Fantastic for Miranda! Most watched show on BBC2 all week!

Lol indeed, just read that quote on the BBC News article you posted. "Boring and brain-crippling" says Elton of X Factor. Ouch! I suppose this was the closest Cowell was ever going to get to getting him on the show itself, having him on the show right after.

Miranda is well on her way to a BBC1 slot isn't she?

what a load of pompous nonsense

as someone who doesn't watch XF, bar last night due to lack of rugby on ITV, I can't see what everyone's (in popworld) is complaining about

first and foremost it's just a tv show, they've never claimed there were trying to find the next John Lennon, Bob Dylan or David Bowie. It's remit is to find a (moderately) successful POP act.

the success of the Monkees, Manfred Mann or The Archies, did destroy the music scene in 60's. The apparent domination of Syco doesn't last much beyond the new year

The XX, Duffy, La Roux et al have happened without any expsure on XF, so it's not like it's styfling other forms of music

anyway like Dan Le Sac says....

Yes there is some pretty stark stuff in there.

I hope so!

I can see the Christmas Special next Monday doing really well, the highest rated episode of Miranda so far.

Astonishing!

That suggests to me a major gaffe by BBC1. The audience were crying out for an alternative and had to make do with 2 repeats.

Had BBC1 aired first-run shows instead of hoisting the white flag, TXF would probably have done no better than last year.



Interesting timeshift!

Also...




That was closer than perceptions of the relative popularity of the 2 shows would have us believe...

[EDIT: sorry, that will be w/o HD for TXF. But still...]

It must surely beat 13.03m next weekend for the final with no real competition?

ITV1 beats BBC1 (when HD added) all hours for second week.

Is this the start of a trend? (only kidding Robbie, after next week, things will go back to "normal" if previous years are anything to go by!)

K

ITV1 HD add 1.22m to TXF audience

so make of that what you will, which you will

Excellent week for Neighbours - averaging 1.63 million viewers at teatime, up 10% year-on-year; and a further 1.1m at lunchtime, also up approximately 10% year-on-year.

By the same measure, Home & Away is down between 7-12%.

getting carried away now?

The BBC1 audience last night were those who are ardent anti- X Factorista's or those to old, imfirmed or feeble minded to find the main event. It wouldn't have mattered if they had show Test Card F or brand new episodes of Value Your Granny's Stuff Before She Snuffs It. The audience figures were going to be the same.

Three outstanding ratings coming from TXF, Strictly and Elf.

That is staggering for TXF, it just keeps peaking! and Elf is ALWAYS a hit for C4.

Agreed. On the strength of those figures C4 would be wise to put Elf in the exact same slot next year as well. Maybe it could become scheduling tradition like The Snowman on Xmas Eve.

Dirty Dancing also did extremely well for a film that's over 20 years old.

17.2m over two full hours is nothing short of spectacular. With the officials factored in it will be even higher.

But for me what this caps off, as we enter the final two weeks of December, is what a truly great year it has been for British TV ratings.

We had the soap anniversaries, with EastEnders smashing it with its live episode, 15.6m - a stunning figure in this day and age.

Coronation Street got its highest audience for 4 years, with the officials yet to come.

Britain's Got Talent managed 17m with a near 20m peak. 14.3m saw the World Cup.

ITV managed to commission a ratings busting drama SERIES with Downton Abbey, that gained momentum rather than its ratings dropping off a cliff.

Doctor Who pulled 11m, and is likely to top that at Christmas, another shining example of brilliantly rated British drama.

Strictly Come Dancing has improved its audience from the dip in the previous years and done really well.

The Inbetweeners smashed it on E4, with some incredible multichannel ratings.


I'm personally really happy with all of it, the ratings rises on BBC One and ITV1 represent the fact that there is still a place for TV in the nation's hearts in this fragmented world.

Long live television!

Im a Celeb final got an offical rating of 13.48m, just 0.02m behind BGT's final. Who would have thought the two would be so close this time last year?

Merlin got 7.67m for its finale too, a brilliant number.

Its been a good year - but what have they (mostly) in common?

LIVE - thats what! Apart from Doctor Who, Inbetweeners and Downton, everything that James J mentioned was live.

I take it from this that the unpredictability and the inability to time shift easily live events without knowing the outcome, is increasingly going to be the key to getting the biggest ratings figures.

More evidence if I ever needed any that ITV should have given that slot, you know... maybe Come Rain Come Shine, Benidorm... who knows maybe even a new drama with a 20m+ lead-in. I seen several new dramas advertised in the ITV Drama promo, yet they never bothered to show one after The X Factor, instead showing Morgan.

Oh... wait, this is ITV we're on about, I forgot.

Stunning for The X Factor though. Superb. Just a pity they never had anything on afterwards to capitalise on it. BBC1 held up incredibly well.

Anyone care to guess who the biggest advertisers were at the weekend (at least on ITV1 London - there could be some regional variations)?

John Lewis Partnership had lots - 120 seconds for Waitrose (2 Sat & 1 Sun) and 60 seconds for John Lewis (1 Sat & 1 Sun).

Microsoft also spent big. On Sunday, they bought 110 seconds in 4 separate breaks to plug Xbox Kinect. On Saturday, they and EA Games were advertising Need For Speed (30s) and Call of Duty (30s) for Xbox 360. In addition, Windows Live was advertised just after the Saturday show and just after Sundays show, there was a 20s ad for Need for Speed.

Marks & Spencer had one 90 second advert in the very last break on Sunday evening which featured Dannii Minogue. Coca Cola had 80 seconds in total - 20 on Saturday and a 60 second ad in the last ad break on Sunday. Chanel No 5 and Audi also bought 60 second slots on Sunday. Nintendo had 80 seconds in total with a series of 3 adverts in the first break on Saturday which featured JLS, Olly Murs & Alexandra Burke and Jedward. Apple had 2 ads for the iPhone (on Vodafone) on Saturday and an iTunes ad for The Beatles also on Saturday.

Sony - who are co-owners of Syco - shelled out for ads for Burlesque (50 seconds), Michael Jackson (30 seconds), Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 (30 seconds) plus they had the ad right after the end of the results show for the Sony NEX Camera (30s)and one at the end of Saturdays show for Olly Murs (30s).

Retailers bought many of the slots, it seems. In addition to John Lewis & M&S, Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's, WH Smith, Argos, Halfords, Boots, Carphone Warehouse, Sports Direct, Iceland and The Co-Op all featured.

Fashion and beauty brands were prominent with Diesel, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Wilkinson Sword, Calvin Klein (as part of a Boots ad), Chanel, Dior, Prada, Jean Paul Gautier, L'Oreal (ft Cheryl Cole), Reebok, Estee Lauder and Paco Rabane.

Unsurprisngly, ITV1 beat BBC1 in the All-Day Shares including HD, but again the gap was close - 20.5% for ITV compared with 20.3% for BBC.
----
Changes are highlighted:

Most Watched Shows of 2010 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 16.41m - EASTENDERS (19/02/10) - BBC1
02 - 16.14m - THE X FACTOR (21/11/10) - ITV1/HD
03 - 14.63m - WORLD CUP 2010: ENG V ALG (18/06/10) - ITV1/HD
04 - 13.59m - WORLD CUP 2010: ENG V GER (27/06/10) - BBC1/HD
05 - 13.50m - BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT (05/06/10) - ITV1/HD

06 - 13.48m - I'M A CELEBRITY... GET ME OUT OF HERE! (04/12/10) - ITV1/HD
07 - 13.03m - STRICTLY COME DANCING (04/12/10) - BBC1/HD
08 - 12.54m - CORONATION STREET (08/11/10) - ITV1/HD
09 - 12.27m - DOCTOR WHO (01/01/10) - BBC1/HD
10 - 10.77m - DOWNTON ABBEY (07/11/10) - ITV1/HD

11 - 10.57m - GAVIN AND STACEY (01/01/10) - BBC1/HD
12 - 9.96m - EMMERDALE (14/01/10) - ITV1
13 - 9.82m - A TOUCH OF FROST (05/04/10) - ITV1
14 - 9.68m - THE FIRST ELECTION DEBATE (15/04/10) - ITV1
15 - 9.64m - DANCING ON ICE (10/01/10) - ITV1

16 - 9.36m - CHILDREN IN NEED (19/11/10) - BBC1/HD
17 - 9.23m - SHERLOCK (25/07/10) - BBC1/HD
18 - 8.81m - SILENT WITNESS (07/01/10) - BBC1/HD
19 - 8.73m - BBC NEWS SPECIAL (11/05/10) - BBC1
20 - 8.70m - ROCK & CHIPS (24/01/10) - BBC1/HD

Notes:
- Only one World Cup entry per channel.
- A weighted average for the full slot for the World Cup games.
- No duplicates: i.e. no BGT/DOI in there twice.
- HD audience included for all programmes airing on HD.
- Touch of Frost rating ammended so it's for the full slot, not just 68-minutes which BARB did. It would've been in 12th place anyway.
- BBC1 HD is bundled in automatically with BBC1

Most Watched Multichannel Shows of 2010 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 4.54m - EASTENDERS LIVE: THE AFTERMATH (19/02/10) - BBC3
02 - 3.72m - THE INBETWEENERS (11/10/10) - E4
03 - 2.44m - LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (31/01/10) - Sky Sports 1
04 - 2.30m - LIVE CARLING CUP FOOTBALL (27/01/10) - Sky Sports 1
05 - 2.21m - DEBATE DAY - THE SKY NEWS LEADERS DEBATE (22/04/10) - Sky News

06 - 2.13m - I'M A CELEBRITY... GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW! (04/12/10) - ITV2
07 - 2.04m - GLEE (19/04/10) - E4
08 - 2.03m - LIVE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE (16/02/10) - Sky Sports 2
09 - 2.01m - THE WEAKEST LINK - EASTENDERS SPECIAL (19/02/10) - BBC3
10 - 2.01m - XTRA FACTOR (28/08/10) - ITV2

11 - 1.95m - BRITAIN'S GOT MORE TALENT (08/05/10) - ITV2
12 - 1.92m - AN IDIOT ABROAD (04/11/10) - Sky1
13 - 1.84m - WHAT KATIE DID NEXT (18/03/10) - ITV2
14 - 1.80m - EASTENDERS (01/06/10) - BBC3
15 - 1.73m - LIVE FORD FOOTBALL SPECIAL (03/04/10) - Sky Sports 1

16 - 1.69m - LIVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL (07/09/10) - Sky Sports 2
17 - 1.64m - WORLD CUP 2010: ENG V GER (27/06/10) - BBC HD
18 - 1.61m - BEING HUMAN (10/01/10) - BBC3
19 - 1.55m - FAMILY GUY (04/07/10) - BBC3
20 - 1.53m - BBC NEWS (11/05/10) - BBC News

Source: BARB. Excludes +1, Includes HD for Terrestrial Chart. Only 1 programme per 'show', i.e. only one UEFA Champions League game.

I'm a Celebrity jumps ahead of Strictly Come Dancing and Coronation Street, while Strictly also moves ahead of Coronation Street. Brilliant ratings for both. I expect that to change again, with Coronation Street slotting into 3rd place, EastEnders 2nd and The X Factor 1st.

It was never going to be a mega rating slot.
For starters a big chunk of the audience went straight to ITV2.

And remember when they did this with Mumbai Calling - how did that work out again?

Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream show had nearly double, so that's incorrect.


Yes, that happened last year to...


...because that was crap. Mumbai Calling would not appeal to a mass audience. Benidorm would, and clearly does at the moment.

Mumbai Calling also had a poor slot, 10pm on Saturdays. Anyway, two BBC News articles of interest:

- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11969424
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11981196 (highest Sunday night viewing since records began)

Oh, come on now. Xtra Factor was up 500k year-on-year, having been down year-on-year for pretty much the whole series. What does that tell you?

The event came, and boy did it deliver, and then viewers left ITV1 for dust. What a monumental waste. Everybody but you can see it. Maybe next year ITV1 will recognise the importance of this slot and schedule accordingly. The rumoured Downton Abbey Christmas special would be perfect, but after this year's rather shambolic effort you'd have to say it's unlikely.

Mumbai Calling was dead on arrival though - in fact it was dead before arrival - almost zero chance of recommission. It had been sitting on the shelf for a year and was... crap.

They really should use these lead-outs to give other series a boost - like they did with Take Me Out and Downton Abbey, although I don't think it needed it as much and they could have helped a 16-34 show better in that slot.

Susan Boyle may be the exception that proves the rule.
You are not going to get big ratings for anything that requires concentration after 2 hours of the audience biting their nails for the X Factor result. The audience is emotionally drained at that stage and want something light & throwaway IMHO!

I should probably add that the Piers special would have done about 4-5m in a slot away from X Factor anyway which would have made it a success. So there was zero to be gained from that piece of scheduling.