Masterchef The Proffesionals is doing very well for BBC Two but ratings don't usually increase until the semi-finals and final. As much as BBC One would like to add another Masterchef to their schedule I reckon The Proffesionals will stay on BBC Two for the time being plus it suits their audience.

1.9 million is the highest I can find. Close enough! It may well have been over 2 million in the officials.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...victorian-farm

Think that's the highest then.

Reading that makes me sad at how the Thursday schedule used to look. The Bill on 5.1m and a 21% share-only last year

It might not be buying ITV, but NBC Universal is expanding in the UK. The boss of the company that made Downton Abbey, Gareth Neame of Carnival Films, is to run NBC Universal's UK TV production arm and oversee a push into drama, comedy and entertainment. Carnival is owned by NBCU (who ploughed money into DA) and Neame will continue to run the company, which also makes Whitechapel. Apparently DA cost £7m - which seems really expensive, particularly for ITV.

Following calls from Paul Abbott for longer series, the BBC's supreme overlord of drama, Ben Stephenson, says they'll keep going with their 6 episode commissions. He claims that 13 episode series risk "losing the voice of the individual author".

The writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, is writing ITV's Titanic mini-series. The show, from ITV Studios, already has partners in Ireland and Canada and apparently, US broadcast networks and cable channels are interested as well.

I'm sure Carnival/NBCU's investment in Downton Abbey will pay off with international sales, it's the sort of show that sells well abroad.

In regards to 13 episode commision, I'm not against them but I think they suit certain shows like procedural, Shameless IMO has dropped in quality since extending to 16 episodes and next series is going to be 22 episodes.

I dont think all BBC shows need 13 episodes, but I do think the BBC should make shows like Hustle or Spooks, shows that return for many years, I really struggle to care about 1 or 2 part dramas.

Does anyone know the figures for last night's episode of Gossip Girl and Fearne and....Craig David last night on ITV2? How is Gossip Girl doing in comparison with previous series? It isn't performing well on the CW in America; most of its young audience are probably downloading or buying the boxsets.

Forbes have put together a list of premiere week shows by median age.

Network Median Ages:
CBS - 54.9
ABC - 52.3
NBC - 48.4
FOX - 40.6

The median age of the US population is 37.

Top 10 Oldest:
1. Blue Bloods (CBS) - 60.4
2. CSI: NY (CBS) - 58.6
3. NCIS (CBS) - 57.2
4. The Mentalist (CBS) - 57.2
5. NCIS:LA (CBS) - 56.9
6. Outlaw (NBC) - 56.8
7. The Defenders (CBS) - 56.4
8. Undercovers (NBC) - 56.3
9. Dancing With The Stars (ABC) - 55.8
10. Dancing With The Stars Results (ABC) - 55.8

CBS crime procedurals dominate the top 10. FOX placed just one show in the top 20 - Bones (#16 - 53.8). Friday shows were particularly old and there was no comedy in the top 20. CBS high viewer total meant that even with an older skew, it still came out on top among A18-49. Though FOX will almost certainly end the season as #1 again.

http://blogs.forbes.com/laceyrose/20...ith-the-stars/

ABC:
8pm – The Middle – 8.33m (2.4)
* Down 8% from last week
* Up 14% from Hank in this slot last year
8.30pm – Better With You – 7.06m (2.1)
* Down 16% from last week
* 88% retention from The Middle
9pm – Modern Family – 11.88m (4.5)
* #1 show of the night among A18-49
* Down 10% from last week
* Up 18% from Ep 1.02
9.30pm – Cougar Town – 7.07m (2.9)
* Down 12% from last week
* 64% retention from Modern Family
10pm – The Whole Truth – 4.69m (1.3)
* Down 13% from last week
* Next show for cancellation?

CBS:
8pm – Survivor – 12.16m (3.4)
* Down 15% from last week
* #1 at 8pm in viewers & A18-49
9pm – Criminal Minds – 14.41m (3.6)
* Down 10% from last week
* Most watched show of the night
10pm – Defenders – 10.38m (2.5)
* Down 14% from last week
* 69% retention from Criminal Minds

FOX:
8pm – Hell’s Kitchen – 6.31m (2.9)
* Flat vs last week
* Enough to place FOX 2nd on the night in the demo

NBC:
8pm – Undercovers – 7.08m (1.6)
* Down 21% from last week
* Down 24% from Mercy last year
9pm – Law & Order: SVU – 9.23m (2.7)
* Down 10% from last week
10pm – Law & Order: LA – 10.52m (3.1)
* Series Premiere
* Gained 15% from its lead-in
* Won 10pm hour in viewers & A18-49
* First Half - 3.2, Second Half - 3.1

Tvbythenumbers

Network Results:
Rank - A18-49 - A18-34 - Viewers - A19-49 vs 2009
1. CBS - 3.2 - 2.1 - 12.32m - Up 6%
2. FOX - 2.9 - 2.5 - 6.31m - Down 3%
3. NBC - 2.5 - 1.9 - 8.95m - Up 19%
4. ABC - 2.4 - 1.9 - 8.33m - Down 14%

Modern Family still doing well, as is Cougar Town (I'm biased, I want to pretend it's doing amazingly ). Whole Truth won't see 2011.

That Survivor rating was actually its worst 18-49 rating ever. Still a good number though.

Good to see HK keeping it steady, and LOLA doing well.

Survivor is doing well and compared to a year ago, it's doing double the average and boosting CM. The Defenders will be gone by midseason and likely replaced by Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour. Law and Order: LA premiered well and it will likely be number 1 again next week.

The Whole Truth is a goner, wonder what will replace it though?

A couple of new factual commissions from ITV1:

- Caroline Quentin: A Passage Through India: http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press...a/default.html
- London Zoo: http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press...e/default.html

The first one sounds like a copy of a Paul Merton documentary which aired quite recently on C5.

C4 have recommissioned Pete vs Life: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/c...018860.article


Nope, BBC1 has often beaten ITV in primetime even when they've aired Man Utd matches. For e.g. the last time ITV1 aired a Man Utd group match (25/11/09), BBC1 won 22.4% to ITV1's 20.1%.


Disappointing for Better With You, after making a decent start last week. It looks like ABC could have no new successes this season - No Ordinary Family, which started very well yesterday, is their only hope.

Undercovers is basically dead with that sort of rating so early on.

Regarding Fox, I see they're putting Glee after American Idol from January. Obviously that combination is going to be massive for them. But wouldn't it be better for them to try out a new show after Idol because Glee can hold up on its own on another night anyway?


Fearne and... Craig David had 372,800 (1.5%) , +1: 185,300 (1.04%). Not sure about Gossip Girl. I think it usually gets about 200k which is poor.

Brand Ramsey does seem to have been damaged by both his personal and professional troubles last year. His best show is still Kitchen Nightmares IMO, which seems to have been axed by C4. I do think though coming out of a recession a "Kitchen Dreams" spin-off following people setting up restaurants would be a good idea.


Well True Blood is around 55m in running time an episode, so the maximum length is around 75m - possibly push to 80 minutes, with 4 breaks. No minimum requirement though - could run it ad free if they really wanted.


Much deserved failure IMO - the desperate ad campaign highlighted everything that is wrong with it with participants just talking about themselves and how they're being perceived - everything people hated about Big Brother.

For anyone who hasn't seen (and the first bit of good news for Channel 4 in a little while!): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...hletics-rights

For Channel 4 to have one of their biggest audiences this year leading into one of their smallest peak time audiences ever is just a complete disaster. Its almost like X Factor leading into a show on ITV that gets 2m viewers (The Prisoner anyone?). The plug needs to be pulled asap, sod the advertising and the money they've put into it, it just isn't working. Either pull it or push it back to 11pm. Its only going to hurt the channel even further otherwise. Its also overshadowing the fact that Channel 4 had 3.8m viewers last night, outstanding rating!

I don't know whether this has been reported but Whitechapel is down as returning on Monday 11th October. So basically the same slot as Murderland last year. So will it get Murderland style ratings e.g. mid 5millions or Whitechapel first series ratings 8m+. Also will the lack of snow also make a difference, as WC series 1 aired its premiere on 'Snow Day' last year.

Also how will Spooks hold up, will it be sinking to low 4m?

I liked No Ordinary Family and I've seen some positive reviews of the pilot. I can see why ABC wanted it at 8pm, it's a family show, but the competition there on Tuesdays is tough. I think if it stays around 2.5+ then it will survive.


Definitely not more than 13 episodes. At this point, I'm not sure what NBC will do. A more pressing issue is The Apprentice getting 1.4 on Thursdays at 10pm.


The Tuesday performance shows are 90 minutes this year and they're giving the 30 minute spot to their last (and probably best) new sitcom, Mixed Signals. The only other new show for midseason is Ride Along, which probably isn't going to be a good fit for an Idol lead-in (likely to skew male

Originally, they planned Terra Nova for midseason and that would probably have got the slot. But they're giving that more time for production and it won't debut until fall 2011.

I think Glee is the best option they have for now and they're still pushing it - it's getting the Superbowl slot as well.

Yeah, the lack of snow will definitely make a difference: on the night it launched last year, 27m people were watching TV at 9pm while in recent Mondays it's been about 24m.

The competition it faces is tougher than last year too (Spooks instead of WDYTYA). I think it'll launch with 6.5-7.0m before settling to about 6m for the other two episodes. I'd be very surprised if it matched last year's figures because of those two factors already mentioned and that the Jack the Ripper storyline for the previous series was one of the big attractions of the show, and this new series will have a different storyline.

Spooks, I reckon, will drop to just under 4.5m.


Ah right, that makes sense. Out of interest, is Glee the most popular show among males 18-49 or does that title go to The Big Bang Theory/Modern Family?

Champions League performed really badly last night, no idea why...it was a really big match for Man Utd!

News at Ten is now a terrible bulletin, since the yellow revamp, which has alienated around 1m viewers altogether. Idiots at ITV.

I can't recall News at Ten getting near 3m viewers regularly last year.

Another significant move by Sky in the entertainment/drama market, reportedly on the verge of taking over 'Mad Men' from the BBC next year after offering 25% more than the BBC's current deal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...bbc?CMP=twt_gu

Meanwhile Sky are apparently continuing discussions with AMC and Showtime about securing deals similar to the one they signed with HBO.

It slowly built up to around 2.8m viewers and ITV News was getting its good reputation back, then they went and ruined it with the hideous yellow rebrand and shift towards human interest. The ratings plumetted with the quality.

I don't really understand that, it doesn't rate well on BBC Four.

Good to see they're talking with AMC and Showtime

The #1 each week is Sunday Night Football. And ESPN's Monday Night Football was actually #2 overall last week.

But among non-sports shows, Glee has the lead just now by quite a bit with 5.6 and 5.9 ratings so far. Two and a Half Men has had 4.9 & 4.8, Dancing With The Stars has had 5.1 & 4.8, Modern Family has had 5.1 & 4.5 and the premiere of The Big Bang Theory had a 4.9.

TBBT's highest ever rating was in January when it hit a 6.0.

Just a reminder of how ratings can fluctuate.

Jonathan Creek:
New Year's Day 2009 - 9m
next episode:
Easter Sunday 2010 - 5.5m

I predict Whitechapel v Spooks to be the same as last Monday's DCI Banks v Spooks. - 5.7m to 5.2m.