The viewing figures for Saturday's Launch show are printed in the Mail today. Last year the first show pulled in 7.7 million viewers, this year after all the glitzy changes they have 6.8 million viewers, and they weren't on at the same time as X Factor - so had little competition. It would appear that the strategy to pull in younger viewers has not worked and that they have alienated 900,000 loyal viewers. It will be interesting to see what positive spin the Beeb will try to put on this.

You're not comparing like with like. They've never done that sort of launch before, it may be that it just didn't appeal to viewers to see the pairings announced. That doesn't mean the series itself won't do well.

I agree. It'll be more interesting to see the figures for the opening show, although as it's on a Friday it still won't be comparable. I would think Saturday 2nd October will give the first indication if they've lost viewers or not.

OP is hugely misrepresenting things - they didn't have this sort of launch show last year, so there is literally nothing to compare it to.

You cant compare because this technically wasnt the first show. Anyway nearly 7 million is a good audience these days when there is so much choice.

Apart from the points mentioned by other posters, I am not sure where the DM got that figure from (perhaps they did not count those viewing on BBC HD). Posted in the Ratings Thread were the official BARB ratings:


http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...postcount=2338

7.07 million (including HD channel), with 37.5% share of tahe available TV audience at that time. This share is an important factor, because if less people were available overall to watch TV at that time, then obviously the headline numbers will be hit.

And as it was not one of the live competition shows (with no live voting), other people might have recorded it for later viewing (a figure which will become apparent once the final figures including timeshifts are published

I missed it. I looked at the TV guide at the evening shows, and recorded them (as i was out that evening).

I didnt even see Strictly there, as it was still classed as 'afternoon'.

Yes - I was gutted.

BBC producers and execs etc mantra .....

It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......It was only the launch show.......

Well, they would be correct...it was! And as pointed out in the a post above yours, the ratings were 7 million+ (not the figure quoted by the DM, which didn't include BBCHD viewers).

They've never done a launch show like this before, so I'd rather wait and compare the figures when the competition starts.

Er, yes, it was.

This obsession with ratings disappoints me. Strictly is a good show, a better and different one than the XFactor, and would be so even if only one viewer watched it.

Even if it were comparable, the drop between the first episode of series 4 and of series 5 was 1.6 million. Thank goodness there weren't all these doomsayers and over-analysts around then.

Im not sure why everyones so negative without even giving it a fair crack of the whip, this forum by far and away is the most negative on DS

its not like for like at all... this was the first show of its kind

As everyone's said, there was no launch show last year.

So the OP is, technically, rubbish.

I declare this thread officially dead.

Also, the last time they did a Launch Show, it got 6 million. So jog on OP.