Not often at all, hence you comment So why should ITV be worried about something that happens as frequently as a lunar eclipse? Assumming that was your point. I'm not sure you have a point really.

Not sure what ratings to expect from ITV's comedy line-up tonight... could easily be above 5m or below 3m.

I do applaud them though for doing something different as its a rarity you have two hours of 'comedy theme' on ITV1.

Can only hope.
The quality has improved alot and it actually seems like the build up to xmas like normal.
A good cliffhanger last night could also see it right for Thursday

I reckon they'll both be somewhere between 3m and 5m. The Comedy Annual should get 3.5-4m, but Burling is much more difficult to predict, and whilst 4m or so is my prediction, it could go either way.

The BBC isn't supposed to be about ratings though - indeed viewers would be served best by them putting EE up against Corrie - although even if ITV tucked Corrie and Emmerdale away in the 7pm hour, freeing up 8pm for a greater variety of shows, the BBC would counter it with EastEnders at 8pm - meaning few post-watershed slots on the BBC for other content and making it very difficult for anything ITV showed at 8pm.

If the BBC wants to offer a more varied weeknight schedule axing Holby City (or perhaps moving it to 9pm) would be a good place to start.


Trouble is with EastEnders it's quantity over quality. They do have these great weeks here and there, but then the next Monday the quality often drops significantly and it's back to the EE of old.

To be fair though that's true of all the soaps - but some do the run of the mill day to day stuff much better than others.

Oh, please: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s103/...t-watched.html

That article's filled with errors I'm not even sure where to start. Why do they publish such articles? (considering these articles are checked for errors, surely the Delete button should have been hit instead of Publish?)

BTW, Attentional don't tape-check for Bank Holidays and the such like, so ratings from DS at the weekend will be for the full slot.

All of the BBC's will be wrong then as they're usually overrunning throughout the evening on Christmas Day.

Last year they were ontime

They overran by 8 minutes at most in 2008, its not the tradition that some people have made it out to be. No doubt the stopwatches will be in hand anyway.

ONCE!

Yeah It was because they put 2 films on in the afternoon, which is fine normally but that year they had to squeeze Who, SCD, EE and W&G before 9.

The EastEnders lead in is not be all and end all. The One Show does well enough at 7pm without EastEnders. Miranda does well enough without EastEnders. If BBC1 decided to air competitive programming against the soaps (as they often do on Friday) instead of wasting their PSB obligations there maybe they'd see better results? Not that they should if they don't want to, but it's not just ITV to blame for a lack of comedy or whatever on BBC1.

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Top Gear did very well in it's different timeslot. Emmerdale is holding up as expected but the Nativity is rating strongly against it. Exceptionally strong for Holby City, and Christmas Hospital - idiotically scheduled - suffered against it.

The first advertisement of what will presumably be a big marketing campaign ahead of Sky Atlantic's launch in February can now be seen on Sky's website,

http://tv.sky.com/skyatlantic

Going to be fascinating to see how they manage what is a pretty diverse line up of entertainment channels, ranging from some pretty 'low brow' programming on Sky Living to the iconic but not necessarily mass appealing HBO programming on Atlantic.

Three ratings reported so far for yesterday:

Nigel Slater’s Simple Supers: 3.3m (13.2%)
It’s Paul Burling: 3.6m (14.7%) exc. HD
Christmas with Gordon: 1.8m (7.3%)

Source: Attentional

Wednesday 22nd December Overnights
BBC One (inc. HD)
06:00- Breakfast: 1.8m (38.7%)
18:00- BBC News at Six: 5.5m (26.1%)
18:30- Regional News and Weather: 7.8m (34.3%)
19:00- The Nativity: 5.1m (22.0%)
19:30- Dig 1940: 3.4m (14.0%)
20:00- Jimmy's Christmas Food Factory: 3.7m (15.3%)
20:30- Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers: 3.3m (13.2%)
21:00- Supermarkets: What Price Cheap Food?: 3.8m (15.3%)
22:00- BBC News at Ten: 4.6m (20.4%)
22:25- Regional News and Weather: 4.2m (20.5%)
22:45- Catherine Tate: Nan's Christmas Carol: 2.6m (17.7%)

BBC Two
18:05- Celebrity Eggheads: 2.2m (10.4%)
18:35- Yellowstone: 1.8m (7.7%)
19:35- Nigella Kitchen: 2.6m (10.8%)
20:05- Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings: 3.1m (12.6%)
21:00- The Other Boleyn Girl: 2.3m (9.6%) inc. HD
22:50- Ruth Jones's Christmas Cracker: 0.7m (4.9%)

ITV1 (inc. HD)
06:00- Daybreak: 0.8m (19.2%)
18:30- ITV News & Weather: 4.5m (19.9%)
19:00- Countrywise Winter Special: 5.7m (24.5%)
19:30- Emmerdale: 7.6m (31.0%)
20:00- It's Paul Burling: 3.7m (15.0%)
21:00- The Comedy Annual 2010: 3.4m (13.8%)
22:00- ITV News at Ten & Weather: 2.6m (11.8%)
22:35- Batman Begins: 1.4m (12.7%)

Channel 4 (inc HD & C4+1)
18:00- The Simpsons: 2.4m (9.5%)
18:30- Hollyoaks: 1.4m (5.8%)
19:00- Channel 4 News: 0.9m (3.5%)
20:00- Christmas with Gordon: 1.9m (7.3%)
21:00- Come Dine with Me: Celebrity Christmas Special: 2.8m (10.1%)
22:00- Chris Moyles' Christmas Quiz Night: 1.8m (7.3%)
22:50- The Family: 0.7m (5.0%)

Channel 5 (inc. HD)
17:00- Five News: 1.0m (6.3%)
17:30- Neighbours: 1.2m (6.7%)
18:00- Monkey Life: 0.5m (2.4%)
18:25- Live From Studio Five: 0.3m (1.2%)
19:00- Five News at 7: 0.4m (1.5%)
19:30- Highland Emergency: 0.8m (3.4%)
20:00- Emergency Bikers: 1.7m (7.0%)
21:00- NCIS: 1.5m (6.0%)

...otherwise known as a majority piss poor set of ratings.

Countrywise did well, mind. But both BBC1 and ITV1 below 4m between 8pm and 10pm. ITV did win the slot though between 8pm and 9pm, if that's any consolidation.

yes it was a quiet night, I sometimes wonder if Wednesday would improve if the BBC put an episode of EE on that night, let another stronger night fend for itself.

The new US cable comedy Hot in Cleveland is going on Sky Living.

Looks like I'll be tuning in to Living for the first time ever!!

well they might do seeing as they are running in on 2 consecutive Saturdays. Desperate times for the aging auntie

Pretty underwhelming set of ratings there. Good on ITV for trying out a new schedule, but apart from Countrywise it didn't really deliver. Maybe Paul would be better on ITV2? I have noticed though that the NaT seems about half a million up on what it usually gets since the IAC/Corrie boost, because normally with a lead in of ~3m, NaT would be getting around 2m or just under.

CH4 continued to do well with its Christmas related programming and CH5 also benefited from weak ITV1/BBC1 competition.

Piss poor programmes = piss poor ratings.

BBC1 cocked up with its Wednesday food hour. Two shows that could have pulled 5m plus in the Weds 7.30 slot over 16 weeks have both underperformed by being shown back to back in the tougher 8pm hour over just 8 weeks. It's too much I guess for even the most hardened foodie.

Still, ITV's big comedy double-bill () couldn't take advantage. Although Victoria Wood did - having sat on the shelf for a few years, that's the second consecutive year BBC2 has aired the 2000 xmas special and to big numbers both times.

The Nativity is the surprise result for me so far this Christmas. I really expected this minority interest programming to flop in primetime - sub-3m by now. But it has held up rather well!

not surprised it was truly awful TV.
ITV2 really could have done with a Bond film on last night

Nice for Hollyoaks, hopefully the first look did the business, i think it was 2nd TT last night (yes i know it means bugger all)

Anyway to work out what percentage of Nigellas audience is 14-25 year old boys & men? I know people who only watch it for err....not the food.

Minority Interest You know very well its got the parents & young kids audience and not just the regular SoP groupies


When are they going to repeat the 2009 Christmas Special?

the BBC always over does EE at Christmas, even I would say that.

Nothing worth watching at all last night.
And Channel 4 might as well be a Cooking Channel.