I couldn't believe it when I discovered she's older than me.

A bit of controversy did Million Pound Drop a favour then - up at least 500,000 on last week and probably with +1 back to where it was two weeks ago.

Will be interesting to see how Merlin does tonight with just a 5-minute clash with The X Factor.

My betting for I'm A Celeb: launch night will probably attract 8 million viewers. If the viewers take to the celebs, expect a series average of 8 million. Should the celebs be not up to scratch, expect the audience to dip to 5 million. Also since Hell's Kitchen has been dropped, and recent celeb reality shows like All At Sea and 71 Degrees North have fared badly, might the declining interest in has beens in strange locations rub off on I'm A Celeb. However, it does seem resilient to the move in reality from celebs to talent contests and could buck the trend. Yet now in its eighth year, IAC ratings will be interesting.

I can't see IAC dipping to 5m at all. Over the years IAC ratings have been very stable indeed. Infact, the last series was the 3rd most watched series so far! After a 16/17m+ lead in from TXF, IAC is going to launch with 9m+ without a doubt.

As I've said, it does seem to be bucking the trend as celeb reality has become a jaded format and reality does best linked to cookery and talent shows now. It will be interesting to see how IAC does as it is getting on now. 8 million seems to be the ball park figure.

The One Show drops nearly a million when Chris Evans is on,Ii wonder if anyone at the BBC has noticed yet, it's a regular trend

Nothing of particular note last night, although Coronation Street's ratings continue to highlight the problems of Thursday's episode. Good for MPD.

Really pleased that Million Pound Drop's ratings are back up, but I wish they would stop putting celebs on the show; I have zero interest seeing them and the sooner C4 realise that the better.

I also hope they leave it a while before bringing it back and keeping it as a daily programme over a 2 week period.

I think one of the main problems with the show is that viewers who watched the original have had too high expectations of the show. With the Reggie Perrin name being used I suppose it helped bring fans of the original at the start but has also put a lot of those fans off when they relaised it was not as good as the original. If the show had a different title and a less obvious connection to the 1970s series then maybe more people would have given it a chance. Its hardly a brilliant sitcom but certainly enjoyable and deserves a higher audience.

And Lucy Liemann is certainly lovely too.

Good steady rating for MPD.

EastEnders has had a good week.

Not great for The Event on Channel 4.
If it does get another season I wonder if Channel 4 will still want it or it will probably end up going onto Sky.

Looking at the line up I fear its not exactly 'A' list!

Last year they brought in Katie Price to bolster the ratings. It's hard to tell with IACGMOOH, you get people who say it's worn out and then end up watching it. If it it successful again, there are rumours ITV have booked the location until 2014.
While the British version has done well, the American one stiffed in the ratings. Similarly Survivor didn't do much here, yet is still a success in America.

Yes Lucy is rather nice.

I cant be quite so charitable about the series though. The problem for me as a fan of the original is that, however great the modern cast is, none of them are as good at the characters as their seventies counterparts. And, two series in I still am unfavourably judging the modern against the original. Reggie is forever Leonard Rossiter and a seventies show-this is the second failure to recreate the original magic and maybe a hint that it should have been be left where it was.

Personally if the BBC was going to work with Martin Clunes they should have gone for a new comedy-its a chance lost imo.

I think I said this last year, but I think ITV should really consider doing a live-link up from Dermot to Ant and Dec during The X Factor with a preview of the first show in order to promote IAC.

They did it with Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon to promote Grease is the Word (although those were 2 struggling series).

I believe Vernon Kay is going to be doing another live link-up during the DWTS finale on ABC to promote Skating with the Stars straight after.

It's all very well having 15m viewers at 8pm, but you need to make all 15m aware that something really is good is coming up at 9pm, otherwise they'll all go off and find something else to do. I'm sure they'll run a couple of ads, but I think they could do more.

I dont disagree with the promotion-but I doubt all 15 million will think that IAC is something good.

Have to say the cast list arent exactly headline grabbing-though I dont suppose it always matters.

Certainly not, but there will be a large number of casual viewers who could be enticed to watch it if they've seen something really good. Show a preview of Gillian McKeith falling flat on her face and the Playgirl getting her tits out and that'll increase the audience somewhat.

You do realise one person in I'm a Celebrity this year was actually in The X Factor last year?

I think thats quite smart - to some of the audience she will be the most famous one there!

Not everyone who watches TXF will want to watch IACGMOOH, the latter has 4 million fewer viewers, although at its peak the final in 2003 attracted as many viewers as TXF final. There could be some logic in cross promotion as ITV would love both shows to dominate the ratings.
Actually ITV1 shouldn't be so worried. The next 3 weeks should be very lucrative for them with their two reality monsters ( ratings wise), the Coronation St 50th anniversary and Emmerdale attracting 7 million viewers. Also there does seem to be a bit of a recovery in drama on ITV as well.
A few years ago I wouldn't have found anything positive to say about ITV as it seemed to be sinking, but now I think they seem to be improving.

Well the name would not have meant much to me but having had a look I know the link. Though do you think that will, in itself make people tune in who otherwise wouldnt have done? I get the impression most ex XF contestants dont register much once the series is ended.

Perhaps but it's not unusual for ITV to have a strong Autumn is it?

Not that I disagree with what you say but there are other parts of the year that still need work.

Everything considered the launch show should do very well and will represent a peak which probably wont be matched till the end-there is no Katie Price(Im assuming) so maybe a bit of luck or manufacturing is needed to create an ongoing impetus-there could be a few lowish rated episodes early on.

Yesterday's breakfast TV ratings:

BBC1 (inc. HD)
06:00- Breakfast: 1.60m

ITV1 (exc. HD)
06:00- Daybreak: 802,000
08:30- Lorraine: 898,000

So a little recovery by Daybreak compared to earlier in the week.

Interesting how BBC Breakfast has nearly caught up with Daybreak in terms of Housewives with Children, which is supposed to be Daybreak's core audience (according to ITV):

Housewives with Children: Breakfast- 130k , Daybreak- 145k for yesterday's programmes.

Must be concerning for ITV that Breakfast is so close in that demo.

re: Corrie ratings

Its good to see that ITVs mismanagment can dent even the previously rock soild Corrie.

re: EastEnders ratings

I dont know how Bryan Kirkwood is getting away with this, but EE continue to go from strength to strength this year.