Hardly the hardest job in the land!

OK, the hardest job in the Beeb, hence my comment to them.

Yeah but he doesnt commission does he? Anyway the BBC has far too many managers. The controller should be in charge of everything for the channel. If that were the case you could axe 10-20 highly paid posts immediately across the BBC and save several £m (which could be put into hiring writers for the Big Top)

The schedule in primetime weeknights is largely fixed - only 6.5 hours are actually variable out of 15 per week (Mon- Fri 7-10pm). So its only really 9pm weeknights & Saturday and Sunday nights plus Christmas that he has to worry about (and since the structure of the Christmas Day schedule hasnt really changed in years obviously he is making a big play about not a lot).

Try working down a coal mine if he wants to do a real days work (maybe thats where Jay Hunt should be sent - do we still have any open mines?)

What a horrible comment.

Using Channel4's definition of "peak" hours, the results for the first 10 months of the year are (BBC1 vs ITV1):

Nov is yet to be posted, but probably a 5% win for ITV1 - say 20 vs 25?

Average, thus far, not including the estimate for Nov:
BBC1 21.8%
ITV1 20.5%

Average, including my estimate for Nov:
BBC1 21.6%
ITV1 20.9%

So, with December looking like a 2-3% (or less) win for ITV1 (say 25 vs 27?), that would make the final totals for the year something like:

BBC1 21.9%
ITV1 21.4%


http://www.channel4sales.com/data/au.../November/2009

K

I wouldn't call it 'horrible'. But maybe the truth?

Live at the Apollo
- 04/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday
- 11/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday
- 18/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday
- 19/12/2009 - 21:40 to 22:10 - Saturday [should be 25/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00]
- 24/12/2009 - 22:30 to 23:00 - Thursday [should be 01/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00]
- 01/01/2010 - 22:00 to 22:30 - Thursday [should be 08/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00]
* no respect to the viewer, Friday >> Saturday >> Thursday? If you had zero plans of showing it on Christmas Day, then why show it on Fridays in the first place?!]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
- 21/11/2009 - 21:35 to 22:05 - Saturday
- 28/11/2009 - 21:25 to 21:55 - Saturday
- 05/12/2009 - 21:10 to 21:40 - Saturday
- 12/12/2009 - 21:00 to 21:30 - Saturday
- 24/12/2009 - 23:00 to 23:30 - Thursday [should be 19/12/2009 - 21:40 to 22:10 (you know, the slot taken by Live at the Apollo?!)]
- 08/01/2010 - 19:30 to 20:00 - Friday [should be 26/12/2009]

Erm, what? All of the shows are past the watershed, yet the last show finds itself at 19:30? And over 2 weeks since the last showing? Talk about treating your viewers with respect....

QI
- 10/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Thursday
- 17/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Thursday
- 24/12/2009 - 22:00 to 22:30 - Thursday [should be 21:30 to 22:00]
- 01/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday [should be 31/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00]

Moving it to Thursday to Friday, not exactly good scheduling. And then....

- 08/01/2010 - 20:30 to 21:00 - Friday [should be 07/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00]
- 15/01/2010 - 20:30 to 21:00 - Friday [should be 14/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00]

Moving it before the watershed and against Coronation Street? Going from a great Thursday 9:30pm slot to clashing with Coronation Street? Stupid scheduling at its best.

And then there's Outnumbered. Always been on a Saturday - its a Saturday show. Common sense says 'hey, screen the special on a Saturday', but no, its on Sunday 27th December at 22:30. Hmmm..... even Mastermind is scheduled poorly.

I'm sorry, but I can't see anyone thinks BBC One's schedule is good this year. Their programmes may be of top quality, but their scheduling isn't.

I do agree to an extent, certainly with regards to Outnumbered. Even if you do put it on a Sunday, at least put it in a decent slot where it can net as many viewers as possible, rather than burying it at 22.30! This is a show which won a couple of comedy awards last week.

I think the BBC are running scared scheduling-wise at the moment. I notice that what was due to be a Casualty two-parter on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd has now been turned into a 'feature-length' episode on the Saturday. The Christmas/New Year two-parters have generally done very well for Casualty in recent years, but there's obviously something on ITV on 3rd Jan which has given the BBC the heebie jeebies. Does Dancing On Ice start on 3rd January?

Bloody hell! I think an hour and 50 minutes of Casualty might be slightly too much.

I know - they did a few feature-lengths in 1997 & 1998, but those were all 75 minutes each, so basically 1.5 episodes long. 10 mins shy of two hours is a bit much I think.

Outnumbered series 1 aired on saturday? Thats news to me.

The last 2 episodes of the impression show are repeats.

And i dont see an problem with QI at 8.30, two very different audiences AND question of sport has shown you can get close to 4 million in the slot, which isnt that much of what QI is getting after G&S

Series 2 was. Series 1 was scheduled weirdly.


'Best Of' shows. I don't see ITV moving Harry Hill from Wednesday to Monday and back to Saturday....


But its been in a post-watershed slot so far this series, what is with the 'sudden' change?

QI has only dropped below 4m once or twice this series, and that was when it was up against I'm a Celebrity.

You said it always aired on saturdays



Harry hills best of shows are of material over a year old, the impression shows material will literally be an few weeks old.


QI There is no other comedy show to pair it up with and it was below 4m in january when it has at 9 on fridays.

If they paired with say traffic cops at 9, there would be more complaints and even the bill would probably beat that duo

QI - Early 2009
09/01 - 4.34m (17.2%)
16/01 - 4.48m (18.3%)
23/01 - 3.92m (16.7%) ** new series of Trial and Retribution on ITV1
30/01 - 4.22m (18.1%) ** new series of Not Going Out begins straighy after QI
06/02 - 4.16m (17.1%)
13/02 - 4.03m (17.5%)
20/02 - 3.89m (16.9%) ** new episode of Taggart
27/02 - 3.79m (16.4%) ** new series of Moving Wallpaper
06/03 - 4.61m (20.6%)
13/03 - n/a (Comic Relief)
20/03 - 4.67m (21.7%)
Series Average = 4.21m (18.1%)

WOW thats charming, if you bothered to look at last years schedule its actually an improvement. There were primetime repeats for both XMAS hignfy and QI.Last year there was even episodes dont get Done get DomThis year they placed new comedys in those slots and their still slated on this thread.

The Average would be closer to 4m without the last episode being boosted by an flop on ITV.4m is about the same as question of sport gets in finals.

This years Autumn ratings are being boosted by G&S.[1.5m drop off]

Its actually good scheduling to air it at 8.30 when there is no other comedy to pair it with.
If it aired and 9 with the best of live at the apollo, the difference between the 8.30 and 9.00 o clock in ratings terms would be less than 500k imo.

Unfortunately its not just BBC that have done some bad scheduling decisions though:

* Emmerdale on at 7:30pm one day, so we have a Battle of the Flops at 7pm - Big Top vs Grimefighters
* Piers Morgan's Greatest Cities show starting on Saturday, January 2nd, but moving to Tuesdays the week after
* The Bill moving to Tuesdays (although in a consistent slot) for the 2 weeks over Xmas.

I'm not denying that BBC have a fantastic range of programmes over Christmas, I'm just saying that some have been very poorly scheduled.

Here's my schedule that I did before BBC finalised there's based on the press office pack: http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9350/bbch.jpg (note - doesn't include QI and Live at the Apollo as they were not included in the pack). If you ask me, my schedule seems more consistent than the BBC's own attempt.

Fantastic ratings for Paul O' Grady. I hope his show on ITV1 will pull in big ratings.

I have to agree with D.M.N on this one, some of the shows have been treated appaulingly over the xmas period. It may come from having such a high number of quality shows to show, but there isnt any excuse for why shows like Live At The Apollo and The Impressions Show have been put all about the place; If they couldn't show Live At The Apollo in a steady slot, then they could have held it back until after christmas (It could then provide BBC1 with at least 1 night of comedy, something they haven't got at the moment.) And noone can deny the fact that Gavin And Stacey started way later than planned, with the DVD realeased after just two episodes. The Outnumbered scheduling is the thing that annoys me the most; Its an episode set on Boxing day, show it on boxing day!!! The POTC film could have been shown anywhere; even if Outnumbered weren't to get a boxing day slot, they could have put it somewhere in primetime, not hidden away at 10:30 on a sunday evening. They could have used this as promotion for series 3, but it appears not. Even Robbie agreed that there were some bad decsions made by BSI over the xmas period.

Perhaps not horrible but a tad harsh. It does read like an attack. I would like to see these fantasist schedulers actually given a shot at it for real and see how easy they find it then.

It's pretty hard to engineer a schedule that sees only filler go up against Corrie as well particularly during one of BBC1's healthiest times of the year where there's very little filler in the first place. And it's not like going up against Corrie carries the same stigma that it would have done a few years ago what with it being quite poor right now and losing viewers hand over fist.

I have nothing against QI at 8:30pm, but it in my view is quite silly to go from 9:30pm to 8:30pm halfway through a particular series.

And apologies if my post did read an attack, it wasn't meant to come across as an attack... mearly criticism of BBC's Christmas schedule.

Lol it was just the way you said "Pity you didn't do it right then" when it's more your opinon he didn't. I agree some of the decisions are a bit iffy but there always is a lot to cram in at Xmas.

That's why some things should take a two week break so they aren't moved to 'stupid' days and times, take Apollo:

- 04/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday
- 11/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday
- 18/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00 - Friday
- 19/12/2009 - 21:40 to 22:10 - Saturday [should be 25/12/2009 - 21:30 to 22:00]
- 24/12/2009 - 22:30 to 23:00 - Thursday [should be 01/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00]
- 01/01/2010 - 22:00 to 22:30 - Thursday [should be 08/01/2010 - 21:30 to 22:00]

It (and QI) could have taken a 2 week break, returning on 8th January to complete their respective runs, instead of being messed about at Xmas. (Unless there's a special Xmas QI - I don't think there is)

Good figures for ITV3 on Thursday night:

9pm An Audience With Freddie Star 653,000 3.0%
10pm Taggart 563,000 3.8%

One thing about the BBC One schedules: they're created with the other BBC channels in mind: where possible they like to simulcast the HD shows on BBC HD and BBC One. They also try to make sure BBC One and BBC Two have complementary programming in most primetime slots, and try to align the two channels' key junctions whenever possible. And there are instances where BBC Three screens BBC One spin-offs which have to be time to begin as the BBC One programme ends (EastEnders Revealed, Gavin and Stacey Outtakes) etc.

It's also true for ITV to some extent with their ITV1 entertainment show spin-offs on ITV2, although they perhaps don't make as much reference to ITV3 or ITV4 in those plans.

Well quite.

I can't wait for the BBC to get a new controller, hopefully a good one. Not wanting to make a big debate but I truly believe the best BBC1 controllers are those who accept that a strong ITV makes for a strong TV industry, not those who go out of their way to hurt ITV.

I'm not saying I want a controller who rolls over and lets ITV do what it wants and rule the world btw. BBC1 should be defined by a great variety of popular programming but it should also bear in mind viewers in many cases.

i.e. New Tricks repeats vs. The Bill and Strictly Come Dancing moving to overlap further with The X Factor

It wasn't until quite recently the BBC started purposefully hurting ITV1 IMO.