In 2002 she were doing two live shows every weekend. Friday had her at Elstree for the Big Brother eviction. The following morning had her at LWT tower recording The Vault's early rounds in the afternoon (for transmission later in the day) with the live final round in the evening.

You are therefore missing out on all the factual programmes that air between 7 and 9, many of which have been getting decent numbers lately.

Countrywise, The Lakes, River Monsters, Tonight, Children's Hospital, Grimefighters etc etc

I agree, if Primeval doesn't bounce back to at least where it was on Saturday then a move to 6pm would probably be for the best, with Harry Hill hour at 7pm and TMO at 8pm. Even a Best Of edition of TV Burp would get 5m+ in that slot with a YBF lead in so it's definitely worth doing. In fact, I think it'd be worth doing even if Primeval does get 4m on Saturday as HH hour would still do better and I think would have a more similar audience to TMO than Primeval. It reminds me of when Demons aired at 7:45pm for the whole run and because the audiences were so different and Demons was tanking it was dragging Family Fortunes/Millionaire down at 8:45pm. I suspect Primeval and Total Wipeout have different enough audiences to not dent each other too.

I wonder how Push The Button will do when it returns. It's live this time and has had a revamp and will have new TV Burp as a lead-in so hopefully it'll do well. I suspect the schedule will go 18:30 YBF, 19:00 TV Burp, 19:30 PTB, 20:45 TMO, which I think will be better for Push The Button as I think it should be starting before 8pm, as both it and Takeaway do better with pre-8pm starts.

Do you think Piers Morgan's Life Stories will return around that time too as it did last year? If so, I think it's better at 10pm or so rather than 9pm where it got lost last year so that schedule will suit it better, although I'd still prefer it to get the Sunday 10pm slot after DOI like it did in 2009 after The Sunday Night Show has finished.

Also, is Let's Dance actually returning as I haven't heard anything about it and Total Wipeout, Secret Fortune and Casualty will be enough to get them through Saturdays with The Six nations so I'm not sure if they'll bother with it this year.

Well DOND is being dragged out even further but still does ok in the ratings. I think the MPD should be contained to Mon - Sat probably once every 3 months. I guess the bosses seen that it pulled in the ratings so will now milk it to death. Airing at 8pm back in December - how stupid was that! At least if they air at 10pm they can add more ad breaks in.

Also be interesting to see how Shameless does this series. Most of the Gallagher family have gone now haven't they with the Maguires also dwindling.

Good ratings for Got To Dance. It shows that 7pm is its best slot though

Yesterday's was the first of the new extended, three ad break, regular programmes.

How did it do? It didn't help having a lacklustre contestant, who dealt before the final break.

It must have dropped thousands of viewers as it progressed.

I don't think Push The Button will start as well as last series but due to the live element and if they improve the format, it might be able to hold on to its audience better. Also it'll probably be up against Secret Fortune not Who Dares Wins, and SF might flop.


I think Life Stories will return a bit later than last year and air in the post-BGT slot. I don't think it deserves that slot but I don't think Piers Morgan will have much time to film Life Stories in January/February especially as it's when he's launching his CNN show, plus after The Prisoner disaster last year ITV probably will want to have a show in the post-BGT slot which they know for sure can deliver a decent, if unspectacular, audience.


Hmm... not sure about Let's Dance. It should do based on its ratings. BBC1 could have something like: 6pm- Total Wipeout, 7pm- Let's Dance, 8pm- Secret Fortune, 8.50pm- Casualty ?

I didn't catch last nights, i meant it running all year though - which in my eyes devalued the show (and the over the top audience, contestants and Noel)

Don't they still take a few weeks off in the summer?

Usually replaced with repeats of DOND, unless that's changed. Does anyone know how well DOND did when it had a few primetime outings?

Yup the overkill is a bit much and I think it could be rested for longer each year. However, since Channel 4 gave up a certain house in Elstree, they need all the viewers they can get.

Yeah I think PTB should hold onto 5-6m this time, which would be pretty good going. It's been extended to an 8x75 minute series instead of 6x60 as last year's was, so they must have some faith in it. It also means that if it starts on 12th February as I think it will (that's the weekend after Primeval ends) then there will only be one Saturday between it and BGT if BGT launches on the same weekend as last year, so I reckon they'll slot a film premiere there (Mamma Mia?). Dunno about Secret Fortune, as the format seems OK but recent new lottery formats have been poor (This Time Tomorrow, Guesstimation) and it was filmed last June which is quite a while ago so it hasn't got that much going for it at the moment.


I hope it doesn't get the post-BGT slot as it doesn't deserve it and when they're introducing a new panel of judges for BGT I don't think it would be wise to put a show hosted by a judge who has just left the show straight after it. Plus BGT will be over by 9:00-9:15pm which is too early for Life Stories. I remember reading about ITV commissioning a new comedy panel show which sounded like the US format The Marriage Ref a couple of months back so if they're still doing that then that should get the post-BGT slot instead.


It definitely deserves to return based on its ratings but it's a pretty limited idea and with The Six Nations and Total Wipeout they won't really need it on Saturdays so they may have decided not to do it as we haven't heard anything yet. Speaking of Comic Relief, are they doing a Comic Relief Apprentice special this year? I hope they are as the previous ones have been really good.

EE will get around 11m tonight... because firstly its a Monday, also its a bank holiday, and finally because it got 9m in a unusual Saturday slot. Saturdays episode was brilliant, and I am sure everyone plus more will tune in for tonight.

Lol,as an aside, you cant say the Beeb arent joining in the fun with their BDO Darts-both presenters are wearing Dracula outfits today.

The darts tournament that doesn't feature Phil The Power Taylor. As an aside, they could always say this is one tournament he can't win

Mamma Mia would do great after BGT, I've seen the film twice and it's family friendly but it would be wasted at 5pm. Not sure why The Incredible Hulk was scheduled against Iron Man as Iron Man is the more popular film of the two.

I enjoy Outnumbered, but I wonder how much life is left in it. There's been well over a year between each series, and I don't see that gap shrinking before series four, if it hasn't even been filmed yet. We know BBC One likes to keep its sitcoms on the shelf for a few months before transmission, too.

Will we even get a fifth series before the child actors become too old for the format to work? It's very reliant on Ben and Karen being young enough to behave the way they do. Child actors growing up are a problem for any sitcom, but probably more so for Outnumbered.

Yes, Jana Bennett (spelling?) from the BBC mentioned it on Points of View last month.

Perhaps viewers have decided it's a low-rent Doctor Who/Walking with Dinosaurs rip-off and have decided to give it a miss?


I don't think Outnumbered will ever be more than a 6m cult-ish hit. It will never get to the 9-10m+ level because it's not that sort of show.

I can only see it getting a 10pm Christmas Night slot if there is a real dearth of anything else to put out at that time. I'm a big fan, but it's not something to round off Christmas Day after overdoing it on the Baileys.

I'd like to think we will have a Royles/Gavin & Stacey combo next Christmas capable of 11m+ each over the 9-11pm period. And predictable wailing from ITVistas over BBC1's stale schedule made up of the same old shows every year...

Then Outnumbered on Boxing Day.


I meant that 3.9m and 4.3m were "tragic" figures for ITV1 at 8pm and 9pm respectively on a Sunday night. In January!


I imagine the FA are going to be reluctant to entertain discussions with the BBC on any football rights after they applied the final nail in the coffin to our World Cup bid. And much as I'd love to see England games and the FA Cup back at its rightful home on the Beeb, part of me hopes the FA does take this line to take the BBC down a peg or two.

They might even try to flog ITV the Premier League highlights again...


All of them copycats of successful BBC shows - apart from the fishing one, and I guess Tonight is the successor show to World in Action or This Week. Although it's hard to imagine either of those shows covering such weighty subjects as a dusting of snow hitting the south east or someone having a bad cough in a quiz show audience....

Thanks for that, it deserves to return based on ratings.

I read a piece on Outnumbered somewhere before Christmas which quoted Hugh Dennis (I think) as saying the long term future of the show depends on whether viewers maintain an interest in seeing a family grow up, or if its success is all down to young kids saying funny things in semi-improvised scenes.

So it seems like they are hoping to keep it going, but acknowledging that the show is going to change a bit if it does so.

I think that's right - it would be a shame to just stop. They should at least try to keep it running.

Also, it didn't return this year due to other commitments of cast and writers. I think they said it is coming back this spring.

Thanks for these rzt. I haven't really seen the overnights for ther last series, but overall 2010 was very disappointing for DOI. What were the factors that dragged it down last year? Was the scheduling poor, rubbish celebs? etc


Just awful, awful, awful for Primeval. Such a shame this series has bombed already. Why ITV decided to screen episode 2 last night is anyone's guess. The NYD launch hasn't worked at all and that surprises me tbh. So ITV decide to save a show after it nearly got axed and this is the result. Granted last nights episode wasn't the best, but it deserves more than this. Hopefully it will get some sort of up lift next Saturday. ITV will really be hoping DOI performs next Sunday after a dreadful start to 2011.

Woeful for ITV1. 3.3m for Primeval, what a disaster. I watched the first episode but don't think I made it to the end. If I did, I don't remember it. Yes, it is a poor man's Doctor Who and unsurprisingly flopping. Really rather silly of ITV to put episode 2 of such a vulnerable show on a different night, but this is ITV. Marple overload has resulted in that lacklustre rating at 9pm too. Not great all round. The Cube did appallingly too.

Another good night for BBC One, particularly Countryfile and Antiques Roadshow. Casualty bounced back too, probably the biggest of the night that it did so well on a Sunday night. Zen - I haven't seen yet but Sky+d it after seeing the trailer, will give it a go but that's not a terribly bad rating, the breakdown does seem to suggest it's a little tough though?

Nice for Sky1 to have a moderate hit with Got to Dance. I agree with another poster who said ~1m is about the limit for Sky's successful shows, following in the ilk of An Idiot Abroad (which was pretty hilarious to be fair).

The first two days of 2011 have been a disaster for ITV. It really needs to succeed with Above Suspicion vs Silent Witness, though I'm thinking it might not. The BBC have a slew of big hitters coming out including Silent Witness and Hustle - this could be a difficult few months for the opposition. Dancing on Ice should provide some respite, but still bafflingly absent from Saturday/Sunday split - now there's consistency.

But, it's all their fault for having such a disjointed and badly structured schedule, over-reliant on a few hits, many of whom only run for some weeks in the year.

I think you'll find BBCWW and others had a more significant influence over its recommission than ITV!

K

Nah, easy win for ITV tonight. The Corrie lead in will ensure a comfortable victory for Above Suspicion.

AS - 7m
SW - 5.8m