But considering the weak opposition and the fact it was a new series of a drama (plus wasn't Survivors getting 4m at the start of the run?) I thought it would get a little more.

Is this for real?

Why?

6-7m is the usual except-summer range for the 6.30pm, making it one of the most watched shows on TV. The snow took it up to 9-10m, now it has returned to normal.


"Seven Days of Traffic" wasn't the most inspiring title was it?

Had it been called "Traffic Watch" or "Gridlock!" it would have got double that probably.

Or treble if it had been on BBC1...


Good bit of scheduling (1)


Good bit of scheduling (2)

Are the BSI on holiday this week, with the work experience student sorting it in their absence?


They should, for nostalgic and ratings reasons, air OFAH, Dad's Army, Some Mothers... or Are You Being Served there for a spell - they did legendarily well in the 1990s.

The BSI people are going to have an absolute fit when they come back from leave. Fancy using LOGIC to sort out a schedule!

Since Susan Boyle they've become Breakfast TV regulars in the US.

Amanda Holden is The Early Show's British Correspondent, so she files reports about 'British life', etc.

Simon Cowell's reaction (according to Piers Morgan's column) 'I'd save the excitement for when you two are invited to be ON the red carpet, not reporting from it, darlings.'

Ah, I see.

They're going to be cleaning it as well.

Im just having a laugh. Under 4 million for Survivors is disappointing, shame as I really liked it. Although the low numbers make for a very competitive and surprising hour with ITV1's performance highlighting that.

The new WWE replacement for ECW seems to be off to a good start:


(SyFy Press Release)

It's strange, but BBC1 don't seem to be making use of the 8pm lead in - really, a lot are made of lead in's but they don't always help. Popstar to Opera Star didn't make anything of Coronation Street before it, and Survivors hasn't made a lot of Holby City. I remember All the Small Things doing the same thing.

Maybe they need to try and find another serious, realistic drama to follow on from it, rather than something light and fluffy/sci-fi ish to capture the Holby audience? Say, trying Waking the Dead or possibly Spooks on a Tuesday instead of Survivors.

I thought the new drama trail on BBC1 a few minutes ago looked great - some real treats coming up, although I guess they're on BBC2/4 as well as One.

But why was Jan-Feb such a wasteland, and indeed before Christmas too?

January wasnt a wasteland at all. The Beeb put on a load of new series of drama just after Christmas but when they all started finishing their runs then it got scarce and New Tricks crept in as they were waiting for a free week to strip 5 Days across erm 5 days.

Agreed. Compare it to 2008 and it was a positive drama fest.

I'm surprised (or should I really be?) that BBC One aren't starting either Luther or Ashes to Ashes on March 8. I would have put them in the Monday night slot (to capitalise on ITV's lack on Monday Night Thrillers). With Luther running for six episodes and Ashes to Ashes for eight, that would have taken up 14 weeks, which would have had them finishing on June 7. Which is....the week the World Cuo stars. Perfect scheduling

The exact reason why the BBC aren't doing it maybe?

I agree. Last year was a slow start but this year we had quite a few new dramas on the air. And Five Days next week which looks good.

Looks like ITV have abandoned Tuesday 9pm flopzone stuff temporarily as on March 9th they're running a repeat of Law & Order: UK instead. It'll probably do better than most of the factual stuff that's been there for the last year!

The Olympics though doesn't really boost the BBC in primetime at least as much as it does for other countries, notably the US and Australia. Ratings will be high for sure, but I'd be amazed if they got too close to the 20m mark. Then again, I suppose if EE can get 15m+ for it's live episode, it shouldn't be ruled out.


It's usually predominantly BBC2, though used to take the Grandstand slots on BBC1 at the weekend and in previous games overnight coverage tended to be on BBC1 (where I think due to it being BBC1 it would have rated better this year than BBC2!).

Due to the nature of the sport the time difference has kind of worked out well for us this time with the big snow events being primetime ourtime, with mainly the ice events being overnight. I'm sure the BBC would have liked the sliding events a few hours earlier, but really we've had many medal winning events in primetime, whilst in four years in Russia despite the more favourable time difference, such events will play out between 8am-12noon UK time.


Axing Grandstand has worked for the big events, but the smaller sports suffer as the BBC just give up rather than go hunting for sport to fill the schedule.

World Cup Skiing for example continues next weekend, perfect to capitalise on new interest from the Winter Olympics - but for the BBC their coverage in Ski Sunday seems to have ended before the Winter Olympics. Imagine them giving up on the Premier League just weeks before the season finished - wouldn't happen, so why should skiing be any different?

BBC One
13:45 - Doctors: 2.01m (24.3%)
19:30 - Eastenders: 9.36m (38.1%)
20:00 - Masterchef: 4.6m (18%)
21:00 - The Day The Immigrants Left: 5.27m (20.8%)

BBC Two
20:00 - Natural World: 2.11m (8.3%)
21:00 - Winter Olympics: 1.74m (7.3%)

ITV 1
19:00 - Emmerdale: 7.9m (34.7%)
19:30 - Champions League - Inter Milan vs Chelsea: 5.8m (22.9%)

Channel 4
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 1.42m (6.6%)
20:00 - Relocation, Relocation: 2.83m (11.1%)
21:00 - Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: 1.55m (6.1%)
22:00 - Desperate Housewives: 1.51m (7.8%) [+1: 101,000 (0.9%)]
New series low

Five
17:30 - Neighbours: 1.56m (9.4%)
18:00 - Home and Away: 1.23 (6.2%)
20:00 - Secrets of Egypt - Cleopatra: 1.06m (4.2%)
21:00 - NCIS: 2.19m (8.6%)

BBC Three
20:00 - Eastenders: 927,000 (4.4%)

E4
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 523,000 (2.3%) [+1: 136,000 (0.5%)

Fiver
18:30 - Home and Away: 606,000 (2.8%)
19:00 - Neighbours: 167,000 (0.7%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One - 22.4%
ITV1 - 21.4%
BBC Two - 8.1%
Channel 4 - 7% (+ 1 - 0.8%
Five - 4.7%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great numbers for BBC One last night up against the Champions League - looks like some people may have been writing off Masterchef a bit too soon.

BBC One's Wednesday night line-up since last September seems to have been quite effective at drawing in the anti-football audience who don't want to watch ITV1. In saying that, the 8pm and 9pm slots most likely received a boost as a result of the one-off Wednesday episode of Eastenders. I wasn't expecting such high figures from something that could be described as a filler documentary though.

Any ratings for Damages on BBC1 and HD? Thanks

Really surprised by BBC1 ratings, I thought Masterchef would do better than last week, the hour show actually flies by compared to the 90 mins last week which was complete overkill.
The immigrants show is way higher than I would have predicted, I would have thought 3-4m.
Can't believe they won primetime against football.

Neighbours and Home and Away both seem to be up quite a bit.

940,000* (7.8%).

Compared to a series 2 average of 1.2m* (7.9%).

So over 20% down in total people but share wise roughly the same.

*excludes BBC HD.

Source: Attentional.

Yeah, quite surprising. I can't think of anything particularly major happening in last night's H&A?

Impressive to see it that high for a fairly ordinary episode.

I wouldn't call The Day the Immigrants left a filler documentary. It's a subject people I hear people talk about all the time and I'm not surprised by its rating. Many of its natural audience would be watching the football, otherwise it could have been much higher.

Love how you've just labelled all football fans racist! Ironically if all the immigrants did leave, the Premier League would be screwed!

Any more figures for Eurosports Olympic coverage - doesn't usually happen this way around but I've seen nothing but praise for Eurosports coverage, and nothing but complaints about the BBC's efforts.

From the BARB website over the first weekend (13/14 Feb) coverage peaked at over 140,000, with another 40,000 in HD - compared with 34,000 (and 18,000 in HD) topping the charts the week before. Eurosport 2 also boosted significantly by taking the content from Eurosport. And with just the two days of coverage that week Eurosports reach for the week had doubled.

Surprisingly srong night for BBC One to win the nightly shares, aided by EastEnders anchoring the schedule. It did pretty well considering its an unusual night for it - the share still just about in its usual range (though down from the top end ones its been getting past few days). Masterchef is much better suited to the 8pm hour rather than the 9pm, but I still think its suited best to BBC2! The documentary did well to find itself a substantial audience.

Good stuff for the football on ITV, as expected for such a significant match. The Winter Olympics seems variable, but I suppose it depends what sports are being covered.

Another magnificent number for the BBC Three EE repeat.