I don't think these official HD-inclusive (BBC) ratings have been noted today:

- Strictly Come Dancing 9.84m
- SCD Results 9.59m
- The Apprentice: 8.11m
- Countryfile 7.04m
- Antiques Roadshow 6.29m
- Single Father 6.04m

Fantastic ratings all of them.

The third show is apparently not going to be a talent show and is intended as a new brand to sit alongside Got Talent and X Factor. "What I need to do now is to make sure our third golden egg is as shiny and tasty as our first two" - Syco's MD.


I'm not sure about it ending in November. FOX ran So You Think You Can Dance into December last year. And there is a bit of a time issue as well.

With November Sweeps 2011 finishing on the 24th, they'll only have 10 weeks from the official start of the season to get it all in.

Keeping to the basic format it'll be 3 weeks of auditions, 2 for bootcamp/judges houses. Even if they only have 3 judges and do 8 live shows instead of 10, they'd have a start date of August 30th which is way too early.

The press release wasn't exactly overflowing with information.

Agreed-a strong set of figures indeed.

Single father may not be rating incredibly, however it's climbed to no1 on iplayer

Its not doing badly all things considered-it has a newsworthy hit to contend with on the other side. I think David Tennant will always have a cheering section following him around after the impact he made as Dr Who.

Wow, lots going on today!

Good news for ITV to have secured TXF for next autumn. Simon's going to be earning his air miles. I know Len and Bruno do it on Strictly/DWTS, but they only do 3 days of filming total (Simon will have 4) and don't "mentor". Mind you, neither does Simon...

I think there was a slight overreaction about the impact on the BBC. To be honest, it shouldn't change anything. Now Strictly is a bit shorter than in the past, they can get Doctor Who in September, before it begins - and still run with their usual autumn line-up, which on the whole looks in pretty good health this year.

Countryfile is doing brilliantly in that earlier slot and Strictly returning to Sundays has certainly made the BBC much more competetive. Tennant's drama doesn't look so amazing in the context of the night, but with a first episode over 6m in the officials and good retention, we'd be hailing it as excellent at any other time of the year. Slots don't come much harder than this - it's up againt one of the biggest new dramas of the year fuelled by the biggest show on TV - but it's doing much better than Emma, Garrows Law. etc. did there last year.

Well with you ready to pass comment everytime Mr Cowell does pass wind, what do you expect!


Do we reckon The Inbetweeners will top 3m tonight then. To be honest after an excellent series (three series in fact) I thought tonight's was a little underwhelming. I reckon it's clear too the writers left their options open to do another series to conclude their final year in Sixth Form but then (probably for the best) decided against it and to quit while they're ahead.

So do you think they'll put it on opposite X Factor or earlier? I'm not arguing with you, I'm just interested in how that would work. Could they schedule DW so it won't clash with X Factor? Put it before SCD starts? They are planning to have six or seven episodes in the autumn aren't they? Apologies if I'm missing something obvious but I don't see how they'll do that without putting it on too early. If they're bothered by low overnights, isn't it risky to put it on against X Factor?

Merlin and DW are very, very different in the whole BBC attitude to them. Merlin gets no promotion, the actors are not even vaguely famous unless you're devoted to the show, despite having been in it three years now, and it remains resolutely unfashionable and ignored by the press. I don't think the BBC mind putting Merlin opposite X Factor because if it did crash and burn, like series 3 Robin Hood did, I don't think they'd care that much. DW is its pride and joy, it makes huge stars of its actors, it is massively promoted and it is still very, very fashionable. I could see the point if X Factor was taking the autumn off, but I can't see how this is in DW's interest now. I would understand someone saying 'DW fans will watch it whenever it's on' but then why move it from the summer?

As I say, I'm not arguing I'm just confused - ratings are a mystery to me.

Things have been desperate at NBC for a while but I think they've now hit a new level of desperation. They've given back 9 orders to The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced. They've even ordered 6 scripts for Undercovers - and scripts tend to turn into episode orders. Chase is also said to be getting a back 9.

Ordering shows which are doing so badly suggests they don't have any confidence in their mid season replacements to do better. Their 10pm shows are now below The Jay Leno Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is doing worse than The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien at the same time last year.


According to Deadline, CBS will make their back 9 orders this week as well. Mike & Molly & Hawaii Five-O are definites. Sh*t My Dad Says and Blue Bloods also seem likely to get orders.

CBS have a midseason comedy lined up - Mad Love stars Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) and Jason Biggs (American Pie). They also have 2 hour long shows - the Criminal Minds spin-off and CIA thriller, Chaos.

With CBS looking so solid, it's difficult to place them just now. The Defenders 2.5 rating on Wednesday was decent but CBS are going to have to get rid of something and it looks like it will be first out.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/pick...-more-scripts/

It's not just about ratings, but the scheduling difficulties caused by a cash-strapped ITV landing a successful format and then completely taking over the schedules with it in order to milk the ad revenue/spin offs for all it's worth - up to 3.5 hours a weekend this year, next year will probably be the full 4 hours.

If the BBC wants to take the perfectly sensible decision to give the next series of Doctor Who a summer break so one of its biggest shows doesn't air when it's hot and sunny outside, then it should be able to do so - not be criticised because ITV1 now "owns" autumn, which is what it would like to think is the case.

ITV's reliance on all things Cowell - up to 3.5 hours for 20+ weekends in the autumn, over a month of spring/early summer, plus the upcoming "third format" (bound to be another talent contest...), is not only starving its own audience of new programming formats, but in time, viewers of other channels.

And I haven't even started on what it's doing to the British music industry...

I'm surprised Chase is getting a back 9, but the other shows you mention not so much. Outsourced and The Event have fallen but at the moment they are still at an acceptable level and rating better than other shows in the NBC schedule. Plus the latter has sold well internationally.

Are NBC desperate? Possibly. But what's the alternative, cancel everything and start again? I think you've got to make the best of what you've got, and at the moment that's not very much in NBC's case.

I think they will schedule it from early September to finish in Mid October, this way they will avoid the X Factor live shows and finish before SCD returns or have its finale on the night SCD starts and market it as a big night for BBC1. I think it will only be the last 6 episodes in the second part of the series. If they did schedule it against X Factor I reckon it would be against the audition/judges houses shows. That being said DW is stronger than Merlin and Merlin performs very well against X Factor so I would not imagine DW to struggle that much against X Factor live.

Splitting DW was first considered in 2009 for this year's series. This was way before any rumours of X Factor not being on in 2011 so I think we can rule out the reason the split is happening was to capitalise on X Factor not being on. The split is happening to make the end of part one more of an event and the several month gap between the two parts of the series to create a buzz for when it returns for the last 6 episodes. It will also avoid taking a week off for Eurovision.

Like I said in an earlier post, being scheduled very early in the evening against scorching weather in June will damage DW more than being on against X Factor in the autumn.

I think the fear is that Doctor Who won't hold it's own, and will hurt itself, and hurt Merlin in a new slot in the process. I don't think BBC1 will be down next autumn at all - as others have stated, they have numerous ways to work round The X Factor. And Merlin has already proven that an anti-X Factor audience is there. I like the Doctor Who move; if it clashes with X factor I'll just catch up with one of the shows online. I think it's being made a bigger deal than it really is.

Good news for ITV though with the contract renewal with Simon Cowell. To be honest the BBC would struggle to keep afloat in the commercial market (that's just their TV stations) so I don't think too many people should be critical of ITV's approach - they need to make money, so they will milk the goose that lays the golden egg. The issue is not to milk it too much.

As for last night - fantastic for both BBC1 and ITV1 (after 8pm). News of The X Factor's demise seems woefully premature and Countryfile's posting staggering ratings, probably aided by the Strictly lead out. TV Burp seems to be struggling - but didn't it have an X Factor lead out last year?

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.37m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.26m
19:00 Home and Away 1.01m
19:30 The X Factor 1.06m
20:30 The Event 0.64m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.19m
18:30 A Current Affair 1.22m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 1.08m
19:30 Two and a Half Men (Season Premiere) 1.46m
20:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 1.31m
20:30 Sherlock 1.25m

Ten
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.51m
18:30 Neighbours 0.62m
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.76m
19:30 Junior MasterChef 1.13m
20:30 (New) Undercover Boss Australia 1.31m

Where to start? What a night. So many talking points.

First of all, great to see quality British drama triumphing over ropey US drama. Sherlock comprehensively beat The Event in total people and all key demos. Turns out Nine made a very savvy decision in picking up Sherlock as British drama normally ends up on ABC. Maybe it will encourage the commercial networks to go for Brit shows more often. The Event meanwhile, which got off to a mediocre start last month, is now officially a total Non-Event. Seven now have two expensive flops dragging down their Monday nights!

A very mixed night for Ten. Undercover Boss Australia got off to an impressive start, but what on earth has happened to Junior MasterChef? To go from 2.2m to 1.1m over the course of just five episodes is terrible. I bet they now regret the boastful press releases about its performance after just one rating. All that early promise has dissipated and it's now nothing more than an average performer. Move along folks, nothing to see here! The 7pm Project meanwhile logged a dismal rating- viewers it seems didn't miss it much whilst it was away.

On top of Sherlock, Nine had a good night all round with Two and a Half Men putting in a predictably strong rating for its series premiere, sandwiched between two repeats and topped the night.

17 weekends - not 20+. The possible third format isn't a talent contest and Cowell won't even be in it so no need to worry about that - it might not even appear until 2012. And the 30 minute extended running time of the first 2 live shows hasn't meant anything else was cancelled. Meanwhile, XF has proven to be a useful launch pad for the most successful new drama series on British TV this year (even if it took a while for ITV to actually use the lead-in).

There is plenty of room for new formats on Saturday nights. Both ITV1 & BBC1 have gaps from January to September. In fact, ITV have problems with their Saturday schedule right now.

Slightly unfair on the BBC. They are a PSB and therefore set up and run like one. They have some advantages over commerical networks but are also held back in some regards.

If the BBC ever went commerical they would cope fine I believe, especially without the shackles from the BBC Trust and anti-licence fee brigade.

Also, do you really milk a goose?



Credit to ITV for using X Factor to launch a show to great success, its only taken them 7 series mind.

They're nothing if not cautious.

They can be a bit slow but at least they got there in the end!

To be fair, until 2008 it wasn't what it is now - Corrie used to be a far better lead-in for new drama, especially with results shows finishing after 10pm on Saturdays.

I still think they could have done more with it this year although I guess they'll have been pleased that the one-offs did OK. But at least the huge investment in DA has paid off and they've got a big hit out of it. It's the big hits and big audiences from the likes of Corrie, X Factor and so on that give ITV the funds and platform to take the occasional calculated risk.

Fair point, but I think the BBC'd have to move downmarket in order to compete in the commercial sector. I think EastEnders would pop up on Wednesday's as well, for example. Doctor Who would probably get 2 runs of 12 instead of 2 runs of 6. Strictly Come Dancing would become a spin off of Dancing with the Stars. The cosy Sunday night schedule would probably be ripped to bits because, though great, it isn't advertiser friendly. The likes of BBC4 and BBC Parliament would in all probability be scrapped because they wouldn't make a profit.

The day the BBC loses the PSB remit and the license fee will be a sad day for British Broadcasting. Look how quick ITV have fallen since the digital revolution. I don't think British TV can afford the BBC to go the same way.


When the time is approaching midnight - yes.

I dont disagree with any of that. It would be terrible if BBC did commercialise. The types of shows and channels you mentioned would go, no more Countryfile maybe. . But they do have the range of programmes in their arsenal to compete should that happen. Doctor Who, Eastenders, The Apprentice, SCD, Top Gear etc.

Holy crap, that's a bomb!

Yep! It's probably one of the lowest Seven 8:30 ratings I have seen since I started tracking Aus ratings. (in the ratings season)

Next week it's moving to 9:30 to accommodate new Criminal Minds. But even at 9:30 that rating wouldn't be great for The Event. It's a real turkey!

If I was Channel 4 I'd be more than a bit worried right now.

Shares are in now:

Nine - 32.4%
Seven - 24.0%
Ten - 21.1%

That's a hefty share for Nine. Seven are going to have their work cut out in order to win this week of ratings.

On the plus side for Syco, it makes The X Factor figure look good.

True! Well, acceptable anyway.