Brilliant night for BBC1 and BBC2, more so the latter. Superb. Horrendous for ITV1... I doubt anyone can even attempt to spin some positivity out of them 3 figures.

Being beaten by BBC Two for 3 out of the 4 hours in primetime is not something to be proud of, ITV.

Surprised how well Come Fly Did With Me held up.

Amazing for Eric and Ernie but thoroughly deserved.

Just to 'complete the set', how did Live at the Apollo and Harry Potter do?

And I'm guessing C4 and C5 got squashed completely.

Father Ted night didn't do that well.
Top performing show was 1.7m at 2135 - not too surprised with BBC TWO doing so well.

Thanks dubsj.

Fantastic night for BBC1 and BBC2. Indiana Jones did brilliantly, whilst Come Fly With Me did better than I expected. EastEnders was bang on what I expected. BBC2 also did really well.

As for ITV...oh dear. Take Me Out did abysmally and just got caught in the crossfire, but it'll bounce back next week so that shouldn't be too much of a worry. However, even with HD (I presume these figures exclude it for ITV) that's really disappointing for Primeval. It was really good and deserved to do better. It looks like the long gap between series and the lower rating third series may have permanently hurt it which is such a shame, and there's no way it deserved to lose to The Magicians. The Magicians will have had a much better lead-in so maybe Primeval will do better next week but it doesn't look too promising right now.

At one and the same time yet "not surprised" at Eric And Ernie. Heavily promoted, plum slot, rave previews, nothing spectacular in the way of competiton, although CFWM defied the odds big-time.

Excelent night for BBC2. Owch for ITV1.

Wall E - 4.4m / 25.4%
Apollo 4.3m / 16.3%
Harry Potter 3.4m / 14.3%

Diversity on SKY1 656,000 peaked 888,000 - even though they were on BBC ONE at the same time.

Primeval's on tonight, and based on Sunday nights being 'big' TV wise, anything less than 5m and the series could be in danger. I do think a better line-up for New Year's Day (as well as to prop up the schedule), would have been:

16:35 - FILM: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
19:00 - Emmerdale
19:30 - Primeval
20:30 - Coronation Street
21:00 - Take Me Out
22:15 - FILM: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
23:30 - ITV News

Same schedule, just using the soaps to prop up the schedule.

First ratings day of the year and shock ratings already

Strong night for BBC1-everything pretty much in line with what I expected. I suspect The Magicians will fall as it was being held up by the film/EE sandwich last night. Pretty strong retention for CFWM considering what everyone has been saying and I would guess around 6m for the next Thursday episode.

Huge ratings for BBC2 there and what a humiliation for ITV1. Primeval beaten by a 34 year old repeat on BBC2 TMO falling to a new low. And 1.8m for a film in primetime! There was no excuse for Primeval really, because it had the weakest competition of the night, but people just chose to watch other stuff. TMO more understandably was hit by tough BBC1 competition, but saying that it looks like it's going to be a tough month for ITV1 with the first of their new shows underperforming and I can't see Primeval recovering from there really apart from hopefully a slight boost with a TV Burp lead in.

That's bad. HD will push it to 4.3m or 4.4m, but even so its one of its lowest ever overnight ratings, excluding the episode where it clashed with Doctor Who, it may even turn out to be its lowest ever overnight rating.

Percentage share will be the second lowest ever as well. Not looking good.

Anything for Independence Day? Bizarrely everyone seemed to be quoting it over FB and Twitter

Independence Day 2m / 7.5% - second most watched show on C4 yesterday after Deal or No Deal.

Sensational rating for Eric & Ernie - didn't expect it to be that high at all! Once the official rating comes in for it, it'll be the 4th most watched BBC2 programme this century, current top 5:

1. Top Gear 2007 8.35m
2. Comic Relief Does Top Of The Pops 2009 7.09m
3. Rome 2005 7.02m
4. Weakest Link Celebrity Special 2000 6.59m
5. Top Gear Of The Pops 2007 6.4m

Fantastic night overall for BBC2 - it looks like they beat ITV1 in the primetime shares and it's probably BBC2's best primetime share in a few years. The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show re-runs always do well but I think yesterday's 4.5m was better than usual.

Good night for BBC1 too. Indiana Jones performed really well, The Magicians scored a pretty good rating in a fantastic slot (although it'll probably drop next week) and Come Fly with Me's retention wasn't as bad as some were expecting. I expect CFWM to fall once again for its next episode on Thursday but it should be capable of 5m+ and that sort of lead-in will probably help out Not Going Out.

Dear of dear for ITV1. Can't explain what on earth happened to Primeval - the slot was the best one for ITV last night with relatively weak opposition; it should've had a million more. We'll see how it does tonight but it's not a promising start at all and once again it looks like ITV1 Saturday nights will be low-rating in Q1. Take Me Out's drop was bigger than I was expecting, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall tanked. A night to forget for ITV.

That would have been so much better, as they could have just aired soap episodes then instead of New Year's Eve.

Still, I think Primeval may recover a bit tonight, so hopefully 5m won't be out of the question, although high 4s seems more likely. Take Me Out will bounce back fine next week too.

The Harry Potter repeat did OK given the tough movie competition and the fact that they've shown it so many times before.

Eastenders had decent ratings for new years day i thought it would have had over 10m though i think tomorrow night will make great ratings

Come Fly with Me isn't the flop many people were hoping for then. I expect this one will run and run.

Take Me Out will bounce back next week. Remember it was up against CFWM and EastEnders!

The Magicians will fall next week

Maybe ITV were right to axe Primeval in the first place?

Woah, TMO. It will be at around 5m next week though, the competition was huge.

I'm not going to do a because I genuinely hoped it would get 5-6m. Other than CFWM, it had no particular opposition, so I'm not remotely surprised by this spectacularly good rating.

I said on here last summer when news of this film first broke that it seemed odd to have BBC2 commission something that sounded like a ready made hit for BBC1.

And so it proved. I bet it gets a BBC1 repeat before 2011 is out.

This Christmas season has confirmed one thing for me - the BBC is run by a bunch of numpties!


What a complete and utter humiliation for ITV. Even the most avid ITVista on here can't spin this one. Beaten soundly by BBC1 and BBC2 for most of the night. On a Saturday.

Who saw Primeval being beaten by a 34 year old M&W Christmas special (which in fairness, must also have run BBC1's big new Saturday night flop pretty close in the half hour they went head to head)?

Insanely good ratings for BBC1's two afternoon/early evening film premieres - proof that both should have aired in prime slots. Fools. I wonder if BBC1 will cancel the mooted 26th Jan reshowing of Indy 4 after the first showing will get 8m or so in the official ratings?

CFWM rated respectably given how awful it was, and given the strong BBC2 showing. But it's clearly going to sink down towards 4.5-5m levels now. And rightly so.

Be interesting to see a breakdown for The Magicians - I bet it started with 8m and sank - which probably explains the insanely high M&W 1976 rating. But why didn't people switch to Primeval? That's got to be a worry for ITV.

And finally, on a night of eye-catching ratings - 5m for MOTD?

5m!

I need a lie-down...

Eric and Ernie will surely consolidate over 7m?

[quote=RobbieSykes123;47005092]I'm not going to do a because I genuinely hoped it would get 5-6m. Other than CFWM, it had no particular opposition, so I'm not remotely surprised by this spectacularly good rating.

I said on here last summer when news of this film first broke that it seemed odd to have BBC2 commission something that sounded like a ready made hit for BBC1.

And so it proved. I bet it gets a BBC1 repeat before 2011 is out.

This Christmas season has confirmed one thing for me - the BBC is run by a bunch of numpties!

BBC2 commissioned the drama, not BBC1. I think its great that the whole portfolio of channels on the BBC gets good figures and stick 2 fingers up to the Daily Mail, Murdochs and the Tory's who want to bring it down. Regardless of what you think people seem to enjoy CFWM even my aged parents. And I wouldn't be too quick to write off the Magicians either.

dubsj - presumably the 6.1m doesn't include BBC HD simulcast viewing either? (I assume it was simulcast)

Do you have the numbers for that?

Those BBC2 ratings are amazing. It shows the affection that the general public still have for Eric & Ernie and how many people still want to see the older shows.

It wasn't simulcast - BBCHD instead chose to simulcast BBC3's showing of Mary Poppins. The HD showing is Thursday at 10.30.

Incidently are there any ratings for Mary Poppins last night please?

I think that Wall-E and Indiana Jones were wasted in their slots. They should have been more in primetime. Primeval will be in trouble tonight as it is up against Iron Man on Channel 4, there's a repeat of the legendary 1977 Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show on BBC2 and Five has The Towering Inferno.

Interesting thing about ITV films is that they paid a bundle for all of these films and don't really get their money's worth from them. But also they have a lot of films in that package that didn't perform too well at the box office such as The Incredible Hulk or Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

<speechless>