George will probably tell us it's down to demos but I don't think there's anything wrong with having a popular show that appeals to mature viewers.

It's still a popular show and only ever dropped in viewers due to the poor scheduling of the last couple of series.

The BBC should consider picking HB up for Sunday nights. Is it possible?

Thanks mate.

Elsewhere last night, Top Gear seemed to return to form, posting a very good rating and share. I don't know why they didn't delay the start of the new series until after the WC had finished. (i.e. yesterday)

I'm delighted the BBC's movie repeat didn't pay off. Dead Man's Chest was scheduled on BBC One as recently as New Year's Eve 2009, and on BBC Three it has already been shown twice this year. Too much BBC - find some other films to show!

To be fair on Corrie it's shunted around from pillar to post, it's no wonder it's struggling. It appears on a random Sunday every so often without any advertising whatsoever.

Very good for Heartbeat though, very good indeed. It is a wonder why it's been axed really - I presume because it's not the 'right kind of audience' but then ITV is hardly awash with shows that can pull in a 6m+ audience.

true enough, it just is not having the good year than EastEnders is having, both shows having anniversys.

open_ended If Hearbeat does not drop below 4 milllion for the lenght of this run, and ITV dont revive it, no question the BBC should look seriously into saving it.

I agree. These figures prove there's life in the old dog yet. A 25% share is very good for ITV1 drama.

First of all disappointing for DSB, I at least expected it to outtrate Nemo. I'll be interested to see where it goes from here. Elsewhere, good to see Top Gear back on form, that'll be 6.5m or so with HD. Pirates flopped but the biggest surprise is Heartbeat. Proof that it has only lost a lot of audience due to dreadful scheduling and I bet ITV are regretting axing it now. Problem is that it was only getting about 4.5m last year so I can see why it was axed but it has backfired on them. Very good for Taggart too. Poor for Corrie but unsurprising as it was just shunted there with no promotion again.

I think you need to stop over analysing the BB figures. I think considering where we were this time last year, and considering last nights episode was one of the worst in it's ten year history thanks to a one-hour task stretched out for 24 hours, 2.4m is pretty respectable.


I reckon then over the next few weeks it'll be moving closer to the 1m mark rather than the 2m mark.


BBC do show ITV productions (indeed most the decent stuff ITV produce is on the BBC!) - but under no circumstances should the BBC pick it up.


Creatively though it should have been axed about five years earlier - it's a very stale show which although has a decent enough following, it's been stuck in a (1969) rut for a very long time.

ITV though shouldn't now abandon early evening Sunday drama completely. Although it might not be the audience they want, there is a significantly large audience for it to justify it, and ITV have generally had more success with the gentle Sunday dramas than the BBC in recent years.


Have ITV still got episodes of The Royal to air too? If so, I'm guessing they won't air till next year.

Yes, you fell into that classic trap of expecting Five to score better for light entertainment than a big Pixar movie. No idea what it was based on as history tells us that would never be the case!

The lead-in really had little to do with it. Probably loads of people tuned out when Nemo's credits began rolling and loads more tuned in. I can't see any compelling reason why there would be much crossover between the two. It's just a convenient stick to hit Five with "ooh it lost 400k on its lead-in." Big deal, it still did well and they will be happy as long as it doesn't drop much further.

What, no comment on how DSB did this week, just gloomy predictions for next week? What a surprise!

Come on Brekkie, do enlighten us. 2.4m (less excluding timeshift) is "pretty respectable" for the second biggest commercial broadcaster at 9pm, so what is 1.5m for the third biggest commercial broadcaster at 7pm?

I appreciate this must be pretty embarrassing for you as you've been predicting sub 1m and a total flop all week, but at least have the decency to give credit where it's due eh old chap?

You seem to think I have some sort of vendetta against Five or something - I really don't and I don't spend tome looking for sticks to whack Five with. Remember that you are talking about a Pixar film that has already been shown twice on BBC1 to large audiences and also a number of times on BBC3. Considering the amount of promotion DSB has had I think they'll be a little disappointed with it and will have expected more. If it's still getting 1.5m in week five then they should be happy with it but it isn't the strongest starting point. If it can hold onto it's audience then it'll have done well but the reaction wasn't good last night so I have a bad feeling that it may struggle to do that, unfortunately.

Interesting night.

Starting with FIVE, a decent start for DSB, but considering the poor reception I can see it falling below 1m in a couple of weeks which would be a shame. Considering most film repeats average 1-1.5m in that slot for FIVE, is it really worth it?

Really strange figures for ITV there. Not sure how Heartbeat beat Corrie, but there must be some questions being asked today as to why Heartbeat has been axed. The episodes which fell under 5m were due to poor scheduling and it just shows with a decent schedule around it the show can still pull in 6m. On a Summers day that is fantastic, even more astonishing considering the absymal week ITV have had. Apart from the soaps (and Taggarts solid performance, which btw also suffers from erratic scheduling) nothing else even comes close to Heartbeats performance on ITV this week.

Compare that to something like Wild at Heart which this series was pulling in 7m during Winter sandwiched inbetween DOI. Heartbeat could easily do that imo and there is still a huge following. Put it back Fridays at 9pm I say and solve ITV's Friday night problem.

It's probably a relief that Corrie was under 6m last night-the episode was total embarassment and I can't wait for the new producers episodes to start fully kicking in, because the character interaction and shockingly bad plots have ruined the show lately.

Ouch for Ladies of Letters-I can see why ITV are slowly moving it back in the schedules.

6.1m for Top Gear-that's more like it! And fantastic for the Brian Clough programmes which followed.

Songs of Praise should definitely be on BBC2 after seeing that figure and share. 8% at 5.30pm is considered very good for BBC2, but it doesn't seem to be performing on BBC1.

Pretty poor scheduling for POTC received pretty lacklustre ratings. Antiques still proving popular though with 4.5m tuning in for a repeat!

While I agree that anybody who claims to be surprised that Finding Nemo outrated a talent show on Five is probably just being ornery, I do think DSB will have benefited massively from having that as its lead-in, to the tune of at least a few hundred thousand. That is to say, if it had had a weaker film, say Superman II getting 0.7m, going before it, it would have been closer to 1.1m.

Next week it's got Oliver! going into it, which got about 1.4m last time out, so I reckon we'll see a bit of a drop, but the real test will be the third ep, coming out of Cricket Highlights - they normally get around 700k, so, with it being the third episode as well, if it beats 1m it'll be a result.

In fairness to BB you look at the other shows around it..
the figures for C4 are just shocking.

It stands out like a sore Thumb for a 'dead' format BB is still very often C4's highest rated shows.

"Stop overanalysing the figures" well isn't that what a Ratings Thread is for?

Taggart did very well and POTC didn't do too well, its Christmas showings are huge pullers.

Pixar/Disney films will always draw big audiences, whenever and (crucially) wherever they are shown, though. It's the strongest starting point for this type of show on Five that I can remember. If it can hold onto that sort of number across the several weeks in which it is on, then that would be a very good performance indeed.


Presumably so since it's costing them nothing except for marketing and it will skew young.

Yeah, you're right, I shouldn't have been too dismissive of the lead-in from Nemo. It certainly helped to a certain degree I'm sure in drawing in a few extra casual viewers, but what I was trying to say was I don't think it was dependent on it and that its performance should be assessed in its own right, not compared to a lead-in from a genre in which Five already scores big ratings regularly.

The next few weeks will certainly be more of a test for DSB. I agree that as long as it can stay above the 1m mark then it will have been a success, but ideally it will stay largely consistent around the 1.3-1.6m mark.

Top Gear includes HD.

Isn't any credit due to it - not a "total flop" perhaps but an average rating for an average show.

I think to justify it Five had to have 2m+ and as things stand it's figures would pretty much need to double by the end of the series for it to have any chance of a second series IMO.

Where have you been? It's becoming much less often actually. I can think of at least three days last week where BB was not the top rated show of the night on C4. In fact on one night there were two shows that put in better performances!

Well didn't ITV also axe Where The Heart Is which still had healthy ratings. Same with Bad Girls and Footballers Wives, well compared to what some dramas get now. Axing established brands/ratings-pullers is not the way forward when you have nothing that will rate similar/higher to replace them with.

16-34 all hours shares for yesterday:

BBC2- 12.5%
BBC1- 10.9%
CH4- 9.3%
FIVE- 7.7%
ITV1- 4.9%
E4- 4.7%

Yeah you're definetely right on that count, because it's extremely rare for FIVE to beat ITV1. But the marketing seems to have cost FIVE quite a lot-£1m I read? This could have been spent on a lot of new factual which would have pulled in 1m+. Though, I'm glad FIVE are trying and experimenting with new genres.

ITV's schedule was obviously skewed to a very old audience yesterday: Poirot, Ladies of Letters, HB, Taggart.


ITV are too reliant on crime drama nowadays. It does seem to be where the audience is at, but they could do with a few other dramas of different genres. Off the top of my head there's just Doc Martin & Wild at Heart now.

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Watching DSB now, it's actually not that bad. A lot of clichés, but the format is pretty decent and the different takes on popular songs is pretty good I think.

Average? On the last week of official data for FIVE on BARB, it only cracked 1.5m three times; two of which were for imported drama from the US, and one for factual entertainment. And DSB's 1.5m does not include timeshifted viewing after 2am this morning.

It rated well for Five. But it's not surprising you won't admit that, since you've made your feelings pretty clear on Five/DSB since it was commissioned.

DSB did fine, its how they build on that audience that matters. Britain's Got Talent and X Factor started out with les than 5m viewers! I'm not saying DSB will blow up that big but its far from terrible.

Pretty awful night elsewhere though and why ITV have axed Heartbeat is beyond me.

Ok so now Hearbeat is a wild success and ITV should keep it for ever and ever Before we all get carried away BBC1 wasnt showing its normal schedule last night with yet another POTC re-run. Also there was probably some novelty to Hearbeat having been away so long.

But none of this changes the basic fact that Heatbeat has run its course.

Getting over excited about one nights ratings doesnt change that basic fact.