Yeah. If they reached an agreement for a full run with either Peter Andre or Fern Britton then it would probably sit around a nice 1. 2 -1.5

Would be interesting to see an average of all the presenters who've done the 5 o'clock show, would really show who should be getting more TV work. I don't think hype plays that much in it though. Don't think Fern was hyped half as much as DVO & Mel. It's just who appeals to the housewives I think.

Or she got lucky with the bad weather?

One reason for that - apart from the World Cup Final - is that the coverage is also simulcast onn BBC2 Scotland, which seems a waste of time, the number of people who a) want to watch it in Scotland and b) don't have BBC3 must be microscopic, presumably it's just so BBC Scotland can give it some extra publicity, but it must look ridiculous.

All programmes after 10.35 on BBC1 last night were an hour later in the North because of The Super League Show.

Finally, hooray for the end of E24, the most boring show on television with its week-old showbiz news. At last we'll see the back of that music "expert" who simply says "X has a new album out, it is their first for X years" and other insights she has gleaned from the press rel... er, her "expertise".

They could literally do a like for like swap with Pete replacing Paul and Fern replacing Richard & Judy. Channel 4 have struggled in that slot and only currently have Coach Trip & Come Dine With Me which could both work elsewhere e.g. moving both to the 8pm hour.

Pete is a competent presenter with a big fan base so should be able to front the entertainment lead show, whilst Fern is a big enough name, especially amongst housewives, to carry a show based on her name. And after 10 successful years on a similar format, its no huge risk.

Coach Trip and Come Dine with Me have hardly struggled in the slot too - both outrated the Five o'clock Show, and with Come Dine with Me at least repeats can perform just as well as new episodes.

Is Fern Britton's two week stint the last end of the Five o'clock Show? It didn't do too well with Peter Andre though, and until he leaves behind his camera crew following his every move he can never be taken seriously as a presenter - even though he's actually quite good at it.


And on that topic, according to Digital Spy Jordan (sorry, media whore!) coming home from her "honeymoon" early to persuade Simon Cowell to make her an X Factor judge apparently! Just when you think she can't sink any lower, she's ready to cash in on somebodies serious illness.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s103/...udge-role.html


Talking of cashing in though, it'll be interesting to see how the show deal with it, and indeed what happens with Boot Camp with both Dannii and Cheryl absent - and basically getting their categories final six without being involved in the selection. I'd imagine for boot camp they'll bring back two of the previous guest judges then.

There's been a lot of bad luck for ITV this year with regard to their big hitters-it just seems to be one thing after another, and most of it cannot be helped. Last year was fanatstic with BGT/XF hitting huge heights, Benidorm and Doc Martin pulling in huge audiences and Monday Night Thrillers attracting 7-9m viewers. Then there was IAC which found a new lease of life, as well as DOI which pulled in strong ratings. Personalities like Susan Boyle, Todd Carty kept everyone entertained in the talent shows.

This year there seems to be no end to the problems:
-DOI considerably down and a borefest of a show trying to recreate the Todd Carty magic with numerous celebs.
-BGT scheduling causes the show to fall considerably down on last year and the huge push at trying to find the next SuBo.
-Corrie's big week having to be taken off air.
-EE beating Corrie more reguarly.
-The Bill failing and being axed.
-Missing the World Cup goal.
-Ant & Dec's big new show flopping.
-Every new show on Fridays flopping, with not enough money to launch new dramas in that slot anymore.
-Both Doc Martin & Benidorm not launching full new series till next year.
-As we've seen above the once hugely popular breakfast hit, GMTV, has fallen below 20% and is now effectively axed.
-And now both the key female personalities out of the X Factor.

Obviously there were many flops last year and stuff like BGT is going to be down, but it just seems like it's one thing after another for ITV's big hitters this year.

I'm not sure ITV will be viewing it as bad luck though!

Further to my post a few weeks ago, some more Sky Sports scheduling has been confirmed for the upcoming football season.

All of Sky's games from the first 2 rounds at least of the Carling Cup 2010/11 will be shown exclusively on Sky Sports 3, so not available on DTT.

In September, a Euro 2012 qualifier featuring a home nation - Wales - will be shown on Sky Sports 3, so not available on DTT. (Slovenia v Northern Ireland will be shown on SS1 though)

This is a very dangerous game that Sky are playing. If they start moving too much popular programming from Sky Sports 1/2 to Sky Sports 3/4 and in the process denying rivals like BT and Top Up TV access to that content, they risk further Ofcom intervention.

I hope they are watching closely. It absolutely sickens me how this company operates.

Whenever there's any criticism of Jeremy Kyle, we get told he's a ratings powerhouse for ITV1, which justifies the continuation of his show.

But, he blatantly isn't.

Whatever ratings he might attract on ITV2, with its, erm, shall we say, "different" audience profile, from yesterday's ITV1 figures and those from other days when we've had daytime raitngs, they're not particularly impressive. Throw in the damage his show could be doing to ITV's reputation, and I think it's time to get him off ITV1 altogether.

Was inevitable - and to be fair with the internationals unavoidable as they have all the away rights plus home rights for Wales, Scotland, NI and Republic of Ireland - so there will always be games on SS3 & SS4. Will be interesting where they put Wales v England though.

Amen to that. It's almost as bad as that awful Your News programme that used to be on BBC News and was thankfully axed but only after a bit of cost-cutting at the station (I think).

In all fairness, whilst it pains me to defend the loathsome Kyle, I believe he is on repeats at the moment, so his ratings won't be as good as they usually are. New episodes tend to get around 1.2-1.5m iirc (and the repeats may be getting these ratings on other days). Although I don't know how anyone can actually tell the difference between new episodes and repeats because they aqll seem the same to me!

GMTV is harming ITV's morning ratings by the looks of things so it does definitely feel like it's time for a revamp. This Morning and Loose Women did OK yesterday, but nothing specal although as daytime ratings fluctuate fairly siginificantly from day to day it is difficult to make a fully informed judgement. The Chase winning the slot is promising for ITV though and according to last week's Broadcast magazine it's been getting good ratings even without the football lead-in (an edition last week or the week before got 2.0m and won the slot with no football before it).

Do you have anything for ITV's afternoon line-up (Dickinson/60 Minute Makeover/Midsomer) MattJKR?

...and BT are naughty too.

I got an email from them, promoting the arrival of SS1 and SS2.

It says:-


Apart from the bit I highlighted, lots of those sports are on SS3 and SS4.

SS3 has basically become Sky Sports Golf from Thursdays thru Sundays. Apart from possibly the US PGA in August and the Ryder Cup, BT customers won't see any golf.

There are going to be a lot of disappointed BT customers who may have signed for 24 months to get the best deal.

The nature of sport too means often even if events are on Sky Sports 1 or 2 during the week (like tennis for example), due to the congested schedule at the weekends the finals will often move to SS3 & SS4.

And although football has generally been split between SS1 & SS2 consistently (moving to SS3 & SS4 where necessary), most other sports frequently move between SS1 & SS2, so even Sky subscribers who buy just the one will often lose out. I think someone here has said before those subscribing to just one channel is relatively low, but I do think if Sky want to move content between the two, they should be forced to scrap the single channel options and only sell as a package.

Good ratings for The Silence. Will be interesting to see if the story is strong enough to maintain a decent audience for the next three nights.

I saw Identity last night, and it struck me as a drama of contrasts, with a strong self-contained episode story, but weak storylines for the regular characters hamstringing the rest of the show. If you're going to employ an actor like Aidan Gillen, why saddle him with a feeble, sub-Murphy's Law back story, and, worse still, some ludicrously unrealistic scenes?

Some of the other main characters didn't really have much to do, which begs the question why they employed high-profile actors for these roles.

Joanne Froggatt acted them all off the screen, anyway.

I think this will be lucky to hang on to its 4m. They've got the show half-right, but that is not enough.

Another good night for EastEnders.

Isn't that precisely the issue right there? As much as BT want it to be a level playing field it most certainly isn't. Sky's recent advertising underlines the fact that Sky's own platform is the only way you can watch all 5 Sky Sports channels and their HD counterparts.

What needs to happen is Sky need to be clearer about what content will be offered on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2. It seems even BT aren't fully aware of what exactly they are getting. Two Sky Sports channels yes, but what exactly is featured on those is still very much in Sky's hands and it's becoming increasingly clear that they are going to take full advantage of this in order to deny DTT viewers access to certain content, something I believe to be wrong.

Two more bad luck:

- no English teams in Champions League final
- big teams going out early in FA Cup

It seems like ITV tends to have good year, bad year, good year really. Some of the above though, I don't agree with:

-Ant & Dec's big new show flopping.
-Every new show on Fridays flopping, with not enough money to launch new dramas in that slot anymore.

OK, Push the Button never had massive figures, but it still had 5m to 6m which is still solid. The officials were 7.25m, 6.33m, 5.28m, 5.83m, 5.37m, 4.34m. Ignoring the last episode, as BBC1's programme at the same time had the new series of Doctor Who as a lead-in, the episodes did alright - which guaranteed recommission.

You cannot compare an Ant and Dec underperformance (not flop) with Friday nights getting under 3m after Popstar to Operastar finished.

Christmas Day on Sky Sports is a treat. They struggle to fill one channel, let alone four. I know Christmas Day is an extreme example, but it's a good way of highlighting a bigger point i.e. sports channels being very hit and miss on a day to day basis. Some days a sports fan could find several live events they'd be keen to watch, but other days the best or only live event might be darts or a poor cricket match between two weak counties.

I agree with you.

There was an advert in a Sunday paper this week, saying the Champions League football would be shared between Sky Sports 2 and 4 for the upcoming season.

Was it on 4 last season, and if it was, were they the "big" games which might end up on 4 this season?

Champions League has always been on SS2 and SS4(or Sky Sports Xtra) with the bigger game on SS2 but there would usually be an English team on SS4 on Tuesday night in the group stages.

There seems to be this perception that Push The Button flopped when actually it did fairly well. Below expectations, yes, but a series average of 5.73m is not to be sniffed at and is actually pretty good.

Another one to add to the list is that Geoffrey Hutchins (Mel in Benidorm) sadly died two weeks ago, which (it seems a bit wrong to discuss this) means that parts of the Christmas special and the next series will have to be re-written which may well lead to it being delayed, and the show won't be the same as Mel was one of the best characters.

Hey almost certainly, but it's about three times higher then some, I think. surely the weather can't play that big a part?

I dont see how you can call it bad luck and say most of it cannot be helped. The only thing from that list that couldnt be helped was Corrie's siege week being taken off. The rest is done to poor scheduling or not making good enough shows etc.

- BGT was just back to normal levels, last year they got very lucky.
- EE beating Corrie is down to the quality of the show.
- Ant and Dec's show wasnt that good.
- ITV should have more hit shows to rely on rather than struggle if Doc Martin and Benidorm arent on.
- ITV should have put repeats on Friday and not commisoned the Pop- opera stuff and Marco's Kitchen stuff was always goign to fail.
- Having Cheryl and Dannii not in the X Factor for large chunks will probably help the show, they will plug the episode where Cheryl has to leave because of her illness to death and have exclusive interviews etc.


Again I think ITV have been spoiled with all the English teams in the Final. Its only been the last few years when English teams have dominated. Before 2005 there had only been one occasion of an English team in the final for 20 years.


Haha, very true.

Thank you, fodg. Let us hope the bigger games will stay on Sky Sports 2 this season.