I think Strictly would pull in the low 13 millions without snow and could pull in the mid 14 millions with the snow. If it turns out there is no snow boost then fair enough I will accept being wrong. Anyway, I won't say anymore on the matter until I see the ratings.

Shame there is no regional news program on today as well

Oh come on. You know that when you post the same thing over & over we dont need to save it for future reference.

Anything under 17m average (20m peak) tonight will be a disaster for SCD given the weather.

If Strictly averages 17.3m and peaks at 19.8m, you'd better leave the country George.

There won't be enough smilies on offer to cover off that turn of events!

If this weather continues, I'd gladly leave (as soon as an aiport re-opens to facilitate it)

Arent the BBC worried that Brucie might slip and fall in this weather. They are advising pensioners not to go out today. Maybe SCD will be cancelled as a result.........

Is it the Alexander Armstrong Effect? Would the programme get a permanent boost if they made him the permanent host?


LOL. Excelllent summary.

At least one for each side provides a balance (of sorts).


(Is it right to put LOL here or is that supposed to be sarcastic (cos I wasn't intending to be) Not particuarly up on text speak.)

I emailed Angela Jain almost a year ago and urged her to look at the lessons from UPN.

this goes way past big brother they have axed some REALLY good shows,they talk about creative renewal but so far its been very poor copies of shows already on other channels.

they drag the same old people out year on year,they are going to kill shameless with a 22 ep run.Im just waiting for Jamie oliver to present channel 4 news (he seems to be doing everything else they offer).

Alexander Armstrong should have been made the permanent host. Different hosts lead to variable quality of the show for me personally.

George and Robbie make me chuckle as their discussion about Strictly's potential ratings tonight show.

I know that phrase is used a lot but MPD IMO jumped the shark when the lambs were playing.

until that point the show had been VERY hard questions on they appear and the questions are downgraded to insanely easy questions.

it ripped the format of the show wide apart

Very good evening for ITV1, it seems like they may have actually won as well from 9:30pm to 10:30pm, with HIGNFY denting the first part of the Military Awards. It did well last year as well with 4.6m (19%).

Good night for BBC1, although The One Show seems a tad low, while QI's share is shocking. Very good though HIGNFY and in particular Graham Norton.

Normal nights for BBC Two and C5, in particular well done to the latter with above 2m for The Mentalist. Abysmal for C4. Again. Way to kill one of your successful formats. Overexposed. Again.

Lol whatever happened to orange balls and thicker shirts! They dont make footballers like they used to.

Coronation Street did better than I expected, the fourth death controversy doesnt appear to have hit the figures, and apart from the RVP clash on Thursday, is going great guns.Decent showing for HIGNFY, though as a regular watcher somehow it doesnt pack the punch it used to-more going through the motions.

As for SCD, the team behind it have done a great job in coming back from all kinds of criticism last year. The show is bigger, brighter (the set and the lighting are hugely better than before), has had a great cast list and the perfect sister show in It Takes Two. Snow or not, it deserves a headline rating tonight.

Agree here, though Frank Skinner and Martin Clunes do good jobs also imo.

AA is made for presenting tv shows.

Interesting that that even though Strictly started in the UK, they took a few tweaks from their US counterparts. The set comes from Dancing With The Stars and looks great. They just seemed to up their game this year in terms of contestants and production values. It just worked beautifully.


I thought he was strongly considered as permanent host until they decided to continue with a different host each week. Such a shame.

The US actually copied our set....

Dancing on Ice line-up confirmed:

- Steven Arnold
- Kerry Katona
- Jeff Brazier
- Vanilla Ice
- Denise Welch
- Angela Rippon
- Sam Attwater
- Jennifer Metcalfe.
- Chloe Madeley
- Craig McLachlan
- Dominic Cork
- Comedy Dave
- Nadia Sawalha
- Laura Hamilton
- Ellen Rives
- Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry

Judges - Emma Bunton, Jason Gardiner and Robin Cousins
Head Coach - Karen Barber

You're right. The staircase on the new Strictly set is similar to the tweak on the Dancing With The Stars set, and the logo being projected onto the dancefloor is something Dancing did first I believe.

I'll go for 15 million for the SCD final. It's not quite as huge as TXF, but this season has seen ratings up by 2 million and the show seems to have revived itself.
For Christmas Day, I reckon EE will be the winner with 13.5 million, Doctor Who second with 13m and the Royle Family third on 12.5 million. ITV1's flagship, Poirot, will pull in about 6 million and I predict, as ever, Coronation St will be ITV's sole top ten entry, with 9.5 million viewers. Emmerdale is likely to falter, like last year, against DW.

Interesting they've gone down to three judges. Never understood why they had five anyway - they never spoke to more than three.

As for the line-up - meh. Pretty boring.

Deliberately over-predicting BBC1 so we can criticise them when ratings are lower.

For what it's worth, if Coronation Street keeps momentum this week, I won't be surprised if we see a slightly different top 10 this year.

My take
- Steven Arnold - fair enough
- Kerry Katona - should get some tabloid coverage, so can see why there've got here
- Jeff Brazier = same as above
- Vanilla Ice - ok i suppose
- Denise Welch - well you've got to have the Loose women EVERY year!
- Angela Rippon
- Sam Attwater - fair enough
- Jennifer Metcalfe.
- Chloe Madeley - bit rubbish, she's been on other things - shes only really famous thanks to R&J.
- Craig McLachlan - No idea who!
- Dominic Cork - usual sport star
- Comedy Dave - may be funny
- Nadia Sawalha - ok
- Laura Hamilton - who
- Ellen Rives - should not doubt get some tabloid coverage
- Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry - fair enough his got the VC and is a soilder, but his hardly a celebrity and this is a celebrity(ish) skating competition.

Also think there being 3 judges is better - 5 was always way too many!

Also from the press release, for the first

At least there getting red of them quite quick, but i really dont see the need to drag it out any longer.

They've got a few big (for this sort of thing) names in there, but too many soap stars and relatives of famous people. They'd have been better off sticking with 14, although that problem could be solved quickly as they're having double eliminations for the first two weeks. Alternatively it could backfire as the bigger names could go first (I doubt that'll happen though).

I'm glad they've cut the judging panel, 3 is enough and they've ditched the 2 judges with the least personality so there should be a bit more spark on the panel as they'll be able to speak to all the judges after each performance. I suspect the marking will change too as I can't see them wanting the total mark to be out of 18.

Other format include the aforementioned double eliminations for the first two weeks, which will purely be based on the public vote so the competition won't probably start until the third week with the public choosing the top 12. The set is also being revamped and will have a new contestants area (like SCD I suspect). There will apparently be more twists throughout the series, and I won't be surprised if they have guests on each week to fill the 45 minute results shows.

Overall the changes they've made look pretty good and ratings should increase a bit this time, but the over-reliance on Z-listers and the length of the shows (which show no signs of decreasing) may hold it back.

I think SCD will do fantastic tonight.

I think the first show to make 13million and the 2nd to make 14m+.

Regarding the Christmas Ratings,

I think Christmas Day

EastEnders 13.3m
Doctor Who 12.1m
Royle Family 11m
Coronation Street 10m
Emmerdale 7m

Really don't see EastEnders getting 13m next Saturday. It never even got 11m last year for a much bigger episode.

BBC1 Schedule Changes - Tonight
22:25 - Match of the Day (was 80 minutes, now 60 minutes)
23:25 to 00:25 - The Football League Show (was 80 minutes, now 60 minutes)

However, I still think Coronation St will be ITV's only top ten entry this year again. Yet the two soaps do give their Christmas Day some stability now, as I could imagine without them they would probably stick on some tired You've Been Framed clips.

I think Corrie and EE will be quiet this Christmas, from what i've read so i don't expect outstanding ratings. Emmerdale could do well with what it has lined up.