ITV are blaming ITN for them Tuesday night?

I think someone at ITV is high, nothing else can explain that level of stupidity.

Unless ITN said they weren't ready to do a live report beyond 15 seconds, but I don't buy that for a second. Obviously they saw the word 'election' and just sent the reply off without looking properly at query.

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I think there was a good reason why ITV didn't show the coverage last night. Children's Hospital didn't suffer and The Bill improved slightly (albeit against Luther on BBC1, not the election coverage). Who Wants to be A Millionnaire? did struggle but that's scheduled badly anyway - it's only about 0.5m down, so considering around 3m people extra were watching BBC1 at the time that isn't a bad return.

Excellent for the handover on BBC1, but Luther didn't particularly benefit. For me, it's wrong to move Waterloo Road from the 8pm slot; considering Modern Masters and High Street Dreams occupy the 9pm slots and are failing I see now reason why they couldn't be moved, rather than a reasonably popular drama. I can see BBC1 having an excellent night, though, with ITV1 struggling - Midsomer Murders below 5m probably.

I see no need for BBC1 to be spending money on new programmes pre-6pm on Saturdays in the Summer. They need to concentrate on keeping peak-time repeats to be a bare minimum.

Junior Apprentice is also repeated this week around 4pm, after Murder She Wrote and The Weakest Link - even though BBC1 could easily show highlights of Friday's Diamond League Athletics meeting, which will only be on the red button. (The IAAF website suggests the European meetings, which are usually 7-9pm on Friday nights, will be on BBC3)


Half an hour of Adrian Chiles talking nonsense - that's already a proven hit on the BBC!

"Coming up, England v Mexico - but first, we've been having some unseasonally cold weather of late. Temperatures have dropped and there has been a sharp wind in the air, but should we really be having this in May? Fabio Capello went to the Met Office to find out more..."

LOL Fudd.

This really is a gripping climax to the football. Could we be looking at a penalty shootout to decide this?

Should be getting a nice peak now from people turning over from BBC One/ITV1.

Meanwhile, Junior Apprentice was an absolute hoot, and I think it's got the potential to do really well. 6-7m?

Ha ha, I read that with his accent in my head

It's waiting for me on my PVR, Score. Best of both worlds.

I'll let you know my verdict later. Big fan of the regular series.

Notice they're already looking for applicants for the next next series of The Apprentice.

I wonder if they'll run 2 series pretty much back to back or if they'll push the 2011 series back too?

Unfortunately not by the looks of it. It's a shame, Madrid scored at the perfect time for people switching over - if only it was Fulham.

Junior Apprentice is trending 2nd worldwide on Twitter and trending 1st in the UK. Pretty sure it'll be 7/8m just because of the Apprentice name. It was very good and watchable as well, even if there was a brat or two!

Meanwhile I see Jeremy Hunt, the man responsible for it being off our screens for so long, is the new culture, media and sport secretary.

It worked so much better than I thought it would. Was pretty much like the regular series... you even forget how old they actually are!

I think they'll be keen to put the 2011 series back in its former slot - its left a bit of a whole in their schedule. There'd still be a pretty decent gap of about 5 months or so between series which would be fine. Though, If Junior Apprentice is a success, they'll have to schedule that as well...

Speaking of Junior Apprentice, I've yet to catch up on iPlayer, but how well do we think it'll rate. I was wondering if the "laugh at the arrogant gits get it wrong" appeal would extend to teenagers? That's ultimately what'll probably decide what portion of the regular series' viewers tune in.

EDIT: Ah, DMN and Agent F answer my question before I asked it. Precocious brats the order of the day, then.

Heartbreaking end for Fulham. Lily Allen's face said it all. What a story it would have been if Fulham could have held on and maybe won it on penalties?

We'll never know now. Still, I imagine Five will have been rewarded with a 4m+ peak shortly after 10pm.

Utterly heartbreaking for Fulham. Still, it's a fantastic achievement for them to have made the final, and what a turnaround it is from a few years ago, when they were battling relegation. They should take heart from that, and the fact that they're the only British team to reach a European Final this season.


Understatement of the decade?

Some of them were amongst the most arrogant, irritating individuals I have ever come across. Which of course made it all the more entertaining.

If you're a big fan of the regular version, then I'm sure you'll enjoy this too. There are some all time classic moments in it.

Although I'm a fan of the Apprentice I wouldn't approve of all that being scheduled, it would be overkill and lead to the show becoming tired. The Junior version should be a one off in my opinion.

But they might be heading into overkill with it. They have the Junior one running until June, and then about a 3-4 month gap until the real one (rumoured to be starting November). That will run until about mid-January with about 6 weeks until the Comic Relief version, and then about 6 weeks after that will be the 2011 series. This time next year we could well be mid-way through the third series within a year, in addition to a special.

I wasn't so sure when the kids version started, but after the board room I realised it is just exactly the same as the regular series. They are all as ruthless and bitchy as the usual contestants. Don't let their innocent faces fool you

They are getting as bad as ITV are in scheduling the Saturday 'evening' BBC News, moving it to the edge of the schedule.

I know football results won't be an issue by then, but the Saturday news should never start before 5pm.

I'd thought Junior Apprentice was 5 weeks but just heard it's actually 6 weeks. So that means the final will have to be moved to another day as BBC1 has France vs. Uruguay on 16/6/10.

Surely they won't hold it back until November? They'll definitely want it wrapped up before Christmas.

The Apprentice could run in the autumn, and The Junior Apprentice in the spring (or vice versa), leaving winter and summer as the time to film it.

Sunday like last years Apprentice final?