Shows on Sky One have a habit of launching with a big fanfare and then sinking without trace and being axed after two series.


The best situation for Harry would be to keep TV Burp on ITV but offer other projects to other channels, which I think he can do now anyway.

he still has a choice, does he want to continue presenting TV Burp on Sky, or present another show elsewhere, all Avalon can do is take TV Burp to Sky, not Harry himself.


ITVs poor management, ok that is more to do with the old management, this decision is already made, to be honest the fact we have not heard anything makes it seem more likely.



well I have, and I always presented it as my opinon.

Tanking on Ice really should have seen a major uplift last night with the reduced length, the 7.15pm start, and no clash with Countryfile. Yet still it was in the 8m ballpark, not the 9m one.

And some were predicting 10m a week...

I agree, its ratings have been underwhelming this year. It's done the same as SCD, ie. had a fairly small dip that people are making out to be much worse. Series average comparisons so far (compared to the same point last year):

Performances: 8.2m (9.0m)
Results: 7.1m (7.5m)
Wild At Heart: 7.0m (7.4m)

So whilst the fall hasn't been huge, for the main show in particular it's still rather noticeable, particularly as the ratings haven't improved over the run, they've just stayed the same, and none of the shows have hit the heights of the snow inflated first week. I think the length of the performance shows have been a factor, as they were far too long at the start which has put viewers off as everything was far too dragged out. Why they had to be 15-20 mins longet than The X Factor was with the same amount of contestants is beyond me really, as there was no need to it. I do think that the public are beginning to tire of the big dance shows in general, particularly as neither SCD or DOI have changed their formats at all since they launched however many years ago, and people are simply getting bored of them.

It's because of its popularity its on a premium channel though.

Ironically, if it wasn't nearly as popular Sky wouldn't pay for it and it would end up on Channel 4 or Five with a higher audience.

Changing the format is not always a good thing for keeping hold of viewers - look at TV Burp's recent slide, for example...

Not the same people obviously

Ah yes, 9m+ across the weekend on ITV1 is dreadful isn't it. It's clear to see what's happened with Burp, a large number of viewers have started watching it on a Sunday instead, and now only occasionally watch on a Saturday. Nothing to do with the non-existant format changes.

What I meant though was that The X Factor has re-invented itself more than once in order to keep fresh, something which the dancing shows haven't done, and the're now paying the price.

Dancing on Ice did ok - I agree with those above saying ITV's money chasing has cost it dear. Hopefully they'll learn their lessons for next year, though considering they blundered on making the same mistakes as Strictly Come Dancing, I'm not holding my breath. Wild at Heart performed reasonably well. Considering the 16-34 statistics I suppose it does have life left in it, which I wasn't saying a couple of weeks ago.

BBC1 had an excellent night once again, though bizarre scheduling between them and BBC2 hit Seven Ages of Britain, and possibly Wonders of the Solar System as well. Lambing Live did well on BBC2 considering the opposition.

Stardust didn't perform as well as other premieres in that slot, but the surrounding programs may have dragged down the start and finish slightly. Five did ok once again with the film night.

BTW - ITV have axed the FA Cup Highlights (probably trying to get the viewing figures up for the live games). I'm guessing this is just a temporary measure, and they'll be back for the full competition come next season, once ESPN are sharing the live games?

Contrary to popular belief on this thread, TV Burp's Saturday ratings are actually up compared to this time last year!

The Spring series last year averaged 5.4m according to overnight figures. The current run is averaging 5.7m.

And this time last year, there weren't any Sunday repeats to split the audience. The Sunday repeats at the moment are getting 3/4 million, so ratings are well up year on year.

TV Burp's ratings fluctuates a lot depending on the competition and lead ins, often dropping when following football. But overall its ratings are still fantastic and better than a year ago.

Now that's very interesting. The Spring run never rates as well as the Autumn run for whatever reason but it's only 0.5m down on last Autumn's run at the moment, and the repeats are, like you say, drawing in great audiences, and I think they run ads in the Sunday showing now too. All in all, I'm sure ITV are very pleased with TV Burp, and I doubt they're worried about it in the slightest.

With it being a 30 minute clip comedy with plenty of repeats, it's hardly something people rush to see, knowing that they've got plenty of opportunities to catch up, which explains it's fluctuations.

Is there any evidence to suggest that putting it on a premium channel generates extra subs for Sky? I suppose it must do otherwise they wouldn't persist but it seems a bit silly to pay extra for a movie package just for the Oscars.

Well, you might think this sounds extreme, but I think the format is the problem.

Unlike The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent which becomes bigger and better every year because we all anticipate normal people, Dancing on Ice is full of samey celebrities.

And all trends come to an end - and I think we're about to see the demise of these dancing formats.

The best way ITV can soften the blow or try to make it better is to give it a run every 2 years, with a Christmas special airing in the intervening years.

I'm a Celebrity... has gone through these problems, but its revamp a couple of years ago, as well as a good choice in celebrities, has stopped it from going completely stale.

I must have missed the IAC revamp... ?

Ah, no I didn't. HD adds an average of 0.18m pushing the Hustle total to 6.45m and topping L&O by 0.1m. In any case, it was a very close battle between two popular dramas. It's very surprising that neither took a serious hit.

These added HD numbers to the averages are all sorts of extra work...

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Just an observation, Wonders of the Solar System is number 1 on the iPlayer charts at the moment. Quite unusual to see that for a science documentary - especially a BBC Two one. Life is the only other 'serious factual' I can remember at the top.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.49m
*beat Nine News nationally and in key markets of Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth
18:30 Today Tonight 1.45m
19:00 Home and Away 1.13m
19:30 My Kitchen Rules 1.40m
20:30 Desperate Housewives 1.08m
21:30 Brothers & Sisters 0.97m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.43m
*beat Seven News in key markets of Sydney and Melbourne
18:30 A Current Affair 1.21m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 1.29m
19:30 Two and a Half Men 1.59m
20:00 The Big Bang Theory 1.27m
20:30 The Mentalist 1.31m
21:30 The 82nd Annual Academy Awards 0.70m
*up 28% on the 81st Annual Academy Awards

Ten
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.59m
18:30 Neighbours 0.67m
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.77m
19:30 The Biggest Loser: Couples 0.70m
20:30 Good News Week 0.74m

ABC1
19:00 ABC News 1.14m
19:30 The 7.30 Report 0.95m
20:00 Australian Story 1.03m

Nine wins Monday; 28.9% share.

I think the choice of celebrities, and who is good/who is not determines how a show does rather than any major revamp. Strictly and Dancing on Ice's best years involved a strong competition between good dancers with no one 100% sure of which way it'd go in the final.

The last Strictly had unpopular excellent dancers and a popular good dancer, with the good dancer always wining out. This Dancing on Ice has a bunch of reasonable ice skaters with none really pushing on (though it'll be interesting to see how Hayley's 36.0 pans out next week in terms of ratings).

Saying that, I think Dancing On Ice could make a couple of minor changes - I'd put the pros in charge of choreography and just have Torvil and Dean training the celebrities in basic skating, then placing them on the panel instead of being two 'supporters' for the whole series. I'd also vary who performs the professional dances, as Torvil and Dean dominate that area too much. Cut the split week at the start (all dance from week 1), schedule the show sensibly and, added to the change in the judging panel, I think that'd give a boost.

Well, the 4m or so for the Sunday repeats is pretty consistent, and doesn't vanish to nothing if Saturday gets a large audience one week. That suggests to me that a lot of the Sunday night 4m is just people who have it on as moving wallpaper, or have it on whilst the telly is warming up for whatever follows it.

The fact is that TV Burp is not hitting the heights it was before Christmas, and I suspect that's down to the growing ennui at the lack of piss-take clips of the weeks' TV (the show's raison d'etre), the padding out with tiresome studio routines, guests and regular characters, and Cowell-fluffing with the interminably dull Knitted Factor segment, which will no doubt become its own spin off series before long... :yawn:

you are right, they have taken the Knitted Character, one of the best parts of the show, and totally ruined him with The K Factor, god he used to have his own jokes, now all he does is depend on the X-Factor format for jokes.

Seeing him appear at the Eastenders funeral, was a return to form for the Knitted Character.

I honestly dont care who that older bald guy is, he should never had been asked back.

As for an Ode to Croydon, who on earth let Harry think that was a good idea.

If Harry can not do better next series, maybe he should be on Sky.

I think The K Factor has improved of late - really it's a complete rip off of The X Factor, showing how everything is over-dramatised and how sob stories are used to work an audience. I would agree that it's not necessary though.

The Ode to Croydon wasn't a great end to the show. Harry always uses reoccuring jokes though (The Knitted Character, the jelly, the shark etc.) so it's no surprise that the bald guy keeps reappearing, and I do like it when that happens - when a previous joke is given some recognition.

I think there's a lot of TV Burp bashing simply because it's not the same show as it was in series 1, but not many shows do stay the same after so many series on air. TV Burp is doing better now than it was this time last year, so it must be doing something right. Naturally not everyone is going to enjoy it, but goodness knows there are enough channels to flick over to if a viewer feels it's had it's day.

ITV's contribution to UK comedy will be even more pathetic if Harry does defect, of course. They'll be down to just Benidorm then. :yawn:

ITV don't do that because of Strictly Ice Dancing, the difference in Choreography makes the difference in format.

Well, Benidorm and ITV1.

They've got a couple of comedy pilots coming up as well - let's hope at least one of them works.

Can the BBC sue if ITV do change that side of the format?