No, I do understand that some viewers find the 3-day gap between the episodes too long. But from a ratings POV and taking the football situation into account, I don't think either the Tuesday 8pm slot or Wednesday 7pm slot would be as good as Thursday 8.30pm:

1. Tuesday 8pm- clashes against Holby City. It might've done well against it for its 50th Anniversary week but for regular episodes in the past, it's been dented up against HC.
2. Wednesday 7pm- not too bad a slot but possibly an issue in the summer when fewer people are watching TV at that time.

Thursday 8pm probably is better than its current slot but that's not being suggested. And as iaindb has said, having Corrie at the times suggested means that there'll be a lot of awkward slots at 8:30pm to fill. Filling 9pm with good-rated programmes has been difficult enough for ITV, so adding some 8:30pm slots too will be even harder.


Whilst BBC1 has comedy on Thursday nights, I doubt ITV will want to put comedy there too. They'll probably want to keep comedies on Fridays as complementary to BBC1's dramas. As for Married Single Other - it's been axed and shouldn't be brought back as the gap between series would be too long and viewers would've moved on (a la Primeval).


It's easy saying that Monday Nights should be crime drama night (and I do agree they should air them there whenever they can) but you also have to bear in mind that they'll have to schedule in response to what BBC1 does too. So for e.g. with Silent Witness airing on Mon/Tue, it would be a pretty bad decision for ITV to air a crime drama like Law & Order (which struggled in its last series anyway) or one of their expensive crime series up against Silent Witness.


The Bill is finished with. They've taken down all the sets, the actors have moved on, it's over for the show. If it does get revived, it'll be years before it happens. But it's not going to happen anytime soon.


I think repeats on Friday is fine but like I've said before, not all year round. Recently, ITV repeated A Touch of Frost in primetime which only got about 3m. I suspect something like Lewis and Rosemary & Thyme would get similar kind of figures. For a few weeks a year, it's okay but 3m for effectively 12 months is not good and there needs to be some kind of variety in terms of new/old programmes in that slot.


Yeah I agree with this 100%.

Did anyone notice in this week's Holby City that the BBC slipped an in joke into the script?

They cut from a comment about one of the cast taking the high road' to guest star John Stahl who was Inverdarroch in the long running Scottish show with that name.

Nice to see a sense of humour at the beeb. The recent episodes have been excellent and deserving of their great ratings.

Seen as we're sort of on the subject of the soaps and pre-watershed schedules in general, what sort of expectations do people have for Human Planet, 8pm on BBC One tonight?

A few of us were discussing just a few days ago the lack of ambition from the BBC in those slots opposite ITV soaps. Some didn't think it was worth pursuing, and some thought quality would still prosper. Well, I think tonight is an interesting test of that. It's a very bold scheduling move to throw such an expensive, flagship series like this into the lions den. I wonder if it'll prosper?

Thoughts?

With regards to Tuesday nights on ITV1, would it be worth them trying out new episodes of Midsomer Murders on Tuesdays? I know it could leave some awkward Wednesday gaps and it would be a gamble, but is it worth ITV1 trying it once and seeing what happens? Not going to solve Tuesdays all year, but could for part of the year.

Another, far more radical option, is midweek talent/reality shows on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with no football. Would be a hige risk, but Dancing on Ice midweek? I know it leaves Sundays bare, but at least ITV could try out new shows with Wild at Heart as an established anchor of the winter Sunday night schedule. As it would be a huge risk maybe try it as a one-off with either Dancing on Ice or The X Factor and see what happens

One thing is for sure though, if ITV are going to improve Tuesdays, without creating a flopzone elsewhere, they will need to take a risk somewhere in the schedule


Is that a normal share for lunchtime Neighbours? Share wise thats exceptionally good for Five

Any ratings The Vanessa Show or the 5pm Five News please

I think regarding the ITV soaps that some cannot see the "bigger picture" here. It seems to me that the stability and momentum of ITV1's longest running and most watched year-round serial drama is being put on the back foot at the expense of less important things.

The only point I am registering that objectors to what I have suggested are saying is that having Corrie on Tuesday causes a dilemma at 8.30pm with slots to fill. Regarding lead-ins, they rarely matter anymore. We've seen enough shows follow Corrie or other high-rated ITV stuff and tank horrendously. Viewers just aren't that stupid. ITV can improve 9pm by better advertising (at times) and.. better programmes, not ensuring an episode of Coronation Street airs before it.

Regarding Holby City, I still refuse to believe it would hurt Corrie more than Corrie hurts it in the long term. After a short time, Corrie would maintain the momentum from Monday to Tuesday and ratings would be solid.

As a regular viewer, I am STILL very dissatisfied with the three day gap. I find my brain expects an episode of Corrie by Wednesday, and I cannot adapt to the change in pace. I am over the soap-free weekends thing; while I loved the episode of Corrie on a Sunday night, I accept it probably won't return. But the stupidity of the current set up is more damaging than some people will accept to the show's stability.

Currently, because there are two double helpings on Monday and Friday, Thursday feels like filler. It is the odd one out, and it shouldn't be. 5 episodes are clustered into 2 "events" and a filling in the sandwich. Whether it boosts 9pm or not, ITV should be putting Corrie at the heart of its overall schedule. It is its number one show that runs all year round. The jewel in its crown.

I personally think it's pretty terrible that what some have called a "national institution" is treated in this way. The storylining and production team can only do their best with a terribly unusual and difficult episode structure, and they've done quite well. Think about it, we only see 3 days on the Street in a week. We see 4 out of 7 days on EastEnders, and 5 days out of 7 on Emmerdale.

Sorry to bleat on, but the bigger picture - to me - is that Coronation Street should be at the very heart of ITV's schedule. The ONLY thing it should work around is EastEnders as a courtesy. In fact, everything else on ITV should work around IT.

It's laziness, it's neglect and it's taking a show that has been running half a century for granted. The BBC have kept EastEnders in its regular, well spaced timeslots on Mon/Fri and Tue/Thu for years. It makes absolute sense, and provides the structure of the weeknight schedule, with perfect symmetry.

Call me OCD, but I would like Coronation Street to be the same. Gone are the days where it was at four a week at 7.30pm - Monday Wednesday Friday and Sunday. That was pretty amazing for ITV and viewers. Good momentum, and four separate days being boosted.

The bigger picture is this:

The days that Corrie airs on are stronger for ITV1 as a channel and its schedule. The time it airs is not so relevant, but IDEALLY it should have as few start times as possible, and be symmetrical and logical.

Therefore, I would reiterate that if ITV wants to protect itself and the show to which it owes so much gratitude, it should insert Corrie's 5 episodes onto a blank canvas of a weeknight schedule very carefully, working around only EastEnders, then fill in the blanks with whatever it has.

Longer term, they can find hits to fill the gaps. Staying still and letting a clearly very silly problem continue, in the hope viewers will get used to it, is laziness and pathetic.

JamesJ - Having Corrie at 8pm on Tuesdays is going to dent it as much or more than being on Thursdays. I also dont understand the problem with a three day gap, there is three day gap from Friday to Monday already.

BSI: Hustle will not be on Friday 4th February as England vs France in the Six Nations is on.

Weekdays are the same to most working people. Weekends are different. People have routines, working days.

If it airs on Tuesdays AND Thursdays AFTER EastEnders (like it airs BEFORE on Monday and Friday), the soap audience will get into the routine. Wednesday is mid-week so a day off is fine, that "feels" right.

Yesterday:

The Vanessa Show: 109k (1.5%)
Five News at 5: 1.00m (6.9%)

I'm not sure how Vanessa Show compares to the usual slot average for C5. Five News at 5 seems to be doing really well though.


ITV Regional News (6pm): 4.17m (20.7%) exc. HD

I think that's better than usual for ITV Regional News (share-wise anyway). It seems to be benefitting from having The Chase as a lead-in, which has been doing well at 5pm (slot-winning 2.5m yesterday).

Not quite sure how this is a fault of the "BSI". Dropping a show for one week to show a high rating sporting event in primetime seems sensible.


Moving Corrie around is just to disrupt it further. I see your point about the weekends being different to weekdays but having Corrie against Holby is just not viable, Corrie will get less viewers than on Thursdays. It may have a more symmetric schedule but less people will watch,

Lead-ins are overrated, if the content is good, viewers will watch regardless in my opinion - not completely regardless. But The Bill - though a little unrealistic as you point out - represents a consistent 4-5m lead-in - but it doesn't have to be huge. I disagree with using Corrie as a "lead-in tool". It might work on Monday nights, but that's because usually there's lots of good content.

Look at The Biggest Loser - rubbish show, rubbish ratings.


I disagree, comedy needs good, long breaks. Wasn't there about a seven year break between series such as Fawlty Towers and Blackadder? Comedies/comedy dramas (like Doc Martin and Benidorm) benefit from long breaks - so viewers won't have moved on.

Primeval is just a bit cold, a drama that simply doesn't have an audience anymore - because it's a bit too cultish for ITV. No casual viewers tune in, as it's a bit heavy for a family drama.


I was suggesting for ITV to air their popular Monday Night Thrillers (three-parters capable of between 4m and 8m) in the winter months against stuff like Silent Witness. More important, established series like Law & Order and Taggart to air later in the year.

I don't think it would be wise for ITV to respond to what BBC One does - the channel should make Monday nights the home of their crime drama genre, thus making it familiar for viewers. In 2009, there were some resounding victories for ITV drama against established BBC1 drama IRRC.


The Bill is quite a loose brand, they can start again - on the other hand, they could revive London's Burning. First and foremost, a pre-9pm drama slot I think would benefit ITV on a Thursday night. There's already a ready-made audience there for Emmerdale and Corrie.


ITV has a massive archive of dramas from the past which deserve to be given high-profile repeats. Averaging 4m per year between 8pm and 10pm would be a good business, surely?

This is the thing about people suggesting it should move to Tuesdays at eight, it's already on at 7.30 some nights and 8.30 some nights, then there'd be a third slot which everyone will forget. Similarly if you moved it to Wednesdays at seven you'd have to move Emmerdale which would be ridiculous because then Emmerdale would be on at seven o'clock every night apart from one, which would look stupid. The point is, as you say, to have a schedule that sonds sensible, and "Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7.30" is clearly better than "Monday at 7.30 and 8.30, Thursday at 8.30 and Friday at 7.30 and 8.30".

The problem about moving Corrie too is that it has to be explained in a way that makes sense. Moving it off Sundays and saying you want Sundays to be special makes some sort of sense, as too does moving it off Wednesday because there's too much football to give it a regular slot. But you wouldn't be able to sell a move from Thursday to Tuesday without an obvious reason, because you can't tell the public you're moving it because Tuesdays are rating badly or you want to screw Holby.

What baffles me about Corrie is the fact they made great play of moving it off Wednesday and Sunday and then they still do Wednesday and Sunday episodes every so often anyway. The fact is, when is Coronation Street on should be a simple question, I agree it should take priority over anything, but ITV have painted themselves in a corner because there are simply too many episodes. They should never have dropped the Sunday one actually, or introduced the fifth one.

Quite interesting looking at yesterday's tea-time ratings: Antiques Roadtrip on BBC2 beat The Weakest Link.

5-6pm figures were:

BBC1- The Weakest Link: 2.00m
BBC2- Antiques Roadtrip: 2.09m
ITV1- The Chase: 2.46m
CH4- Celebrity Five Go To: 1.43m
CH5- Five News at 5: 1.00m ... Neighbours: 1.28m

2m isn't bad for TWL but I wish the BBC would give other shows a chance in that slot. Would be interesting to see if a replacement gameshow could rate better at 5:15pm on BBC1.


I do agree that the Corrie lead-ins don't mean that shows will succeed. But even for rubbish rated shows which get 3.0m at the moment on Thursdays, they'd probably be getting 2.5-3.0m if there was no Corrie on at 8:30pm because the breakdowns I've seen always shows an overflow of some Corrie viewers into the 9pm hour.

I know a drop of 0.5m isn't much but it is probably once you add those potential lost viewers up for 52 weeks of the year (which ITV would probably do). Also as I said, Corrie would most likely rate worse in that Tuesday slot.


To be fair, I wasn't criticising ITV for having long breaks for Doc Martin or Benidorm. I can understand why they do it as it increases the shelf-life of those shows. But it's worth pointing out that both of those shows returned the year after their first series and I was just making the point that MSO was only one-series old and if ITV were to bring it back, that would be two years after the first series which is a bit too long IMO for a series that young which has not really got an established fanbase.


I don't remember any for the weekly crime dramas TBH. They rated really well but iirc they were up against non-drama shows like Traffic Cops and Who Do You Think You Are.


I just don't think ITV would want to bring The Bill back so soon after axing it and they've moved on. With ITV already stating that they're reducing their programming budget in the next couple of years, it's highly unlikely The Bill would return as they'd want to spend that money primarily on the 9pm dramas.


That's the thing though - there's no sure way of saying they would average 4m. That's why I brought up the Touch of Frost example (3m last month). It seems like viewers who enjoy these shows have watched the repeats numerous times on ITV3 anyway, that ITV1's repeats aren't rating as well as they used to. Only Midsomer Murders these days repeats relatively well in primetime ITV1.

I really like this scheduling but that may be because I'm not a soap viewer so it's a great alternative for me.

I predicted 5m for HP in the DS Ratings Prediction Game based on the programme being heavily trailed, these sort of epic programmes usually starting quite high (5m would be high against the soaps) and DIY SOS getting 5.3m in this slot last week. However I was forgetting that Emmerdale was having its dramatic fatal fire plot tonight so I think I may have overestimated my prediction and 4 point something seems more likely.

Good points. Which is why I think it should always air immediately before or after EastEnders.

Simon Pitts to oversee ITV tranformation

ITV has promoted Simon Pitts to oversee the company’s five-year transformation plan, in a move that sees Carolyn Fairbairn leave.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/p...022307.article

A good win for ITV there. The Weakest Link obviously just soaks up viewers when the alternatives aren't great.

Very strong for the ITV Evening News, a rating that seems to have just been skipped past even though ITV News usually gets commented on (when it rates low at 10 )

Emmerdale and Midsomer are also high, in fact the entire evening perfomed well. The Pat Phoenix doc did well considering it was a bit random and a repeat from 11 years ago. (It was made by Carlton it was so old!)

The Weakest Link does come across as extremely tired, doesn't it. I remember when the BBC were first criticised for shortening the CBBC hours (after the loss of Neighbours), they indicated that the had ideas and plans for that slot. The impression I took was that TWL was a relatively short term measure. Obviously thats not been the case - we can only presume the development for that slot came to nought and the priorities have since shifted elsewhere.

They could screen the BBC2 quiz Pointless in that slot for the two months the new series runs and give WL a little break. I sure Pointless could easily match if not better WL's ratings.

I presume BBC1's figure is 5:15pm to 6pm only, excluding Newsround?

Nevertheless a good 5pm figure for The Chase, which seems to have established itself after doing well following a few World Cup games last Summer.

Yep, Newsround had 809k.

I doubt though they'll get too much more. When C4+1 started they got (and pretty much still do) figures more comparable to E4+1 than to C4 itself. (Indeed would be interesting to know the top +1 channels!)


What you and Robbie forget though is the BBC is the exception, not the rule. The BBC channels are in the minority by not offering a +1 channel, and as long as the reporting is consistent and made clear, ultimately it doesn't really matter.

Will be interesting to know though if ITV2 benefits from ITV2+1 being ditched on Freeview.



Here we go again. Get with the times - The Bill and World in Action are gone, whilst the Champions League contract is set in stone.

And this three day issue is nonsense - it's no different to the gap from Friday to Monday!


They really make the headline writers job easy, don't they!

Hope Kidnap and Ransom does ~5m tonight or higher. Doubt it though. Good tactic going straight into News at Ten without any adverts.

It's not been ditched. Its broadcasting hours have been reduced, but it's still availabile in primetime when most people use it.