Assuming the Election is May 6th it is 99% certain the debates will be:

Thur 15 Apr - ITV
Thur 22 Apr - Sky
Thur 29 Apr - BBC

1) they can't be Tues or Wed because of Champions League (not just ITV but nobody, including Party leaders, will want a debate clashing with CL).

2) they can't be Fri as it's the end of the week, the night people go out etc.

3) They could be Mon but very unlikely as last debate would be Mon 26th which would be a full 10 days before polling day and first debate would be Mon 12th which would give very little time to prepare after election is officially announced on Tues 6th.

So it's basically a no-brainer.

EDIT: See also BBC timetable which confirms these dates as highly likely:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8496591.stm

How bigger part of Benidorm is Johnny Vegas?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-Benidorm.html

His role was relatively prominent but I can see why they've "axed" him as there wasn't really anywhere else for the character to go. JV was also quoted as making some rather disparaging remarks about the series in an interview last year, so that might be another reason his contract has been terminated.

Well, you say this but in the 2001 Election, one of the Question Time leaders' specials was opposite the Champions League Final and another was opposite the British Soap Awards. The only one that got a half decent slot was Charles Kennedy's, and that was opposite At Home With The Braithwaites or something. They were never a big draw - and they were also rotten alternatives for soap or football haters.

I know these might be a bit more interesting as they're all together but I don't see what the problem would be with clashing with the Champions League, especially on Sky. As it stands there's a chance they'll clash with Liverpool in the Europa League on Five anyway.

In 1997, they did the leader interviews on a Monday at 8.30 on BBC1, including one with Alex Salmond and Dafydd Wigley which I remember hearing had the lowest audience in the history of BBC1, although I never found out what that audience was. In 2001 they showed the Plaid Cymru and SNP ones at 9pm in Wales and Scotland and midnight everywhere else, wisely.

The most watched programme yesterday was ITV1’s Emmerdale, which attracted 6.5 million/31% share; it peaked with 7.4 million viewers.
Source: ITV Insider

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...ws-251000.html

DS has the ratings report up

Strong night for ITV1 averaging 6-7m between 7 and 10pm.

Pretty weak for the other terrestrials really, apart from CH4 which seemed to receive a bit of a boost from 9-11pm, especially DH...not too sure why..was it a big episode?

The Business Inspector has turned into a huge flop and doubt it will be back, and the New Tricks repeats are showing signs of declining now I think with it airing almost every week of the year which is ridiculous.

A repeat of another Friends would have done better.

31.3.2010


BBC One
One Show 4.9m / 23.6%
Life of Riley 4.8m / 22%
Masterchef 4.5m / 18.4%
New Tricks rpt 3.7m / 15.1%

BBC TWO
Who Needs Fathers? 1.5m / 6.1%
Rhod Gilbert 1m / 4.9%

ITV1
Emmerdale 6.5m / 31%
Champions League: 6.3m peaked 7.8m / 26.3% peaked 31%

Five
Business Inspector 509,000 / 2.1%
NCIS 1.7m / 7%

C4

Relocation 2.5m / 10.2%
Ramsay USA 2m / 7.9%
Desperate Housewives 1.8m / 9.6%

BBC Four

Canoe Man 839,000 / 3.4%

BBC Three

Pirates of the Caribbean 1.5m / 6.1%

Digiguide update

ITV has "The First Debate" scheduled Thursday 15th 9pm, The Bill moves to Tuesday.

I realise this has been posted before, but its nice to see it on Digiguide.

Thinking about it I wonder how well the Sky debate will do on Sky News, its not a channel people watch a whole lot, certianly not the freeview auidence.

Friday 16th ITV 1, has a primetime outing for "Dickinsons Real Deal"


this is even more strange


is Digiguide pulling my leg?

Great figure for Pirates of the Caribbean and football; the rest pretty boring.


I can understand the BBC Three one; BBC Three is a Teens channel (think melting pot of Nick, Disney and MTV), so there's bound to be teen programming on there. It's also in the Doctor Who slot.

As for ITV1

just for the record I did the update after midday, so this should not be an April Fools, also im not aware of Digiguide ever doing April Fools, yet alone one of this manner.

Well, they're pulling RTs leg too!

http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsSe...s_fullpage.jsp

Interesting idea, repeating SJA on BBC3, it makes a bit of sense, I suppose, to introduce it to a slightly older audience that wouldn't normally dream of watching a, albeit very good, CBBC show.

K

it is true the show has been worthy of a primetime repeat in some form, I guess this is it.

2nd episode of DRD


anyone have any views on this show getting a primetime slot, seems to have come out of no where.

Well Michael Winners show got a primetime slot so I guess anything is possible.

lol you would have thought ITV would have learnt its lesson from that.

Good to see Desperate Housewives back up a bit for C4 (and indeed the first look outing on Sunday on E4), though it has been heavily promoted this week. I think it is one of those long running shows that though people may not watch so routinely now, they will come back to it if given a reason too.

Pretty good figures for the football though I was actually expecting a bit better. The peak could give us a better idea overall, I guess.

I think the football dented other channels and accounts for the slightly low New Tricks repeat rating. I don't think it'll stop being a 4m banker any time soon, sadly...

Nothing remarkable elsewhere apart from the 1.5m for Pirates on BBC Three. Thats an amazing number and must have given the channel a great night, share wise. The BBC seem to get a fair bit of value from their Christmas film deals with BBC Three enjoying a number of good repeats over the first three months of the year.

--

Interesting to see the Sarah Jane repeats - I'm not sure people are going to find it there, to be quite honest - but I'm pleased its getting a run outside of the CBBC deathslot. I've long said some of the better, family-orientated kids stuff ought to find more prominent slots such as early evening on Saturdays (say just after Final Score). Sarah Jane could probably double its audience there and catch a lot more of the Who viewers.

there is no question a early saturday evening outing would be good for Sarah Jane Adventures.

Its a shame "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" guest staring David Tennant never got a primetime BBC One repeat, it did get an early morning repeat over Christmas however, along with Dreamland.

Its really the wrong time to air "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith", new Doctor and all.

Again, what is the best ITV1 can offer against these shows that isn't a soap and isn''t a talent contest? They really are relying overly much on two soaps and two talent contests to deliver ratings- ITV2 boosts ITV's overall share by about 3pc, but is really too much of a niche channel( young women who like reality shows) to fight the BBC head on.

I think you've pretty much answered your own question, excluding soaps and football everything else seems to be cheap filler weekdays from 7-10, hence very low ratings, 2-4m for last few months. Not that BBC is on fire either, but they have a good spread of shows that pull 4-5.5m viewers, Holby, Masterchef, Life of Riley, Invisible Worlds, Cimewatch, QI, meaning that people are tuning in all the time to the station whereas on ITV people tune in for the events.

BBC seem to pushing this event style TV themselves of late. Stripped dramas, and big buzz Easter weekend line up with new A2A, DW and JC.

ITV1 are commercial and hence make their money from advertising so spend loads on a few big shows that make loads of money. I guess it makes sense.

Solid night for ITV, good peak for the Arsenal/Barcelona game. Not much else to say about terrestrial, BBC multichannel's were impressive though.

Interesting to see that the writer of Benidorm has confirmed that the one off special airing later this year will be a Christmas special. Considering ITV never normally bother with Christmas, it could be a contender for the post X Factor Final slot. Far too early to be talking about Christmas stuff yet obviously, but it could be a great opportunity to boost Benidorm and turn it into a very big hit, if ITV use their brains.

interesting stuff on BBC Press advanced listings for week 16

for one Doctor Who is 65 minutes, & Casualty is apparntly 30 minutes

Outnumbered is 9pm, I hope it & HIGNFY are not going to switch timeslots alot.