It is very good, don't get me wrong, but the shock return of Denise has had a lot of people talking...so it's one of those.

They certainly won't bring in new viewers - and risk alienating existing viewers.


No, they're based on the US daytime version which is just regular Millionaire but with the time limit. Hot Seat is a much more dramatic reworking which is probably best explained by you searching it on YouTube - but basically six contestants play in a relay form over 15 questions. The only lifeline is "pass", with the player returning to the bench and the next player coming along. If you get a question wrong you are eliminated and the top prize is wiped off the board. Whoever answers the 15th and final question gets the prize.

Sky now confirming Ben Shephard will present 'Goals on Sunday' and other live football, mainly Champions League coverage.

http://www.skysports.com/tv_show/sto...6281317,00.htm...

Thats a bit daft, he has no sporting credentials whatsoever. He's done Soccer Aid and GMTV's World Cup coverage and thats it. Its like getting Holly Willoughby to present ITV News at Ten because shes done a bit of that stuff on This Morning.

What makes you think Corrie would do better in a Sunday 7:30pm slot nowadays than the current Thursday one? It might've done well when it previously held that slot but there's no evidence to suggest it would thrive in that slot these days. With Strictly Come Dancing set to return to Sundays in the Autumn, Corrie would really suffer going up against it and would undoubtedly rate worse there in the Autumn than in its current Thursday slot.


Not really - the only post you said "perhaps" was the last one I quoted.


You're the one who brought up the X Factor in the first place with that ridiculous idea of putting it back to Saturdays only, even though last Autumn's weekend schedule was hugely successful for ITV.


Your research is not correct. You made it sound like a fact that if Corrie airs at 7:30pm, ITV wins primetime. Here's what you said:

It's not only the Friday thing. In the first few months of last year, BBC1 won nearly as many primetimes on Wednesdays as ITV1, despite ITV1 airing Corrie in the 7:30pm slot.


Uh, yes I enjoy watching TV. But this is a Ratings Thread so I'm giving you my thoughts based on realistic budgets and other factors - not based on some fairytale budgets and suggestions such as asking UEFA to move kick-off times around Europe to suit ITV ! I don't think it's in the viewers' interest to keep changing the schedules around which you're suggesting. People have set routines and if you keep making major scheduling changes to Corrie every so often, it will only result in a further decline in its audiences.

Firstly, noone wants the decision to be made now. I'm talking about January or even the year after that, when it will finally be proved to you that you are wrong.

As you should know, TV decisions take quite a long time anyway. Giving viewers notice and making sure that Corrie can run uninterrupted on Sundays from January to September in order to build up momentum prior to a potential clash with SCD - although SCD will probably avoid it.

Didn't UEFA postpone a UEFA Cup match for half an hour because of EastEnders' 'Who Shot Phil' storyline?

Do your research...

Emmerdale and Coronation Street have to be shunted around the schedule because of events as it is anyway (I'm a Celeb, Britain's Got Talent, hour-long EastEnders), so you're wrong there too.

By having Sunday, Monday, most Wednesdays and Friday, Corrie will never have to start at the god forsaken time of 8.30pm on any day.

Sunday would be a good place for Corrie because it'll be out of the way of EastEnders clashes, and will be able to use its 7.30pm slot to air hour-long eps whenever it needs to catch-up.

Occasional hour-longs are more desirable than double bills, you should know that as a ratings enthusiast.

the perfect analogy

It really is lol

Maybe you should do your research PJ ... Firstly the delay was 15 minutes. But more importantly that was in a season when UEFA Cup matches weren't at fixed times like the Champions League. Some Spanish matches were also delayed to suit their broadcasters. But the Champions League is completely different - it's the premier Club competition and has always had 7:45pm UK kick-off times (or 5:45pm if the matches are played in Eastern Europe). There's never been any changes to those kickoff times to suit certain broadcasters and they're not going to be making those changes anytime soon.

It's completely pointless bringing up that 'Who Shot Phil' example to argue that UEFA would allow changes to the Champions League kickoff times. There used to be flexibility with the UEFA Cup kickoffs but there has never been any with the Champions League. [It's really annoying when people tell others to "do their research" when said person is in the wrong.]


Yes I'm aware Corrie's moved around to suit IAC and BGT on a temporary basis. That's to fit in with the "event TV programming" weeks that ITV offers. But if ITV moves episodes back to Sundays permanently and to Wednesdays on an on-off basis, there will be some viewers who won't be able to adapt to the changes and keep up with the show; that will ultimately result in a further decline. Like I said previously, do you honestly believe Corrie would rate as well as it is now on Thursdays if it was moved back to Sundays and had to face Strictly Come Dancing for a couple of months?


It's not a "god forsaken" time though - the 8:30pm episodes often outrate the 7:30pm episodes (check BARB). It also provides a good lead-in for certain 9pm programmes which would otherwise rate even worse than they are at the moment. Example being The Bill whose audience has dropped 30% since not having the Corrie lead-in.


In a normal situation, there are never any EastEnders clashes anyway. They only clashed on that one occasion last year because Corrie moved 30 minutes earlier. Had it remained in its 8:30pm slot, they wouldn't have clashed.

If you wanted Corrie in the same slot all year around, with a suitable gap between each episode, no Monday to Thursday nonsense, then looking at the schedules, the only possible schedule you would be able to have is:

19:30 - Sunday
19:30 - Monday
20:00 - Tuesday
20:00 - Thursday
19:30 - Friday

Exactly the same amount of episodes, but more spread out across the week, and all in slots where no movement would have to be made. And a schedule like the above for Coronation Street could easily be adapted in Britain's Got Talent week or whatever.

As for Emmerdale, the only change would be that the Thursday 2nd episode either is made into a Tuesday 60 minute again, or is on after Corrie at 8:30pm.

Maybe ITV need to - in the long term - think about trying to move all of their football to Tuesday's again, along with award ceremonies, opening Wednesday up for Corrie, and new drama.

It's obvious that Wednesday and Sunday are more suited than Thursday.

ITV should go back to their old model- Sunday, Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 7.30pm with an additional episode on Mondays at 8.30pm. They could air Corrie at 9.45pm after matches like they used to, or could just put an additional episode on Fridays at 8.30pm.

If ITV are able to guarantee a Wednesday Coronation Street on the majority of weeks, they should go back to it.

Thursday doesn't work. Only on Monday do we see some good ratings for 8.30 episode, and that's because it follows the 7.30 episode and there isn't much competition at all (Panorama is usually second place with 2.5-3.5m).

By accepting that BGT and IAC interrupt Corrie, as well as other events, you are pretty much accepting my argument.

It needs a consistent 7.30pm start time on every night. Monday's and Friday's, and needs to be completely out of the way of events (apart from the World Cup, which nothing can really avoid).

Sunday is a very big possibility, and moving back to Wednesday is a dead cert for a return in a few years.

But, I can pretty much guarantee you that we will NOT be seeing Coronation Street on Thursday nights from sometime in 2011. It will tank, trust me...even when it gets big lead-ins from Emmerdale, it doesn't do very well at all.

Your 9pm lead-in argument is flawed, because The Bill used to provide only 4.5m-5.5m, yet something after it would still have 4m if it was good - and because more people are watching telly at 8.30pm - Corrie SHOULD be getting more Thursday 8.30pm but DOESN'T.

7% audience deduction is awful, but how much in percentage has the share gone down? That's the telling thing in my opinion. Coronation Street only gets 33-36% shares on Thursday in most occasions - which is bad for its standards.

Exactly, it's familiar, and the Tuesday/Thursday break builds up the anticipation for episodes.

I wouldn't want 90 minutes of Coronation Street in 2 days, that's half the problem with having Corrie on Thursdays with an hour the day after.

It's too clogged together! rzt, you have to accept that

I know you work for DS any everything, is this inside information or just you trying to do 2 + 2 and coming out with 5?

Looks like Coronation Street was a good hundered thousand below EE as the DS ratings said that It had 8.6 and 8.8m.

So EE was up 500,000 and 700,000 up from Coronation Street.

The 8.30pm Corrie lead in is wasted on a lot of shows anyway, which is why it only really works on Monday when ITV show new drama. Otherwise, when they've got Corrie leading into Police Camera Action, I'd imagine there isn't much crossover audience anyway so it would only benefit by around 0.3m anyway. And for example on Friday, they have Doc Martin at 9pm which is strong enough to stand up itself without being propped up by Corrie.

1) They are the tape checked ratings.
2) They exclude HD.

The problem there is that the lead-in to 9pm is taken away from 3 nights. And Corrie does fine on Mondays at 8.30pm.

As far as I can tell, Corrie has a few problems just now. One is inconsistency. Partly because of the major scheduling changes being made and partly because of things outside their control with rescheduled episodes. Another is just that it doesn't seem to be going through a strong spell, probably not helped by the fact that its big plot got destroyed in the Cumbria shootings. But it didn't seem to be getting rave reviews even before that.

I do think the Monday-Thursday gap is too much. By the same point, trying to slot a show in the gap is difficult. On Wednesdays, where it will be moved continually from September to May. Or Tuesdays, where it would be against Holby.

Thursday at 8.30pm isn't perfect, but neither of those options are either. The idea of having hour-longs on Wednesdays to make up for the missed episodes is probably the best (or least bad) option I've read. At least it minimises disruption to other nights and keeps Corrie firmly on Monday, Wednesday, Friday with a first episode at 7.30pm.

But it throws up other problems. When it's an hour-long, what about the rest of Wednesdays? What do they do with Thursdays at 8.30pm? And will viewers just get pi*sed off at the "week on, week off" scheduling?

I still think it's best left alone for now.

Does a Coronation Street lead-in mean much nowadays? The only shows I can think of that have benefited is the Monday Night Thriller strand, really - and they could arguably stand on their own two feet, although that is a point that could be debated as there isn't much evidence, I admit, to support that. I mean in the past few months, Coronation Street has led in to shows which have either flopped, turned into flops, or are soon to be axed.

The lead-in means nothing, I'm afraid. Sherlock didn't need a big lead-in to get big ratings, did it? WDYTYA didn't need a big lead-in to get big ratings, did it?

Compared to The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, a Corrie lead-in nowadays means absolutely nothing.

Oh yes, I totally agree - but I think there needs to be discussions about how to give viewers what they want: consistency in scheduling.

Perhaps figures may improve once Phil Collinson (who is brilliant by the way) puts his storylines on screen...

It's not inside information, it's a very well-educated guess. 2 + 2 currently = ? because it is not yet 2011

Corrie lead-ins are actually more beneficial to 8pm shows than they are 9pm shows - in my opinion - apart from Monday nights as you say.

Perhaps the best point made today. Coronation Street should be at 7.30 because I think it's a friendlier home than 8.30...lead-ins aren't as important as everybody on here says to be honest.

Coronation Street performs the same on a Sunday with or without an Emmerdale lead-in.

Maybe it means more on ITV due to adverts, but it still doesn't mean much. Having said that, I would keep Coronation Street on Monday's, as I think one double bill per week for its biggest storyline cliffhangers will keep ratings healthy, and obviously does help Monday Night Thrillers.

EastEnders has the younger audience, Corrie does not.