So far this series, IAC has averaged 9.2m (36%) in the overnights. By the same point last year, the overnight series average was 8.6m (34%). By the same point in 2008, the overnight series average was 8.3m (34%).

So this year's series has so far rated 7% better than last year's and 11% better than 2008's series. This year's series is set to be the 2nd most watched ever, only behind the series which aired in early 2004 which had an official average of 11m.

Disappointing, obviously, that SCD dropped 150k or so on last week. The Widdy Theory goes out of the water when it actually peaked during Pamela Stephenson's frankly jaw-dropping routine at the end.

Robust performances for the Lotto draws and Casualty in particular. That Casualty performance is really rather good based on recent lows - should be well over 5m in the officials. Merlin dropped below 6m, significantly - seems to have lost some of its resilient core to TXF last night. Did it start before 7.45 though - hence being off air long enough before 8.30 that it dragged the slot average down??

Actually, same applies to SCD - I think it actually aired 6.35-7.40 or just slightly after.

Great for MOTD - would have been even higher I suspect had it not overlapped with IAC.

And HIGMNFY very notable at a 2.6m overnight, beating the first run A&M on BBC1!

TV Burp the most surprising rating of the night though - some drop!

Any news on the Wimbledon/Stevenage FA Cup match?

Thanks rzt So basically increasing 1m in 2 years. Impressive. I seem to remember 2007 being the really low rating series then having to pick itself up again and there were rumours that it would soon end. Looks like it's going nowhere now.

Merlin started on schedule at 7.45 and finished at 8.30
Had to laugh at the end when the BBC1 pres announcer expressed surprise at what had happened - perhaps they don't let him preview it !

MOTD is a largely-unpublicised success story, it has been building every week, so has MOTD2, despite some of the tabloids calling for Shearer, Hansen and Lawro to be replaced by younger models - but then if the tabs. were running our TV what a mess we'd be in

Between 18:35-19:40, SCD averaged 11.51m (43.3%).


Hardly surprising. Last week's show clashed against SCD for 15 mins, while yesterday's clashed for the whole half an hour, hence the lower rating. But it's still very much in line (if not better) than how TV Burp usually rates against SCD when it clashes for the full half an hour.


1.2m (excluding HD). Only just about won its slot.

Today's 'Viz Top Tip' in the Sunday Times:

"ITV - why not raise viewing figures by making a celebrity version of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here featuring people that audiences have heard of?"

MOTD2 should be on BBC1 at 10.20 after the Sunday news, same as on Saturdays. It often has the bigger games.


Looks like SCD was narrowly up on the week then when tape-checked - 11.44m to 11.51m.

And, yes, I should acknowledge that TV Burp aired 7.15-7.45, so had hardly any benefit from SCD>TXF switchers.

Didn't it only get 7.9m because there was a gap between Strictly and X Factor?

You could say that but that would be a logical, common sense reason.

Were BBC showing repeats at 9.30p.m.? To muster only 5 million viewers between their two main channels isn't great.

A & M on BBC1 was new; HIGMNFY on 2 was a ''revised repeat'' as they like to call them

Are you sure you weren't reading a copy of the Sunday Times from 10 years ago?

What are the Sunday Times doing even referencing IAC, I thought it was only watched by people who read The Sun and people who can't read at all?

Poor scheduling by the BBC yet again. Why run two shows that used to follow each other and often with the same person in both shows, at the same time as each other.

What will they do next, air Casualty repeats on BBC2 Tuesdays at 8pm!

Exactly. And Armstrong and Miller will never get you 6-7 million on a regular basis. Put it on BBC2 as it would bolster their comedy line up. And move Miranda to BBC1.

XF obviously continuing to rule the roost-every year something happens to keep the snowball rolling and getting bigger. And yet to read what is said about the show from some quarters and from the forum, its hard to believe it keeps growing. Wagner is the snowball, the fact that people that dont like the show are actively participating in it to support him is a strategic triumph. Presumably, all they have to do is choose a Wagner/Jedward every year to maintain that crucial interest. I keep reading commentators in the press referring that XF is in danger of losing its musical credibility-my word this is naive-XF is extremely lucky to unearth anyone and is getting more like Night Fever than the original Pop Idol.

SCD did well to maintain near parity from the Blackpool week which was about as good as it gets for atmosphere and colour-it helps if Widdy has a dance which she is swung around a bit and she wasnt this time-presumably thats why she went second. Also the dancing standard wasnt as high this time generally. Quite clearly the choice of contestant is paramount for its continued success and it will mean very hard work year after year to get the right people.

Casualty and the Lottery have become almost PSB filler in the face of XF. I wonder if Camelot think the brand is getting the right kind of promotion given that only a hardcore number are tuning in, and the impact of the reduced Lottery gameshows is indifferent to say the least. In fact the only shows which consistently got big ratings were the 10 minute Anthea Turner hosted ones all those years ago. There has got to be a bigger better format to showcase the draw surely? I dont think the BBC have ever been creative enough-it needs someone with a bit of flair which Totally Saturday, almost all the sad talent efforts and the Barrowman shows have never shown.

Casualty survives here only because its all year around and modest ratings will rise and fall depending on the opposition which cannot always have Simon Cowells mug staring back at it. Arguably Casualty needs a new home and the Beeb need something new and substantial for Saturday nights in addition to SCD. Nothing else has created any kind of buzz since Noels House Party's early years.

SCD is great. It's the viewers that keep Anne in. And I for one am glad she is still there.

Wagner on the X Factor is great entertainment but he is just a joke and I think it's getting a bit old now.

I've got no time to visit the nursing homes of Great Britain.

Peter McHugh, the former editor of GMTV, said that one reason why GMTV flopped when it started was because the viewers didn't know that TVam was bad, everyone used to slag it off for being vulgar and overly commercial and amateurish, but the viewers didn't care less, so when they revamped it they just alienated people. Similarly GMTV was a soiled brand - the phone-ins were an obvious problem - but the people who were still watching it didn't know that. So there's no point Daybreak coming on and saying they're not GMTV, as that's where the audience is going to come from.


Hmm, not sure about this, there was a massive picture of Mitchell and Webb on the day's page in the Radio Times and they were on the cover of the Guardian Guide, which is exactly the target audience. The IT Crowd was getting under a million in this slot two years ago, though.


Yes, when Football First started everyone said MOTD was doomed and nobody can be bothered with highlights, when it's getting a bigger audience than it did a decade ago. It's still the way most of the country wants to watch its football.


Yes, but on BBC2 it helps make it a very male-skewed schedule, with Top Gear earlier that evening, then a 9pm documentary that's often about science or technology or someone like Louis Theroux, then MOTD2. It all flows really nicely, while on BBC1 it would be after a period drama or something. Also, it can be on before 10.30 on BBC2 (albeit it isn't at the moment).


This scheudling baffles me, it used to be absolutely written in stone that they didn't put comedy on BBC1 opposite comedy on BBC2, so why they do it here I don't know. It's not very sympathetic or intelligent scheduling at all.

Here's a breakdown of yesterday evening for BBC1 and ITV1. Note ITV1's breakdown excludes HD:

Yeah yeah that joke wore thin a long time ago. :yawn:

Unless of course you have proof that SCD is watched mainly by nursing home inhabitants. Because if logic wasn't enough to tell me this, a quick google search on nursing homes in the UK indicates to me that there aren't even enough nursing homes to total 11 million viewers.

It's supposedly patronising to make out XF is only watched by chavs so why is it acceptable on here to make out that SCD is watched mainly by oaps?

MOTD is getting higher ratings than some of the live Champions League Games iirc. Football is saturated to the point of ridiculousness over the airwaves but the premiership still has real meaning and MOTD showcases it in watchable bitesize form. Lineker Hansen etc are still the publics choice and are the best team despite press brickbats which is more anti BBC than anything ele.

Here's an age breakdown of yesterday's Strictly Come Dancing:

C4-15: 0.96m (9% of total audience)
A16-34: 1.31m (12%)
A35-44: 1.52m (13%)
A45-54: 1.78m (16%)
A55+: 5.69m (51%)

Therefore, people aged 4-54 made up 5.57m (49% of SCD's audience). People aged 55+ made up 5.69m (51% of its audience).

For people interested, TXF's breakdown of its 12.66m audience (exc. HD) was:

C4-15: 1.81m (14% of total audience)
A16-34: 3.16m (25%)
A35-44: 2.30m (18%)
A45-54: 2.22m (18%)
A55+: 3.17m (25%)

Therefore, people aged 4-54 made up 9.49m (75% of TXF's audience). People aged 55+ made up 3.17m (25% of its audience).

rzt do you have the ratings for Neighbours/hollyoaks its all its showings for Friday.

Wow look at the massive droupout in XF audience at 8.45, 2 million people who thought they were only singing one song each last night. Though it did quickly gain them back. Good audience all round for SCD and all programmes on ITV, HH, XF and IAC.