Yeah, I think Pie in the Sky was getting 9m for it second series in early 1995. It had two further series in 1996, which were only six-parters for some reason, and ratings weren't as high. I think the final series went out in summer 1997 or summer 1998.

Was 1994/95 the first time Heartbeat ran for 24 episodes, meaning it was on from autumn until spring? I can't remember.

Yeah, the final two series of Lovejoy went up against Heartbeat.

I think the first three series of Ballykissangel were kept away from Heartbeat. Series one and three were, anyway. I'm not absolutely sure about series two. In autumn 1998 and autumn 1999, Ballykissangel took a knock against Heartbeat. I think some episodes fell to 6.5m.

Yikes, I'm boring, aren't I?

Not so much the beating BB, but surprised there is still an audience for all these 9/11 docs - especially when some are repeated basically every year - and those that aren't are basically a rehash of the same material anyway. C4 and More4 gone pretty big on 9/11 this year.


And some interesting flashbacks to the 1990's. The talk of the ratings powerhouse that was You've Been Framed + Heartbeat + London's Burning prompts the question though - how did ITV do when these weren't airing?


How I long to see the drama serial make a comeback here. People are quick to lay the blame on reality TV, but the truth is it's more the commissioners attitudes holding them back, and admittedly new drama has been very risky for both BBC1 and especially ITV1 in recent years.

Sick of all these three parters or stripped five parters though - would like to see something with a bit of ambition in the schedules - not talking in terms of creativity or originality, but in terms of commissioners giving something new a bit of faith and taking a risk in commissioning a proper length weekly series once again. Drama is so strong in the US and even Australia at the moment, the UK is kind of being left behind.

Probably the best idea I've seen. Casualty could be given a consistent 9.35 or 9.40 start all autumn (apart from Festival of Remberance night)

I think this shows how the big terrestrials -especially ITV- have been hamstrung by the emergence of satellite and the relative risk of producing the series that stand much more chance of being strangled at birth than ever before.

Interesting to consider Youve Been Framed and the impact ITV had with it, and being there first so to speak. YBF was getting 16-19 million and was must see tv back then. The BBC, forever dithering as to whether they should follow suit, eventually produced Caught in th Act fronted by Shane Richie which ran 8.30 on a weekday iirc. This got 12 to 14 million-preposterously high compared to today, and yet considered very much second rate. ITV were at the forefront of new entertainment telly right back to Game for a Laugh when they took Saturdays from BBC1 -and again with Blind Date in the mid eighties which the BBC never tried to copy. If you add in Millionaire and the Cowell shows ITV have a pretty good record of innovation since the BBC dominated seventies. Only Noel Edmonds has stood in their way really. Ok I might have missed something along the way.

First of all, BBC1 and ITV1 will be happy with their Saturday night performances. 71 Degrees North maybe lost more of The X Factor audience than ITV would've liked but that would be offset by it being stable over the hour, Merlin and Strictly Come Dancing did really well but Casualty looks low, even considering it was up against The X Factor - I thought it performed better than that in previous weeks. I wonder whether the lead out hurt it slightly.


FANTASY SCHEDULE WARNING

I think ITV should recommission Heartbeat and place it on Friday nights. If they run it for 26 of the years and then say recommission something like Kingdom/Where the Heart Is or if they want to be cheap a reasonable rating quiz show then it could do well against EastEnders:

7.00 Emmerdale
7.30 Heartbeat
8.30 Coironation Street

This then frees up one Coronation Street for Tuesday night to strengthen that schedule against Holby City:

7.00 Who Wants to be A Millionnaire?
8.00 Coronation Street
8,30 Emmerdale

I'd also switch the soaps around on Thursday night so Coronation Street takes the 8pm slot and gain some consistency across the week:

7.00 Tonight
7.30 Countrywise/Grimefighters/Lion Country etc.
8.00 Coronation Street
8.30 Emmerdale

This way Emmerdale is cut back to five episodes a week as well which would put less saturation on the schedule.

I know this is not financially possible and will never happen but...

He does a lot of musicals in the West End now. He is doing ok.

No, you just have the same ability to recall useless TV ratings trivia that I am afflicted by...


Caught in the Act debuted with 13m in an 8pm Friday slot - an excellent result for BBC1 in the mid-90s when it was battered off the park night after night after night by ITV. It got awful reviews and then sank to about 8-9m. Still a good mid-90s audience for BBC1, but it was so embarrassing against what Beadle was getting for YBF that it never returned. I seem to recall the Beeb couldn't just bring out a carbon copy format so had to introduce a gameshow element to it I think. That said, I think the early days of YBF involved Beadle getting those featured in the clips to appear on his sofa. The current Harry Hill format is way better, but I guess they just didn't have to clips then to fill a full half hour.

Whilst 80s/90s Saturday night BBC1 was a bit bleak compared to what ITV offered, Noel Edmonds aside, they did have some successes. Stuff like Paul Daniels, Jim'll FIx It, Bob's Full House, the revived Opportunity Knocks and later on the Gen Game revival and Big Break were all regulars and big audience pullers. But BBC1 scored notable Saturday night wins with a diverse mix of shows - sitcoms like Hi-Di-Hi and Allo Allo and drama like Bergerac, Juliet Bravo, Casualty all were mega-popular Saturday night events that we just don't see the like of now.

Sadly...

Yes there were some successes as you rightly state. Allo Allo suffered eventually from being done to death-it almost had a soap like feel in the end. Hi De Hi was probably a bit more rounded and had quite a poignant last episode. Bob Monkhouse and Russ Abbott were big signings and did well in the mid to late eighties. And Bruce Forsyth reinvigorated Generation Game far more than anyone thought I reckon-its first run was actually on a Friday before it moved to its traditional Saturday-after pressure from Bruce iirc. And ofcourse House Party was arguably the BBC's great success of the nineties -its format copied or attempted a few times since.

Just to add about Paul Daniels-became the face of tv magic taking over from David Nixon in the late seventies and scored huge ratings and was popular well into the eighties-however he went from being the fresh thing on the menu to being completely uncool by the time the BBC ended his contract. Very apparent rise and fall......although he's back on SCD-presumably with the lovely Debbie Mcgee!

Summer is all but over for US television. The CW started things off last week with returns for America's Next Top Model and The Vampire Diaries plus new series Hellcats and Nikita while NBC got record ratings from the return of the NFL.

The CW brings back Gossip Girl & 90210 on Monday and One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected on Tuesdays. All those series finished last season under par. The CW will be hoping that shuffling the schedules makes a difference.

Wednesday night is a bit of a reality TV battle royale. America's Got Talent, Big Brother and Masterchef all come to an end while Survivor premieres. My money is on CBS to win with A18-49. BB has been solid the past few weeks and while usually a few tenths behind AGT it will have the benefit of a Survivor lead-in this week.

NBC use AGT to bring back Parenthood on Tuesday and launch Outlaw on Wednesday at 10pm. That series continues on Friday, which will be its regular slot.

After next week, it's "Premiere Week" which kicks off with a massive Monday featuring 12 premieres - 5 brand new series and 7 returning series.

I am a bit of a CW follower - I watch GG, 90210 and Life Unexpected. GG had an extremely poor season last year, but the finale was excellent, and I'm looking forward to the Paris segments. 90210 started off strong, but was crushed by Idol in the second half of the season. Life Unexpected is an excellent show, hopefully the ONT combo will go well with it (I think it will).

And holy guacamole at the 'premiere week' - lots of shows

I'll be interested to see how this one pans out. It's certainly a bit of a battle ground. BB got a 2.8 for its finale last year whilst AGT got a 3.5. Survivor premiered with a 3.6 last September. BB and AGT have both been up a little year-on-year for the last couple of weeks, and with a Survivor lead-in BB should crack 3.0 on Wednesday. AGT will probably also be up slightly, to about 3.6-3.7 but I can't see the increase being much larger due to the competition. Survivor will probably get around 3.5: there is less overall competition but more reality competition than last year and it's on a new day. MasterChef will probably get something in the mid-late 2s. MasterChef, BB and AGT don't seem to have dented each other much so hopefully they'll all hold up in the big finale clash on Wednesday.

All this talk of eighties and nineties weekend telly makes me nostalgic. We could also add Casualty to the list of BBC1 successes in the eighties, it managed to see off 3-2-1 forever. Also the Kenny Everett Show did quite well in a Saturday slot, including the notorious Cleo Rocos dominatrix episode, and the BBC did fairly well with its Op Knocks revival as the format was still memorable to most people However, it took Noel's House Party and the lottery for the BBC to regain supremacy on Saturdays and even then they lost out to Baywatch and The Gladiators early on.

My current count is 58 premieres altogether in the week beginning Monday 20th. 16 of them are brand new series.

The CW will have launched 7 of their 9 scripted series before premiere week. Outlaw (new), Survivor, The Apprentice and Parenthood will also be one week early.

No Ordinary Family (new), Law & Order: LA (new), Human Target, American Dad, CSI: Miami and The Good Wife will be one week late.

BREAKING NEWS

Australia: Junior MasterChef launches with over 2 million viewers.

Story of the night:
* Junior MasterChef gets off to a sensational start on Ten;
* Seven's The X Factor meanwhile is badly hit, finishing third in timeslot;
* Nine win the night as the premiere of Iron Man boosts late night share.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.66m
18:30 Sunday Night 1.21m
19:30 The X Factor 1.07m
*series low.
21:00 Bones (R) 0.70m

Nine
18:00 Nine News Sunday 1.61m
18:30 RBT 1.42m
19:00 Hot Pursuit 1.28m
19:30 60 Minutes 1.15m
20:30 Premiere: Iron Man 0.88m

Ten
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.52m
18:30 Modern Family (R) 0.97m
19:00 Modern Family 1.36m
19:30 New: Junior MasterChef Australia 2.20m
*highest rating MasterChef series launch ever in Australia;
*MasterChef Season 1 (2009) debuted with 1.43m viewers;
*Celebrity MasterChef (2009) debuted with 1.36m viewers;
*MasterChef Season 2 (2010) debuted with 1.7m viewers.
20:30 Offspring 1.16m

ABC1
20:30 Midsomer Murders 1.43m

Corporation Shares
Nine/GO! - 27.5%
Ten/ONE - 26.2%
Seven/7TWO - 23.6%
ABC1/2/3/24 - 18.1%

Seems Viva are showing Jersey Shore. Starting Sat 18th and running nightly.

Last week I thought XF Australia could have used 100k viewers or so and the ratings would seem solid but the last thing it needed was a reality show launching with 2.2m!

Wow, incredible launch figures for Junior Masterchef, that certainly finished off the X-Factor!

How long does Junior Masterchef run for?

10 episodes. But only one episode a week, at least initially, contrary to earlier reports. I'm amazed it did so well!

The X Factor is definitely in serious trouble now and could become an embarrassment for Seven when the live shows / Xtra Factor start next week- Junior MasterChef is a 90 minute episode that night.

It gets worse. Just learned that whilst Junior MasterChef was on air, The X Factor averaged 963k.

Junior MasterChef peaked at 2.6m.

Ten's chief programming officer David Mott reacts to today's results:

What's Seven's schedule like just now? Any room to move XF off Sundays now that Junior Masterchef has turned out to be such a massive hit?

There's no chance of XF building any momentum against it. Indeed, if it stays there I think it's more likely that JM will add viewers and XF will quickly find itself below 1m for full episodes.

Pretty well stacked with lots of new content so their options are limited. They could move Beat the Star to Sundays and air The X Factor Mon/Tue instead of Sun/Mon, provided it is practical to move the live shows.

I think they must be looking at these options because keeping it where it is can only lead to failure...

I wonder how FOX are taking The X Factor figures in Australia - not exactly comforting are they? Nor are they to Simon Cowell. I know American Idol is more established and popular than Australian Idol but it shows that just because a show is a success in one place it may not be in another.

I do wonder what Simon will do if The X Factor USA flops. Crawl back to ITV with his tail between his legs?

Junior Masterchef did brilliantly and I agree that Seven must be looking to move The X Factor out of it's way now.

I imagine the Monday episode will increase but I think moving it to Monday/Tuesday would be better and it would benefit from airing before Rafters.

Junior Masterchef did brilliantly but whether it can capture people's imaginations like the originals will be interesting as it could easily drop next week. Funny how Junior Masterchef got a plum slot while over here the show is aimed and made for the CBBC audience.