Channel 4's in the doghouse again over its sensationalist output, specifically The Joy of Teen Sex:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...oy-of-teen-sex

Last year was better than 2009, in fairness. In that year they only had the mediocre numbers of Garrow's Law returning. For 2010, they had the big success of Sherlock, and though it didn't do brilliantly, Luther is returning in some form. Additionally, I'm still expecting Upstairs Downstairs to be back. I think the recommission on that one is waiting till its aired in the US, in the hope of getting some co-production money.


I know, Tuesdays should be fine. But there's something about that slot. With the exception of Silent Witness, its been literally years since a drama performed strongly (5-6m) there.

Ben Stephenson's track record with new BBC1 returning drama series is pretty poor. I think the only proper successful returning drama series that he's commissioned is Sherlock. Although Luther (which he commissioned) is returning, I would not call it successful based on how low its ratings went at the end of series 1.

In his time as controller of BBC drama, he's commissioned the following ratings-flop programmes: Material Girl, Accused, The Deep, Paradox, Outcasts. So he basically has a hit rate of about 1 in 6/7 which simply isn't good enough. I think the last hit returning weeknight drama series which the BBC currently has began as far back in 2004 (Hustle). They need a couple of dramas to come through because their 'big 5' (New Tricks, Silent Witness, Hustle, Spooks, Waking The Dead) aren't going to last forever - indeed WTD is ending soon, a year after Ashes to Ashes ended, so gaps are starting to appear already.

rzt, do you have the HD included rating for Lion Country?

Many thanks mate if you do.

Who commissioned Merlin? (genuine question, I actually don't know)

Merlin was commissioned by Jane Tranter who was at the time Controller of BBC Fiction.

Jane Tranter was responsible for many of the successful returning drama currently on BBC 1 and for the revival of Dr Who. Ben Stephenson just doesn't have the same touch. He was star struck over Idris Elba hence the Luther recommission against the evidence. He also seems to be blinded by Kudos having just handed another 8 part series to them to make another spy show.

I'm not as certain that Upstairs Downstairs will return. It was part funded by PBS who have fallen massively for Downton Abbey. UD has still to be shown in the US but it's likely it will suffer by comparison there too.

Odd One In
The Whole 19 Yards
The Cube
Family Fortunes
The Colour of Money

Which one actually goes well alongside a Cowell show?

And is rzt still waiting for DS?

Tuesday 8th February

BBC1
21:00- Outcasts: 3.32m (13%)

BBC2
2100- The Chinese Are Coming: 1.34m (5.2%)
2200- How TV Ruined Your Life: 1.04m (5.1%)

Channel 4
2000- Gok’s Fashion Fix: 2.11m (8.9%), +1: 155k (0.6%)
2200- Shameless: 2.55m (14.4%), +1: 182k (2%)

Channel 5
2100- CSI: 1.9m (7.4%)
2200- CSI: Miami: 1.3m (7%)

Ah, unfortunately I don't have the HD included rating for it. Maybe if you contact one of the DS ratings reporters, they might give you the rating? It's a shame that Media Guardian reports ratings so infrequently these days and haven't written articles for the last two days, as they might've reported it otherwise.


From recent evidence, The Cube and Family Fortunes have done well when paired up with a Cowell show. Colour of Money was a massive flop so won't ever return, The Whole 19 Yards was getting ~4m (not as good as the 5-6m the other two shows were getting) and Odd One In was struggling to get 3-4m last summer IIRC.


DS put up yesterday's overnights a few hours ago. I was waiting for the Soaps one to update but it looks like the Soap Ratings article probably won't be written today.

Maybe its just me, but the main article looks a little 'thin' with not many 8pm ratings.

Thanks anyway.


They do. For example, nowhere has reported how Stansted: The Inside Story performed on C5 yesterday at 8pm. Bit odd for the first in a new series. I was particularly interested since their last airport doc was a surprise hit, coming in at 2m+.

Stansted: The Inside Story had 1.28m (5.4%) yesterday.

Thanks. Pretty decent for that slot, up almost 200k week-on-week and 0.8 share points.

Someone was asking for yesterday's Outcasts breakdown:

21:00- 3.63m
21:15- 3.29m
21:30- 3.17m
21:45- 3.19m

The final 15 mins was boosted ever so slightly by people tuning into BBC1 a bit early for the news (always happens).

>Superbowl - 1.01m<

PMSL at such a low rating for BBC-1. That'll be the end of that nonsense then!

Ouch. I suspect it may be marginally higher on Monday simply because more people watch TV's on Monday. Or at least for the BBC's sake, I hope it is.

According to the Press Office, it seems like they've stuck to their provisional plan and Silk is going out on Tuesdays. Wrong decision in my view.


For that timeslot, its actually a very good rating, and higher than 2010.

The rating only tells half the story considering it ran into the early hours.

The share - around 15% - whilst not brilliant by any means, was pretty solid, and higher than what BBC News achieved beforehand.

Holy!!!! BEEP!
I'm guessing you know what shows rating I'm talking about by saying that! Absolutely incredible rating

Great to see that Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents got a series high last night, up against Gypsy as well... I wonder what it gets in the repeat viewings.

It was me. Thank you

So, less than 3m on Monday do we think?

I've only seen one trailer for South Riding which everyone says is excellent and none for Silk. I wonder if the BBC will continue to advertise Outcasts at the expense of these shows in the hope of a revival

That's pretty decent considering it went on until after 3am. Very few programs pull in 1million viewers after midnight. Also the Super Bowl was shown on Sky Sports but no rating reported as far as I could see, so there may be some more viewers that watched on Sky.

Channel 4 top programs of 2011 so far:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C4 -------------- C4 +1 ----------- C4 Official
01: Big Fat Gypsy Weddings 08/02/11 --------- 7.5m (29.2%) -------- 710k ------------------------
02: Embarrassing Bodies 04/02/11 -------------- 3.6m (14.9%) -------- 587k -------------------------
03: Shameless 10/01/11 ------------------------------ 3.1m (15.8%) -------- 355k --------------- 4.05m
04: FILM: premiere: Iron Man 2/01/11 --------- 3.0m (12.1%) -------- 561k --------------- 3.39m
05: Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2010 3/01/11 ---- 2.7m (12.9%) -------- 400k -------------- 3.34m
06: Mary Portas: Secret Shopper 19/01/11 -- 2.7m (11.1%) -------- 349k --------------- 3.36m
07: One Born Every Minute 7/02/11 ------------- 2.7m (10.6%) -------- 445k -------------------------
08: Million Pound Drop 04/02/11 ----------------- 2.6m (14.2%) ------ ~180k --------------------------
09: Britain's Fattest Man 5/01/11 ----------------- 2.6m (11.3%) -------- 334k --------------- 3.01m


Last year's chart for comparison (there were no new entries after that post).

C4 and C4 +1 are overnight ratings, C4 official are from the Barb website.
All overnight ratings are averages for the full slot running time, rounded to 1 decimal place.
Shows are ranked in order of overnight ratings.
Each show only gets one mention in the list.
Come Dine With Me would chart in 2011 ~ 2.6m but don't have exact rating



Great rating for Big Fat Gypsy Weddings last night. A share of nearly 30% for Channel 4 during the 9pm slot is pretty epic and up 5.4 share points from last week too. Interesting that the C4 +1 rating dropped by 300k from last week though. Further good news for C4 as One Born Every Minute also hit a 2011 high on Monday.

Here's a list of the 20 most watched shows last week (Mon 31st Jan- Sun 6th Feb) among 18-49 year olds:

1 - 16.9 (47%) - EastEnders (Mon, BBC1)
2 - 15.2 (65%) - Top Gear (Sun, BBC2)
3 - 14.1 (60%) - Big Fat Gypsy Weddings (Tue, C4)
4 - 13.3 (37%) - Coronation Street (Mon 20:30, ITV1)
5 - 11.3 (37%) - Dancing on Ice (Sun 18:35, ITV1)
6 - 10.4 (43%) - Live Rugby Union: Wales v England (Fri, BBC1)
7 - 9.6 (33%) - Emmerdale (Mon, ITV1)
8 - 8.9 (44%) - Harry Hill's TV Burp (Sat, ITV1)
9 - 8.7 (33%) - Wild at Heart (Sun, ITV1)
10- 8.7 (45%) - Match of the Day (Sat, BBC1)

11 - 8.1 (37%) - Holby City (Tue, BBC1)
12 - 7.9 (40%) - Total Wipeout (Sat, BBC1)
13 - 7.9 (35%) - Marchlands (Thu, ITV1)
14 - 7.6 (52%) - Take Me Out (Sat, ITV1)
15 - 7.5 (45%) - Waterloo Road (Wed, BBC1)
16 - 7.5 (29%) - Silent Witness (Mon, BBC1)
17 - 7.3 (37%) - New You've Been Framed (Sat, ITV1)
18 - 6.7 (28%) - National Lottery: In It To Win It (Sat, BBC1)
19 - 6.5 (68%) - Shameless (Tue, C4)
20 - 6.4 (45%) - The Biggest Loser (Mon, ITV1)

Note:
- The above are ratings points: 1 point = 0.274m viewers. Also 1 point = 1% of 18-49 UK population, so for e.g. 16.9% of 18-49s in the UK watched 'Enders.
- Bracketed (%) = 18-49 skew of programme. So for e.g., 47% of EE's total audience were aged between 18-49.

Daily Demographics:
--> Monday 7th Feb: http://i53.tinypic.com/20h943.jpg.
- One Born Every Minute most popular show at 9pm with 16-34s.
- Very close in terms of 18-49s at 9pm between BBC1, ITV1, C4, with ITV1 just about edging ahead.
- Despite its total audience increasing, Biggest loser skewed older this week and had fewer 18-49s watching it than last Monday.

--> Tuesday 8th Feb: http://i53.tinypic.com/2zrdym9.jpg
- Outcasts lost younger viewers more easily than older viewers compared to the night before.
- That's a very old skew for Taggart: 59% aged over 65 and only 12% aged between 18-49, that's the oldest skew I've ever seen for a show! Taggart's week-on-week rise was mainly due to 55+ year olds joining in, presumably some Silent Witness viewers.

I have to agree about some dodgy drama commissions for BBC One. Hopefully, Outcasts will act as a wake-up call.

So few of the recent commissions have made me think, "That sounds interesting.", and I couldn't even be bothered to read all the press office material for Outcasts.

I saw a trail for Outcasts, at lunchtime today, urging people to watch it in HD on BBC One HD.

I can't help thinking HD was one of the main reasons it was commissioned: "Ooh, lots of location filming. That'll look good in HD."

Almost as bad as Sky where presenters welcome viewers back to "Sky1 HD" and ignore SD viewers.