Wednesday 25th August 2010
BBC1 (inc BBC HD)
18:00 - BBC News at Six: 4.3m (25.0%)
18:30 - Regional News and Weather: 5.7m (30.8%)
19:00 - The One Show: 4.7m (23.4%)
19:30 - Holby City: 4.7m (22.1%)
20:30 - Great British Waste Menu: 5.1m (21.7%)
22:00 - BBC News at Ten: 5.1m (24.0%)
22:25 - Regional News and Weather / The National Lottery Draws: 4.0m (21.6%)
22:45 - Reggie Perrin: 1.7m (11.9%)
23:15 - Middle EastEnders: 0.8m (8.4%)
23:45 - The League Cup Show: 0.6m (9.9%)

BBC2
18:30 - Restoration Roadshow: 1.8m (9.5%)
19:00 - Mountain Gorilla: 1.6m (8.0%)
20:00 - Coast: 2.9m (12.6%)
21:00 - The Wounded Platoon: 1.2m (5.1%)
22:00 - Have I Got News for You: 1.3m (6.1%)
22:30 - Newsnight: 0.7m (4.6%)
23:20 - Surviving Haiti: 0.4m (5.4%)
00:20 - Home Movie Roadshow Uncut: 0.2m (4.7%)

ITV (inc ITV HD)
18:30 - ITV News & Weather: 3.5m (18.8%)
19:00 - Emmerdale: 6.3m (31.3%)
19:30 - UEFA Champions League Live: Tottenham Hotspur v BSC Young Boys: 4.3m (18.9%)
22:00 - ITV News at Ten & Weather: 1.8m (8.5%)
22:35 - UEFA Champions League: Extra Time: 0.9m (6.6%)
23:35 - Celebrity Juice: 0.4m (5.3%)

C4 (inc C4 +1)
18:00 - The Simpsons: 2.0m (10.2%)
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 1.3m (6.4%)
19:00 - Channel 4 News: 0.9m (4.2%)
20:00 - How to Look Good Naked: 1.8m (6.9%)
21:00 - My New Brain: 2.1m (8.0%)
22:00 - Ultimate Big Brother: 3.4m (17.7%)
23:10 - School of Comedy: 0.8m (7.5%)
23:40 - The Raoul Moat Tapes: Inside the Mind of a Killer: 0.3m (4.2%)

Five
17:00 - Five News: 0.7m (5.8%)
17:30 - Neighbours: 1.0m (7.4%)
18:00 - The Boss Is Coming to Dinner: 0.3m (1.5%)
18:25 - Live From Studio Five: 0.2m (1.2%)
19:00 - Five News at 7: 0.2m (0.9%)
19:30 - Animal Rescue Squad: 0.6m (2.9%)
20:00 - Emergency Bikers: 1.1m (4.8%)
21:00 - NCIS: 1.4m (6.1%)
22:00 - Law and Order: Criminal Intent: 1.2m (6.4%)
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I think all channels will be pretty pleased with last night. BBC One did well, and ITV at the same point brought in a solid figure for the Tottenham game.

Ultimate Big Brother did well, will be interesting to see if it falls below 3m tonight.

Pretty mediocre night all round, the only notable ones come from C4 where they had a very strong night. The Simpsons did well adding around half a million, My New Brain performed strongly and Big Brother is roughly in line with what first episodes generally get in comparison to launch nights. It will be interesting to see if BB will sustain its audience without dipping much, head back down towards 2.5m or gain momentum because its the last one and has ex housemates.

Good first highlights for UBB

Decent night for all really.

Solid 4-5m all night for BBC1 and the 4.7m (i.e lower than normal) for Holby shows how well Waterloo does consistently on a Wednesday. Not sure why it needs to air on Thursday next week as well as Wednesday.

Slightly better than I thought for the football and Emmerdale continues to post solid figures. With regard to the other soaps, Hollyoaks seems to be up a bit which is good to see, but Neighbours is down and seems to be missing the Australian hour.

Excellent for UBB-I actually didn't think it would work at first, but this run could end up being as entertaining as the latest CBB in January. Hopefully BB will go out on a high!

18:25 - Live From Studio Five 0.2m 1.2%

Is this still loosing viewers?
Since Ian left.

I would occasionally watch when Ian was on it, it was crazy stuff but strangely watchable.

Now it's OK! magazine

Doesn't Dirty Des (the new owner of Five), publish OK! magazine?

Wow, great for UBB. Any reason for the sudden Simpsons surge?

Have they gone back 10 years to the funny episodes?

They're currently showing episodes from season 16. Although I'm fairly certain these episodes have been shown on Channel 4 before, they are still quite new to terrestrial viewers, and as such, it's probably the case that many people haven't seem them very much, if at all, so perhaps that is the reason for the increase in viewers?

The One Show has been doing consistently well. Alex & Jason have really settled into the role after one week.

Wow for UBB. Very deserved too, best highlights show in ages!

I've been a fan of Neighbours for many years! And i hav to say I think in its run up to its 6000th episode it is getting better!

However, I do think this is one way to get Neighbours out of the way - i fear it is getting closer to its end now ;(
In Australia, its 'not cool' to watch Neighbours which suggests to me that it is mainly an older audience that watches it in aus. Am i correct? Anyways, if that is the case, what is the point in movin it to a channel where the target audience is 16-34?? Im thinking it could tank.

Without sounding like a party pooper, i think UBB ratings might be down tonight. Looking back at past series, the show after the launch is always high, then it steadies out. I might be wrong this time though.

The highlights were excellent last night though and blew any BB11 highlights show out of the water, so I think there is a big chance that the 3.4m audience will remain steady and that there won't be a drop.

Well i hope so. I hope BB goes out on a high.

3.4m is only 0.1m down on the CBB7 first show despite CBB7 launching with 6.3m and UBB with around 4.5m. I'd expect similar ratings here, only a slightly bit down, probably around a 3.2m overnight average. By technicality, it could be the first time in a few years where the final rates higher than the launch show which will put BB out on a high. It would need at least 4.1m to do that.

Sad news but also inevitable. It's been rumoured for a long time that this would happen when TEN launched their second general entertainment channel, and now it appears that will indeed happen.

Unfortunately Neighbours is not cutting the mustard on the main channel and had to go. That's not to say TEN couldn't have done more to save it because it's certainly true that not having a MasterChef lead-out this year has really affected its average.

I suspect it was only spared the axe because of international sales, in particular the lucrative deal with Five.

It will be interesting to see how it rates in its new home over on ELEVEN. The good news is the benchmark will be much lower and if it could pull in even 400,000 viewers a night then that would be a success.

As for TEN, it will be interesting to see what they replace it with (hopefully not Sports Tonight which will tank) and how they make up the 2.5hrs a week of local content that Neighbours provided.

How long does the deal with Five last for? does anybody know?

It was a 10 year deal if I remember rightly. Began on Five early 2008, so should expire around 2018.

I thought it was a lifetime deal.

Really good evening for BBC1. The One Show was at its highest level for a while, it always seems to get a boost when Emmerdale finishes a bit early when ITV has football on Wednesdays. Holby City did quite well for a Wednesday episode and over 5m for a 90-minute factual programme is absolutely fantastic. I can't remember BBC News at Ten getting 5m+ in the last three months so that did strongly last night too.

Coast has not done too well by its usual standards recently (not helped by the poor scheduling of course) but last night's episode got a nice little boost. Very poor for BBC2's 9pm programme though. When was the last time BBC2 averaged as low as 1.2m at 9pm and come bottom of the terrestrials?

Pretty good for the football on ITV. Last year, a Champions League Qualifier between Arsenal and Celtic had 4.3m so I thought yesterday's match wouldn't have broken the 4m mark. Ultimate Big Brother on C4 has started well and I think viewers are more likely to stick with it than a normal series so I reckon tonight's episode will hit 3m again. Solid night for Five too with its 3 hours of 1m+.

In some commissioning news, a new single-drama on ITV1:

And new shows coming up on Channel 4: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...utumn-schedule

Now that ITV's schedules have updated, we can see the respective battles for the week beginning Sunday 5th September (my opinion on who will win next to it, anything in bold programme wise is new):

05/09 - Secret Britain vs U Be Dead --> ??? win
06/09 - Who Do You Think You Are? vs Bouquet of Barbed Wire --> ??? win
07/09 - The Young Ones vs Help! I Caught it Abroad! 2 --> BBC win
08/09 - Waterloo Road/Crimewatch vs Midsomer Murders (8pm to 10pm) --> ITV win
09/09 - Motorway Cops vs Law and Order UK --> ITV win
10/09 - New Tricks vs Paul O'Grady Live --> BBC win

Getting the obvious out the way first, New Tricks will beat Paul O'Grady and I'm pretty certain ITV will win Wednesday and Thursday given the opposition.

Tuesday could go either way, but I've given it to BBC because they tend to do better when two documentaries clash. I do think ITV should have put 71 Degrees North here though to capitalise on poor opposition.

Sunday and Monday are question marks. I've got no idea at all how U Be Dead will do, and I think that could either do relatively well or tank badly. Bouquet of Barbed Wire should do well, but that depends on who is on Who Do You Think You Are? really - if they've got a relative unknown on, then ITV should win Monday as well.

Hmm, might that be another police procedural for ITV?

K

Can any of you experts give me a viewing figure for Bio's Lorraine Kelly's Next Big Fat Challenge please. (Tuesday 24th August, 8pm)
Only there's a hoot of a thread in the Showbiz section started by either a WUM or someone who is *ahem* mentally not all there-claiming it got well over 1m viewers.
Now while most of Britain has never heard of the Chawneys and cares even less, loads of us have derived so much amusement from this thread that I actually would like to know the ratings.

Ta ever so.

Both are BBC wins. Bouquet is not high ratings material. It may win BAFTAs but it wont rate well.