I'd forgotten quite how consistently well the first two series of Primeval rated. The first few episodes of Series 3 struggled comparatively, until the third episode was butchered by Doctor Who. Something bad must have been in the water for family drama that summer - because the third series of the previously strong Robin Hood tanked at the same time.

I'd agree that the day, number of people watching TV and the relatively limp opposition could bode well for it tonight.

Surely the exceptionally high numbers watching TV in the early evening of NYD last year was mainly down to the competing soap blocks (EEx2 and EmFm/Coro x2) and the big 2nd part of the Dr Who special?

Not sure we can say that 30m will always be watching at 7-8pm on NYD simply because it's NYD.

I think the time of year didn't help the third series as after the third episode the shares were pretty similar to series two, but airing in April/May instead of January/February hurt its raw figures a bit. Robin Hood got shunted into 6:15pm slot at a similar time of year and spectacularly flopped, ending up with about 3m an episode after dropping weekly for most of the run. At least Primeval managed respectable enough ratings, even if they weren't as good as before.

I hope it gets 5m+ tonight and returns to series two levels this series. It was a great return tonight and deserves to do well. The Magicians could go either way though and the gap between series may hurt it so I'm not certain. I'll also be very interested to see how Take Me Out fares against EastEnders and Come Fly With Me. If it held 4m then I think it'll have done well.

Last year was pretty exceptional, but I'd imagine that viewership would still be well up on your average Saturday. Everyone stays in to shake off last nights headache....

NYD in 2009 also had very good numbers with 9m+ for Jonathan Creek and 7m watching that repeat of Christmas Day's Wallace and Gromit.

I have a feeling Eric and Ernie is going to do very well tonight, it was fantastic and I hope it gets 3-4m.

Best thing I have seen this Christmas, and I hope it does well too.

Personally i don't know why the BBC didn't have that sort of line up tonight.
EastEnders looked out of place at 8:30pm imo (just like last sunday)

For New years Day next year i would go for

5:10pm My Family Xmas/New year Special
6:00pm EastEnders
6:40pm Dr who
7:40pm EastEnders
8:10pm Comedy
8:45pm News
9:00pm Film

It's got the Morecambe and Wise Show as a lead in and they do well when they're on TV but it's up against Come Fly With Me.

I would love to see a sequel as only the early years were covered but hopefully if it does well, then it will happen maybe even on BBC One.

It just crossed my mind, that Vanessa Feltz is going to be a busy lady in 2011.

05:00 - 06:30 BBC Radio 2

I also hear she will continue to present her BBC London show.

Then she hop foots it over to Channel Five, for 11am. Not sure what the format of that show is, or if its live or not, but still if it isnt live, she has to record it still.

I can only soon that come March, she will be standing in as the female host of The One Show.

The Vanessa Show will be prerecorded but she'll be dead knackered, are Radio 2 and BBC Radio 2 in the same building, she'd be able to get some sleep before doing the talk show and I imagine they'll bulk record the show like they do with Deal or No Deal.

I haven't seen any promo for it but I imagine they'll be starting soon.

I thought the opening scene for Primeval was weak while it was trying to establish the new characters but after then it was brilliant. I hope it doesn't lose too much of an audience. I could only watch to midway through the first act for The Magicians.

It seemed like no one cared about Robin Hood after series two. Maid Marion was killed off at the end of the second series and Jonas Armstrong who played Robin left in series 3. The last episode was actually aired on BBC2, later than scheduled, because of Wimbledon. It got 2.43m.

Robin Hood was a dead horse and I think the BBC knew it. Merlin is a success but I think due to sporting events and budgetary reasons, we won't have family drama airing on Saturdays all year round on BBC One.

Wasn't Kudos developing a family drama about Pirates? I think had Stephen Moffatt not done Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes that would been a great idea for a family drama on Saturday night.

I wonder if it was down to David Schwimmer's guest appearance at the end, having been caught smuggling hardcore porn for Matt LeBlanc?

(About the only thing to raise a smile in the second ep of CFWM - I had to give it a second chance just in case...)

I'm another one that hopes that Eric and Ernie gets a great rating as it deserved it.

Can I also thank C4 for having a +1 channel as it also enabled me to watch most of the Father Ted night as well. Some of us that don't have PVRs treat +1 channels as PVRs.

I dont know where she plans to do her Radio 2 show, but she could easily do both from the same building, ive always found it odd that the BBC national radio stations have home citys, when it would seem to be much easier if some of them can do it from another BBC Radio station close to them.

I think they must be in the same building if not nearby, I think most of the BBC National Radio are in Broadcasting House with the exception of Five Live which is located at BBC Television Centre.

I vaguely remember a family drama about people with superpowers being talked about too? That was ages ago though, around the time the pirates show was first mentioned, so I guess nothing came of it.

Given that Primeval is a co-production between BBC and ITV (along with several other broadcasters), I'm guessing there's an agreement between the two not to deliberately put tough opposition against Primeval.

EastEnders is on a Saturday night and Robbie is bitching about ITV running a normal Saturday schedule against it.

I know we will soon have the Enders brigade and the pseudo mods on with the usual nonsense but just remember its BBC1 running soaps on a saturday night......

Slightly OT, but has anyone seen any promotion for the new series of Silent Witness or Hustle yet? Considering SW starts tomorrow I haven't seen one trailer for it, instead their promoting Zen to within an inch of it's life. Now I could watch Rufus Sewell all day, but even I'm fed-up of seeing his face every programme break.

ITV are promoting the hell out of Above Suspicion too, so I'm expecting the audience to be pretty split with AS maybe slightly ahead come Tuesday morn.

eric and ernie 6.1m / 23.0%

Wow!

Superb rating for BBC2. How did Primeval, Magicians and EastEnders do?

at that Eric and Ernie rating! So deserved a BBC1 slot. Do you have any other figures for last night dubsj? Thanks.

1.1.11

Eastenders 9m / 31.5%
The Magicians 5.5, / 21.1%
Indiana 7.6m / 31.1%
MOTD 4.9m / 24.6%
Come Fly With Me 7.6m / 26.9%

Eric and Ernie 6.1m / 23% - peaked 6.5m
1976 Morecambe and Wise - 4.5m / 16.4%
Behind The Scenes 3.6m / 17.2%

Primeval 4.1m / 15.7%
Take Me Out 2.9m / 10.3%
Forgetting Sarah Marashall 1.8m / 7.3%