Ignore

True, it would probably not gain much against Corrie, I was just suggesting a viewing pattern or routine to establish itself a bit more before Xmas.

With the good figures Strictly has posted this year there is no chance of the BBC moving it away from Christmas day now in favour of airing it on Christmas eve (Saturday) next year. Would love a live Xmas special but next year's Xmas eve is the only date it would work as the next year it will be the final on the 22nd probably. I do think this new celebs thing worked well for them and the reinvention of the show has been nigh on complete.

I do think the Xmas schedules at the start of the evening will be fixed for years to come like this until something will seriously falter. The results are too good for both parties to make a drastic change.

I think The BBC should bring back TOTP
and air it Tuesdays at 8:00pm right in between EastEnders and Holby (Move Holby to 8:30pm of course)
or Have it air on wednesdays at 7:30pm with the one show lead in and Waterloo road at 8:00pm

I know it's a Sunday and both shows have seen very decent figures recently but Countryfile and Antiques Roadshow, on boxing day?

If I was BBC and ITV, I'd change the line-ups so they were:

BBC1
17:10 - The One Ronnie
18:00 - EastEnders
18:30 - Doctor Who
19:30 - Strictly Come Dancing
20:30 - EastEnders
21:00 - Come Fly with Me
21:30 - The Royle Family
22:30 - BBC News

ITV1
17:30 - ITV News
17:45 - You've Been Framed! at Christmas
18:30 - Coronation Street
19:00 - Emmerdale
20:00 - All Star Family Fortunes
21:00 - Coronation Street
21:30 - Benidorm Christmas Special
22:30 - Harry Hill's TV Burp (R)
23:00 - ITV News

ITV would move Corrie over to Tuesdays 8 pm before you could say "schedule change"

I actually don't think they would
but i could see them having Emmerdale 7 & 8pm like rather then Thursdays

TOTP sadly is dead and had been dying for ten years before the BBC gave it the last rites. I can't see them bringing it back. Maybe Channel 5 might revive CD UK, though.
I still reckon next autumn is going to be very interesting. This is where I think SCD will overtake TXF in the ratings, as TXF seems to have peaked now and the mutterings about it being rigged are growing louder. ( Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against it and loved seeing audience figures like 20m again). Also Miranda is going to become huge next year and the autumn showings of DW are on course for 8 million, poss 9 million, if the spoilers are anything to go by.
Now this might sound odd, how's about we get a real bolt out of the blue about a programme that still has its devoted lovers on here? Although the summer BB is dead, I reckon Channel 4 might still see CBB has some potential- 3. 5 million average last season- and bring CBB back.

There is something very wrong with our country when Come Fly With Me gets 10.3 million viewers; something very very wrong.

It's the only "after EE" slot they haven't tackled yet and if Holby was moved, ITV would be in there like a shot with either Corrie or Emmerdale. Even if the BBC would alternate Holby and Waterloo Road in the slot with reduced episode orders for Holby, I'm sure ITV would "spoil" that hour as the Holby slot is almost as destructive to their schedule as EE slots.

Maybe ITV have conceded Tuesdays now in the same way that the BBC used to concede Mondays to ITV.

That would be a disaster for ITV. People would no doubt forget to come back for the second Corrie, and Royles v Benidorm is a terrible idea as they appeal to the same people.

Well moving Coronation St around too much has hit ratings for the show this year. Why can't ITV just go for a simple 7.30 Monday/ Wednesday( when there's no football)/ Friday timing like they always had instead of moving it around? Sometimes this year they've moved it back to Sunday nights, not promoted it and then moaned when 2 milion viewers have forgotten to watch it? At least Emmerdale and Eastenders are consistent.

Considering Miranda is still airing on BBC2, it may be a bit soon to think about a Christmas Day BBC1 slot.

Christmas Day 2012 maybe and a lesser day in 2011.

Blimey - the classic TOTP thread has nearly 400 comments. Been ages since a C5 programme generated so much discussion. Can't wait to see C5's ratings tomorrow.

That makes no sense - you say put it on a Wednesday when there's no football, but then you say "instead of moving it around" - how contridctory is that!! Surely by not having it on football weeks your doing just that - Moving it around!

I think that Miranda should get the 7:30 Wednesday slot.

The growth in ratings when not against Cory St shows that there is alot of cross over between these two programmes. BBC One has been able to do quite well with Comedy at 7:30 wednesday, and with no soap competition it would do well.

As for Miranda on Christmas day, i agree that it is too young and not widely known enough to get the 9pm slot. However, i think the 10pm slot after the 9pm big hitter comedy would do wonders for the comedy, and gain it momentum.

In ratings terms yes, but C4 would never have done well anyway. Instead of another film, comedy or come dine with me repeat, they went for something very different to any other channel, in line with their remit to be distinctive


IIRC the breaking news coverage from the Tuesday after the election was in this list. Media Guardian has a rating off 8.878m for BBC1, which would be at 19

I know only one entry per show is allowed, but surely breaking news coverage and a standard bulletin are different enough to get listed seperately?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...ron-tv-ratings

Are we expecting The Royle Family to return next year as wasn't this the third of the three specials commissioned? Last night's episode clearly set the show up for a wedding special though, and though I wouldn't have said this after the first I do think there is definately potential for further specials now - or heck, even a series.


Personally next year I'd move The Royle Family to 10pm so something new can get the 9pm slot - though when I say new probably Rock and Chips. Ideally too either Strictly or Doctor Who would move to Christmas Eve or Boxing Day to allow room for something else in the BBC1 schedule on Christmas Day itself - though exactly what I'm not sure.

With the cut to the licence fee it probably won't happen, but it would be great to see a return of the two-part family dramas which used to be commissioned most years and often run Christmas Day and Boxing Day on BBC1.


Have we got the figure for the worst rated prime-time show on BBC1 in the last decade or so - you do get the impression they could pretty much put on anything on Christmas Day and secure at least 7-8m+.

Indeed of the 10m shows officially get, I wonder how many of the 10m watch or are just in the room whilst a show is just on the TV. Indeed if having not really watched EastEnders whilst spending Christmas somewhere else, and then going home and perhaps watching it on the PVR/Sky+ later, do they get counted twice, or do visitors to a house not count in BARB ratings?

Would be nice to see them try something of their own
Five is such a waste of space and show,shows that could fit on GOLD or Watch


Sky* and everything are taken into account in the officials are they not?
The BARB box i think everyone in that room is accounted for
even if they are visitors

Reflecting on it, though Christmas Day is far from the biggest rated day in terms of the headline figure, I think its the sheer variety that make it an event on this thread. 6 shows - encompassing soap, drama, entertainment and comedy - broke 9m, quite possibly 10m in officials. Has there been another day in 2010 that has managed more than 3 shows like that?



Glad that I'm not the only one. They've also scheduled Upstairs Downstairs strongly tonight - and are using the traditionally very strong ratings nights of NYD and Jan 2nd to launch The Magicians and Zen too. Yes, there's been some odd and frankly poor scheduling going on as well, but all four of those new shows are important and potentially returnable. The "BSI" do actually deserve a pat on the back for giving them the very best shot at success.


I'd be very surprised if there wasn't another Royle Family special again next year. It seems to have settled into the pattern Only Fools had in the early 90s, just coming back each year at Christmas. The storylining of the episode last night with the upcoming marriage certainly indicates to me that its how the writers are now thinking.

I'd advocated shifting Strictly to Christmas Eve this year - but to be fair, its hard to envisage anything else doing as well opposite Corrie. I would still personally do it next year - it offers much better opportunities for something new on Christmas Day which could either give a massive boost to a returning series like Miranda, or launch something new in the best possible way. Also, Christmas Eve is Saturday next year, and could offer Strictly a 90 minute slot which might help if they go down the new contestants route again.

BBC1 performed excellently as expected - I enjoyed Come Fly With Me but appear to be in the minority. I agree in the show the Japanese schoolgirl sketch was stupid but otherwise the characters didn't seem too large or unrealistic.

Shame The Royle Family didn't win the day as I agree with those who say it was the strongest Special since The Queen of Sheba but it still got good ratings.

To be fair to BBC1, the Coronation Street slot is probably the one on Christams Day where they should steer clear of trying new programming and go with the tried and tested.

1.1m people watched EastEnders on BBC1 HD last night.

I'll be very interested to see how Benidorm did tonight. For what it's worth I thought most of it was pretty poor but the ending was brilliant. It was obvious that it had to be rewritten at the last minute and the humour wasn't there which was disappointing but the ending pretty much made up for it as it was done brilliantly. Against upstairs Downstairs and with a weak lead-in I'll be surprised if it's much higher than 5m, and normally I'd say it wasn't even worth that but under the circumstances I think they can just about be forgiven for what was mostly a bit of a misfire.

As for Upstairs Downstairs, I can't see it doing as well as Downton but 7m+ for tonight seems feasible.

Looking at last night, Doctor Who performed really well and made up for those slightly dodgy overnights in the Summer, which is good to see. It was much better than the dismal first part of The End of Time last year so it deserved to do well. Strictly recovered magnificently against Corrie whilst EE and The Royles did as well as ever. The big shock was Come Fly With Me - I didn't think it would do that well. It was absolutely diabolical though so I can't see it holding up too well. Shrek and The One Ronnie also did very well in the afternoon.

ITV held up pretty well, with the soaps up nicely on last year. Family Fortunes was the big surprise for them, as nearly 5m against EE is pretty good compared to previous years. Poirot did fine considering the circumstances but as everything else did better than expected I think it should have done a touch better. 4.4m for a YBF repeat at 5:15pm is also pretty decent for them. The Grinch did dreadfully but I doubt they either care or expected anything else as they've shown it so many times.