It's not particularly surprising that SCD's week-on-week rise was bigger than TXF's because it started almost half an hour later yesterday compared to last week. As we've seen with the breakdowns previously, 6pm starts tend to dent SCD's averages, but yesterday it began at 6.25pm and finished later so of course there was going to be a significant week-on-week gain. If there hadn't been a decent week-on-week rise, that would've suggested something was wrong.

TXF was in nearly the same sort of slot as last week and with 'Halloween' more likely to affect its audience (younger audience than Strictly), it's no surprise that its week-on-week gain wasn't as much as SCD's.

You're right that there'll be a few episodes of TXF coming up that'll rate below last year's comparable ratings due to all the Jedward hype last year peaking midway through the live shows. But I won't change the way I'll comment on the ratings.

Next month is the ninth series of I'm A Celeb. Last year saw it average out at 8 million, a big improvement on 2008, but how will this year's do? I reckon if the celebs are complete Z listers, the show will fall back to around 5 million, and also could be hit by strong competition from BBC One. However, if the celebs prove popular, then factor in 8 million viewers.
Would I also be right in saying ITV are planning to show it for another four series?

What do you mean "fall back" to 5 million?

What was the last series to average 5 million?

Well that didn't happen did it. Always thought the Halloween affect was overplayed last year and was more coincidence than anything.

Is this the first year both Strictly and TXF have done a Halloween special - can't recall either going all out on it before.


Surprising, but bumping Soccer Saturday off Sky Sports 1 probably artificially inflates the figure too.


Only saw bits and pieces of Strictly but from what I saw I have to agree. Strictly actually looked like a professional TV show for once.


No, you tend to look for any excuse to slag off The X Factor and ITV in general, rather than the blatant facts.

Strangely, I didnt think about it much while watching, but your right-they really did go to town and it was brilliantly colourful show.

2008 averaged out at 5-6 million. Last year's was the highest rated IACGMOOH since 2005. It all has to do with the quality of the contestants. However, a few people are saying the format is becoming tired.

The 2008 Average for I'm a Celebrity was 8.8m!

IAC has never averaged 5-6m for a series, its lowest series average was 7.3m for the 2007 series.

Does anyone know what the series averages are for The Apprentice?

Fantastic for Strictly, it seems to have stepped up a gear this year in terms of production and ratings. Last night's overnight figure of 10.4m is well above the highest official rating of 10.13m this year too. I havent seen the word "tanking" used this year yet.

I understand what RobbieSykes is saying about X Factor. It seems to just get the same figures most weeks now, 12-12.5m on Saturday and around 13.5m on Sundays. Before anyway starts I know how good those numbers are but saying the same things each week about the same numbers gets tedious.

Official Series Averages for The Apprentice are:

2005- 2.55m
2006- 4.43m
2007- 5.62m
2008- 7.29m
2009- 8.37m

The 2005 and 2006 series aired on BBC Two.

Thanks.

And the overnights (just for comparison purposes):

2005: 2.5m
2006: 4.2m
2007: 5.5m
2008: 6.9m
2009: 7.8m

Quite astonishing year-on-year growth. It was obviously helped by the channel switch for series 3 but even so that's quite brilliant. Another interesting fact is that the first ever episode got an overnight of just 1.9m, which is pretty poor for BBC2 - I bet the BBC never thought it would turn out to be the hit it is now!

And also it has generally aired in the spring and summer. Oddly, I think this season may see a drop in the average despite what seemed a far better autumn slot.

I wonder when the series finale will be. My EPG says it's a 12 week run, ep 5 this week. That would mean Wednesday 23rd December. But if they move it to a Sunday like last year, this would clash with (or run straight after) SPOTY on the 19th.

I think Weds 23rd could get big ratings - ITV will have closed down for the year by then, plenty of people will have finished for Christmas, and BBC1 might well move the Ten O Clock news later from that day, meaning they could do You're Hired straight after at 10pm again.

I'm sure IAC did fall to 5.5 million on some days in 2008. I know Survivors gave it some stiff competition. Yet last year Jungle, as some people call it at work, was back up to 8-9 million. However, as it is now entering its eighth year, can the show do as well, or is the format becoming stale?

It depends entirely on the casting, and there's no doubt the Katie Price effect helped the show last year.

Much as I'd love to see this tripe fall to 5.5m I have to report that the lowest overnights for the 2008 series was 7.43m on the last Tuesday of the run.


Edit: the 2007 series fell to 4.45m on Children In Need night. There was no clash with CIN in 2008.

Nov 23 2008 - Survivors 6.97m IAC 8.13m

Nov 25 2008 - Survivors 5.99m No IAC, Champions League

Dec 2 2008 - Survivors 5.22m IAC 7.91m (series low).

Again the BBC offered a decent alternative to ITV1, knowing that a large part of the viewing public found I'm A Celeb trashy and predictable. The first series of Survivors did well against one of ITV's biggest hitters.
The BBC now seem to be more adept at scheduling against popular ITV shows. Typically in the seventies, against Opportunity Knocks, Coronation St and George and Mildred, their alternative would be a repeat of an imported show, followed by Panorama, which would be flattened by the opposition.

I know what Georged123 (and Robbie) mean by the X Factor figures. They're fantastic but they've plateaued. There's no sign of the fantastic growth that occured in the audition/boot camp/judges house stage. Strictly Come Dancing, in comparison, is continuing to grow (though where did the presenters get 11m for the Saturday show from last night? ) and, for all the moaning about the programme from the SCD forum, it is doing excellently.

Casualty did reasonably I suppose. Merlin and TV Burp held up as well as always against strong opposition.

Agreed and in no small measure due to the way its made and edited, at its best its some of the most compelling tv Iv seen.

The peak last week was 11.3m, so that's what they are referring to. It's a classic tactic by those in the TV industry to use the peak audience as "the number who watched last week". It's correct in a sense, but I heard Tess say it to the first couple up at about 6.30. There won't have been 11m watching at that time last night, or last week.

On that subject, do we have any peaks or breakdowns yet for last night's shows?

I presume you mean for BBC's shows, but seeing as you mention 'peak':

The X Factor: 13.5m
Life Stories: 6.7m

ITV Press Office also noted in a tweet "Lots of exciting news coming next week."

This is Strictly's year. Excellent figures and wonderful growth. The X Factor started very strongly but the live shows haven't managed to keep that momentum going, for whatever reason.

No, I meant all the key shows last night. TXF and SCD in particular.

TXF slightly down on last week then? 13.7m down to 13.5m?

Wonder what the "exciting" ITV news might be. Relaunch of Daybreak?

Ah right, thanks.


Because it plateaued. If it continued the regular growth as it did at the start of the series it'd be around the 20m mark by now. Did anyone actually expect that???