I know, but TV Burp had SCD opposition both nights.

Looking at last weekend, too, a fair few viewers haven't come back to Burp this autumn, with both the Saturday screening and the Sunday repeat down quite a bit.

Good stuff. Hopefully, we'll get the remaining five In It to Win Its of the current series before Christmas.

The balance on Saturdays tends to go to BBC One in the first six months as they have Doctor Who, the Six Nations, Casualty and the Andrew Lloyd Webber shows. ITV1 only really does well on Saturdays after July when the X Factor appears.

Of this year it's simulcast on ITV1 HD, so if those figures are underestimated it would affect the total rating.

It was included in the original post, and yes, there was a typo on the X Factor rating. It happens.

I suspect we will do. The problem lies in SCD and the length of their shows. As soon the numbers dwindle to about 6/7 remaining celebs they'll free up the 50 minutes the show will need. They'll probably show the remaining shows from 20th November, five Saturday's before Christmas Day.

I hope so. The thing is, at some point the couples will do two dances each, in order to compensate for having fewer couples left.

I can't see that it's a good idea to put on several repeat episodes of 'The Mentalist' and then go straight into the new series. I thought this Friday's was another repeat until a member of my family who'd watched it told me it was a new one. I might have missed the promotion, but I haven't seen any promotion saying this was the start of the new series. (It's like Midsummer Murder where they mix up repeats and new episodes and it's easy not to bother to watch a new one thinking it's a repeat.) I wondered if that might have an effect on ratings.

Bye, Storm! Looks like he got shafted with that slot. Nobody will want to be first up from now on.

Elsewhere from the biannual Cowell circus, Pillars of the Earth got off to a strong start despite having so much stacked against it scheduling wise.

I expect when the Barb website updates for the week 4th - 10th October (which should be tomorrow) they will have a new column for ITV2 HD.

Attentional stated that ITV2 HD started BARB reporting separately on 7th October but I don't know who decides when the ratings are publicly published in the overnights.

Personally I would run it January-early September to help boost the summer


I'm sure it has occasionally been just 10 minutes. However normally whenever the late Saturday news is shorter than 20 minutes, the early evening news is longer than the 10 minutes it often is.

Having said, on a busy news day 10 minutes isn't really long enough for a main bulletin, especially one that includes a sport update. Sooner or later it would cause problems considering MOTD's fixed start. So I think 15 minutes need to be allowed for the late evening news as a minimum and ideally the full 20 minutes it usually gets (last night was rare at 25 minutes)


Problem with Thursday is though is that the Europa League would mean frequent weeks off

Lottery formats aside Ive got a hunch that the new controller of BBC1 will want to be seen to make a big impression -arguably more so than if the job had been given to someone already established in their forties or fifties. It will be interesting as its hard to see anything other than apeing XF and harder still to see anything replacing talent/reality formats as big hitters.

Again, where the ads are placed makes a difference in the XF ratings breakdown. When it was over 12m it never had more than 2 or 3 minutes of ads. Whereas after 9pm every section had 4 minutes. But there definitely does seem to be some sort of dip around 9pm, though telling exactly how much it is difficult from 15 minute blocks. The difference with last week is that it seems to have held up better through the final hour.

I think one of the problems with the 16 acts is not just the running time but there are so many of them - I keep forgetting that Paije, Storm and John actually exist. It's a failed experiment, IMO. The whole wildcard thing was horribly executed. If ITV want extra time out of the show, look at bootcamp, judges houses and the auditions and tack on 15 minutes here and there.

XF US will definitely not have any more than 12 acts anyway - so it's not a trial for that.

I think its a shame Casualty its getting low ratings, this "series" has been really quite good, its loads better than last "series".

I dare say Casualty a bit like The Bill is one of those shows that are just there, and people dont always recongise when its having a good year, becasue its on so often.

But it will have to take break(s) on Fridays anyway due to closeness to the U.S. transmission.

Thursday nights on Five could have been huge all year round with Europe League & all new Mentalist.

No 'catch up' repeats for such a big show. We Sky plussed it and no doubt many others did too, so it should get an uplift in the officials.

Takeout EastEnders ,SCD and the Little Casualty scene and TV Burp was one big ITV promotion show:yawn:

There was a fair amount from The Apprentice, Nigella Lawson and the 'fight' was based on a BBC3 programme!!

I had never really seen Christine Bleakley before, isn`t she ugly? What´s all the fuss about?

Have not seen the one show,ITV adverts for Daybreak or saw the front cover of some of the papers and mags around June/July time?
Not my Cup of Tea if you get my drift

I forgot about The Apprentice and Nigella

I actually think that moving Casualty to Friday at 9pm is a really good idea.

Due to the number of pre watershed dramas BBC One currently have, weekdays at 9pm look a bit bare drama wise. You have a situation where they have 9pm dramas friday to Monday (2 Saturday), then none tuesday to thursday (just the occational drama on Tuesday). By having Casualty fridays, they can move the friday dramas to Tuesday or Wednesday at 9pm. This would stop the weeknights at 9pm feeling so drama light.

Thus weekday nights BBC at 9pm would be

Two drama series night (eg Spooks, New Tricks, Waking the dead etc).
Casualty one night.
One night of comedy and panel shows.
One edutainment night (Apprentice, Who do you think you are etc).

Very strong for SCD last night-after recognising the faults in the last series, things have been done to make sure this series is talked about and the strong series seems to be hurting Harry Hill's hour which is a shame, because TV Burp inparticular is still as fantastic as ever. But 5m against one of BBC1's biggest shows isn't to be sniffed at and provides a good lead in to XF.

Not particuarly good for Casualty. It timeshifts excellently and not much else would perform better in that slot against XF/BGT, but I still think it's a waste for a good show. I keep thinking Fridays at 9pm might work, but then again it would considerably weaken the Saturday night schedule in the months when SCD/DW are absent. But viewers will stop watching eventually and when XF finishes I doubt they'll all return.

Excellent start for Pillars Of The Earth imo considering the doomed slot and the competition. If only it had been scheduled in another slot and CH4 could have a big hit on their hands for once. It seemed to hurt the crime drama repeats on FIVE, with those drama viewers transferring to CH4.

Intersting article about NBCs fortunes

http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/nbcs...on-in-the-hour

I will say, I could see NBCs "School Pride" being one of those C4 shows that gets a US remake on ABC.

It was in a post-watershed Friday slot that Casualty first took off in the ratings in the 1980's. IIRC it had 2 series on Saturdays where it did okay. (I believe ITV dominated Saturdays in those days). Casualty then moved to Fridays at 9.30 and within a couple of series was attracting peak audiences of 16m.

With BBC1 struggling to find successful Saturday night dramas Casualty moved back to Saturdays (and the Beeb got into trouble for screening episodes designed for a post-watershed slot in a pre-watershed slot - the move back to saturdays was a late decision). Originally Casualty would only run for the 16 weeks of Autumn, but with the BBC still struggling to find other successful saturday night dramas it gradually got expanded to run up to Easter or thereabouts.

If Casualty moved back to Friday what could they replace it with? The BBC have tended to sacrifice the lottery shows, In It To Win It and Who Dares Wins, up against ITV's 2 big variety shows and they've taken a respectable 4m. Or maybe they could double the commission for Antiques Roadshow and run it on a Saturday as well. (Please note the use of a smilie.)

Antiques Roadshow on a Saturday? Would that work?

You'd be better off doing a "Simon Cowell on life support when he saw the following" gag...


The morning after "the night SCD and TXF went head-to-head for the first time this season and Strictly WON" and we're all talking about Casualty's future...

Only on the DS Ratings Thread.

Yes, perhaps not that unpredictable (although I doubt it would have happened last year). What must be a concern to ITV-Cowell is that there was no sizeable uplift when Merlin finished - so even though Casualty is tanking, TXF isn't really gaining huge viewers from BBC1.

And people are clearly just drifting away from the enormously bloated 2.5hr TXF megathons. Quite a drop, again, as the show enters the last hour/last half hour.

As for Casualty, i've been saying for 2 years that the show needs to lose at least a third of its run, and start on SCD Final Saturday, running through to July. When it's on and people aren't watching it, they get out of the habit.

That said, I think the Beeb killed Casualty when they turned it into a year round soap rather than a popular drama serial about random punters having accidents. There must be a fear that it's simply run its natural course. (Although Holby City - a spin-off soap from day 1 - seems to go from strength to strength)


My first post, I think, since Danny Cohen's appointment. A good appointment, after a rather mixed tenure for Jay Hunt. Young and well regarded, he seems to have been turning BBC3 into something more "grown up" and "balanced" than it was before. Hopefully he can "refresh" BBC1 and add a bit more "must see" than there has been of late.

Who the hell was going to turn over after watching the first 90 minutes? If there was more of Strictly left to watch, I'd agree it was a massive result but as it is it's very much expected and nothing to hang The X Factor for.

There was never going to be a massive upshift after Merlin finished - the two shows appeal to different audiences, hence The X Factor can record record ratings and Merlin can perform admirably.

I agree with you on the marathon - it is sending people away and it is a ridiculous length when adverts are included. Take out the adverts, and last week's X Factor was only 2 minutes longer than last week's Strictly.


Casualty has decent competition; Holby City does not.