I didn't realise it had been shown that much, I knew it had been on a couple of times, but as it was on bbc 4 I kept forgetting about it. Glad it did well then.

Why, she already hosts the Radio 2s Arts show, if anything she s more qualified than Ross was when he started and has the format is moving to a panel discussion I fail to see how Kemode would be a better chair.

That sort of time-scale doesn't stop the BBC promoting Eastenders/Dr Who and lots more.

I'm also sure it rated far better in an earliar slot.

The BBC could have axed Film 2010 and nobody would have batted an eye lid. It was ridiculous Jonathan Ross was paid so much for two late-night TV shows and a Saturday morning radio show.

And like everything else the BBC do, it's half hearted. It's only on about half the year, so what's the point!


Well you haven't seen. They need the five judges for the scoring though really - would be stupid marking out of 18 or 24, or if they drop the 6.0 system (as ice dancing have) it wouldn't be as accessible to viewers IMO. A 6.0 means more than 10 out of 10.

What they need to do is just be fairer in how the judges comment, rather than going to Jason all the time.


I disagree too that SCD has any more pulling power than DoI - they've both had their fair share of duds. In theory at least DoI can pay more, though it's a tougher commitment, especially for older stars, but SCD always has and always will make up half it's cast from BBC faces - usually people from within the news or unrecognisable to the 55m+ who don't watch Casualty or Holby. Dancing on Ice casts it's net a bit wider IKO.


LOL.


The BBC and change don't go together though. Can't see Strictly doing anything which would appeal to the non-Strictly viewer - it's a very exclusive programme that doesn't really look to appeal beyond it's usual fanbase. (And credit where it's due, it's good to see a programme concerned more with the people who do watch than the people who don't watch).


Saturday nights TV in Australia though is a completely different ball game. It's as dead as ITV on a Tuesday nigth.


Final down considerably - no hiding that - but the decline over the series is smaller than I imagined it would be, and not too much to worry about IMO. They just need to make sure anyone who excels at it and is the obvious winner from the moment they step on the ice is ruled out next year!

2009 saw bumper ratings for all ITV talent series, so I wouldn't be surprised if BGT and The X Factor suffer a similar fate this year.

I dunno about that, it's always been very late in the evening. The earliest it's ever been would have been about 10.15 or 10.30 in the early nineties but even then it shuffled around loads, Barry Norman regularly complained about it. And nowadays people tend to go to bed later, at the beginning of the nineties BBC1 was still shutting up shop before midnight some nights.


I meant out of the way of Casualty, of course.

The bits I saw were good but I found myself irritated as Enid seemed such a selfish cow. It certainly isnt something I would want to watch again. That hour and a half really dragged BBC1 down last night and presumably DOI only managed its 10 million peak because of it.

DOI figures were as lacklustre as just about everything else about this series. Curiously, SCD's woes were front page news-DOI has simply been unremarkable which is arguably worse as there is no prompt-good or bad-to bring it to peoples attention.

Larkrise is possibly the sweetest hour of tele ever broadcast on BBC1. It has become perfect escapsim for a healthy chunk of the nation and is stunning on BBCHD(the first programme I have seen in HD). Curiously its been halved for next year and with the news that Waking The Dead is to end it would seem evidence of the new broom at the Beeb. Congrats to the team behind Larkrise though-a hit series for three years now against very tough opposition. Id say long may it continue-but Id say the odds are against it.

week ending 21st March 2010 available on BARB

of possible interest:

Sport Relief BBC1 - 8.06
Sport Relief BBC2 - 5.17
BOYZONE: A TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN GATELY ITV1 - 8.12

looks like the Sky Sports top 10s are okay this week

enjoy!

Mark Longhurst beating old Eamonn on Sky News - the weekend slots are now bigger draws than the weekday ones

Yes, they're all correct - thanks a lot!

Does anyone else think Hollyoaks must be in trouble now?

Not one episode made Channel 4's top 30 last week. Indeed none have done so since Christmas 2009 which was hardly a very representative week. E4 episodes are down 22% on the equivalent week in 2009 and 35% on the equivalent week in 2008.

I just don't see how they can justify it much longer. With Friends also due to depart, it would be a good opportunity to revamp E4's schedule. The money saved from Hollyoaks which must be a fair bit could be pumped straight back into the channel.

Sky News Sunrise is doing very solid numbers now. It's a bit surprising the weekend version with Mark is proving more popular given it's only the weekday version with Eamonn that gets advertised.

and so what if it is? until the new producers episodes start to air, it almost does not matter.

You dont axe the show based on what it does now, you axe it based on what it does when the new producers episodes start to air.

you put away your axe now I see


I have a few old BARB books at home. i must look up how Film 87 rated!


Mad as a box of frogs was how she came across!

there are still a few shows my axe is pointing at, but Hollyoaks has been let off, for the reasons I gave in my post, it is stupid to axe Hollyoaks now.

Thanks for this. All I can remember is Home and Away airing at 6pm in the Anglian region when I was younger!

Let's hope so.

I have no idea about the current production status, I'm merely commenting on the figures in the here and now. For all the changes behind the scenes at Neighbours, it hasn't really helped reverse the sinking of the ship, if anything all the changes have helped accelerate the decline, so forgive me for being a bit skeptical that whoever comes in will be able to make a jot of difference to its future.

One option I'd be tempted to try before pulling the plug is making it an E4 exclusive. Cut it back to 3 episodes a week, and schedule it Tuesday to Thursday at 8pm with a re-run of all three episodes on Sundays at 7pm.

Weekdays at 6:30pm on C4 could either be occupied by another episode of The Simpsons, or they could try either Coach Trip or Come Dine With Me there. With only news on BBC One and ITV1 and an attempt at news on Five, Channel 4 should be doing a lot better in this slot and I'm afraid Hollyoaks, like its cousin in Australia, isn't really cutting the mustard.

it is true that Neighbours did not change much after its revamp, but once you go to the hassle of getting a new producer in, you have to give that guy a fair chance to turn the show around before you axe it.

Look at Eastenders, it was down on its luck, you could have axed it at any point, but its turned itself around, and is arguably the No 1 soap in the UK.

If after say 3 months of the new producers episodes airing, ratings continue to drop or remain low, then you can start thinking about axing it. How you schedule those new episodes is up to you, but you dont make any decisions about the new episodes whilst the old episodes are airing.

I don't think EastEnders was in any danger of being axed.

that is not what alot of press articles were suggesting at the time.

The press made a big deal out of the show losing out to Emmerdale and perhaps overstated its lull. Creatively it wasn't great but aside from the Emmerdale clash it was still the most watched programme on BBC1 - why would they ever have axed it?

I guess it depends on how much it costs Channel 4. It's been stated on the soaps forum, though there is no official source confirming this, that Hollyoaks costs C4 about £16m per year, which is roughly only £60,000 per episode. If that's true, then it's still making C4 a decent profit per episode even at its current 16-34 level of 0.6m. And that doesn't even take the E4 and T4 airings into account. It should be safe as long as the viewing figures don't plummet even further.

It's certainly better value for money than Neighbours which reportedly costs Five close to £40 million per year and it doesn't even reach 3m viewers in total showings these days.

I agree, it was never gong to be axed, it was all the papers trying to bash the beeb.

The axe has already swung in terms of it's Series Producer (effectively the Executive Producer) and numerous cast members - something like 16 will be gone within a few months.

At the moment ratings don't really matter - it's once the new producers storylines kick in (and that won't be until around the autumn) that they need to see an improvement - and when Bryan Kirkwood saved the show a few years back it was a good 12-18 months before he had any impact.


The Simpsons would be an easy option, but lazy scheduling. It wouldn't be cost effective making it E4 exclusive, but at the moment E4 is probably keeping it out of danger. Even though the shows own figures are down, it's bringing in a crucial audience to the channel every day where E4 can promote their evening offerings too - without Hollyoaks in the schedule, I doubt Glee or Skins would do so well.


I don't know too but does C4 have a quota to meet when it comes to UK drama - as Hollyoaks would be making up the vast amount of that at the moment, and C4 are far better off sticking with it and attempting to boost it's ratings rather than trying to launch a new soap in the slot, which would be expensive to say the least.

Quotas are never really mentioned but I know there must be something in play with Five because they convinced OFCOM to let them count Home and Away and presumably now Neighbours as local productions as they fund 50% of their cost - even though nobody in the UK TV industry other than Five would benefit from that investment.

Yes its all very well for the axe man but what to put in its place thats as cheap and would do as well or better?