Louis Spence is ratings death it seems, taking around 40% off the rating for any show he's in.

Corrie is holding onto that tram week audience pretty well. That's about it's 8 or 9th episode over 11m in overnights in two weeks which is not what they would normally get these days. Big leap year on year for this week. Expecting EastEnders to top Xmas Day though. It usually saves something big for it. Not read the spoilers, so not sure what though!

Also, brilliant for Miranda I thought last night's was the weakest of the series but overall it is SUCH FUN! Good to see it build over the episodes.

How does he keep getting work? His show on Sky flopped, so I don't really understand how he is on absolutely everything.

He's on Benidorm I see this week, again why?!

The above theory doesn't work for TV Burp though, where he appeared almost every week when TV Burp was in its best rated series.

Brilliant all night really.
Miranda did brilliant, as did the soaps, even Hollyoaks who was on the very high side of the ratings scale compared to normal. Alan Carr did very well.

The funny thing is, based on their respective core demographics, there's probably more than a degree of truth in this!

Also, we've not been that badly hit up north - and we can cope with a couple of inches of snow...

Did Pineapple Dance Studios flop?

I thought it was getting well over a million across the week (and not including Anytime).

Tape-checked ITV ratings including HD:

19:00 to 19:25 - Emmerdale: 8.64m (33.8%)
19:30 to 19:55 - Coronation Street: 11.67m (42.5%)
20:35 to 22:30 - Come Rain Come Shine: 5.78m (22.0%)

Source: Broadcast

It only got around 350k for its first showing, and I doubt 650k came from 3 or 4 repeats, often after midnight.

Got To Dance got over 1m for each original showing.

Absolutely ruddy brilliant for Miranda. She has to move to BBC One now. A chance to push a good, old-fashioned, pre-watershed comedy (preferably in a slot thats not facing Corrie) can't be turned down.

Corrie seems to have re-established the lead over EastEnders I remember seeing 18 months - 2 years ago. The tram crash has had something of a long-lasting effect, and I expect it'll be doing better than usual over Christmas. Come Rain Come Shine did OK, but its not one of the standout ratings for the night.

Like rzt, I'm very surprised to see the numbers for The Nativity. The Diary of Anne Frank did relatively modestly in the slot a couple of years ago, and I thought a retelling of the Christmas story would be ratings suicide. I expect it'll fall, but I'm sure the BBC will be keen to brag about this one next time it gets stick from religious quarters.

I'm so pleased to see Corrie get those sort of numbers again and deservedly so as the quality has went way up this month.

Also very good for The Simpsons on getting 2.6m!

Tonight's new episode of Top Gear (which I don't think BBC have actually promoted on TV) is on now until 21:15, not 21:05 as originally billed.

Jimmy's Food Factory on BBC1 is no more, he's been poached by Channel 4: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/b...021830.article

Come Rain Come Shine Breakdown
20:30 - 5.9m (21.8%)
20:45 - 5.9m (21.7%)
21:00 - 6.1m (22.4%)
21:15 - 5.7m (21.5%)
21:30 - 5.7m (21.2%)
21:45 - 5.7m (21.7%)
22:00 - 5.5m (22.4%)
22:15 - 5.3m (22.3%)

Stable breakdown throughout, which is interesting - thought it'd start high and then decrease. Clearly Corrie's fans knew it weren't on at 20:30.

Also means ITV1 beat BBC1 during the 10pm News half an hour, albeit losing slightly to A Question of Sport from 22:35.

I'm amazed by the loyalty of the audience for A Question of Sport. It seems to get the same figure of 3.5m regardless of whether its on at 7.30pm or 8.30pm or 10.35pm. I think its been on nearly every day of the week now, in moves that would normally kill a show.

The soap figures on Christmas Day could be a lot higher than recent years. Last year Eastenders got around 9m in the week leading upto the big day and got 10.9m last Christmas Day. So if Eastenders can get 10.7m last night then I dont see any reason why it cant get 11.5-12m on Saturday. Likewise for Corrie, it could easily get over 9m on that day too.


Miranda should move to BBC1. Staying on BBC2 will limit the show's growth, where as on BBC1 it could become a huge ratings hit. I dont see that the BBC should be helping BBC2's ratings anymore. The BBC Trust have said BBC2 should make more niche, low rated programming and BBC1 concentrating on the populist, high rating shows.


Ive seen a couple of adverts promoting the two Top Gear specials but they didnt give a time for either. I imagine some viewers will be caught out by this episode being on tonight.

Three ratings that stood out-

Miranda
Fantastic rating for Miranda there, making the most of the extra available viewers due to no Corrie. Opinion will be split on whether or not it should be transferred to BBC One. Normally I would say no, but in this case given the fact BBC One are running a bit short in the sitcoms department, I'd say go for it. It really does seem to be going from strength to strength so the BBC should really get behind it in any way that they can.

BBC Regional News
Clearing the 9m mark for at least the second time this year is fantastic, no doubt helped along once again by the adverse weather conditions. What a shame BARB won't acknowledge this achievement.

Five News at 5pm
Stunning rating for Five's flagship bulletin yesterday! Also one of Natasha Kaplinsky's very last editions of the programme I believe. That share is brilliant, higher than anything else on Channel 5 yesterday except lunchtime Neighbours. The news special on the big freeze also performed much better than the regular 7pm bulletin.

Oh great. Pleading poverty to the world, C4 poaches another factual entertainment star a la Mary Portas or Ruth Watson. No doubt we'll be told its all part of the great "creative renewal". A food show, eh? Didn't see that one coming.


Till now I'd always opposed most transfers from BBC Two on account that stuff like Masterchef had no greater potential on One - it was just more schedule-filling light factual entertainment more suited where it was.

With Miranda, I think there's a real reason for the switch in that BBC One have virtually no returning pre-watershed comedies, and in turn, Miranda could benefit in a big way from exposure on the main channel. It'd be great if by Christmas 2011, we could see Miranda where the BBC are still relying on the incredibly tired My Family.

Poor figure for Accused. Extreme violence including sexual violence last night is more of the same and it would seem that the British public is voting with its remotes and turning away. Good stories, but this series has not been a success ratingswise.

Always happens with TG at Christmas! I still wouldn't be surprised if the Boxing Day one, already with a generous 75 min slot stretches to 80 (and thus eats more into Upstairs Downstairs)

Bit of a mess given it cuts well into Accidental Farmer now, although given how that has been dumped on a Tuesday with absolutely zero promotion whatsoever, one assumes the Beeb feel it's a stinker of a pilot they don't intend to bother with anyway. (Although I think it sounds promising...)

My EPG also shows C4 has dropped Morgana tonight (was inevitable I suspect) and brought forward the next ep of Frankie Boyle to create a double-bill - presumably they want both out of the way.

BTW, I've seen trailers regularly on BBC1 and BBC2 for over a week now promoting the TG Christmas Double Bill, "starts Tuesday 21st at 8pm, continues Boxing Day".

Not sure what more they could have done to signpost this, and I expect strong ratings tonight for it. Clarkson said it was intended to air on Sunday at 8pm, but would have clashed with SPOTY and TA so was shunted to tonight.


On balance, I agree.

But it would be a shame if it ended up at 9pm on Fridays and got no more than 4m anyway. It would be good to see how it did in the same slot taking on Corrie with an EE lead-in.

Will be interesting to see how The Savoy does on ITV1, after 5m+ last Monday, I wonder if the day change for the second of two parts will hamper it.

Accidental Farmer will be deemed a flop if its beaten by ITV1's own Tuesday FlopZone. Stupid scheduling with Top Gear, I'd have put it on Wednesday myself against the food shows on BBC1 which would have got less than Holby tonight.

I caught that advert once, last night on BBC2. Lucky I did or I would have assumed it was a repeat tonight and not bothered.

I don't know why they've bothered. Haven't they seen the ratings for the current series of Food Factory?

Thats the first time i have seen Dr who and EastEnders xmas day trailers actually on BBC1

They allways seem to show Upstairs downstairs,The Royle Family and Come Fly with me

Top Gear always ends up running for longer than its allotted timeslot, with regular series episodes often running for up to 65 minutes meaning that they start early, end late and BBC2 ends up overrunning for the rest of the night. Why they don't just give it a longer regular slot is beyond me as it just sets them back for the rest of the night. The scheduling is clumsy as whilst I doubt they care about it running into Accidental Farmer tonight, running it into Upstairs Downstairs on Boxing Day is a big mistake. They should have just scheduled it for 19:45 like they did last year as I reckon they'll end up denting UD by letting them overlap.

As for Accidental Farmer, all the signs do indeed point to it being a stinker, and given the support that they've shown to the likes of Life of Riley and Big Flop over the last couple of years, it must be really bad for them to be throwing it out tonight as they've given it similar treatment as they gave to the appalling Reunited in the Summer.


C4's bonkers schedulers have struck again as what they've done is scheduled next Tuesday's Frankie Boyle in Morgana's slot tonight ands running tonight's Morgana in next Tuesday's Frankie Boyle slot, so they're having a double Frankie Boyle tonight and a double Morgana next week, and then the final Frankie Boyle (he had 6 episodes, Morgana had 5) goes out next Wednesday at 10:30pm after Peep Show. What a mess.

I think Frankie Boyle's show has had a really raw deal as it's had a lead-in from one of the biggest flops of the year in The Family which it's consistently built upon. If he'd had a better lead-in I reckon his ratings would be pretty similar to Chattyman/Quiz Night/Cats etc, and I think tonight's first episode will get his best rating of the series with a much better lead-in from Jamie. C4 must have loved the controversy Boyle's caused too so I think he could be given a second shot just for that.

As for The Family, I notice the last 3 episodes are being burned off at 11pm tonight and tomorrow, with tomorrow's episode in fact being the last 2 episodes merged and re-edited to create one 90 minute episode that'll run past midnight. Somehow I doubt this one will make a return.


Moving it across to BBC1 only to throw it against Corrie would be a waste. I'd be tempted to pair it up with Outnumbered next Autumn and show them back to back in the Thursday 9pm hour (Outnumbered first, then Miranda). I reckon they'd both be good for 5m+ there.


I think The Savoy will get 4.something tonight, which would be good by flopzone standards. I mentioned earlier that Accidental Farmer has received similar treatment to Reunited and I think it'll get a similar rating - low 3s.


Those ratings are great for C4 though. In fairness, neither Food Factory nor Simple Suppers are suited to the 8pm hour on BBC1 - they both did well at 7:30pm last year and that's where they should have stayed as they're not strong enough for 8/8:30pm.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I won't be surprised if C4 wins the night with Gordon/CDWM as BBC1 are lazily churning out lightweight food filler then Panorama, whilst ITV's comedy night has the potential to flop big time. I hope the comedies do OK but they could go either way, especially Burling.

The Strictly special has received a bit of a publicity boost I see this evening - if you aren't aware, check out the nation's top news story right now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12053656

This story is clearly going to run all week, and beyond.

I wonder if the Beeb will come under pressure from some quarters to drop the show? (I am quite sure that the Beeb would tell them to get lost if the question is even asked...)