Depending on what figure you believe, it was 0.7m down on last week, half of that down to HD - it appears something is 'wrong' with ITV HD's figures, but we don't know that for definite.


I'm not Bushmills, but it's normally between 2.3m and 2.7m.

Casualty has already been confirmed for the 2011-12 season when it will go into HD.

Casualty official figures since July (Figures in bracket is its position in BBC1's chart.)

10th July (11) 5.33m
17th July (5) 5.65m
24th July (7) 6.05m
31st July (7) 5.72m
7th Aug (8) 5.36m
14th Aug (6) 6.02m
21st Aug (13) 4.69m
28th Aug [not on]
4th Sept (5) 5.97m
11th Sept (13) 5.08m
18th Sept (10) 5.42m
25th Sept (12) 5.44m
2nd Oct (12) 5.77m

These figures suggest Casualty still remains in a reasonably healthy state, but it'll be interesting to see what last week's 4m overnights translates to in tomorrow's official BARB figures.

The BBC could maybe run Casualty for six months of the year in a Saturday slot and the other six months on a Friday at 9pm, when ITV1 seems to be weak, and avoiding a clash with The X Factor. When the X Factor isn't on, Casualty can attract 6 million viewers, which shows it's still popular.

I'm surprised you didnt mention that it used to get 18m in the late 1980's

Top Stuff Iain.

I hear that Robbie and Brucie are holding a press conference as we speak to proclaim victory in the ratings war with X Factor.

And well into the late 90s - if you look at the figures in the TV Facts section of the BARB website, from 1994 to 1998 Casualty is consistently in the top 10 most watched programmes of the year

....and the strength of this year's 'comedy act', Anne Widdicombe, who was held over for the clash.

Now they should schedule the Strictly Results against The X Factor on Saturday instead of the ridiculous Sunday recorded version - after all, it would thrash The X Factor so how would BBC1 lose out?

Seriously - fantastic for Strictly considering the show was more padded than usual due to a loss of a dancer to illness. Great planning to place two of the more talked about dances right at the end to overlap The X Factor as well.

The X Factor shouldn't be concerned with the ratings in the clash, that was always going to happen. Their bigger concern will be what happened at 9pm, where there was a sudden loss of 0.8m. This doesn't seem to be down to people switching off the TV altogether, but rather switching over - BBC1 increased by 0.2m, BBC2 by 0.2m and Channel 4 by 0.7m. Maybe an ad break led to this but it's worrying all the same.

I asked yesterday why Danny Cohen was looking for a big format to compete with The X Factor but considering Casualty slipped below 4m I'm starting to see why. Sorry, I know all the excuses about how great The X Factor is but if it can lose 0.8m in fifteen minutes it's not such a powerhouse as some make out.

Channel 4 did brilliantly, and I have the feeling that's where many of The X Factor viewers went at 9pm. Five performed poorly but then Saturday is never their night.

I think its peak was about 17 million. In its early days it did have fairly strong competition from 3-2-1. However, 6 million is still respectable, considering the big two soaps have shed 60 pc of their audience in the last 20 years.

X Factor is shorter next week (well, by 15 minutes!) and avoids Strictly so hopefully it'll do a little better than it has been. I still find the drop-off a little strange from that judge's houses rating, but then they decided to mess with a winning formula (consistent 8pm start, two hour running time, 12 acts!!!) so perhaps it shouldn't be that big of a surprise.

Good job this thread wasn't running in the thirty years until 1993 when Songs of Praise was on at half past six every Sunday, by law, and was opposite an identical show on ITV. I don't know how you could get annoyed with Countryfile, it's not even on the same time every week, if there's something more important late in the evening it gets shunted much ealrier.


I think it might be because otherwise nobody would know who the hell she was. The only problem with that joke is that Christine Bleakly cannot deliver a joke for toffee.


I like Family Fortunes being at teatime because it's the kind of flimsy show that needs to be on then, it annoys me when stuff like that and Mr and Mrs end up at eight or nine o'clock as they're the flimsiest of formats. I know it's called All Star Family Fortunes but the guests are hardly stellar, it's simply something to whack on to fill gaps and for viewers to land on when they're having their tea. I doubt anyone actively searches out Family Fortunes. They never used to.


Yes, its pomp was probably 1996 when it was by some distance the biggest show on BBC1, it was even getting more than the lottery when everyone was mad about that. But you know, times change. Casualty has a lot of value for the Beeb because it's one of the cheapest dramas they do, and also it fills out-of-London quotas. But it probably should be on less often, yes, the golden age was when it was on September to March, probably, which was not that long ago.

What did The Xtra Factor get on ITV2 please?

BBC One desperately needs one, possibly two, successful entertainment shows for the January to August period. They already have SCD for the autumn when XF is running, but they need some hits for the other eight months of the year.

That has to be better than settling for the mediocre, such as So You Think You Can Dance and the Webber shows.

Look at the DS ratings report, it's included there, and in previous pages on this thread!

Oh, it's definitely a major powerhouse. A drop of 0.8m in the space of 15-minutes in one episode doesn't change that. No other show can manage 9m against ~10m competition like Strictly Come Dancing, and TXF scores 10m+ against anything.

Looking at the breakdowns for both weeks, it looks like TXF is pretty much peaking just after The National Lottery finishes. The additional 30-minutes is definitely a factor in why TXF is tailing off towards the end of its marathon episodes; 2 hours is fine but an extra half hour is pushing people's limits. A similar thing happened with DOI and BGT earlier this year and even SCD last year. Also I think a certain chunk of TXF's audience starts to go out at around 9pm so that will account to some of the lost viewers from that time onwards.

Although as a viewer I'd like to see it reverted back to 2 hours next year, I'm 80% sure it's going to stay as it is because even with the extra duration, it's getting record high figures. A slight tailing off from 9pm onwards isn't going to be a major concern to the people who make the show or ITV. If TXF was getting lower figures than last year due to the additional duration (like DOI or BGT), then it might've been a concern, but with ratings as high as they've ever been I doubt they're going to be complaining!

I'd imagine it varies from show to show. Obviously in this case all the risk was in C5's hands and they had a fixed price with Shine regardless of ratings. Think that is pretty much the norm, but I'd imagine some shows are on more flexible contracts where payments made are determined by certain targets being met.

1) it hasn't been posted in here.

2) it wasn't in the original report at 12:59 otherwise I would have posted it

Besides, is The X Factor rating even correct? EDIT - I see you've actually changed it:

I think the BBC will be pretty pleased with the way their autumn Saturdays are going. The number one priority was always going to be trying to boost Strictly, and they've certainly done that. It looks and feels like a rejuvenated show this year - the line-up is good, the production values are the best I've seen on the BBC, and the papers are talking about the competition, not the show being on it's last legs. This has all been reflected in the ratings, and averaging above 9m with a 6pm start is real success.

They are struggling later on in the evening with Casualty hitting lows, but it's a difficult bind to schedule your way out of. And if you pull Casualty, what takes its place? Live at the Apollo repeats? At 9pm on an October Saturday? That might attract them some stick too.

It's also interesting to note that Merlin is beating out Burp in the "battle of the second-string shows" for the night. I know Burp is a lead-in, not lead-out, and has a great Sunday repeat, but it's still not the situation I would have expected a couple of months ago. In fact, in general, ITV's numbers aside from the huge XF look a little modest. I can't see why they're wasting FF so early when it can do so well in a good slot.

Yep, I'm sure ITV are thrilled with the numbers that it's brought in so far and have no complaints. I do think that the longer running time is denting the averages though, and had last night's show ran for 2 hours from 19:45 I think it would have been comfortably above 12m. I also think that the longer length Saturday shows are denting the Sunday shows and therefore I can't see tonight's show doing much better than last week and it'll probably be a few weeks before it tops that judges houses rating (if it does at all, which I suspect it will).

I think a better way of doing it next year if they're going to continue with 16 acts would be to have half perform on Fridays (9:00-10:30pm) and half on Saturdays (8:00-9:30pm) so therefore each individual show is shorter but ultimately they gain half an hour each week until all the acts merge to all perform on Saturday when there are 12 left (in a 2 hour show).

Last year's ratings:


Not a great example for comparison purposes, due to the unusual appearance of F1, meaning no Casualty or Merlin.

Last year's Comedy Roadshow was a repeat of an edition shown a few months previously, and the BBC News held up better last year, too.

The Harry Hill hour well down in 2010, and Strictly well up.

The BBC are providing a valid alternative with two decent dramas. OK they'll never beat The X Factor, but 5 million obviously like the BBCs' alternative. The worst thing they could do is do what they used to do in the seventies again Opportunity Knocks by running Star Trek repeats on a loop.

You stated yourself a few paragraphs earlier its not a good comparison, ITV was inflated that night due to the F1 having 3 men talking from 6:30pm onwards for an hour on BBC1.

Why are we not getting separate figures?

Good to see ITV promoting ITV2 HD and actually telling viewers what channel number it's on.

Why have they never done this with ITV1 HD?

They have also got two popular lottery shows planned in 2011. In It to Win it will be airing another series in January, whilst Who Dares Wins has been recomissioned and should be airing around April. We will also be seeing the new format Secret Fortune sometime.