Great end for Take it out, that's been a bit of a sleeper hit, and prob gets all the right type of viewers, def got to be recommisioned you'd imagine. ITV held up v respectably from a strong night for BBC1, I didn't see Lets Dance but there seemed to be a 'buzz' about it online. Good rating for Casualty and Lottery show too.

Interesting numbers last night. Let's Dance down by 0.5m on last year's opener and 1.25m on last year's average. Whilst that is still a very strong performance I can't see it becoming huge again like it did last year. TV Burp was dented by starting half an hour into it but next week should be better as it is starting at the same time as Let's Dance. Fantastic for in It To Win It, and a strong audience for Casualty, but Total Wipeout should have been new and like D.M.N. says, WL should have aired at 6.30pm with everything else 55 minutes later.

Decent enough for ITV, but as I said above, Harry Hill hour was dented by Let's Dance. TV Burp was still 1.3m up on the equivalent episode from last year, though. Take Me Out finished on a strong note, 5m is way above what most people ever thought it would be on before it started, and gives it an overall series average of 4.5m. Mr and Mrs seems to have a loyal audience, as it's ratings are always in the 4.5-5m bracket however TV Burp and TMO do. Not spectacular by any means, but it's a reliable performer nonetheless.

Last year though, it was up against The Colour of Money...

They're about the only presenters in TV who work a five day week though - I assume it's live everynight.


Yeah, I'm sure if I was working six days a week and was offered an extra day off with probably no pay-cut I'd be fuming too!


Reports in the press today the FA are considering revamping the FA Cup - I doubt it'll come to anything but basically moving games midweek and ditching replays, so like the League Cup then.

Don't think it would make much difference to the BBC but if ITV kept the rights I'm wondering whether having games in primetime would be more or less attractive to them. This year really they've just been spectacularly unlucky when it's come to the draws with no big clashes and three of the big four knocked out in early rounds - though why they opted not to show Chelsea last week is beyond me.

Massive build throughout though - started at 5m and ended up on 8m. Evidence it started too early perhaps? Isn't it on later next week?

Yeah but The Colour of Money was getting 4-4.5m at the start of the run against Let's Dance, it was only after Let's Dance ended and it shifted to 8.20pm that it fell to 2.5m. Also, Let's Dance was getting 7-8m agaisnt Takeaway last year (which still got 6m or so) so it's still not as good as last year (but still very strong).

I think it was Georged123 who said that it's been recommissioned, though Paddy McGuinness was saying on Twitter the other day that no decision has yet been made by ITV.

I'm sure it'll be back - the series basically settled around 5m near the end of the series (apart from last week due to poor lead-ins/SYTYCD final) and it's without doubt one of the cheapest Saturday primetime shows ITV has. Plus, there's no celebrities in sight which is a rarity for an ITV entertainment show!

They should fast-track a second series for later this year, maybe pairing it up with the X Factor audition shows so you have something like this: 19:00- Take Me Out, 20:00- The X Factor, 21:00- The Cube. I think it's the sort of show which would be perfectly placed right before TXF, though if that doesn't work out switch it around with The Cube which held its own when placed before XF.

One of the reasons I reckon it should come back later this year is because of the Primeval situation, which is rumoured to return "early 2011". If that's back next January, then I imagine that'll take the 7-8pm slot and then Take Me Out may face some scheduling problems. So rather than wait perhaps more than a year for a second series, just bring it back in six months time. Nothing wrong with having two series in a year- TV Burp, Total Wipeout, Life Stories etc all do relatively well even with two series each year.

The One Show is proving itself to be a successful alternative to Emmerdale and is only 2 million behind it in the ratings, a massive change of fortunes when TOTP was in this slot and trailed Emmerdale by 8 million viewers. Perhaps the overkill and useless acting is hurting Emmerdale and again, like Corrie, it has a narrow demographic.

Knowing ITV they'll ruin the second series with numerous celeb specials then!


Certainly agree it should be fast tracked. No sign of The Cube returning sooner rather than later, so perhaps best hold that back to pair up with TXF auditions, and hold Take Me Out back to air in the 7pm slot alongside the live shows (or even on Sundays before the results) - I'd imagine demographic wise it makes more sense to pit Take Me Out against Strictly than The Cube, where I imagine there is a larger cross over audience.

Looking back at last year's figures for Lets Dance for Comic Relief.
In 2009 the season premiere episode had the same start time, but last night actually peaked significantly higher than last year's first episode did. The share does seem to be somewhat down though.

2009
18:35 - 20:00 Episode 1: 6.81m (31.1%) peak 7.41m (32.5%)
19:25 - 20:40 Episode 2: 7.15m (31.9%)
19:20 - 20:45 Episode 3: 8.09m (35.1%)
19:15 - 20:35 Final-------: 7.90m (35.5%) peak 8.6m

2010
18:30 - 19:45 Episode 1: 6.25m (26.8%) peak 7.92m
19:15 - 20:30 Episode 2:
18:45 - 20:00 Episode 3:
-------------------------Final:

Can anyone explain why ITV are airing NEW, unadvertised episodes of Family Fortunes in such early slots on Saturday evenings??? I don't really understand. We know they're capable of pulling in 5-6m in a later slot or on a Sunday, so why are ITV wasting them when there's bound to be free slots later in the year i.e the Summer when the schedule is full of repeats and films?

I cannot understand why they have left it nearly two months since the last one. They only have two that have yet to air, the first was last night.

Surely when ITV comissioned the longer run they knew when they were going to air and they knew when DOI would start? Did something go wrong? I'm trying to work out if anything was rescheduled/started late..

So, you know Amanda Holden was rumoured a couple of months ago to be hosting a new show for ITV1- well, it's true. She's hosting 'The Door' alongside Chris Tarrant. It's basically a cheap version/rip-off of I'm a Celebrity's bushtucker trials which is set to air in the next couple of months.

Also staying on the topic of scheduling, the DVD release dates for ITV dramas such as A Touch of Frost, Foyle's War, The Prisoner, Identity are currently down for April/May so it looks likely that they'll be airing in the next few months. The remake of A Bouquet of Barbed Wire, which has recently finished filming, is also said to be "coming soon" on ITV1.


It's a silly decision by ITV to air it so early on, as it'd have got 4m+ guaranteed in a decent slot. There were opportunities to air the 2 remaining episodes on 20/12/09, 27/12/09 which would have followed on from the rest of the series. But instead, they showed 'Celebrity Millionaire' and a Midsomer Murders repeat.

Perhaps they're trying to boost early evening ITV and keep viewers from drifting over to L.D.F.S..R.

Do we know if it beat the wipeout repeat?


I really didnt expect a whitewash, sport relief isnt as big a brand as comic relief and the performances on the show finished on the show around 7.10, so i thought that would give tv burp a big boost as beeb were showing guest performances/filler.
So im quite surprised it beat the harry hill hour by such a huge margin.Who'd have guessed 'take me out' would be ITV's only brightspot

Really more Amanda Holden:yawn::yawn:

Or they've realised it's past its best and no longer "must see TV"?

A couple of bright spots last night, but the stupid TXF/K Factor rubbish just kills it. And the unfunny nonsense with the desk turning into a car. JUST SHOW THE FUNNY TV CLIPS, HARRY!!!

Tip for TV Burp viewers - record it and watch later; if you f-fwd through the breaks and the K-Factor slot you can watch the whole episode in under 20 minutes. I watched it as soon as Let's Dance finished and by 8.03pm, I was clear.

Good-ish for Let's Dance, but any show that builds from 4.9m to 7.9m over an hour or so is clearly scheduled WAY too early. Should set it up for 7m+ next week (as, indeed, happened last year).

ITV knows talent when it sees it.

Pretty good for Lets Dance, I think. It seemed to me like a pretty limited format and I was expecting it to wear off somewhat this year (especially without the Comic Relief brand) - so I'm moderately surprised by its performance, and the substantial peak figure. That lead-in certainly helped In It To Win It which has been down a bit this year, and Casualty too.

Poor for Harry Hill, but his ratings always seem to fluctuate quite radically so I'm sure he'll bounce back in time. Mr and Mrs and Take Me Out are OK for what they are - probably enough to warrant a return. Certainly with the latter, they'll hope it could grow further.

I think Let's Dance shows that if you put something light-hearted and relatively funny on Saturday nights people will watch it. A lot of shows take themselves WAY too serious (SYTYCD).

I sensed that too, I wasnt watching until i got a txt about Rufus Hounds Performance as Cheryl Cole


Yes its really laid back and fun.I also think Claudia and Steve make a great duo.

I am old enough to remember when this pulled in 18 million viewers and this year will be its 30th anniversary. Was it ATV who originally made FF?

It might be a genius move bringing together Amanda and Chris Tarrant.
All the fans of the colour of money, Fantasy lives and Big flop may combine to get 7m

Well it had less than 3.98m...

Thanks for that D.N.M, total wipeout repeats did well once again.