I have noticed that more than a few people get quite irate here regarding scheduling decisions. Maybe it is just me wondering what the big worry is.

As we can see from timeshifts a reasonable % of viewers record the programme and watch some time later. We all have access to on screen TV guides or newspapers or listing magazines. Viewers are quite capable at looking what is on the guide and deciding to watch.

I know what channel 90%+ of tv shows are on but I have no chance of recalling the actual broadcast time of so many different shows.

Just my twopence worth anyway.

To be honest I think the standard of Emmerdale and Coronation Street has decreased since ITV have added the extra episodes - because it means stories finish quicker, putting more pressure on the script writers etc. Four episodes is a nice number - I just hope if EastEnders does get another episode the quality doesn't go down with it.

By which time Dr Who will be in the 7pm slot so Wipeout will have to be shifted.

A 5th episode of Eastenders would be a really bad move. The quality would suffer a lot, you cant stretch out a show too much and I think 4 episodes works fine. Corrie's 5 episodes are a lot shorter in length than Eastenders so are only marginally longer in terms of programming per week.

Corrie 5 x 23m = 115 minutes per week
Eastenders 4 x 28m = 112 minutes per week

Hardly any difference.

I supose your right.
It would just be nice to see the BBC use the old 7:30pm corrie slot for EastEnders.

But i supose they could just use them for big weeks split big storylines across 5 days or use it for comic relief/CIN missed episodes

You see, you keep saying that (or somebody does), but every time Holby has a Wednesday episode, it does much poorer than it does on a Tuesday, suggesting it needs the Eastenders lead-in.

Last time it was on against Midsomer Murders on the Wednesday which would probably beat Holby on a Tuesday. It'll be interesting to see how it fares next Wednesday against Arsenal in the Champions League. If it's more than 1m behind Tuesday's show, then you're wrong: Holby City wouldn't hold Tuesday night up without Eastenders.

And BBC1 won't introduce a 5th weekly episode of EE, cos they can't afford it. They're cutting its budget. They won't increase it.

I'd say it's more of the change of night then lack of an EastEnders lead in. ITV1 for one have much more in way of competition on Wednesday's than the dirge that they air on Tuesday's.


But it's a change of night again. People always struggle to follow a show across nights. Emmerdale and Coronation Street always struggled on Sunday's in comparison to the rest of the week, and that was after they had a good few years in the slot. Coronation Street is still trying to find it's feet on Thursday's.


I agree. I think it'd be detrimental to the show anyway to have a fifth episode.

I wonder how Master Chef will do against The Bill

Granted it does follow on from a 1 hour EE, but the first 30 minutes is up against Corrie. I do wonder if the Bill might finally win the 9pm timeslot.

I'd say Masterchef is more of a show which can be dipped in and out of so I can see it getting an increase at 9pm. I bet it still beats The Bill!

Also, it's completely possible for a BBC1 programme scheduled against Corrie to get more viewers than The Bill. QI has been doing so since the start of the year.

The double Eastenders will help, if it wasn't for that, I would worry more.

Now that's a humiliation!


Great figures for Silent Witness, Lark Rise, Casualty, Hustle, Mastermind, Question of Sport. All snow-enhanced, but I do think (early days yet of course) that we are seeing some bigger timeshifts under the new system, particularly for the Beeb.

Something for all channels to be happy with in the new batch of official ratings - almost like going back 10 years in terms of raw numbers!

True.

I'll be interested to see if Coronation Street gets an increase that week though, as it'll start at a joint junction rather than halfway through a BBC1 hour long. Obviously Emmerdale's going to be severely hurt.

But not for free!


He has started swinging his axe now (though not necessarily at the right targets on screen at least) so hopefully by the autumn things will improve. It's been so inconsistent of late - everytime it shows signs of getting back on track it just seems to go backwards yet again.

If it wasn't for the E4 first look screenings I'd be more worried, but I think even at 300-400,000 having a show which pulls in an audience daily to E4 is incredibly useful in terms of promoting their own primetime content. If it's on E4, you'll find out about it during Hollyoaks.

Six months of free work; if we do a good job they can start paying us then.

And you can see how beneficial having first look shows such as Hollyoaks and Shameless on E4 have been with the amount of hits the channel has been getting. E4 are on a roll right now.

I'm surprised they haven't put Glee into primetime on C4, it'd do fine there methinks.

Celebrity Masterchef used to beat The Bill when it came to finals, even normal Masterchef and Professional Masterchef as well so it is feasible.

Masterchef doesn't get interesting until the semifinal so I expect it won't be a ratings smash straight away so I expect similar if not slightly higher ratings from what Celebrity Masterchef gets for the first few weeks, it is up against the soaps, football and Midsomer Murders so the competition will be tough.

It's 1.4m audience is more than good enough for C4, but I don't necessarily think it would do any better. It's perfectly placed for its target audience where it is. It fits well for the E4 brand and I don't think they'd want to weaken the channel by taking away its biggest hit in years.

The question is who needs it more Channel 4 or E4? As you say it would do fine on C4 but it is doing brilliantly for E4 and I think it will help E4 push forward more than it would help C4.

If I were Channel 4 I'd re-run it in a 10pm slot in the summer, maybe running after Big Brother on a night its on at 9pm?

Can't hurt can it? Can only really help boost the E4 audience when it returns for S2.

I doubt they have much else lined up.

I wonder how many viewers are watching Hollyoaks on Channel 4 HD these days. That may account for some of the drop. Anyone know whether channel4 HD figures get added into the overnights? Same goes for E4 HD too.
By way of comparison, Doctors typically gets about 25k - 75k HD viewers. I'm sure Hollyoaks younger audience are more HD savy though.

Hollyoaks is running so low at the moment, if it doesn't pick up soon then I can see it testing the 1m barrier fairly frequently during the summer.

do Hollyoaks ratings matter now? C4 have recognised there is a problem, and bought in Mr Soap, until his episodes start to air, will they really care what the ratings are?

I think we're seeing bigger timeshifts all round. Corrie and Above Suspicion enjoyed significant rises too.

Silent Witness did brilliantly and proved there's still life in the old dog yet. Casualty's big timeshifts are curious and do compensate for the poorer original airings its been getting recently.

Of course, the lower they fall in the period before Marquess' influence starts to show the bigger task he has of getting the ratings back up to where they should be at around 1.6-1.8m.