One further bit of scheduling news: Emmerdale is on for one hour on Tuesday 8th February due to the Wednesday football, meaning it clashes to EastEnders.

Should be a better than usual lead-in for a new series of Lion Country and then Taggart though. And yes, TV Burp is on the Wednesday is a repeat of the previous Saturday's episode.

Primeval finishes on Saturday 5th February, tba is currently listed for that slot for the following week - I can only assume Ant and Dec's Push the Button will return on 12th February?

6 Nations rugby on Friday apparently. And a one-hour episode of Emmerdale scheduled against it on the Tuesday.

Presumably EE not the 6 Nations. I wonder what the ratings will be for the 6 Nations against the soaps: I reckon about 5.5 million as most people who watch the soaps don't watch the 6 Nations and vice versa.

Maybe it's time to move The Weakest Link back to BBC Two, or maybe axe it altogether as it clearly isn't performing well and is completely tired. BBC One needs a refresh in this slot.
Also, out of interest, how is another game show that is completely overexposed and running out of ideas, Deal or No Deal, doing in the ratings?

Yes, EE v Emmerdale on Tuesday

...a week on Tuesday. (8th Feb)

Official ratings for first two weeks of 2011.

w/e Friday Jan 7

Mon 2.35m
Tue 2.19m
Wed 2.16m
Thu 2.00m
Fri 2.12m

Weekly average. 2.164m

w/e Friday Jan 14

Mon 2.10m
Tue 2.09m
Wed 2.01m
Thu 2.00m
Fri 2.03m

Weeekly average 2.046m

About a 5% week on week drop. Small, but fairly significant.

The year-on-year drop is bigger.

w/e Friday Jan 10 2010
Mon 2.61m
Tue 2.64m
Wed 2.86m
Thu 2.60m
Fri 2.60m

Average: 2.662m
Now: 2.164m (down 19%)

w/e Friday Jan 17 2010
Mon 2.53m
Tue 2.42m
Wed 2.44m
Thu 2.19m
Fri 2.53m

Average: 2.422m
Now: 2.046m (down 16%)

One rating from yesterday: Embarrassing Bodies: 3.48m, which beat ITV1's Comedy Rocks by about a million.

More ratings later...

If I recall, the last series last year on Friday's struggled to get above 3m, so that's a superb rating for it. I'm sure if you told Channel 4 executives that they'd beat ITV1 two weeknights for a week in January, they'd happily take that.

I have spotted:

- ITV1 shows include ITV1 HD ratings, but not all BBC1 shows include HD simulcast ratings, prior to the launch of BBC1 HD anyway

- likewise, BBC2 shows don't include BBC HD simulcasts

- repeat showings on +1 channels are aggregated into the figures but not other repeat showings - not a major problem in 2010, but will be if they adopt the same methodology in their 2011 table

- Ch 4 may therefore have secured an entry for Cutting Edge at no 98 that should have gone to another show

- the World Cup ratings are match-only for BBC1's Eng v Ger but full coverage for ITV1's Eng v Algeria. But that was ITV's doing for asking BARB to report that way, not BARBs or Broadcast's

- ITV1's showing of a pop video during an ad break is included as a programme (surely it was less than 5 minutes anyway so falls foul of that rule?)

Anyway, totals are:

BBC1 - 57
BBC2 - 1
ITV1 - 39
Ch4 - 2

(Helping Haiti excluded, so only adds up to 99)

Quite a victory for BBC1 over ITV1 - 57 to 39. Shows what a broad, balanced portfolio of popular shows BBC1 offers, whilst ITV1 puts its eggs in a handful of baskets.

That 73.5% average share for Eng v Ger on BBC1 over 2 hours is staggering. Particularly when millions more will have been watching in pubs, clubs and big screen venues.

I tend to agree with D.M.N., the list that the guys compile on here tends to give a more accurate representation of the biggest shows of the year. I think the Broadcast list is going to become increasingly irrelevant due to the things you have highlighted.

Friday 28th January Overnights
BBC One (inc. HD)
19:00- The One Show: 4.37m (19.8%)
19:30- A Question of Sport: 3.99m
20:00- EastEnders: 8.78m (36.3%)
20:30- QI: 3.92m (15.8%)
21:00- Hustle: 5.74m (23.9%)
22:35- The Graham Norton Show: 3.17m (19.2%)

BBC Two
08:30- Australian Open Tennis Semi-Final: 1.04m (17.3%)
20:00- Mastermind: 2.49m (10.3%)
20:30- Life in a Cottage: 1.72m (6.9%)
21:00- Can’t Take It With You: 1.45m (6.0%)

ITV1 (exc. HD)
19:00- Emmerdale: 7.36m (33.3%)
19:30- Coronation Street: 9.04m (38.2%)
20:00- Children’s Hospital: 3.17m (13.1%)
20:30- Coronation Street: 8.07m (32.5%)
* 20:30-20:55: 8.69m (34.8%)
21:00- Comedy Rocks: 2.40m (10.0%)

Channel 4 (inc. HD)
20:00- Relocation: Phil Down Under: 1.46m (6.0%)
21:00- Embarrassing Bodies: 3.48m (14.5%)
22:00- The Million Pound Drop: 2.29m (12.5%)

Channel 5
20:00- Ice Road Truckers: 1.27m (5.2%)
21:00- The Mentalist: 1.16m (4.8%)
--------------------------------------------------
Excellent rating for Embarrassing Bodies - probably its best ever and well ahead of ITV1 in the slot. After its underwhelming ratings last series, a solid start for MPD and it seems like it dented Graham Norton's show which was down from its usual high 3's level.

Hustle rated the same as last week, and it looks like this series will be its most popular since 2005. Terrible for Comedy Rocks - its lowest rating so far this series, down to the levels of Marco's Kitchen Burnout last year. Friday 9pm is really turning into a horror slot for ITV, as bad as Tuesday's.

The tennis on BBC2 ran ITV1 close, with ITV1 averaging 1.1m in the same slot (08:30-12:45).

Not too bad for the Million Pound Drop, but still not convinced by this two episodes a week scheduling - would have been much better to have the eight over consecutive nights.

Wonder how easy it is for BARB to implement the new HD/SD channel swap on Tuesday, when all viewers will be watching the same channel numbers on Sky, regardless of HD/SD?

i.e.

ITV2

5m SD box homes will get the SD version on 118.

3.5m HD box with HD sub homes will get the HD version on 118

1.5m HD box without HD sub homes will get the SD version on 118.

I can't understand why Comedy Rocks is doing so badly, when Live at the Apollo has aired on BBC1 in the same timeslot in the past, and it is practically the same format, rates much higher.

Christ, that's an abysmal rating for Comedy Rocks. Very good night for Channel 4, in particular Embarrassing Bodies as noted earlier. Million Pound Drop did well as well capping off a good week for C4.

As expected elsewhere I think. Good for the Tennis.

Comedy Rocks is a disaster. It joins Taggart and Primeval as two of the biggest turkeys of 2011 so far. I still think Chiles would be doing better in that slot, but ITV1 will probably just leave things as they are with so many underperforming shows in their schedule.

Very good for Embarrassing Bodies. I must say though I'm noticing a theme developing in terms of the shows which rate well for C4. How many are really watching this, Gypsy Weddings or Teen Sex for their "factual" merit?

MPD returned higher than I expected. I'm surprised that it did as well as that starting on a Friday, but the lead-in surely helped.

Broadcast's list does at least go up to 100.


Because Comedy Rock is more padded, has musical guests, and frankly, is a bit crap?

What makes it even more embarrassing is the fact that ITV1 have been promoting it a lot. I can vouch for this because I watch fewer than 2 hrs of ITV1 a week and have seen it trailed numerous times.

Just looking at the BARB officials.

Am I right in thinking that the following ratings don't include BBC1 Scotland showings, which were scheduled differently because of football?:


BARB's usual methodology is not to "capture" regional variation showings in the networked figures, so all the above should be a few hundred k higher really?

Aren't all stand up comedy shows a bit crap, depending on whether you like all the line up on that particular night?

Didn't the pilot do well and everyone here then said it should be recommisioned and many included it in their tiresome mock schedules?

Can you confirm that these exclude HD?

Both are down on the HD included figures from last week.

Ice Road Truckers 1.51m / 6.1%
The Mentalist (R) 1.47m / 6.3%

The NTAs were two and a half hours and we all know you watched that.

True, but I was only passively watching it so not sure it counts. The only thing I've given my full attention to on ITV1 this week was Kidnap and Ransom. (which was very good, by the way)

The rest seemed to be the usual concoction of soaps, news, reality and lifestyle, so an instant turn off for me.