Why? Not everyone has ITV4, and both the BBC and ITV committed themselves to showing the World Cup. Freeview reception of ITV4 is patchy in a lot of areas, and if I didn't have cable and the match was only on ITV4, I would be pretty peeved about it.

That's a good point about ITV4 - with it no being on a PSB mux anymore, ITV really should be forced to carry it on ITV2.


P.S. Most the reports about FOX picking up Million Pound Drop in the US seem to indicate C4 will air a second series in October.

if someone wants my ITV 4, they are welcome to it.

Yeah, sorry, I forgot about the coverage issues with ITV4. My bad.

And given how well this World Cup has been rating, it's probably still good for around 4m, which isn't terrible, but quite poor compared to some of the performances we've been seeing.

Sounds sensible - hope they keep it over a week though. 2 series' per year in May and October would be fine.

Emmerdale is developing a younger image and is starting to attract a younger audience. ITV seem to be pushing that a lot more at the minute.


I think they should do a weeks worth once every 3 or 4 months but they key to its success is don't go into overexposure. But when the format does start to fail, it can easily be adapted into a 6 week daytime slot and become pre recorded. I think they should take a risk in October and air it at 9pm across the week.

Anything to back that claim up?


Competition is a lot tougher in October compared to May though - I don't think it'd be worth the risk.

I think next time with Drop they should run it Sunday-Friday instead of Monday-Saturday as Saturday is always a poor night for Channel 4 and it's a bit of a waste putting the series climax there. The last one was really good on the first series but it shed viewers from the night before purely because it was on Saturday, as the rest of the week it had grown each night bar a slight blip on the Tuesday.

I remember reading somewhere that the 16-34 figures were rising

Can't find the article though (it wasn't Emmerdale specific if I can remember properly).

It would have been difficult for The Drop to have launched on a Sunday last month as ITV1 had Britian's Got Talent and ITV2 also had More Talent on the same night and ITV could have easily extended/moved BGT to kill The Drop on launch...

Great reaction to the Dr Who episode tonight-I wonder if that will translate into reasonable figures.

Someone asked about "The Curse of ITV. This is the theory that whenever England had a crucial match which ITV had exclusively, the mediocrity and gaffe-strewn performances in the studio would be replicated on the pitch. If the BBC had exclusive rights, all would be fine on both fronts.

Now the theory has taken a knock with our Euro 2004 and WC 06 exits being BBC1 exclusives. Perhaps they were exceptions that prove the rule?

Either way, the theory has gained credence amongst football fans, and the dismal 2 performances have been matched by gaffes like the HD ad break and James Corrden's dickking around with England stars before they left for South Africa, just as 2006 was marred by the football wind-ups saga which saw Beckham legging it from a taxi in Moss Side.

Thankfullly, our crucial decider on Weds is on BBC1 - if we win, it might prove the theory right again...

What about the final Euro 2008 qualifier?

It's not my theory, and it had started to look a bit dodgy - but events of the past week have made me think it's getting a second wind - hence me floating it this morning...

It can't just be that the England team is shockingly bad?

I've not seen it yet but from the clips last week it looks brilliant.
I think last weeks was the best episode so far

2-3 series a year would be fine. Personally I'd have waited till January, then ran it again in May/June and September.

It definately has to remain stripped across a week and definately live - change either of them two elements and the show would lose a lot it has going for it.

I reckon it'll probably run Sunday to Sunday over eight consecutive nights - though whether it should be at 9pm or 10pm remains to be seen. Apart from The X Factor on Saturdays, there really is nothing to fear at 9pm nowadays from BBC1 or ITV1. Long gone on the days when they dominated in the slot virtually every night - indeed they're lucky if they both have one big hitter each across the week - especially as so much recent new drama has been commissioned to run across a single week, meaning they have very few weekly dramas in the 9pm slot.

Their crime dramas are really as good as it's going to get in terms of targeting ABC1's (aside from XF, BGT, I'm A Celebrity & Corrie which all get large numbers of all demographics, including ABC1 viewers). The only issue is that there aren't enough of them just now. But when they are on, they do fine.

Shows which can't attract and ABC1 or 16-34 audience are being axed already. There's no need for a clearout, IMO. It's just a case of finding more 9pm material that can attract young and/or upmarket audiences.

In terms of daytime, it's not as if there is a huge ABC1 audience out there. The BBC gets the retired people, ITV1 goes after the housewives which makes sense for them.


Given the option, the BBC and ITV would probably be happy to swap Corrie (traditionally higher audiences) for Eastenders (younger). That being said, however old Corrie may or may not be, it's still able to draw more young adult viewers than nearly every primetime show.

Robbie's theory is pretty ruined by the BBC's own strategy when it comes to game negotiations at the major tournaments. As I understand it, since the Beeb heirarchy got angry about ITV's exclusive coverage of the Argentina game in 1998, they've basically prioritised having BBC coverage of all knockout matches, so they will almost always have the tournaments defining England moment. As we saw this year, they'd happily sacrifice the two best group games to secure this.

So actually, you could say the BBC want so cover England losing!

(Either that, or as all games are on the BBC from now on, we're gonna win the world Cup!......Nah. )

Yes that game got 23 million something or other-very close to the record 24.3 million for OFAH in 1996, The Beeb will hoping very much that their England game is not the only England game they screen in four long years.(actually me too )

Well I voted "excellent" for what its worth.

as crazy as it sounds I could see that.

If ITV ever axed it, due to the auidecne being too old, I could see calls for the BBC to air it, lots of calls of "the BBC being able to cater to demogrpahics that commercail channels can not" and obviously the BBC does not need both.

Of 13 World Cup games (since 1982) shown on BBC alone, England won 8, drew 4, and lost 1. Of 10 shown on ITV, England won 3, drew 6, and lost 1.

For Tonights episode?

People say same about the euros as well as the World Cup.

It's quite a good possibility that England will lose one match at some point this year, and that match will be on the BBC.