Xmas day isn't a normal day is it?

I think the BBC will be happy if it gets 5m+ given the lack of promotion it was on tonight. What was it up against on ITV? Ant and Dec?

It's not a normal Saturday. Surely the 3.9m prediction is a joke?

People will already be tuned to BBC1 so it will just come on, they haven't turned it off or over since 2pm yesterday. Many viewers haven't left the sofa since 2pm yesterday either!

No I just remember it getting 3.9m once but can't remember why so it has dropped that low before. I can't find the figure now but I'm sure I'm not making this up.

Sorry I'm confusing myself. I mean isn't your prediction a joke? Because even if it is down on last night it's not going to lose more than half. Boxing Day is not a normal Saturday.

It wasn't meant as a joke I just don't remember EE being on a Saturday apart from Xmas day. So I don't know what to expect but it could bomb. If it has been on a non-xmas day Saturday before I apologise.

Predictions:

BBC One
16:40 - Wallace and Gromit: 6m (34%)
18:00 - Total Wipeout: 3.8m (19%)
19:00 - EastEnders: 8.3m (35%)
19:30 - Pirates of the Caribbean 3: 7m (31%)
22:05 - Lottery Draws: 4.6m (21%)
22:15 - BBC News: 6.1m (28%)
22:25 - Match of the Day: 3.8m (31%)

BBC Two
17:05 - Hamlet: 3.3m (16%)

ITV1
18:15 - ITV News: 3.8m (19%)
18:30 - Harry Hill's TV Burp Review of the Year: 6m (29%)
19:00 - You've Been Framed at Christmas!: 4.7m (20%)
19:30 - Ant and Dec's Christmas Show: 6.1m (27%)
20:45 - All Star Family Fortunes: 5.4m (24%)
21:30 - All Star Impressions Show: 2.8m (13%)

The All Star Impressions Show quite frankly is a pile of tosh... I hope it flops.

Hopefully Sky Sports 2 did well this afternoon. The thrashing Saints delivered to Warriors should have been a huge draw.

I had to suffer BBC Hereford & Worcester's coverage.

You poor person. No one should ever have to suffer listening to BBC Hereford and Worcester.

I reckon there is a chance POTC 3 could nearly beat Eastenders tonight. The big premiere should get about 7 million and Im not sure how many people will know EE is on and its on early.

2.9 million pretty shoddy, I guess ITV just gave up the time slot, which isnt totally unheard of when it comes to EE.

I really don't know which is the most hiliarious prediction.

"How will people know Eastenders is on tonight?" Er, newspapers, the internet, the Christmas Radio Times (always a big seller), the announcer at the end of last night's Eastenders.

What exactly will people who don't look up what's on tonight expect to be on tonight? The X Factor? It's Boxing Day. It's not a normal Saturday. If people want to watch TV tonight, they'll have to look up what's on.


Seriously? 3 million for 3 hours of Shakespeare? Just because David Tennant is on it? Never. I predicted 1.1m in the DS RPG and I'm thinking that's over-confident. I saw a few bits whilst channel-hopping. Very arty-farty, even by Shakespeare standard.

I think you underestimate the draw of David Tennant. A lot of who fans will be tuning in. I reckon it will clear 2 million.

I would have watched if it weren't for the clash with POTC: AWE on BBC1.

He didn't actually say anything about EastEnders being on tonight
all he said was A one off Royle family next Then a trip to Barry island with Gavin and stacey and later at 1030 Catherine Tate(or something along those lines)

I reckon EastEnders will be somewhere between 7.9-8.3m

so what happend yesterday at 7pm when people went from BBc1 (SCD) to ITV(Corrie) then back to BBC1 at 8(EastEnders) the whole thing about people leave it on BBc1 is rubbish

All Star Impressions Show - worst show ever made

I Agree! It was terrible.

Completely agree, it was historically awful. Utter car crash TV, but I couldn't bring myself to turn it off. It's generated a lot of discussion on here, though, so I reckon it's done quite well.

Absolutely appalling. Only ITV could make a show this bad.

Lest we forget, this was going to be BBC1's Christmas Day schedule:

3.10 Over the Hedge
4.30 Flushed Away
5.50 News
6.00 The Gruffalo
6.30 EE
7.00 Dr Who
8.00 SCD Special
9.00 EE
9.30 The Royle Family
10.30 Catherine Tate Special
11.20 News etc

...but because ITV decided to run Emmerdale at 6 and Corrie at 7, come what may, the Beeb had no option but to reschedule to avoid soap clashes etc.

Had BBC1 been able to run with the above, with Emm Fm at 7 and Corrie at 8, I think all of BBC1's shows prior to 9.30 would have rated better - but not G&S on whatever day it would have aired, Christmas Eve presumably.


As I understand, it's because "BBC HD" is a specific channel, whereas "ITV HD" is a red button service which viewers, in theory at least, have to select from the red button whilst watching ITV1 - so it counts towards ITV1's figures. The BBC offers HD programming for all 4 of its channels, but because of clashes etc, they can't always simulcast a show at the same as BBC1,2,3,4 carries the SD version. They also put out a lot of repeated HD programming to pad out the schedule.

As yesterday's ratings show, the BBC are missing a trick by not having the HD service a red button option - but perhaps it would cause too much of a scheduling headache to have to dovetail HD programming across all 4 of their channels, particularly as more shows are made in HD.


EE may have flopped tonight given the lack of an announcement at the end of last night's episode, no promos that I have seen, and people just not expecting it to be on at 7pm on a Saturday unless they've looked at their TV guide.

TV Burp also conveniently over-ran the 7pm junction by a good couple of minutes; EE seemed to start well before 7 as POTC was on air by 7.28pm. So that will have also dented ratings.

I can see 6-7m for EE tonight.

The promotion of BBC1's Christmas line-up has been even more shocking this year than normal.

yes I did a timer on EE in the TV Burp ad break, just in case, didnt need it in the end, switched over to see the EE logo come up on the title sequence, but it was cutting it very fine.

I got in just before 10pm and saw about 5 mins with Joe Pasquale, the grinning non-entity host, and then some idiot pretending to be Russell Brand - and switched over to the 1973 Morecambe & Wise special. I can see M&W doing very well tonight.

That said, All Star Impressions will benefit from many TVs being on ITV1 all night by default given BBC1's cop-out - can see it having got 5m+ and being deemed a success.

Hope so, they might commission a whole series...

No way
EE will not get that much, on a saturday.

You can't promote everything as much as you might like though. It's all about priorities. And it certainly wouldn't make sense to go trailing anything other than the central Christmas Day EE. Should've had an announcement over yesterdays credits, though. It'll still do over 7m, I'd have thought - a good proportion of that would be watching BBC One at 7pm anyway.

I was pleased to see several trailers for The Day of the Triffids today (though running them yesterday after Doctor Who might've been a good idea). The adaptation looks promising too with a good cast and what looks like a lavish production. The next few days between Christmas and New Year look relatively strong to be honest - I remember last years being pretty variable in ratings terms. With Cranford, Triffids and Turn of the Screw, BBC One has four very promising nights of drama lined up.

I've also go my fingers crossed that Outnumbered does OK in its awkward slot tomorrow.