Solid night for BBC1 ouch for Emmerdale, lower than Masterchef LOL!
Good start for HIGNFY an easy win with no competition, seems decision to axe The Bill was right.

DS soaps has updated.

BBC3 Eastenders had 1.14m (6%)


Its a shame to see that low rating for The Bill, I thought it would hold up above 4m with the publicity, and last nights episode was one of the best 9pm ones so far too.

Interesting that the DS article doesn't factor in that EE finished 5 mins early. They claim that the ratings are always tape-checked but it doesn't look like it as it's the same as the ones posted by D.M.N., which are for the full hour average.

The BBC3 repeat did well last night.

Coronation Street's rating is also identical.

True, but haven't DS done a whole FAQ section saying that all their terrestrial ratings are tape-checked? It doesn't look like it. Not that it really matters, but I'm just saying...

Yep: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/infor...uracy-faq.html

I think everything was down last night; soaps, One Show and early evening news even before Five was showing football at 19:30. It was effectively the first daylight savings Friday night of the year what with the bank holiday today.

For those that prefer a graphical way of doing things: http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1229/thurs1.jpg

Very poor for BBC2 & channel 4 last night as well. :sleep:

Obviously the extra 30 mins of Eastenders did for the second Emmerdale, but ITV had 2.5 hours of soap or soap type programming(all of which have drawn 15 million + in their heyday) last night and Im assuming were beaten in primetime shares. Shows how the viewing publics dependance on soap/ongoing drama has diminished.

Quick calculation for primetime share (19:00 to 23:00) shows:

24.1% - BBC One
18.1% - ITV1
09.6% - Five
05.2% - BBC Two
04.6% - Channel 4
38.4% - Multichannel

An extremely poor share for ITV1.

Thanks for that- would have been pretty much unthinkable with that ITV line up for much of the last 30 years.

You can see why they're axing The Bill looking at that- over half the audience leaving at the start, and dropping below 3 million for the last 15 minutes...

As a FYI, given that adverts for The Prisoner have started airing on ITV1, I think it is highly likely that it will start airing week beginning 17th April.

If it does, the current blank spaces on ITV1's schedule are either Saturday 17th April or Thursday 22nd April, as it is looking increasingly likely that The Bill will be shunted to the Tuesday FlopZone.

If it does start on Thursday 22nd April at 21:00, and is 6 parts then it can comfortably finish on Thursday 27th May before Britain's Got Talent Live start.

On the other hand, it could air from Saturday 17th April at 21:00, 6 x 60 minutes and finish on Saturday 22nd May. Only problem is that the final episode would have to be moved due to the Champions League Final.

At this point, I think it is increasingly possible that it'll air on Thursdays from 22nd April...

Why do you think it will be pathetic? Given Peter Bowker's (the writer) credits, I think it should actually be very good.


Problem with that is that Father and Son is also set to air before BGT week, and that is not something I'd expect ITV to put on a Saturday. The Prisoner seems more like something that could air on a Saturday, and remember in the US it aired as 3 x 2 hour episodes, so hey may do that on Saturdays this year.

Dreadful rating for The Bill last night. Very clear why ITV have axed it, as there is no point carrying on with something that does so poorly all year round when newer, better dramas can get better ratings instead.

Some figures on the IPL on ITV4:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/c...t-1933823.html

Averaged 33,000 on Setanta last year, averaging around 300,000 on ITV4, peaking at over 500,000. On the Sunday Sky had 151,000 for an England test in Bangladesh, ITV4 had nearly twice the figure - 297,000 - for nine hours of coverage of the IPL.

I thought more people would have tuned into The Bill because of the publicity it's been getting but obviously not - a shame, as it was a really good episode.

Not too surprised by the 8pm Emmerdale rating - a lot of people probably stuck with EastEnders and recorded the second episode.

The football evidently knocked each of the soaps by about a million last night, and the extended EE predictably crushed Emmerdale. Looking at their clashes when EE has the head start makes its past Tuesday 7.30 performances against an hour-long Emmerdale much more impressive. Time to shift The Bill to the flopzone for the rest of its life and try and make more of the Corrie lead-in on Thursdays, I think.

HIGNFY did OK - its a well timed return for it. People flooded to it for political satire during the expenses scandal last year, and it should prosper during the election campaign this year too. Also - though I'd rather not admit it given the way its been thrown around - Mastechef has done a very stable job for BBC One in some awkward slots over the last month. I can see why they moved it over, even if it is incredibly lazy.

Not exactly comparable bearing in mind the Bangladesh v England game ran from 3am to 10.30am (and that 151,000 is the programme average).

But the IPL figures are indeed excellent for ITV4. Article says they only have a one year deal - will be interesting to see what happens next year.

Sky Sports will muscle in on it probably. "A FTA channel having success with non Crown-Jewel sport? We're not standing for that!" snarls bully-boy Murdoch.

I'm quite surprised the BBC are being brave enough to air it during the election campaign considering how scared they've been of upsetting anyone lately. All the rules on impartiality surely makes it difficult to do anything party political - I know they take the piss out of everyone, but it will surely create problems.


On that line though, anyone know if Rory Bremner is back on C4 before the election? I'm surprised really they've stuck with him considering how the show is thrown around the schedules and therefore ratings are nothing special. Indeed I think it might be better to shift it over to More4 where it could establish itself more in a regular slot and probably get an audience not too far off what it gets now, with a repeat on C4 to sweeten the move.

unless the IPL unlike the ECB think its worth while growing the sport in the UK, by not having it behind a pay wall.

Very poor for Coronation Street. The fact it cant beat Eastenders when when half of it has clashed with Emmerdale sums up its Thursday performances.

Yes, because Good Friday is a bank holiday!

Top 10 Overnights, Monday to Thursday
01 - 9.5m (40.7%) - Coronation Street (ITV1, Mon, 19:30)
02 - 9.4m (36.6%) - EastEnders (BBC1, Mon, 20:00)
03 - 9.1m (36.0%) - Coronation Street (ITV1, Mon, 20:30)
04 - 8.6m (36.3%) - EastEnders (BBC1, Tue, 19:30)
05 - 7.9m (34.7%) - EastEnders (BBC1, Thu, 19:30)
06 - 7.6m (30.6%) - Coronation Street (ITV1, Thu, 20:30)
07 - 7.5m (34.1%) - Emmerdale (ITV1, Mon, 19:00)
08 - 7.2m (32.7%) - Emmerdale (ITV1, Tue, 19:00)
09 - 6.5m (31.0%) - Emmerdale (ITV1, Wed, 19:00)
10 - 6.4m (32.6%) - Emmerdale (ITV1, Thu, 19:00)

Once we factor in tonight's soap overnights, I'd like to think that Doctor Who will sneak inside the top 10, but it'll be a tough call...