A couple of provisional dates for some ITV shows over Xmas:

Benidorm: Christmas Special- Monday 27th December
Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express- Friday 31st December

The provisional schedules can change a lot once the schedules are confirmed but that's the dates they're put down as at the moment. Benidorm is longer than the usual hour. As for Poirot, I'm surprised it's currently down for New Year's Eve since it's one of the worst nights for TV. Maybe they're showing it earlier in the Xmas period and that's a repeat airing?


Yep. Yesterday's Grandslam of Darts had 480k between 6-10pm which is pretty good considering the terrestrial competition. It peaked at 800k during the climax of the match.


About 23-27% of the show's audience are 16-34 year olds (it varies depending on day and competition). About 40% of its audience are ABC1s (upmarket viewers). And about 62-65% of its adult audience are women.

Have to admit it'd be quite annoying to have some reality TV documentary dross getting the X Factor Final lead-in.

Take a risk ITV and put a new drama or something of that nature after the final. Please.

Thankyou, I do find it has a broader base than BB as obviously it has four times the audience. BB seemed to trend better among women under 35 and C2DEs.

Fantastic for SCD and X Factor.

It just shows that Reality TV in the UK is far from over.

SCD in paticular has has one of it´s best ever series, ratings and quality wise.

X Factor is great this year too. Having 13m last night I´m sure it will get close to 15m tonight.

Do you think this year will beat last year´s final?

I think The X Factor final could topple the BGT final with Susan Boyle.

And I think the Strictly final could top 13 million.

Drop Zone starting now on BBC1. In what can only be considered a graveyard slot. Is this because of the reaction to the similar 71 Degrees North? Or because it's presented by Steve Jones?

"Arrgh! Not again! We wanted the one that used to present The Pyramid Game."

I think this year's TXF final will have a higher peak than the 19.2m peak for that BGT final.

I don't think it'll quite match that BGT final in terms of its 17.3m overnight average (it'll be close though) because BGT was a 30-minute show while TXF will be 2 hours long so with it being dragged out for longer, it's less likely it'll be able to keep 17.3m+ watching for 2 hours.

Thanks rzt - where did you find these out of interest?

The Benidorm slot makes sense as Xmas Day would've been a waste and it'll get its usual Corrie lead-in on that day. I wonder how the main series would do on Mondays? Could get 7m+ but they tend to reserve that night for drama. I think that Poirot slot will change as they surely won't waste that on New Year's Eve? Like you've said I suspect it's a repeat.

So to piece things together I think this is a list of ITV's Christmas programmes that we know of (I've probably missed some):

Benidorm
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Marple
Come Rain Come Shine
The Cube
The Military Awards
David Suchet on The Orient Express
Paul O'Grady's Christmas Eve Show
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Live
All Star Family Fortunes
Ad of The Year
Primeval (rumoured to be starting on NYD)
The Santa Files
All Star Mr and Mrs (?)
Harry Hill's TV Burp Review of The Year (?)
Octavia (?)
Midsomer Murders (?)
Ant and Dec's Christmas Show (?)
Dancing on Ice (?)

I'm not sure if the ones with question marks are happening this year but they've been shown at Christmas before (or in Octavia's case been left on the shelf for so long a Christmas burn-off seems likely). There will probably be a few films too (a Harry Potter film will surely pop up as yesterday's rating shows they're always reliable).

As for The X Factor, I agree that it'll beat BGT's 19.2m unless things go pear-shaped in the next few weeks. I highly doubt it'll average 17.3m but 16m+ seems achievable, which is phenominal.

Of course, we don't yet know what goodies ITV1 will line up against the Strictly final. If it's anything like previous years, it'll probably be The Saturdays Sing Bob Dylan.

Strictly's target is 13.5m which was the BGT Final got in the officials. If it could beat that, then that would be a seriously good acheivement. (They might need Widders in the final to do that.)

Good point. And they've made it two hours because of the huge advertising rates the show can command.

Interesting too that American Idol is making changes that make it seem more like The X Factor.

Stranger things have happened because in America the you know what is hitting the fan due to Bristol Palin being in the final at the expense of more talented dancers.

Ignore this post, I can't read

It apparently says on this website: https://www.readytoair.net/

I don't have access to that website personally but was told by someone who does that those are the dates currently put down.

I think to add to your list, there's a Paul Burling Impressions Show too.

Clodhopper Christopher Parker reached the final of Strictly series 1. And they had only 2 in the final that series.


Last NY Eve ITV1 showed the brand new psychological thriller Sleep With Me which failed to attract the 3.17m necessary to make ITV's top 30. Although maybe STV opted out, I don't know.

Sunday Express today says ITV have ordered a new tranche of Poirot when David Suchet thought it was being axed.

OK thanks.

I'm not sure if The Paul Burling Show is for ITV1 or ITV2 which is why I didn't put it in the list, but you could be right in that it may be for ITV1.

Yes a few of us mentioned that on GB. Widdecombe could make the final. And from a ratings standpoint I wonder if the BBC secretly hope she does?

Sorry for dragging this up again, but ITV always used to put their regular shows up against Comic Relief and Children in Need and the latter, especially, used to be an absolute sitting duck in the schedule, ten years ago it would get next to nothing. It's only in recent years the ratings have rocketed.

In 1999, Comic Relief was in the week ITV moved the news to 11pm and had Millionaire up against it, and in 2003, the climax to the huge Richard Hillman story in Corrie was on Red Nose Day as well.

As for creating a build-up, I remember William Phillips in Broadcast critcising BBC1 in 1999 for "rattling the tin too fervently" for Comic Relief, as in the three weeks before it they'd had a three-part hour-long documentary with various celebs visiting projects on Sunday nights, Comic Relief Jukebox, a phone-in thing, twice a week and a series of Delia shorts, among others, which was too much, and then the night itself didn't rate that well. That said, none of the build-up was very interesting, it wasn't like a big concert. It always used to be that Children in Need would be preceded the night before by a documentary with Phil Schofield about what happened to the money from last year, and I remember in 1990 it was the day Thatcher resigned and it ended up going out about midnight.

CiN was a very different show in those days, of course, the big thing used to be Children of Courage with Esther Rantzen, which used to be straight after the Nine O'Clock News, and they used to repeat that bit on Good Friday daytime as well. It seemed a bit more exciting in those days because CiN night was one of the few nights of the year we were allowed to stay up late.


Although I don't have Sky, I'm guessing it isn't a standalone channel as it's also available in Virgin's XL pack, which is why I've got it. But don't forget, it's against the law to criticise Sky Arts because Sky are Investing In The Arts, despite the fact nobody watches it. In fact I'm seriously considering unsubscribing from Broadcast if they print yet another uncritical and fawning article about Sky Arts.

I think The X Factor Final could make over 16m.

I think SCD could potentially make over 13 maybe 14m.

Children in Need Ratings
2000 - n/a
2001 - 7.12m
2002 - 7.56m
2003 - 10.49m and 5.33m
2004 - 8.48m and 4.77m
2005 - 9.07m and 4.59m
2006 - 7.72m and ?.??m
2007 - 9.56m and 4.48m
2008 - 9.83m and 4.82m
2009 - 10.08m and 4.50m

It's been well watched for the past 9 years, 2000 isn't there, so that may have rated low. Apart from a dip in 2006, it's always been ~8/9m, sometimes higher.

[quote=ftv;45849785]Sunday Express today says ITV have ordered a new tranche of Poirot when David Suchet thought it was being axed.[/QUey

There are only 4-5 books left to be adapted. So ITV will probably see them through to the end. Don't forget Poirot is very big internationally and pays for itself from these sales.

I think that's it great that they will complete the Poirots. Only a few left so they might as well.

Although I like CIN, I prefer Comic Relief and I think celebrities make more time for it than CIN. The Kilamanjiro climb is a great example, I think Children in Need Rocks should return next year maybe not at the RAH but somewhere like the O2 or Wembley Arena.


Sky Atlantic I think will be a success but a lot of shows won't be watched in huge numbers.

Reminds me of a newspaper which used to print weekly TV ratings. They'd add the first and repeat screenings' figures together, as well as showing the individual figures.

Nearly every bit of addition was wrong.

Reality has evolved. Apart from IAC, the original version of reality with people being placed in a contrived location for several weeks has largely gone and the genre has evolved into the more watchable and likeable light entertainment/talent show variety. Certainly the Big Brother/ Shipwrecked, etc, style of reality show has largely died out or been moved to little watched digital channels.