As was said before the ratings were released, it's not necessarily how it launched but how it does down the line that matters. If Daybreak can hold that close to Breakfast over a long period then I think ITV will be happy. Not every show has a drop, Daybreak could increase. The starting point is enough for ITV to be satisfied with I think.

They've really promoted This is England '86 over the last three weeks - I've seen a promo for it in nearly every ad break on Channel 4 recently.

Maybe I'm being optimistic but I think it's going to get around 3m tonight (similar to how Shameless launches each series). I reckon the 16-34 audience for it will be particularly strong: north of the million mark and as good as any BBC/ITV drama for that age range apart from Doctor Who.


New Whitechapel series is 3 episodes, same as the first series.

In the context of breakfast ratings though, that's a 10-15% increase, which is not to be sniffed at.

Launching a breakfast show isn't like launching an evening show. Breakfast TV is all part of people's routine - and people don't change their routine overnight.

At the moment it's holding on to those left watching GMTV and bringing in those that don't particularly watch breakfast TV which is the key - and once the foundations are built they can then begin to take on Breakfast - but just as viewers need a reason to tune into Daybreak, they also need one to leave Breakfast too for any change in the balance of power.



Re: This is England '86. Interesting it had no credits either, but a bit stupid really as it's not like it's really leading into anything at 11pm. I hope it does well, but think C4 didn't do itself any favours by giving the film rerun such a late slot last night It should have got a 10pm slot at the weekend, or at least a 9pm airing on Film4.

Well Media Week takes a bit more optimistic view and says that "The average audience for ‘Daybreak’ yesterday was 23.1% higher than GMTV's average of 824,400 viewers across the working days of last week, Tuesday 30 August to Friday 3 September."

Also compared to last year it seems a lot better. "For the week beginning 7 September 2009, ‘GMTV’ averaged 660,000 viewers between 6am and 8.30pm, and a 17.9% share of the TV-watching audience.

Compared to "an average audience of 1.01 million between 6am and 8.30am, a 24.9% share of the audience" for Daybreak.

So when you look at it like that - 23% up ( although obvioulsy including people being curious for 1st day) It doesn't look as bad as has been made out

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/bull...ediaPMBulletin

It's their second year. First two series were set across the first year.

Ah right my bad. Even so, it would be very unlikely that all of the characters decide to stay for a third year.

They could probably squeeze a fourth series out of it if they followed the same pattern - two series set across one school year.

I'd be surprised if they did anymore than that anyway.

I agree that Daybreak cant be judged fully on one rating, it needs months to get a full picture of things. However, it just seemed a disappointing start given all the promotion.

But it's a comedy series.

Only When I Laugh had three patients stuck in a ward suffering from no particular illnesses for 29 episodes acroos 4 series. (They were in that hospital from 29th Oct 1979 to 16th Dec 1982.)

Hi De Hi ran for 8 years (Jan 1980 - Jan 1988) but only covered 2 summer seasons. (1959 & 1960)

And, of course, The Simpsons have been the same age for the past 21 years,

There's so many different stats regarding GMTV's average, Daybreak's first-day performance can be twisted either way! That comparison to GMTV's average in the same week last year is an interesting one: Daybreak was 53% up in terms of viewership from the same week last year which sounds good. But jakelyle's point is a fair one too - it wasn't that much up compared to the previous 3 months in terms of share.

I don't think we can make any meaningful conclusions regarding Daybreak for at least another 3-6 months. Like others have said, it's a a marathon not a sprint. I hope in a few months time, there's a report saying what the 3-month average for Daybreak is and how it compares to the same 3-months last year for 6-8.30am. Or how the reaches compare. That would be the best way of judging if it's been an initial success or not.
Last edited by rzt : 07-09-2010 at 23:24

When the schools were shut, you mean? If they were going to do a week-on-week comparison in this instance they should have used shares.

Yeah I agree, i just thought i'd post it as I came across it and thought, as you say the comparison to 2009 was intresting and something that hadn't been posted on here yet. Like you say the shares are important too.

Hmm Im not sure, it could go up.. i never thought The Big Bang Theory would, it started with around 8m, in its 2nd season it was hitting 10m+, didnt think it would get higher, then starting getting 13m and then at the top (towards the end of S3) started getting 16m+... same with XF and BGT... XF keeps peaking and peaking.... BGT peaked in Season 3 with Susan Boyle.

Glee was hitting 1.8m+ for some episodes.

Got a feeling This Is England '86 won't have done as well as they had hoped. I loved it but I don't know if I would had I not seen the film first.

Not sure whether the excessive promotion was a good or a bad thing either. And describing it as a 'major television event' during the intro was a bit pompous too.

It was okay. I hope it does well simply because it's a drama series on Channel 4 that isn't Shameless.

Weren't the first two series just two terms? They could potentially do one more. Or they could all go to the same university.. or would that be a little contrived?

I reckon it will beat the series 2 launch. It's grown even since then.

Apparently from various things i've read that you'll have this series , perhaps another one and then the Uni "inbetwenners" would be a film.

( Don't quote me on this thought! )

It may put people off who hadnt seen the film. I know the film was repeated last night but I think that should have been given a 9pm slot as it would have got a big rating and acted as promotion for the series. When I get round to watching the film, I will watch the series after.

Comparing a primetime 20+ episode 3-camera set-up sitcom on America's biggest channel to a 6-episode UK school comedy on a multichannel late at night doesn't really work. BBT is a family show swell, which TI is not.

As for This Is England, despite all this heavy promotion, I doubt it will get more than 3.2m.

That would be a great rating for C4.

Trouble is with C4 often the better their drama, the lower the rating. Could just as easily barely break the 1m mark.


Anyhow, from quality drama to trivial drivel:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s104/...-revealed.html

Nobody there who is going to pull in the ratings IMO.

I cant imagine TIE will get more than 3 million of Four.

I watched the film few years ago but i just felt 86 was lacking something.

I hope This is England does well because Channel 4 need more drama outside of one-offs and Shameless. They have Any Human Heart coming up but they need more series.

Channel 4 does seem to doing more drama as is BBC Two. Channel 4 I think should make their dramas diverse rather than gritty. Teachers and No Angels were successful because they were funny and accessible.