Cheers, glad it still gets pretty decent ratings. Oddly, it gets more viewers in the UK than US. The previous episode in the US got around 800,000 viewers! It's a shame people choose sh1t reality over quality shows like this.

Not sure about ratings but Eurosport has had great coverage. Clear, consise scheduling, the commentators are really good, informed about the sports and players, and just generally treated with more respect.

I would watch but I missed the first few series and the BBC never repeat them.

Tempted to pick up the DVDs at some point though as I have had very good things about it.

Sorry if I gave the wrong impression about football fans! Not intended. I was at Old Trafford myself on Tuesday night. Just that in my part of the world I hear conversations almost every day about immigrants taking 'our' jobs, and it's usually from young men. Never witnessed racism at Old Trafford - but Scousers, now that's a different story.

I tuned into a bit of the BBC Two coverage last night and they wasted a load of precious broadcast time talking about an event that looked like it had to be called off and what this might mean for the competitors. Really dull stuff and they were seriously struggling to fill time, even resorting to reports about the deteriorating weather which were clear for all to see. I couldn't believe they didn't switch to something else in the meantime.

On the plus side, great to see Yellowstone getting a re-run. Absolutely stunning programme- looks fantastic even in SD!

Yeah, the last time it was primetime BBC1 was Torvill and Dean in 1994, their final dance was at 8pm on a Monday night. But apart from a few bits in Grandstand, the rest of those Olympics were on BBC2, I remember the trailers all specifically said "The Winter Olympics on BBC2", whereas before they would have said "on the BBC". The Opening Ceremony that year was on a Saturday afternoon and it was also on BBC2 as Grandstand had Five Nations rugby.

Before that, in 1992, the daytime and late night stuff was on BBC1 but the main evening highlights show was at 6pm on BBC2. You'd have to go back to, I think, 1984 to the last time it was consistently on primetime BBC1 with the highlights show at 7pm - famously a Doctor Who story had to be re-edited as two hour-long episodes instead of four half hours to fit. But there was much less coverage in those days, you certainly didn't get it for hours on end, the highlights were about it. Those Olympics also featured my favourite ever scheduling, when the women's downhill was at 9.30 on Saturday morning and, rather than do a specific programme for it, it was shown during Saturday SuperStore. I wonder if they had to pitch their commentary specifically at children.

It may be the case that the overnight coverage would get higher ratings on BBC1 but then you've got the advantages of a consistent channel and start time. I wonder what the ratings will be like on Saturday when it takes up the whole of prime time from 7pm to 2am.

BBC Press Office has updated for 13th to 19th March, not much of interest (for you guys anyway) apart from the Friday Sport Relief.

What about that comedy classic, Life of Reily

Wednesdays @ 7:30pm I'm guessing. Unless they're going to try putting comedies up against Corrie again after the sucess QI has had.

Also, DS are referencing Miranda as a BBC One comedy again:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...nd-rachel.html

Do they know something we don't (highly unlkely IMO )?

I definately recommend it. Each series follows one main story, all interwoven so cleverly with great twists. And Glenn Close is great in it. Get the DVDs, it's only 13 episodes per series so not too much time to invest.

Now they've abandoned the new series until April have they found a slot for Total Wipeout on the Saturday for the fifth week in six since the Six Nations began?

Much better night for BBC1 than expected! EE did excellently considering it was out of its normal slot and against the football and I expected Masterchef to be in the 3 million range and the 9pm doc in the 2 million range! Shows what alternative programming can do.

Good night for all really, apart from CH4 seemed to slip a bit after 9pm and Ramsay should be higher than that.

Full roundup:

Wednesday 24th February 2010 - Terrestrial
BBC One
13:45 - Doctors: 2.01m (24.3%)
18:00 - BBC News at Six: 4.6m (23.0%)
18:30 - Regional News and Weather: 6.4m (29.7%)
19:00 - The One Show: 5.7m (25.1%)
19:30 - EastEnders: 9.36m (38.1%)
20:00 - MasterChef: 4.6m (18.0%)
21:00 - The Day the Immigrants Left: 5.27m (20.8%)
22:00 - BBC News at Ten: 4.7m (22.1%)
22:25 - Regional News and Weather: 4.4m (22.3%)

BBC Two
18:00 - Eggheads: 2.3m (11.4%)
18:30 - Priceless Antiques Roadshow: 2.0m (9.2%)
19:00 - Yellowstone: 2.3m (9.6%)
20:00 - Natural World: 2.11m (8.3%)
21:00 - Winter Olympics 2010: 1.74m (7.3%)
22:30 - Newsnight: 1.2m (8.0%)

ITV1
18:30 - ITV News & Weather: 3.9m (18.2%)
19:00 - Emmerdale: 7.2m (31.5%)
* 19:00 to 19:25 - 7.9m (34.7%)
19:30 - UEFA Champions League: 5.7m (22.5%)
* 19:30 to 21:55 - 5.8m (22.9%)
* peak: 7.3m (28%) @ 21:15
22:00 - ITV News at Ten & Weather: 2.2m (10.8%)
22:35 - FA Cup Highlights: 1.9m (14.2%)

Channel 4
18:00 - The Simpsons: 2.1m (10.6%)
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 1.42m (6.6%)
19:00 - Channel 4 News: 700,000 (3.2%)
19:55 - The Political Slot: 1.0m (4.0%)
20:00 - Relocation, Relocation: 2.9m (11.4%)
* 20:00 to 20:55 - 2.83m (11.1%)
21:00 - Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA: 1.6m (6.2%)
* 21:00 to 21:55 - 1.55m (6.1%)
* +1: 265,000
22:00 - Desperate Housewives: 1.4m (7.6%)
* 22:00 to 22:55 - 1.51m (7.8%)
* +1: 101,000 (0.9%)

Five
17:30 - Neighbours: 1.56m (9.4%)
18:00 - Home and Away: 1.23m (6.2%)
18:25 - Live From Studio Five: 400,000 (1.6%)
19:30 - Monkey Life: 400,000 (1.6%)
20:00 - Secrets of Egypt: 1.06m (4.1%)
21:00 - NCIS: 2.19m (8.5%)
22:00 - Numb3rs: 900,000 (4.6%)

Wednesday 24th February 2010 - Multichannel
BBC Three
19:50 - Doctor Who Confidential: 262,000 (1.1%)
20:00 - Sweet Home Alabama: 480,000 (2.0%)
21:00 - Most Annoying People 2009: 278,000 (1.2%)
22:00 - EastEnders: 927,000 (4.6%)
22:30 - Vampires: Why They Bite: 321,000 (2.3%)

BBC HD
Winter Olympics 2010: 24,000 (0.1%)

BBC Four
19:30 - It's Only a Theory: 80,000 (0.3%)
20:00 - Around the World in 80 Treasures: 204,000 (0.8%)
21:00 - Syrian School: 104,000 (0.4%)
22:00 - Mad Men: 237,000 (1.3%)

ITV2
20:00 - American Idol: 507,000 (2.1%)
22:00 - FILM: American Pie 3: American Wedding: 421,000 (2.9%)

E4
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 523,000 (2.3%)
* +1: 136,000 (0.5%)
21:00 - Blade: Trinity: 320,000 (1.6%)

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

Sky1
20:00 - Dogs in Frocks: 196,000 (0.8%)
21:00 - Pineapple Dance Studios: 88,000 (0.4%)

Watch
20:00 - Doctor Who: 38,000 (0.2%)

Good for the Champions League. Also good for BBC1's programme at 9pm, presumably the last half hour had ~6m while ITV had Champions League analysis.

EastEnders did well despite no Wednesday airing normally.

Masterchef did well for 8pm but it will be interesting how it fares against the soaps tonight and Corrie on Friday, it's achieving similar results to what Celebrity Masterchef achieves in the summer so it's doing well but not a breakout hit yet.

NCIS seems to be keeping a solid audience but Ramsay is doing less well.

Excellent for EastEnders despite being moved to a random night.

Those figures for Sky 1 are dire. So much for it being BSkyB's flagship entertainment channel.

American Idol vs Winter Olympics

FOX - American Idol (8-10pm) - 22.80m (8.6)
* Up 25% from last week
* Down 3% from same show last year

NBC - Winter Olympics (8-10pm) - 19.00m (4.9)
* Overall primetime coverage (8-11pm) averaged 19.5m (5.2)

Despite losing out last Wednesday, Idol now has a 3-1 lead in the head-to-head battle with the Olympics which aren't doing so well in their second week. Tonight Idol airs at 8pm for its results which is the last time that the 2 will clash. With ABC and CBS pretty much giving up, The Olympics are probably helping Idol rather than damaging it but next week things will return to normal.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/02/25...ts-18-49/43001

true value for money Sky 1

Aren't they just? Absolutely shocking night for $ky1 last night.

Pay TV channels (excl. premium sports) are really struggling to get audiences now with the vast majority opting for FTA choices.

Did you know for example that according to BARB the top rated show on MTV the other week only had 27,000 viewers? Even this thread has had more views.

27K is low. I'm sure the top show used to be in six figures at one time.

MTV just hasnt adapted to the digital age. It was groundbreaking at the start with music videos being aired that you couldnt see anywhere else and struck a chord with the younger generation. Since it moved to showing more entertainment shows its done alrite with Jackass, Cribs and The Osbournes but it hasnt had any big new shows for at least 5 years and has just been left behind.

I think you're right. The audience decline has been very dramatic.

It's interesting watching $ky change tact as viewing habits mature though, isn't it? Desperately scratting around for the next big thing that they can persuade people to pay for, with the content itself becoming increasingly secondary.

Before the big selling point used to be access to the big pay TV brands like MTV, $ky One and UK Gold. Notably and almost certainly due to the increasing amount of quality content available absolutely free, the emphasis is now not on what content you can receive, but how you can watch it. For example; ability to record programmes to watch later, ability to watch programming in HD, ability to watch content on demand. It's been fascinating to watch this transition occur. No doubt 3D is the next target.

I don't doubt these are marvellous innovations - but people should not be duped into thinking the technology is something they should have to pay for which is seemingly what $ky are managing at the moment. It's all about branding with very little substance.

They are even calling it "supertelly" now, would you believe. So I'm hereby dubbing Freeview HD "superesttelly." Whilst it doesn't make perfect grammatical sense, it must be even more super than $ky HD since it will do the same thing with no monthly cost.

(Before anyone gets picky, I am referring to the technology and not the channels available.)

Damages was not simulcast on BBC HD owing to the Olympics....same for quite a few shows such as Survivors, Heroes and Mad Men this week.

Damages is on BBC HD tonight.

In reply to the Damages question, Broadcast says that it had under 1m and was beaten by Newsnight!

I wonder why Newsnight rated highly? Was anyone 'famous/celebrity stature-like' on?

I assume this "Golf Tastic" Ashes to Ashses will be on the BBCs YouTube account, I like Ashes to Ashes, but this does not sound like its worth watching on TV, lets be honest the Top Gear one, was awful.

At a time when MTV was about music. What's it for now - all they've done is make it look like the dozens of other entertainment channels out there, predominantly filled with cheap US formats.

They're all the same though - 4Music is pushing classic C4 comedy at the moment - I guess you could dub it E4 Gold!


Well they've had a bit of scandal this week when in a post-watershed show Jeremy Paxman swore when quoting someone else completely in context, and a massive one person complained - but the BBC hit panic buttons and Paxman was forced to apologise, though put as much effort into the apology as he used to do into the weather.


And in other news, not hugely surprising but Aussie networks are looking at The X Factor again.

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2010/02/...zon-again.html

Ten did do a series, but as with most countries where it's run alongside Idol it flopped - but with Australian Idol now out of the picture and The X Factor set to launch in the US both Seven and Nine are looking at the format.

Sky! Believe In Better!

Also, believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.