Originally Posted by rzt:
“I disagree. I think it's quite a bad rating for the results show, even taking into account that Harry Hill's TV Burp was on before it not Corrie.
First of all, when has BGT had to rely on lead-ins to get good ratings? In the last couple of years, it's always brought in the audiences regardless of what's on before it. Also, Harry Hill's TV Burp got about the same rating as Emmerdale which led into the first BGT show and that did well (a great share especially).
Junior Apprentice was harder competition than the other 9pm shows so far this week, but BGT's faced EE twice and averaged 9m+ up against it. I would say JA is definitely easier competition than EE. Even Eurovision's more popular than JA, but BGT still managed almost 10m against that.
I just think the seperate results show don't work for the semi finals. The first 15 minutes are complete filler: going over the phone numbers once again and seeing a guest artist performance. And I can understand why not as many people want to stay around for the actual results because it's not like The X Factor where we really know the contestants due to weeks of performances and there's a greater connection between the audience and performers. Also because there's so little content in the show, the judges decision keeps being made around 21:52, meaning people probably switch off after that and lower the average for the final 5-10mins. Last night's rating was the lowest for BGT in over two years. Even most of the semis in the first series, which on the whole was way less popular, got better ratings. It is disappointing IMO.
Ironically, the final should have a separate results show not the semis!”
I agree with a lot of what you've said here, but it isn't about BGT relying on a lead in or not (it doesn't) but the fact that 9.30pm is a notoriously difficult slot for anything as it's halfway through everything on all the other main channels, and often things do perform a bit worse there. I do agree that having a seperate results show has been a bad idea; I have come round to that now, but when Harry Hill only held 6m, dor an edition with so little content and results that people don't care that much about, 8.1m is that bad. Thinking about it, I do think ITV has messed up this year's BGT week with the scheduling, and ultimately the week hasn't paid off. The performances show did well last night, but if they'd have started an hour later they could have got 11-12m imo. Having another reality show on in the 9pm hour was the final straw for the results I think, and they'd have certainly done better had something like Luther been on BBC1.
As for tonight, I can see the BGT performances getting about the same as last night, but the results up considerably as Corrie's back and it faces a repeat of Would I Lie To You, which will be crushed.
Thinking about the scheduling, as I said earlier in the post, I've changed my mind and I do think ITV has messed up BGT week this year. For next year, a better schedule would be:
Monday
19:00 Emmerdale
19:30 Coronation Street
20:30 Britain's Got Talent
22:30 ITV News
EastEnders could either clash or move.
Tuesday
19:00 Emmerdale
20:00 Britain's Got Talent
22:00 New Drama
23:00 ITV News
Drama would move to Monday at 9pm the following week.
Wednesday
19:00 Emmerdale
19:30 Coronation Street
20:00 Britain's Got Talent
22:00 New Drama
23:00 ITV News
Drama would shift to 21:00 the following week.
Thursday
19:00 Emmerdale
20:00 Britain's Got Talent
22:00 New Comedy
22:30 ITV News
Comedy would shift to 21:00 the following week.
Friday
19:00 Emmerdale
19:30 Coronation Street
20:30 Britain's Got Talent
22:30 ITV News
Saturday
19:00 Britain's Got Talent
21:00 New Comedy
21:30 Britain's Got Talent
22:00 New entertainment show
Comedy would shift to Thursday at 21:30, entertainment show earlier on Saturday, possibly still post-watershed.
Originally Posted by C14E:
“Share up quite a bit for BGT though the audience was down a bit. Tonights show looks to be the weakest so far (I've actually found the first 3 far better than last years). No surprise that the results were down given HH. Again, that probably wouldn't have been so bad had they been able to divert 1-2m over to ITV2 for 30 minutes but I think ITV would rather they went and had a look at the competition at 9pm!”
Yeah, BGMT would have really benefitted the results show last night.
Also, I agree with what you've said about this year's semis being better. Some have said that the talent is lacking, and whilst there aren't as many outstanding acts as there was last year, there are far more 'good' acts, as last year each semi had 2-3 really good acts (not even that sometimes) and the rest were crap, whereas this year the standard overall is much higher, despite there not being as many outstanding acts, but it's making for better shows overall. As for tonight being weak, I agree, but Friday is strong and they seem to have gone with:
Monday: Strong
Tuesday: Weak
Wednesday: Strong
Thursday: Weak
Friday: Strong
Which is what they did in the second series too iirc. They couldn't last year as there weren't enough good acts, so every show was weak overall.
Originally Posted by GeorgeS:
“and the last 15 minutes break the law if children under 14 are involved. and before anyone asks, no you cant get waivers for laws which you dont like.”
Special permission can be granted though, as they got it for Eoghan on 2008's X Factor as whilst the results ran after 10pm he was still allowed on them, but he wasn't allowed on Xtra Factor afterwards.
