The BBC should have shown that at 9pm, or if its too risky for them give it another outing at 9pm on BBC3. I remember seeing this on Traffic Cops and would love to see the full documentary, but I hate iPlayer At 9pm it could have easily got 5m+, or 1m+ on BBC3.

In general broadcasting news- Five are axing 25% of jobs (around 80) to save £20m and are putting £300m into the channel over the next 5 years. Looks like the new owner really is taking no prisoners to turn this channel around.

Blimey, a Broadcasting headline the main news on DS! Tis a miracle.

ITV1 Scheduling Changes
UEFA Champions League no longer on Wednesday next week. (presumably now on ITV4)
Original Thursday schedule moves to Wednesday.
UEFA Europa League moves from ITV4 to ITV1 on Thursday.

From rzt

I know, I was like but then it is big.

I think The Deep held up quite well, retaining 92% of its premiere audience. Not many dramas hold that much of its audience from the first week. Fantastic for BBC1's 10:35pm documentary.

As expected, a small drop for WWTBAM but still higher than how the last series was rating. Decent audience for The Bill relatively speaking - its second best since the move to Tuesdays.


Interesting as I assume the Champions League matches had to be on ITV1. Makes you wonder why they had that all-foreign qualifier on ITV1 last year!

Next week's CL game is a qualifier. Aren't they outside of the main CL contracts? Liverpool's away match in the previous qualifying round was on the pay channel PrimeTV.

No - it will be back with new presenters later this year.

Filming is due to start in a couple of weeks time.

Liverpool are not in the Champions League. Thanks for rubbing it in. However, the final Champions League qualifying round, from last season, has been included in the main TV deal.

I'm baffled as to why they're not showing it on ITV1 next week, as has been said I rather thought that was part of the contract, otherwise there was no reason for them showing Panathinaikos vs Atletico Madrid last season. And they've already trailed Braga vs Sevilla as being on ITV1, they did so on the Charity Shield. Be worth seeing though, if only to see Braga's stadium which is chiselled out of the side of a mountain.

But of course it means Corrie moving again, and worse still to a day earlier than it should have been, so everyone will miss it, and not at the time it would usually be on Wednesdays. I've said it before and I'll say it again - when is Coronation Street on?

Whoops! My bad. Course they're not.

Not overly familiar with how the sports rights work but perhaps they managed to strike some sort of deal with UEFA that if they showed the Europa League game on ITV1 they wouldn't have to show the CL game due to no English involvement?

It's certainly been very widely accepted on DS for a long time that ITV has to show this on ITV1. I guess there are 2 possibilities:

1) A special arrangement has just been made with UEFA, or:

2) The widely held view has not in fact been correct. How many people have actually seen the signed contract between UEFA and ITV? I suspect very few indeed.

It would not be the first time that a generally held view has been incorrect - often all it takes is for a journalist to assume / "guess" something - it then gets copied by others and very quickly becomes accepted fact.

As soon as I saw your name Salv I thought he is going to ask whether they include +1 and you didnt disappoint.


I did wonder the same. Asking Uefa to show the Europa League tie instead of the Champions League match as the Europa League is the lesser competition and could do with the extra exposure.

BBC18pm: Holby City - 5.392 million/24.1%
9pm The Deep- 4.832 million [4.505m19.8% /327,000 HD]

Five
8pm: Great Railway Adventures with Dan Cruickshank ) - 881,000/3.9%

BBC3
9pm: Tulisa: My Mum and Me - 804,000/3.5%

BBC4
9pm: Treasures of the Anglo Saxons - 805,000/3.5%

Pretty good retention by The Deep.

The fact they've axed most of the management is the biggest shock but could be a blessing in disguise. Jeff Ford getting the director of programmes' job is interesting but he's been at the channel from day one although he did left to become Channel 4's controller of acquisations but returned a year ago.

I think if Don't Stop Believing had been a hit, then Richard Woolfe would probably have stayed. But in the end, it just marked the end of his entertainment strategy and that seemed to be the main reason he was brought in. When they said that they were going to move away from that, I think the writing was on the wall for him.

The next thing is looking for a clearer vision. They basically need to rethink their entire schedule from 6.30pm-11pm.

I'm still not sure about Big Brother on Five, though. I do like the show but it really needs a rest. This year has been treated like the end by the current production team and Channel 4. I don't think viewers will respond well to it reappearing next January. Maybe in a few years.

Surprisingly strong retention from The Deep. I thought it would do worse than that given how poorly it's been received. The Bill did relatively OK but the stand out performance of the night is Madness In The Fast Lane. 3.3m is simply superb in that slot. Disappointing for Railway Adventures, it should have at least broken 1m. Shame as it looked good from the bits I saw.

I think the best thing for Five is to go down the trashy route basically and target the younger audience. If they aim to be like a more expensive BBC3/ITV2/E4 hybrid then they should do fine.

About Big Brother, I think the series is dead. It really can't go any further and the axing is 4 years too late- coming from a big fan of the show. BB11 has broken the concept far too much by allowing numerous housemates outside of the house to meet Davina and the crowd to do a task. If Five do take it on, they have a hell of a lot of work to do whereas Endemol could just sell "The Secret Story" (French name for BB) and probably get similar ratings minus the bad reputation.

If Five bought BB they would do best to change the format. People need something fresh. Try out a mix of the Amercian format but with the viewers still having the final say. It can't survive if they leave it the same as it is now.

The shows that work well for Five have been the factual and US shows and bringing in entertainment was never going to be easy. I imagine Gadget Show and Hotel Inspector will be used as examples of shows Five should be making and using the brand for extra revenue.

What is the American format like ?

They have a task to determine Head of House each week, this person then nominates 2 people for eviction. Then they have a veto task (which is identical to our save and replace) and then the housemates decide who to evict out of the final 2 nominees. They can discuss nominations, its far more game play orientated than ours.

And Channel 4 have confirmed that the BB11 final/Ultimate BB launch will be 2 hrs 50 minutes long from 8-10.50pm. Ratings are not going to be good for that I don't think.

It would be great for someone to bring the American format of Big Brother to the UK even if it was under a different name. It's a really gripping and dramatic show.

A bit like The Apprentice but for idiots!

Big Brother has definitely become very stale. It's dull to watch now because the housemates can always second guess what's coming, such as "secret" tasks which are lucky to stay secret for 5 minutes, new arrivals and double evictions that are always anticipated in advance, etc. There's no element of surprise any more. They have no respect for Big Brother either so there's a ridiculous amount of rule breaks and housemates that walk or threaten to do so on a daily basis. I do think at the very least it needs a year's break and a major shakeup.

My favourite moments this series have not come from the housemates, but people going in during the "ignore everything" task. As an on/off viewer of Big Brother over the years, I really enjoyed Marcus and Davina going in. The whole task was well executed up until the Jedward abomination.

Apart from that it's been a bit limited on highlights and it's starting to drag a bit. Despite improved casting this year it's never really had me "hooked" and I think I'm mostly watching nightly because it's the last one. The eviction shows never fail to rile me with crowd chanting ruining the process every week. I also question the effectiveness of the phone vote when it probably doesn't generate much revenue now and often it is the most interesting housemate which gets the boost.

It's much more of a game. Housemates take part in a HOH task, the winner becomes Head of Household and is immune from eviction. They also get to nominate the two people who go up on the block. Then the two nominees and some other housemates take part in the Veto task. The winner of the task is immune from eviction. The HOH then has to put up another housemate for eviction. On eviction night, the housemates vote who to evict. And that cycle starts the following week...

I'm a big fan of the US version but I don't think that format would work here. It's too much of a game and a lot of the hardcore BB fans would hate it. They wouldn't want to make the same mistake as The Bill - it's not going to attract new viewers but if they change the format/style too much it could result in the core fanbase tuning off. They should keep the same format but less sanistised - more alcohol, nudity, arguments etc (i.e. BB5-BB7 era).

According to some 'people in the know', it's very likely Five will pick up BB. I suspect the viewing figures will automatically drop 30% simply due to switching channel but ~1.5m nightly at 10pm would be good for them. If they do pick it up, I hope they put it at 10pm so that they can continue showing the US imports and factual stuff at 9pm. It's not only Five which would benefit from BB going there, but a recent report said that The Daily Star relies too much on BB and without it, its sales would go down. Of course, Richard Desmond owns both so you can see why he's interested in taking BB to Five.

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