Sunday 2nd January Overnights
BBC One (inc. HD)
17:45- BBC News; Regional News; Weather: 5.60m (25.2%)
18:10- Countryfile: 6.25m (26.1%)
19:10- Antiques Roadshow: 6.75m (25.6%)
20:10- Casualty: 6.15m (23.2%)
21:00- Zen: 5.11m (20.0%)

BBC Two
17:30- BDO World Darts Championship: 1.16m (5.2%)
18:50- Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show 1977: 2.34m (9.0%)
20:00- Oz and Hugh Raise the Bar: 2.05m (7.8%)
21:00- Arctic with Bruce Parry: 2.79m (10.7%)
22:00- Match of the Day 2: 2.70m (11.6%)

ITV1 (inc. HD)
17:00- The Incredible Hulk: 2.66m (12.2%)
19:00- Primeval: 3.34m (12.7%)
20:00- The Cube: Celebrity Special: 3.94m (14.9%)
21:00- Agatha Christie's Marple: 4.30m (17.4%)

Channel 4 (inc. HD)
17:40- Iron Man: 2.96m (12.1%) , +1: 561k (2.2%)
20:00- Famous and Fearless: 2.09m (8%) , +1: 336k (1.4%)
22:00- Alan Carr: Chatty Man: 1.31m (5.7%) , +1: 214k (1.5%)

Channel 5 (inc. HD)
18:00- The Towering Inferno: 0.77m (3.0%)
21:00- The Most Shocking Celebrity Moments 2010: 0.92m (4.3%)

Sky1
18:00- Got To Dance: 853k (3.6%)
19:00- Got To Dance: 1.13m (4.3%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 21.8%
ITV1: 15.5%
BBC Two: 9.8%
Channel 4: 8.6% (+1: 1.9%)
Channel 5: 3.4%

Sources: DS, MattJ
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Very good evening overall for BBC1, with everything over 5m. Casualty did a million better than I expected considering it was out of its usual slot. Zen did okay but it looks likely that next week's episode will rate under 5m.

Another pretty poor evening for ITV1. With a rating as low as that, it looks like this'll be the penultimate series of Primeval. What do ITV do now with the remaining episodes this series and next series? Keep them in its plum Saturday slot or burn them off somewhere else (maybe Saturday 6pm)? The Cube suffered from a low lead-in and no TXF support. Marple did okay-ish, about what I was expecting for it taking the various factors into account. BBC2 did well yesterday evening, continuing their good run of ratings this week.

Not with iPlayer on Virgin, you don't.

Well that's the end of the road for Primeval with those figures... Not a very good night for ITV1. Bad start to the year for them.

BBC1 had a good night with Casualty posting a very good figure, and BBC2 again having a good night.

I wonder who's more disappointed this morning: ITV executives or Channel 4 executives?

I think this deserves more

21:00- Arctic with Bruce Parry: 2.79m (10.7%)

as for 19:00- Primeval: 3.34m (12.7%) its not great.

I missed the first episode on Saturday because I was out and would like to watch them but don't know if its repeated?

Except for Virgin, yes. But for Anytime you need a Sky dish and subscription, so they both require a certain setup.

Canvas COULD blow Anytime out of the water, if they get it right. Most have good broadband connections these days.


Really poor for Primeval. I'm not sure it can recover from this, its second lowest rated episode ever, behind only the episode that clashed with the Doctor Who easter special in 2009.

ITV really shot themselves in the foot with Primeval. If they are to air the show on a Sunday then they need to make more of a deal out of it - it has been off the air for almost two years, it was always going to be a struggle getting people back to watching it so the double bill may not have been their best move.

I question whether starting your major new season programming over New Year weekend is a good idea or not?

On one hand you can try and pick up the festive momentum with lots of people watching TV, on the other hand you risk being lost among special one off programmes.

Just seen its on ITV2 on Wednesday at 8PM

Hmm, I see Channel 4 Sales have made a few changes. The all-day shares for the BBC channels have been removed, which is a shame.

Also what is Box 6 or Box 7?

http://www.channel4sales.com/data/overnights

Terrible ratings for Primeval. Gone too long and came back with too many changes yet again imo.

That's a bloody awful rating for Primeval. 3.3m is just appalling for sonething like that. Did ITV bother to advertise that it was on last night? It certainly looks like curtains for it now which is such a shame. It may bounce back to 4m or so next Saturday but even so that wouldn't be good and if it doesn't then an early slot beckons for it. Last night's episode wasn't great but it doesn't deserve to be that low. I suspect the poor lead-in hurt it too as The Incredible Hulk bombed against Iron Man as expected, it was a stupid choice of film on ITV's part.

The Cube suffered from a crap lead-in and the fact that it had absolutely no advertising whatsoever. It should have got an extra half million though. Marple did OK-ish against Zen. Earlier on, Iron Man did really well and probably beat Primeval whilst they were head to head, and Got To Dance also got off to a great start. Disappointing for Famous and Fearless though.

I hope Primeval flopping doesn't deter ITV from this sort of genre drama and indeed pre-watershed drama, but I have an awful feeling that it will.

Box 6 down the side never breaks 0% I don't think, and Box 7 is extremely low. They don't look like proper channels because a Google shows nothing. Not sure why we need three categories for Channel 4 channels, as far as I can tell though:

Channel 4 Sales --> all of Channel 4 Corporation
Channel 4 Portolio --> excludes Film4
Channel 4 Dig --> Channel 4 only, excluding +1

More proof that ITV1 is stranded without its Cowell shows. It seems to me that apart from the soaps, the Cowell shows and I'm A Celeb people don't give a fig about ITV1. Even the heralded return of Dancing On Ice isn't a big deal as ratings are falling and it will probably be axed before long.
Also their daytime line up like This Morning is creaking with old age and Jeremy Kyle is just a chavfest. Daybreak hasn't set the world on fire either.

Unfortunately, my Three dongle doesn't do the job!!

One day, my exchange will be de-regulated/upgraded and I'll be able to get affordable, fast broadband.

Maybe Casualty would do better in the 8 o clock slot on a Sunday rather then on a Saturday?

The problem with that is, you then get a very stagnant looking Sunday schedule up to 9pm with Countryfile, Antiques Roadshow and Casualty.

All ratings bankers that would win BBC One Sunday nights.

BBC1 vs ITV1 - Breakdown
21:00 - 5.69m vs 4.69m
21:15 - 5.29m vs 4.23m
21:30 - 5.04m vs 4.38m
21:45 - 4.91m vs 4.19m
22:00 - 4.97m vs 4.31m
22:15 - 4.78m vs 4.29m

Thanks to MattJ.

Apart from a minor increase at 10pm, Zen was in freefall for the entire episode.

I do think it will still get ~4.5m next week as I imagine there's an anti Dancing on Ice audience.

The thing I'm wondering about Primeval now; do they even have to show the next series? It was going to be on Watch first...

My theory is that these "big" shows actually damage a channel overall because they end up defining the channel, and defining it's viewers.


People like to belong. And if they consider that a channel has a certain "type" of viewer they may decide they don't really belong to that social type and feel "put off" watching the channel.

Only a show that is right up their alley might get them tuning in (Downton Abbey for example)


Look at CH4 as an example of this. BB has just killed it as a mainstream channel. It's lost it's general audience.

True enough, but I like to see a bit more fluidity to the schedules than that. The BBC One schedule is already too regimented as it is with programmes like The One Show running virtually all year round.

That is poor. Over half a million gave up in the first half hour. Up against DOI next week, I expect it will get a rating in the low 4's

How much are ITV paying for Primeval? That's why they agreed to bring it back - cos they were getting it cheaper.

What was that Irish police drama that was on Sunday night last year or the year before? That did rubbish in the ratings but ITV recommissioned it because it got good reviews and cost them next-to-nothing.

Same as Holby City, though you could argue the ITV1 schedule between 7 and 9 on a Monday shows no imagination either. At one time the soaps were done and dusted by 8pm when the entertainment came on, now they run to 9pm on some nights.

I think it's:

Channel 4 Sales = Channel 4 Portfolio + UKTV (C4 now does the ad sales for UKTV)
Channel 4 Portfolio = Channel 4 total, E4 total, More4 total, Film4 total, 4Music
Channel 4Dig = E4 total, More4 total, Film4 total, 4Music