there was also a US version of Airline, another example of the BBC WW hogging all the format and not letting ITV sell any, im sure you will agree.

Successful in the sense that whilst it got soundly thrashed by EastEnders twice every week, it didn't get soundly thrashed quite as heavily as other ITV offerings.

It was the sort of thing my grans both watched avidly. If they weren't out at bingo. I suppose it fulfilled the same sort of 'care for the elderly' role as Tanking on Ice does today.


at the football flop.

A reminder - these were the quarter finals of the FA Cup, until the last year or so the world's most prestigious domestic league knock-out contest. So 3.5m is terrible for a Saturday prime time tie in winter.

There seems little chance of the FA Cup Final beating the League Cup Final now, and the slump will no doubt have the FA's lawyers scrutinising the ITV contract for get out clauses. It must be causing them a real headache with pissed off sponsors and their prime asset sinking into obscurity.

Like it did last time ITV had the rights.

also at Harry Hill's TV Flop!

A real "flopissimo" this week too. The message is loud and clear from viewers - "put the show back how it was Harry, and cut out the crap, or we're not bothering any more".

Pretty poor for Ant & Dec. Nothing to set the world alight there, and remember it is still early March, and not mid-July. Maybe their star is also on the wane like Harry's?

A bit meh for "Piers' Tears" - yes, it got its largest ever audience, but it probably benefited from ITV viewers' "remote control apathy", something only ITV seems to benefit from. For a massively hyped interview with the biggest and most important ego on the planet, it was hardly a massive draw.

Not great for Casualty. But we'll see what the proper ratings show up - Casualty seems to be one show where a large number of its weekly audience seem to record and view later judging by the big timeshifts.

Can anyone please provide me with a link to the top shows of 2010, so far? I'm not having any luck finding it. Been searching for ten minutes.

there is this


but its only up to 11/02/2000 so its almost a month out of date. Eastenders would now be No1 after the live episode.

Ah, thanks anyway, Charnham.

My prediction for the FA Cup is Portsmouth to reach the final, but get wound up by the taxman 48 hours beforehand, so their opponents win the trophy by default and ITV end up with no game for their millions of pounds.

Although a Columbo repeat would probably rate higher, anyway.


I say Harry is affected by the primetime Sunday night repeat which is another option for viewers. Combined total for the two screenings is about 8m.


I wonder if Casualty will beat PMLS in the officials.

utter, utter nonsense. Being 100% FTA this year means that viewership is up on previous years. Anyway with the BBC sports rights cap of £300m per year, the BBC will NEVER EVER EVER be showing FA Cup or England games again!

I suggest you read this comment from known insider 'ariusuk':

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...19&postcount=4

1 vs. 100 is in the can and I'm guessing will be given up against BGT in the spring. The NEXT series of In It To Win It has also been filmed at Pacific Quay in the last couple of weeks (they were looking for audience members at Glasgow Uni recently).

And thank the lord, Guesstimation won't be coming back. I don't see why BBC One perseveres with these dreadful lottery formats in the summer when they could easily bring back Jet Set or Winning Lines.

I suggest you read the Conservatives election manifesto (when it is published). The licence fee will be frozen from 2010 onwards

There simply isnt room for a major bid when 3 events alone take up about £150m of the budget (F1, Premiership highlights and 6 Nations Rugby).

agreed Jet Set & Winning Lines are great formats.

I think I touched a nerve...

Well hopefully the Conservatives don't get into power. Middle-class, middle-class, middle-class....


The F1 takes up £35m. I presume the other two take up nearly £115m between them, then...

EDIT, from sn_22:


= £136m total

In terms of airtime, I'd say F1 is more lucrative than the Six Nations, considering it covers all archive material as well. There again, I would say that...

I think Tanking On Ice would be a great idea for a series: 2 teams of celebrities driving a tank on an ice-rink, trying to blast each other to smithereens.

It could be ITV1's answer to Robot Wars.

If Brown stays the electricity will run out so nobody will be watching tv at all


Premiership highlights/ Championship rights are about £70m; 6 Nations £40m.

The BBC wont get the FA deal for less than £50m. So bye bye F1 or 6 Nations. Or maybe Wimbldom or the Olympics...........

the sports cap can be a bad thing for the BBC.

For example the BBC is expected (& rightly so) to bid on sports coverage on the Crown Jewels list, so once its bought a few of, as it should, it leaves a small amount for other sports rights, and a fixed amount is not going to be of help to you in an auction.

Looks like me and GeorgeS may at last have found common ground in both being Tories - it was only a matter of time before we agreed on something...

I had you down as a Monster Raving Loony

An opinion poll in the papers today gave the Conservatives a 9% lead and that's still not enough to give them an overall majority. This is due to the first past the post system we use in elections, a system that is vehemently
supported by the Conservatives.

And these idiots want to run the country.


And to bring these comment back on thread, I see Trevor McDonald Meets David Cameron is on ITV1 next Sunday in the same slot that Piers Morgan chats to Gordon Brown was in. We should use this as the tie-break in the event of a hung parliament. Whoever's chat-show gets the most viewers gets to be Prime Minister.

So that's Piers Morgan or Sir Trevor McDonald.

Same difference, surely.

If we have PR, then the Lib Dems will hold the balance of power whoever gets most votes.

I suspect Gordon will win the Sunday night chat-show battle - unless Cameron cries and it gets acres of coverage in next weekend's papers.

But it will be the only thing Gordon does win in 2010...

Does anyone know what happens ratings wise when you put Michael Winner and Piers Morgan in a room together?

To be determined some time in the future...

Source: The Sunday Times

Why on earth are they filmed so far in advance nowadays when in the past they were usually filmed the same week, if not day, as the draw themselves? I understand filming them in blocks saves cash, but you'd think they'd film them in the weeks before the new series, not the final weeks of the last series.


Far better than any of the formats that followed, Winning Lines especially. There is nothing innovative about In it to Win It at all.


Remember Ice Warriors?

No, thought not.

http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Ice_Warriors

The Mail gave the conservatives a 2% lead.
Conservatives must surely have something else in the bag, how can they royally screw this up!

He might even struggle to win that if Cameron cries. Then he'll end up with nothing, what a pity.


Whilst the ratings will probably be dreadful, I'd far rather watch an interview with Winner, which will at least be amusing, than the dreadful Kym Marsh.