It wasn't slightly - the final rated 1.2m better than the launch, even though the launch had a better slot (Sundays is generally better than Saturdays). In recent years the final has rated up to 0.8m better than the launch, sometimes its rated worse, so in terms of difference between the launch and final it was the biggest for an IAC series since 2005.

Maybe dubsj used 5 minute peaks and Barkers_Nipple used 15 minute ones? Thanks to both for providing the ratings.

Stunning ratings for the big 3. For Strictly to hit 12m for the quarter final is incredible - I think the equivalent show last year didn't even break 9m in the overnights so it just shows how well it's done this year. That's an outstanding rating for IAC too, and about a million above my expectations. Also excellent for TXF to get it's highest ever Saturday rating. I think it may break 15m again tonight and next week's numbers could be brilliant.

Merlin also performed superbly last night - 6.6m against nearly 14m on ITV is phenomenal, and like Strictly it's made real progress this year in terms of both ratings and quality. Horrible for A&M though, that slot is just awful for it.

Also, does anyone have anything for You've Been Framed and Michael Buble? Thanks.

What a success story for IAC this year! Over 12m for the final is phenomenal and ITV definitely made the right decision in extending by a day-to have its best series since 2004 is very surprising, but it shows there's still a lot of mileage left in it yet and it's done completely the opposite to BB, maybe because BB gave up by the end?

Really strong performances for XF and SCD too, particuarly the latter which has also recovered after a poor year last year. Will be interesting to see if DOI can do a reverse trend too and post huge increases like XF, IAC and SCD have done, or if more poor scheduling will make it decrease (like BGT this year). The battle on Friday is also pretty huge-Corrie's big 50 celebration show V SCD semi final part 1. I would say Corrie's show is pretty much guaranteed a rating above 6m, especially with the Corrie lead in and I reckon SCD will be dented slightly to just under 11m.

Including HD:

X Factor peaked with 15.2m.
I'm a Celebrity peaked with 13.1m.

Those are 5-minute peaks. Also the article says:

Source: Beehive City

Really well deserved figures for I'm A Celebrity. One of its best series in years.

I think the SCD Final could well overtake BGT in the 2010 chart on current performance.

That should put a fly in Cowell's champagne this Christmas. Yes, he'll obviously get his 18m+ figure for the TXF Final and a 20m+ peak - I don't think that was in doubt from the minute BBC1's schedulers capitulated - but he won't be happy to see SCD come second.


Well putting to one side the question of whether 2.2m is about the same ball park as 2.4m (as I recall it) or whether 8% is about the same as 10%, A&M got 2.1m for the first half of its show last week and only got up to a 2.4m average because of people tuning in to BBC1 at the end for the news.

I think DOI, to a certain extent suffers from talent/reality fatigue after what is an incessant pre Christmas battering, and presumably with Countryfile,Larkrise, and I think Top Gear? all in opposition its going to have its work cut out to make any substantial increase.

Last nights rating were incredible, although I will never really understand why IAC works it looks like it will run and run. Armstrong and Miller have the worst slot imaginable -stuck on the end of Casualty in a kind of no-mans-land. IIRC The Impressions Show ran there once and was pulling bigger numbers-Im afraid A and M figure is approaching "why do we bother" territory and must be soul destroying for those connected with it. But what can you put in that slot?

Robbie, I really don't think he'll give a shit!

Are you expecting 18m minimum as the overnight average for the whole 2 hours for TXF final? I think that would be very difficult for the show to average across the 2 hours. It would require the final to rate at least 15% better than last year's final (more like 20% as 18m is your minimum expectation) which would be unlikely considering the average year-on-year rise for the Sunday live shows so far has been 4%. Even a 10% rise, which is possible I suppose because the last two Sunday shows have managed it, would mean about 17m.

Strictly doesn't only need to beat Britain's Got Talent (13.50m) to claim second place but EastEnders (16.41m), England v Algeria (14.63m) and England v Germany (13.59m). I think Coronation Street will hit the high 13m's for anniversary week as well. So I think it'll beat BGT and maybe England v Germany/Coronation Street but nothing else - I think it'll hit the high 13ms in the final officials; a superb figure for the show. I think the top 6 ratings of the year will be:

1. The X Factor
2. EastEnders
3. England v Algeria
4. Strictly Come Dancing
5. Coronation Street
6. England v Germany

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Fantastic last night for the main channels - I'm A Celebrity recording a great figure but it says a lot it won't penetrate the top 5 by the end of the year. The X Factor did well too and the results show should be up on last week considering the guests. TV Burp did reasonably for a clip show and Merlin performed excellently and works well opposite The X Factor. Casualty seems to be settling down after a shaky autumn and should see a boost after next week, but Armstrong and Miller really should be switched to BBC2 IMO. As I've already said, Strictly Come Dancing did superbly.

Agree with the exception of Coronation Street. A ~14m official would be a ~13m overnight, and while it'll definitely be good in comparison to previous years, I can't help but think it'd be seen as disappointing given the build-up.

We'll see what happens in the next week...

I wonder how the rejuvinated Strictly will do against Corrie at Christmas?

What do people expect Corrie to get next week. For some reason I can't see it beating EE Live myself but isn't having an hour episode better for their average or is it worse?

IMO worse-has to hold the audience for longer-which is why BGT's half an hour final last year rated superbly, and XF's was dented by being 2 hours long.

In the overnights for the full slot I expect the live ep to be around 14m, about 1m down from EE's. The things against it is the longer slot, worst Corrie slot of the week, lack of promotion that the live episode is on the Thursday. It's the entire week that seems to be advertised in most places. Also EE's live ep was revealing one of the biggest kept soap secrets in a long time. I don't think Corrie's is.

But then again it is the 50th and there's a lot of past viewers that could return to see the event. Also the competition is pretty poor, and obviously the weather factor if it continues like it is doing.

I'd say better, as there's more time to build up to a big peak.

One for Robbie, Brucie's at it again, with George Dixon on the receiving end: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...uis-Walsh.html

I think the tram crash eps will be seen by 13-14mill. The Live i guess maybe hampered by adverts?

Strictly missing out? Really?

Yeah I agree, 1 hour is worse than 30 mins. 30 mins is short and sweet while in a 1 hour show, there'll be more ad breaks which will lower the average as people switch over during the breaks and sometimes don't switch back in time (from what I've seen in the breakdowns) and with it being longer, there's more chance of casual viewers who might be bored by it switching over to another channel whilst I think for 30 min shows they'd be more likely to stick around.


I expect it'll do very well and beat Corrie. Last year it was beaten by Corrie but it came off a bad series (not necessarily ratings wise but just overall it wasn't regarded as a great series) whereas this year's has been a great series and with the ratings so high at the moment and new celebs taking part in the Xmas special, I can't see it losing out to Corrie this year.

It does depend on the time of night though.

Britain's Got Talent results was on late and the show was on all night, so had time to build up the audience.

You couldn't stick it on at 6.30pm or 7pm and get the same ratings.

Also, from ITV's point of view its better to get a big audience over 2 hours than get a huge one that will only see one ad break.

They could have been clever and worked it into The X Factor itself, basically doing a Corrie theme of Manchester songs from the last 50 years - tedious I know, but would have been a nice way for one big ITV show to acknowledge another.


That would incur repeat fees though - usually a narrative repeat within 24 hours (indeed within 7 days dependent on the contract) is basically bundled in with the cost of the first airing, so is effectively free.


I do think though 2.15pm is the wrong time - why they insisted on keeping Neighbours at 1.45pm is beyond me. It would have made more sense to put Home and Away on at 1pm (I think pre Neighbours it was around 12.30pm), and then Neighbours at 1.30pm. Indeed surely encouraging BBC1 viewers to turn over as the regional news began rather than waiting till afterwards and then probably staying tuned for Doctors would have been a better strategy when Neighbours switched channels.

Three programmes getting over 12 million on a Saturday night. It's like the good old days of Saturday night TV.

Saturday 4th December Roundup
BBC One (inc. HD)
18:10- The Impressions Show: 4.4m (19.5%)
18:40- Strictly Come Dancing: 12.0m (45.0%)
* peak: 13.4m
19:40- Merlin: 6.6m (22.8%)
20:25- The National Lottery Draws: 4.2m (14.9%)
20:40- Casualty: 4.3m (15.4%)
21:30- The Armstrong & Miller Show: 2.2m (8.1%)
22:00- BBC News: 2.9m (11.0%)
22:20- Match of the Day: 4.2m (21.8%)

BBC Two
19:55- Dad's Army: 1.7m (5.9%)
20:25- American Dream: 959k (3.4%)
21:25- Have I Got a Bit More News For You: 2.2m (8.1%)
22:10- QI XL: 1.6m (6.7%)

ITV1
18:40- All New You've Been Framed!: 4.6m (17.7%)
19:10- Harry Hill's the Best of TV Burp: 5.4m (19.9%)
19:40- The X Factor: 13.7m (47.9%) inc. HD
* peak: 15.2m
21:25- I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here Final!: 12.4m (46.7%) inc. HD
* peak: 13.1m
22:25- This is Michael Buble: 3.1m (13.3%)

Channel 4 (inc. HD)
19:25- Grand Designs: 570k (2.0%)
20:25- Apocalypse: The Second World War: 1.4m (4.9%)
21:25- Slumdog Millionaire: 0.9m (4.1%)

Channel 5 (inc. HD)
19:40- NCIS: 875k (3.0%)
20:30- CSI: Miami: 917k (3.3%)
21:30- CSI: 1.2m (4.7%)

ITV2
21:25- Xtra Factor: 426k (1.6%) , +1: 94k
22:25- I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here Now!: 1.88m (9.4%) , +1: 97k

ITV4
22:00- The Ashes Highlights: 510k (2.2%)

Fantastic figure for IAC last night, this series has really delivered beyond my expectations and should secure its future for a few more years yet.

I feel as if I've travelled back to the 1980's. Until I see Armstrong & Miller's ratings and then I think I've tuned into DMAX + 1 (Sky channel 145). Sorry, guys, I think you're very funny, but I'm afraid you need to follow Harry And Paul to BBC2 or Not Going Out to 10.35pm. I'm not quite sure how they survived in peak-time BBC1 when their ratings were no better than the other two shows. Favouritism, clearly. But I'm afraid the figures have gone too low.


Meanwhile, that's quite a decent audience for The Impressions Show, considering it's a bit rubbish.

For EE's 25 there had been a massive publicity campaign engineered around a massive reveal. A reveal that could not have been spoilt before hand because no one knew who killed Archie as it was live, and no references to it for a few weeks in spoilers.

Coronation Street i feel have gone in the wrong direction with this explosion and tram crash. Although it had a tram crash years ago, i don't think this says what Coronation Street is all about. Monday's episodes i feel will be the highest rated, then again it might build momentum during the week.

There has been no build up, it's just something that happens Monday, also the advertisement for it has not been good. If you don't watch Corrie all the time, or follow papers and online you wouldn't have a clue as to what is going to happen.