankfully Joe just saved it from being the worst live show ever.

All things happen for a reason you know, Strictly MIGHT vote off has beens, X Factor votes off never will be's.

Not really sure about all this moaning about SPOTY. Fair enough if ITV were broadcasting live sport against it. But they're putting on an entertainment show.

Why would they care about SPOTY? It's hardly surprising that X Factor is on Sunday and the move is clearly designed to maximise its ratings rather than dent the opposition.

Not sure about the Cheryl Cole thing if it's just going to be her doing her debut album which isn't known to the vast majority of the public. I think they'd have been better putting her on Life Stories instead. I know the Dannii Minogue one didn't rate as well as expected, but there would probably be more hype if Cheryl was doing it.

Well with that attitude you might as well just throw your TV out. I assume you're boycotting all supermarkets and newsagents too that sell papers which contain coverage of TXF or Tits out on two or three pages inside the paper!

Really not watching a channel because it airs a couple of programmes you don't like is as stupid as never eating because there are a couple of types of food you're not keen on!