Even when Golden Balls was fresh I don't think it ever won the hour. This must be the first show ITV have had winning that slot for them since Paul O'Grady. I notice they're treating it much better than they treated Golden Balls as this series is an 8 week run, and I think they're going to have 2 x 8 week runs per year (although the number of weeks per run may be extended a bit) based on what they've done over the last year, whereas Golden Balls ran pretty much all round in 2008 and for a lot of 2009 with repeats often mixed in with new episodes and got tired very quickly. It looks like ITV have learnt from their mistake.

As for last night, brilliant for Silent Witness as ever. Interesting that The Biggest Loser went up a little. I had a feeling it would and I think people are still writing it off too quickly, and last night's rating really isn't that bad against Silent Witness, One Born Every Minute and Glee. I think Taggart might increase a little tonight too as they've advertised it a lot this week.

Hopefully such episodes will be the first to go when cost-cutting really bites at the BBC. They've known since soon after last years event it would begin with a Friday night game, so why on earth commission for a slot that won't exist. The same applies to Casualty.


DoI guests have always gone on This Morning for very obvious reasons.



Replacing one flop with another. I'm looking forward to Dirty Desmond losing all his cash!


Read it again - it's been suggested to them by a "consultant" they're wasting money on rather than talking to viewers, and pretty much rejected by all at ITV and obviously ITN. As for a gameshow in the slot - this isn't the 1990's! Indeed apart from The Krpyton Factor revival and the intelligent stuff on BBC4, it's been quite some time since a new 30-minute game show debuted on TV, especially in primetime.


That would be true if they had the ads to sell - but they don't. They run the news without the ads because they can afford not too. Chances are anything else in the slot would be treated similarly, though with a fake break containing just promos.


Yep, but it did air till 11.40pm.


2.1m - so where's the other 297.9m then Piers?



The Weakest Link really has bucked the trend in shows being promoted to BBC1 - seems to be beaten by BBC2 more often than not.

Thanks. No real difference then figures wise.


Are we looking at the same demos? 37% of Neighbours' audience is under 44, same as Corrie. So how you can conclude that the average viewer is "likely" to be a 50 or 60 year old woman I'm not sure.

A lot of people grew up watching Neighbours in the early years and still watch it out of habit today. Not surprised by the demos at all, but good to see it has its fair share of younger viewers as well.

Meaning 63% are over 44. Its always surprised me that the audience is made up of some many older people. When it started it used to be students that watched it mainly.

And those students grew up, and continued to watch Neighbours.

Maybe the show is not as successful as it once was in bringing in the younger viewers, but what show is on tv nowadays? Even the mighty Hollyoaks has fallen.

The facebook generation don't care much for daily soaps. Too much of a commitment for most.

Ratings request for the morning, providing rzt has ratings for this hour...

00:10 to 02:10 (will have to be 02:00 as that's when it'll cut off on the overnights) - Tennis: Australian Open [BBC2]

Also, ITV could well find itself embarrassingly in 3rd or 4th place, I suspect Channel 4 could be 2nd by a clear margin tomorrow, with BBC1 winning the slot. EDIT: The top 3 trends in the UK on Twitter are:

- #bigfatgypsywedding
- #bfgw
- #gypsywedding

I reckon Gypsy Wedding will get 3.4m tonight.

The DS thread has notched up over 230 posts in less than an hour.

Looks like a hit. DSRPG average is 3m, but I reckon we are looking at nearer 4m.

This morning between 00:10-02:00, BBC2 averaged 145k (4.0%).

During the same time:
BBC1 had 295k
BBC3- 282k
C5- 261k
C4- 232k
ITV1- 160k

Edit: Seen message below.

I really should have made that clearer... I meant for 00:10 to 02:00 tonight (I won't be online tomorrow till like 5pm, hence why I posted it now).

(although ITV really does badly in those early hours, doesn't it?)

Edit: Also Andy Murray vs Karol Beck from 04:10 to 07:00 this morning on BBC2 --> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y8x9f

ESPN's 4th round FA Cup picks...
Everton v Chelsea - Sat 29th Jan 12.30pm
Arsenal or Leeds v Huddersfield - Sun 30th Jan noon
Fulham vs Tottenham Hotspur - Sun 30th Jan 4.30pm

ITV1
Southampton v Manchester United - Sat 29th Jan 5.15pm
Sun 30th Jan TBA (which I would imagine now to be Notts County v Manchester City).

ESPN have the better games. So far ESPN's FA Cup coverage has peaked at 424,000 viewers for the 1st leg of Leicester City v Manchester City on Sunday 9th January. A very good figure for the channel, similar to how its Premier League games rate.

Pretty sure Big Fat Gypsy Wedding could exceed 5m tonight looking at the reaction in various places. May I remind you of the rating last February:

21:00 - My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding: 4.52m (17.4%)
* +1: 734,000 (3.6%)

I'm not sure if the opposition is tougher tonight... last February it had MasterChef and The Bill (combined about 7.5m) and tonight it had Silent Witness and Taggart (combined about 10m), but I can see Gypsy Wedding denting both of them. Eight out of the nine UK 'trends' on Twitter are related to Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, normally meaning a big 16 to 34 reaction... and I've only seen 9 out of 10 trends for shows like X Factor.

It will probably do well on +1 again due to part 2 of Silent Witness. I doubt it will break 5m but we'll see, anything is possible with this show I feel!

My prediction:
9pm 3.6m (SW: 6.2m, TG: 2.6m)
10pm 0.8m (TG: 0.3m)

SYFY - Being Human (9pm) - 1.96m
* 0.8 rating among adults 18-49 (1m)
* Highest Syfy winter scripted series launch since 2005
* 58% of A18-49 were female, highest skew for any original scripted broacast on Syfy
* Repeated at 10pm & 11pm with unduplicated audience of 3.8m (1.9m A18-49)

MTV - Skins (10pm) - 3.26m
* 2.7m of them were aged 12-34 (MTV's target demo)
* Largest number of 12-34 viewers ever for any MTV series launch

More comment on Deadline

And Syfy press release

And MTV press release

Jersey Shore slipped a touch in its timeslot move. It had 7.7m at 9pm.

I wonder what games would drag ITV away from Man Utd. Should draw a good curiosity interest as well as Utd faithful.

Neighbours ratings are in.
Via : Media Spy

Tuesday 18th January;
319,000

*Most watched Digital Show of the day

*28th most watched show on all channels

Another slight increase. It's doing really well. New episodes of Hollyoaks aren't doing much better than that over here on E4.

I'm finding these demo breakdowns absolutely fascinating. It's pretty clear how C4 pitches its appeal to advertisers, isn't it?! Glee is obviously amazing in the way that it skews so young (and upmarket, too) but One Born Every Minute is the one that really surprised me. I thought this one would have a much older breakdown.

Anyway, it does paint a more rosy picture for C4 - and they could be in for some huge numbers (both total and in the demos) for Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. That one looks to have taken off!

Should also mention EastEnders excellent numbers in the young demo. I always find it ironic that its the commercial broadcasters soaps that are the less advertiser friendly!


Reasonably impressive for both, I think - but we'll need to see how Skins hold up without Jersey Shore in front of it next week. Importantly, it has at least honed in on the right demographic (does anyone else find it funny that MTV gave it an 18+ TV-MA rating, protested claims that they were targeting it at teens, then brag about its numbers with that demo in the press releases ). Being Human much more subdued, and its difficult to cut through all the demo spinning PR guff sometimes - but on the face of it, the news seems pretty positive.

And like him or lump him, you can't deny Piers Morgan has made a splash over the pond - I had a feeling he might. He'll obviously fall some way back from the first week hoopla, but I think its an injection of energy that CNN badly needs. Fox and MSNBC might just have underestimated him - the inevitable coming clash of egos should be something to watch (thankfully, from a distance )

As far as the main networks are concerned, not so great for NBC yet again - try as they might, they just can't bust out of the low 2's with any sort of new drama. You almost pity them - then you realise its the same reactionary twerps that presided over the Tonight Show fiasco, and it doesn't seem so surprising...

Or maybe the students got jobs and ditched it in the same way the Student Union disco is a distant memory now. I would suppose that watch Neighbours are the hardcore fans from its glory days and also as the soap has a fair number of older characters, it's no surprise it trends well among over 45s. Maybe a case of the 2 million fans getting older with the soap.
However, I would agree no show is as popular as it was in its glory days, Neighbours seeing its audience fall by about 85 pc since its peak in 1990 and Home and Away seeing a drop of 90pc. It's maybe a lot of people grew out of these soaps, other attractions like the internet came along, Australian soaps went the way of American ones and went out of fashion, or people wised up to what a load of crap they were.

Blockbusters was 5.15pm in my neck of the woods.

Top show...

when Connections took over its slot when they alternated.


Been on another forum just now, where TV shows rarely feature in the discussion, and the thread on Gyppo Weddings (as they put it..) had 60 posts.

I think it may have done well too...

Strong night for the soaps last night as usual. ITV will be pleased that The Biggest Loser didn't lose out but could be seemingly embarrassed by Taggart's rating tonight. Saying that I'm not sure if the audience crossover would be there between Silent Witness, Taggart and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings so the former two may hold up - which isn't saying much in regards to Taggart!

I reckon Gypsy Wedding did quite well tonight. A lot of people talking about it.

Just to add to the point that there were no DOI rejects on Daybreak, on The Chris Moyles Show they discussed the fact that contestants would go on either Daybreak, This Morning or Loose Women so it will vary each week which they go on.

have Dancing On Ice viewers not suffered enough? they have it worse than EastEnders fans.




Another good night for Neigbhours, really wasnt expecting the show to do those kinds of numbers

Night