Yeah i noticed when flicking through the channels on xmas day
the x factor was reapted
IMO that channel is a waste of time

I don't agree that Songs of Praise is a waste but I agree that putting it on at 5.15pm on a key day of the year when there is potentially a huge audience to attract is daft. I would have scheduled Boxing Day like this:

9.45am FILM: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
11.20 FILM: SpyKIDS
12.40 BBC News, Weather
1.00 Nigel Slater's Christmas Suppers
1.30 FILM: The Ant Bully
2.50 FILM: Over The Hedge
4.10 Songs of Praise: The Big Sing
4.55 Antiques Roadshow
5.55 BBC News and weather for the week ahead
6.20 FILM: Enchanted
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 Celebrity Mastermind
9.00 Upstairs Downstairs

Secret Diary of A Call Girl and some of their films are good, but the rest is abysmal. I think ITV2 seems to be a dumping ground for reality shows that are too bad to go on ITV1 and the whole channel seems aimed at twentysomething women who buy HEAT magazine.

UK's number one multi channel. The fact that you arent a woman in her 20's doesnt mean the channel isnt a success.

And what?

You're not in that demographic so it's no wonder you don't like it. Doesn't mean it doesn't have a market.

On Virgin media
everything is on demand
Just press the red button or go into the menu and it's easy to find Corrie,EastEnders or whatever

I can't remember the last time i watched a repeat of something that was shown earlier in the day/week

I either just V+ it or check out demand
or if it's on BBC then press red and i player pops up

Given the shows on ITV2 (minus the odd one) most are watched by younger people so surely they know how to log on to ITV net player or whatever

You concentrate on where ITV's pensioner-fodder should go.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if you burn off 4 Agatha Christie shelf-filling murder mysteries in the space of a week, the pensioner audience they are aimed at will get horribly confused and spend each episode thinking "didn't we see this one the other night?". When they have more pressing things to worry about, like whether they have taken their tablets and stocked-up on incontinence knickers, this is the last thing they need.

Also, if you are putting out your pensioner-fodder at 9pm, keep it to an hour in length. The old dears need their Horlicks and to bed by 10pm, so finishing these shows at 11pm is a bit unhelpful - no wonder they only get 4m audiences!

We need to see data from a normal day and no big storyline - just an average episode to see how well ITV 2 repeats do. That said they are never going to be as good as EastEnders on BBC Three as they've had an established time for the past ten years. ITV 2 are always changing.

You actually, as much as I hate to say it, do have a point there Robbie. If we look at the breakdown for Poirot on Christmas Day:

Christmas Day 2010
21:00 - 4.5m (17.4%)
21:15 - 4.5m (17.6%)
21:30 - 4.5m (17.7%)
21:45 - 4.5m (17.5%)
22:00 - 4.2m (16.7%)
22:15 - 4.0m (16.0%)
22:30 - 4.1m (17.6%)
22:45 - 3.8m (17.8%)

Ignoring the last quarter hour, as I'm guessing it finished at 22:55, I don't understand why 0.3m to 0.5m choose to tune out after an hour, surely if you watch the first hour, then you're going to watch the second hour as well? Strange why people watch something with only the intention of watching the first half but not the latter half.

Similar story last year on Christmas Day, except the viewers left after the first quarter hour, presumably they didn't like it.

Not really
EastEnders aired in BBC 3 at 10:30pm on Saturday and 11:20pm yesterday and still pulled in over 500,000
quite a bit throughout the year you find the BBC 3 repeat has moved for whatever reason

My elderly relatives watch the first parts of programmes and record the post 10pm parts and watch the next day.

thats confusing, I understand it, but it may be a tough thing to get across to an auidence

I'm not suprised Harry Hill performed so badly.. It had a poor lead from The Mummy and it was on the same time as Top Gear & Eastenders!! Totally stupid decision by ITV to show it then!

Yes, they should have just started The Mummy half an hour later.

There's always a lot of archive stuff on BBC Two at Christmas, and even a little bit on BBC One.

A lot of stuff in the archives is not repeatable for contractual reasons. Of the rest, much is not capable of attracting a big enough audience to make it worthwhile, and a good chunk of it is not of sufficient sound and/or picture quality for transmission.

Even the most popular and best preserved archive material looks pretty bad with black bars at either side on people's widescreen sets. And trying to upscale it for HD is like polishing a turd.

If Songs of Praise can move to BBC Two for random sports events, there's no reason why it can't move for Boxing Day. And it should have taken Simple Suppers with it.

As for Christmas Day falling on Sunday next year, with two live church services on BBC One that day (Midnight mass) and the 10am service, I think an additional Songs of Praise would be overkill.

Maybe its because its the 200000th adaptation of the story

For what its worth, my parents tell me that they have already given up on Upstairs Downstairs because its set in the city and its not Downton- which is lovely according to my mum.

So there we are. One nil to ITV as far as they are concerned.

Wasn't there two showings of the soap omnibuses on ITV2 on a Saturday until they decided to cut back?
It would be interesting if we add all the repeat showings together to get a total audience for the soaps.

Its the Suchet version - the rest were just monkeys in suits compared with him.


Yes move SoP to BBC2 to accomodate a religious festival!


Starting the first 5-10 minutes off in the dark wasnt the wisest thing to do. It felt very dreary and colourless. Contrast that with the vivid colour of the summer countryside in Downton and ask which one draws in the viewer?


Is today - MONDAY - not yesterday - not that the BBC seem to know. and its a tradition not a festival


The good stuff gets shown on BBC2. I suppose five got a cheap deal in return for sending over a few topless models to the Antiques Roadshow Christmas party

Is Boxing Day a big religious festival?

More predictions for 2011: Miranda will become the comedy hit of the year with 8 million viewers on BBC One. Strictly will overtake TXF to become the number one show in the autumn. BGT will hold steady and IAC could become even more popular now BB has gone and reality fans have less to watch.
However, BB or CBB look very unlikely to return in the near future as Des ended talks with Endemol over money in October.

Oh dear Glenn. More chance of hell freezing over than those 2 happening, especially the first one.

I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering what happened to the Christmas Sundays on the 26th in years gone by.

But surely, that made yesterday's Songs of Praise even less important?

No she is good and shows that usually transfer to the main BBC channel see their audience double. I also think TXF has peaked, OK I'm not predicting a massive decline, but maybe 11 instead of 12 million viewers. This could put SCD ahead if this year's ratings are anything to go by.