I think it's June 5th.

If I were ITV I'd get Christine, who is also renegotiating her contract, and dump everyone else on GMTV. Offer her a new primetime show too to sweeten the deal - maybe Xtra Factor as well if rumours are true?

Lorraine looks likely to stay in her own separate show - they've already added cooking and started doing the show with other hosts when she is on holiday. It will most likely go out into the schedule as a one hour standalone show when GMTV is relaunched.

Thanks.

So when will the first semi final be likely to be?

Saturday 5th, probably. Could be Sunday 6th, I suppose.

American Idol finishes a week later this year (26th of May) and Eurovision is on Saturday 29th as well and the bank holiday is a week later so they had to start a week late. Live shows will start Monday 31st May.

They also need to sort out Saturday 22nd because it's the Champions League Final. BGT will probably have to move to Sunday that week.

Thank you.

It was posted by TPenery earlier today that there will be an extra live show this year, so the semis are beginning on Sunday 30th May.

Applause Store confirms that: http://www.applausestore.com/applaus...hp?id=87&bid=5

Further on from that, I think I remember reading (don't ask me for the link, got no idea where I read it!) that they were cutting down the semi finalists from 40 to 36 this series, so 6 a show, which gives more time for voting.

Nothing for definite though, but sure I heard that.

Could it be that they are moving the final results show to a separate night rather than having just 30 minutes on Saturday night?

I'd rather that than an extra semi-final (which isn't needed at all, IMO).

If they wanted more hours, they should have given more time to the cut before the semi-finals which was rushed last year.

Sunday 30th May will be a mammoth day for ITV, as they've got the England friendly on earlier in the day. BTW, I think the fixture list times on TheFA.com is wrong: http://www.thefa.com/England/Fixtures

All times should be in BST. I posted a few weeks ago saying that the Monday game before the World Cup would kick off at 2100 BST, with the Sunday game at 1415 BST, it now looks like I'm wrong.

Would they want the final performances on a Friday night though? Also, the final results shows have been quite short as there's really no need for them to perform again. It's not like The X Factor where there's a winner's single to perform.

Perhaps what will happen is that they'll have 6 or 7 per semi final instead of 8, so 36-42 semi finalists overall (about the same as before). And then 12 in the final, which is two more than usual.

when was the last time you watched football on ITV? Doyle hasn't done any football for at least a season. Jim Rosenthal is the highlights presenter.

Craig Doyle presents rugby union highlights on ITV4 & ITV1 every Sunday.

Rosenthal is probably nearing the end of his career as he is 62. He has been a bit of an ITV journeyman since he joined in 1982: most of the sports they have covered have involved him at some stage and he was involved with WOS in its dying days. He seems to have outlived a lot of nearly men like Matt Lorenzo and Elton Welsby who have faded into obscurity.

They could do something similar to what I suggested for America's Got Talent (to deal with the time differences):

Sunday - Semi-Final 1
Monday - Semi-Final 2
Tuesday - Semi-Final 3
Wednesday - Semi-Final 4
Thursday - Semi-Final 5
Friday - Semi-Final Results
Saturday - Final

They could easily get 60-90 minutes out of the semi-final results working their way through each group and with the judges votes as well and a few guest performances.

It would also allow them to keep the voting lines open a bit longer as well.

Yeah, I think this is what will happen. With 8 acts, guests and results it was a tight squeeze for 90 minutes last year, and it overran most weeks. With the extra ad break, they'd need about 1 hour 45 minutes at least to do it properly with 8 acts, which is impractical with News at Ten, and 2 hours a night (which they'd probably do) would be too much, so cutting it to 6/7 acts per semi final and having an extra semi final makes sense. It'll also reduce the feeling of it being crap act after crap act which some of the weaker semi finals felt like last year, as it'll spread everything out more. I think it's a pretty good idea, as it'll give them an extra show.

I'm sure they'll keep the final all on one night, as like you say there is no winner's single to perform, so it works better all on one night. I do think they need to get some sort of agreement in place with the children's working hours people for the night though as otherwise the final will be starting at 6:30pm with 12 acts, as it needs to be done by 10pm because of the children. They need to get some sort of agreement in place that it can run later as otherwise the ratings could be badly damaged.

What Channels came 1st, 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th on Wednesday night

BBC One 19.2%
ITV1 18.6%
Channel 4 7.6% (+1: 0.9%),
BBC Two 6.2%
Five with 3.9%

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-with-27m.html

Looks like Comedy Rocks has been recommissioned by ITV, but it won't be on air for a while. From Jason Manford's Twitter:

--
BGT's Got More Talent got 1.3m (5.8%) on Saturday, same as last year's launch.

Yeah, but I think that might bring the audiences down for the semi-finals themselves, as they're usually very similar to the audition performance...

I think it's important that acts go on the night, but it's probably best to have less acts and add one more semi-final, going from Sunday right through to Friday without a break.

I also think the final of the competition should be aired on a Sunday evening, with a new sitcom/drama [30/60 minutes long] sandwiched between the performance show and the results.

I don't think ITV should be too obsessed with "voting numbers", as it needs to focus on viewing numbers more, and if that means halving the time between performance & result show, so be it. Some people just don't hang around

He's fronted some games at previous tournaments for the BBC, though ironically presenting live football is probably the least involved as a presenter someone can be.

At one time ITV were desperate for Jeff Stelling - a legend on Soccer Saturday of course, but that's a very different ball game to live football (well, OK - the same ball game, but you know what I mean!).


He's tied up with the rugby highlights now, something ITV have done a much better job with since they got the rights from the BBC, who only ever picked up the Premiership highlights for the last couple of months when the Six Nations finished - and then just showed one game a week!


Ouch. I've seen some insults on this forum, but that's got to be the lowest of the low, being "perfect for GMTV". Why don't you just come out and say he's an annoying talentless airhead with about as much credibility as a decaying melon?


If Adrian Chiles quit The One Show because he wants to work five days a week good look to him in finding a job on TV where that's possible. His only option might be Live from Studio Five!

Has it actually been confirmed BGT is having an extra show, or has someone read Applause Store and put 5 and 1 together to make 6? It's possible the first date could just be a run through, especially as they're having a new set this year.

It is pretty clearly advertised as a live final.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.59m
18:30 Sunday Night 1.16m
19:30 Border Security (R) 1.20m
20:00 The Force 1.23m
20:30 Bones 1.17m
21:30 Castle 0.92m

Nine
18:00 Nine News Sunday 1.37m
18:30 Domestic Blitz 1.03m
19:30 60 Minutes 1.34m
20:30 Underbelly: The Golden Mile 1.92m
*Peaked at: 2.1m viewers.
21:30 V 0.61m

Ten
17:00 Ten News at Five 0.54m
17:30 Sports Tonight 0.42m
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.39m
18:30 The Biggest Loser: The Final Weigh-in 1.11m
19:30 Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation 1.24m
20:30 The Biggest Loser: Finale Night 1.38m
22:10 The Biggest Loser: Winner Announced 1.57m (finish 22:50)

ABC1
19:00 ABC News 0.97m
19:30 Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour 1.03m
20:35 Tess of the D'Urbervilles 0.45m

It was mighty close between Nine and Ten in the end, but it was Nine that finished slightly ahead with a 25.5% share.
_______________________________________________

TBL ended on a high, capitalising on the big post Underbelly audience, leaving V to crumble. Good result also for Doctor Who, which was in danger of being forgotten about with all that was happening elsewhere.

The Biggest Loser was Seven. Their usual lineup is just not cutting it now Nine and Ten are turning up the heat.

Bigger Loser did well, as did Underbelly. Doctor Who did v.well for ABC - aren't their ratings usually sub-1m?

Yep! It's a great figure and gave ABC1 a decent share boost on the previous week (11.9% up from 10.6%). For it to outrate the ABC News is very good as normally the primetime news bulletins are the top rated programmes on their respective channels.