Clearly their expectations were a lot higher given all the advertising they paid for so I can understand them being disappointed. But I think they were probably so high that its making the actual figures seem even worse to the programmers at Living than they actually are. 20k with signs of growth would not be low enough for me to pull it. Heck, I remember earlier this year FIVER aired a whole series of the new Melrose Place in primetime which was pulling in around 10k and that channel is on Freeview! They did towards the end move it from 9pm to 8pm.

For me Living have made numerous mistakes with Shorty:

1) Too many showings for each episode, splitting the already small audience.
2) Too many episodes per week, making it quite a big commitment to follow.
3) Too much emphasis on Adam Rickitt in the advertising.
4) Not giving it time to build.

It is still, apart from news, the highest rated programme in New Zealand. Coronation Street also rates very well over there.

Well, Rhodes was famously a complete disaster, even Marmaduke Hussey, of all people, the crusty old BBC Chairman, could see how hopeless it was. In fact he even spotted the problem, there were no female characters in it so it was a load of boring macho rubbish that turned off most of the audience. It was a pet project by the producer - Charles Denton, former Head of Drama - who spent years convincing the Beeb to make it.

Moll Flanders was a big hit, the ITC specifically praised it in the annual report for its "energy" and "broad appeal" (or as The Box magazine translated, it was pleasingly bawdy) although they stupidly repeated it at 9pm on Sundays in 1998, and it flopped big time, and was yanked to 11pm after two episodes. Those things don't repeat well.

The reason Pride and Prejudice was put on BBC1 was because Middlemarch and Martin Chuzzlewit had done so well on BBC2, although both those had post-10pm same week BBC1 repeats. In fact Middlemarch was shown on Wednesday nights after The Day Today, which in hindsight must be the greatest schedule of all time.

In Will Wyatt's book, which I always mention, they said that around the time of Pride and Prejudice, they brought in an expert in English Literature to speak to the controllers and the heads of drama about what novels they should think about adapting, and he said the one author whose work simply wouldn't work on telly was Joseph Conrad. Inevitably, two days earlier they'd commissioned an adaptation of... Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. As Wyatt says, "When I saw it, I knew we should have had that meeting a week earlier". They dumped that on Saturday night BBC2 in the end.

Bit of US Cable news:


From Ausiello (combined ratings from 2 showings that night)

ITV's nervousness of period drama goes back a long, long way. Forty years ago the original Upstairs Downstairs sat on the shelf for ages and then got scheduled at 10.15 on Sunday nights.

According to Wikipedia....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstair...irs#Background

...LWT's sales department could not see the attraction of a period drama.

Well, duh!...

It doesn't say on Wikipedia how many countries it was sold to, but I know it was a heck of a lot. And, of course, it became a massive ratings hit in this country.

It seems a bit daft that LWT had such little cofidence in it when it was not too dissimilar to the Forsyte Saga which had been a massive hit for the BBC a few years earlier (and possibly the reason UD was commissioned in the first place). Looks like dim-witted TV executives are not a 21st century invention.

The May finale ratings were good and the premiere on Thursday night did not too badly considering that it was down 30% y-o-y at points last season. Compared to something like House, there's no immediate concern, IMO.

Overall, in A18-49, it was 3rd for the week behind Sunday Night Football and Glee.

Funnily enough, of the 4 non sports shows that managed a 5.0 or more, 3 were on ABC (Dancing With The Stars, Modern Family, Grey's Anatomy). But that's not going to put you at #1 when there's My Generation and The Whole Truth are in the mid 1's.

I remember SS on Anglia had quite a decent slot of 5.10pm back when the slot was
3.30 CITV
5.10 Shortland Street
5.40 ITV News
6.00 H&A
6.30 Anglia Tonight

It was doing well then nationalisation bumped it to a twice a week 2.30 slot.

looking at Digiguide, looks like TV Burp will be on at 19:30 , given the clash with Merlin that is dissapointing, ill record it, but still its a shame I could watch both shows live

Ads on a commercial channel - how shocking!

The ads in each break (on ITV1,C4,Five) cam be 3.5 minutes, plus a 20 second promo, plus the sponsorship - so it's basically four minutes off the running time for every break, which the shows are consistent with. Further to that it's a maximum of 12 minutes within the hour, then a limit of 40 minutes from 6-11pm. Note The Cube barely had any ads last night - think the first two breaks were just promos.

I do think OFCOM's latest review took it that step too far - a 90-minute show divided into 5 parts had much better balance than dividing it into 6.


Still dispute that argument - this rating is showing such shows can make an impact on digital channels, and still think commercially having such a hit on E4 is of better value to C4 than having it on C4.


Although traditionally boot camp doesn't do so well for The X Factor, really these ratings surely reflect the numerous people who only take an interest in the competition when the focus switches to the actual talent, and not the tone deaf idiots who turn up at the auditions.

Just a shame Cowell is willing to risk throwing it all away just to have a crack at the US market.


That is only of use for the 10-11.05pm slot as the primetime cut off is 11pm, so C4 at least time programmes to end at 11pm (or have a break at 11pm for longer shows) so the ads then come from the overnight quota instead.

Back in the late sixties, early seventies, I remember 10pm Sunday was a regular spot for ITV dramas.

Unfortunately, Downton Abbey won't timeshift well because the STV viewers will be removed from the consolidated figures.

I disagree. The fact that 3.46m was good enough to be C4's second most-watched show of the week shows it should have been on the parent channel. The parent channel's interests should always come before the other channels in the corporation. If E4 shows are delivering audiences that would be classed as above average for C4 then they should be promoted.

Who do you think is right for it?

An interesting overview of NBC Universal, which paints a rather bleak picture for the flagship channel and emphasises just how important it is for the broadcast networks to build strong cable divisions.

Unlike FOX or British broadcasters, NBCU's entertainment channels are stand-alone brands rather than "NBC2, NBC3" etc. The news channels do carry NBC branding - MSNBC and CNBC.

The Hollywood Reporter

The broadcast division is worth $3.5bn - but that's all due to Spanish language channel Telemundo and the NBC affiliates which are owned & operated by NBCU. The actual NBC network is worth "negative $600m".

The cable division is worth a staggering $32.7bn which includes $11.7bn for the USA network.

The (film) studio & (theme) parks business is worth $5.4bn.

There will probably be a repeat of TV Burp at about 6pm on Sunday. Not to mention about a hundred repeats() on ITV2/ITV2+1 throughout the week.


I'm old enough to remember Jim Bowen saying "Back in 2 minutes" at the commercial break in Bullseye.

And some of the episodes of Dad's Army and Steptoe and Son that I have on videotape run for 29 minutes 30 seconds, so no time for BBC1 to show fifteen trailers in between programmes.

It may be a blatant copy of Gosford Park, but at least Downton Abbey is something different for ITV.

By comparison, DCI Banks, on now, is shockingly unoriginal (and typically gratuitous). It looks as if it's been written by a work experience student using a Sinclair ZX81 and the book "How To Write An Offensively Unoriginal Detective Drama"

It's good that Downton was (and should continue to be) a big ratings success. It would be equally good if Banks was a massive flop. It offers absolutely nothing new to television. (And typical of STV that this is one of the few ITV dramas that they've bought.)

Deadline

CBS is definitely the big winner. #1 or #2 every night in viewers & the key 18-49 demo. With the exception of Fridays, the new scheduling seemed to work and they've eliminated their Wednesday & Sunday weaknesses without creating any new holes. Senior Executive Vice President of Program Planning & Scheduling, Kelly Kahl, justified his incredibly grand title. The risky scheduling moves paid off pretty well for the network. Maybe the BBC would like to employ him? And while none of the new series did great, they all did well. Considering how other networks new shows did, CBS will be pleased.

ABC, as expected, had to rely on its returning hits like DWTS, Modern Family and fairly strong numbers from Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters and Desperate Housewives. Better With You did OK on Wednesday but everything else struggled. Their schedule, as everyone knew last May, was poorly organised. No Ordinary Family is their last hope and probably the show which has had most attention. But it's against NCIS & Glee at 8pm!

NBC need a good rating for Law & Order LA this week to make things look decent. The Event & Outsourced made good starts but The Apprentice is bombing on Thursdays while Undercovers stumbled on Wednesday and Outlaws got thumped by Blue Bloods on Friday. The Thursday comedies held up well despite CBS' competition and they have quite a few series for midseason. Much depends on the second week performances of The Event & Outsourced.

FOX's whole week was tainted by the disaster on Monday as House plunged and Lonestar registered a dreadful 1.3 rating at 9pm. The new Tuesday comedies look likely to fail as well with poor retention from Glee. The musical series was the bright spot - and gives FOX the #1 scripted show among A18-49 for premiere week.

why would I want to watch the repeat on ITV 2, I quite like being able to see peoples heads on ITV 1.

Perhaps the Nostromo adaptation was a leftover from the "Himalayan Option" period of a couple of years earlier? Seems fairly likely.

Lots of final numbers to be revealed tomorrow! Not only with CBS and NBC, but also ABC with Brothers & Sisters (it started at 10:01pm). Desperate Housewives did well, in spite of the fall. 4.2 key adult demo is very impressive and it is the most watched non-sports show of the night (in total viewers). At season 7, they are still pulling great demographic numbers. I predict just over 13m in finals for DH and they could see an increase their numbers next week, just like they did last season - eventually building the figures up till Christmas. Let's hope the ABC schedulers does not f&^k up this time with the next half in the spring. If ABC don't f*&k up, they could potentially see a continuing rise through the season.

B&S also did magnificently, reaching the 3 demo point mark once again. The finals could take down a tenth (although, I hope it remains at 3.0). This season will truly be a test for B&S to see if they can maintain a healthy rating. With episodes reduced and Off The Map being the possible replacement in midseason, B&S will have to prove that they can attract viewers and not just having to rely on DH's lead-in. Regardless of a piss-poor performance from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (no doubt AFV will have a similar story), like you said C14E, as long as the two Sunday dramas do well, it is all good. Fourth place or not, it (almost) won't matter.

The Cleveland Show is f**cked. They are way down from last season, even though sources tell me that they are in line with season one's average. I think FOX have commissioned the show till the 5th season. While the numbers don't scream out danger, losing 2/5 from last season's premiere does create problems. Speaking of which, TVbyTheNumbers have posted an article about second week ratings and if it is important to shows, especially the new ones (http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/09/27...s-matter/65314). It mainly talks about new shows, but I think it would also apply to returning shows also. This should be interesting for Hawaii Five-O, Lonestar, The Whole Truth, No Ordinary Family (next week) and S*&t My Dad Says - in terms of new shows.

BBC1 had to replace Panorama at the last minute tonight. The programme had originally attracted some press attention because it was apparently going to expose Lord Ashcroft's financial affairs and make some accusations about his tax affairs. Alas, it seems it wasn't accurate and the programme will be "reviewed". Instead, they aired something about UK military justice.

The Inbetweeners actually got 3,456,000 on its initial airing, 511,000 on +1 and 438,000 on its Thursday repeat.

Giving a total of 4,405,000 viewers.

I think the Thursday repeat should be included since official ratings are meant to include all viewings within 7 days.

It also got 1m on overnights for it's Friday repeat on C4

Did it really?! Good lord

5.5 million+ viewers is absolutely astonishing for an E4 comedy which started off with 0.4 million.

According to a few reports in the press, ITV are giving the Saturday X Factor Final lead-in to a Piers Morgan's Life Stories 'special' with Cheryl Cole...

It's impressive, but I think the number of unique viewers will be a lot lower. I reckon a lot have watched it twice across the various showings.

Interestingly Dave welcome Channel 4's Peep Show to its schedules from mid October, one of only a few shows from C4 to get the Dave treatment. It follows the likes of Black Books and Spaced.