Yeah, Injustice could be stripped across five days but like Marchlands, they could easily run it weekly too.

IIRC Waking the Dead rates about 1-2 million better than Hustle and probably has more of a crossover audience with L&O than Hustle does (both crime, older-skewing), so I expect it'll be dented more than how it did last year against Hustle.
-------------------
Regarding Zen - just read it averaged only 0.2m fewer viewers than what Wallander did last year in a similar slot and that's been recommissioned for two further series, so it can count itself a bit unlucky.

Corrie way out in front again. I wonder what the excuse will be this time.

It isn't even a big week for Corrie, the main storyline was Dev's financial situation!

Thanks. I remembered Injustice had been specifically commissioned as a 5 day event thing but as you say there is no reason why they need to do that.

Is there a difference in AIs? Wallender won a BAFTA and the timing of that helped a recommission IIRC.
Poor Andy Harries, he doesn't have much luck these days. He has barely recovered from MSO.

5.7 is more than I thought, but there was nothing standout about the idea imo. Not surprised its gone.

What would your excuse be?

When it comes to daytime ratings, Schofe is used to getting battered by the BBC so im sure he will embrace it.


You should just ignore him because he's just wanting an argument. Not only is Andy23 an ITV fanboy but he's also a Corrie fan.

ooh I see Channel 5 has moved The Vanessa Show to 14:15, not sure what that means for the Fiver repeat that starts at 13:20, I assume it will become the previous days episode.

As of 7th March

I don't think it makes great sense to sell the rights for ten years. If that was the best way to get money from broadcasters, all the sporting governing bodies would be selling their rights for ten years at a pop.

It was a lot better than I expected, but I hated the wide-angle shots of the audience and crew.

I guess someone thought it would be a good gimmick, but it's already been done to better effect in the episode of One Foot in the Grave where the Meldrews went to watch Mother and Son.

I'm sure folk look at the plot synopses for the soaps at the start of the week and think "nah, doesn't sound like much is happening on Corrie this week, let's give it a miss until something interesting happens"!

It has had a massive boost from the tram-crash and associated sensationalist plot-lines, for sure. It will take some time for the high tide of viewing to gently recede. But once we get back to the usual mundane sagas of tangled tax returns, overdue library books and trainspotting day-out calamaties, rather than exploding nightclubs, multiple love triangles and schoolgirl lipstick lesbians, I suspect the ratings will start drifting downwards towards the core devotee audience.

Indeed, the current storylines and "angryness" in Corrie at the moment may drive viewers away - I heard my own Corrie-devoted parents dismissively saying the other day that Corrie "was going a bit Eastenders at the moment" (like other northerners, they have never taken to the London soap).

No excuse. EastEnders appears to have gone into a little bit of a lull. It's still good for regular viewers like me, but I can see there's currently nothing to draw in the casual viewers.

Maybe the baby swap reveal will perk the ratings up again.

But I think they DO turn off after episode 1 if it's sh!t. They're doing something right end of.

The show looked nice, but very little actually happened in the episode I saw.

Your right!
A women at my work was moaning about how Corrie has gone dark and are showing 'EastEnders style' storylines.
She doesn't watch EastEnders because at times its a bit to gritty and hard hitting


Exactly There's been nothing big happening on EastEnders yet Both Emmerdale and Corrie have had big storylines which have been promoted which has obviously pulled in casual viewers

Baby swap reveal,Phill and Shirleys wedding and The Whitney story should pull in some casual viewers

As the schedules have possibly been decided up to months in advance maybe there isn't the flexibility to move Law and Order? I guess they're hoping that a return to the cosy Monday slot will help it, and if it can lock in a good audience for the first episode it'll have more of a chance against WTD. Blue Murder was getting 4.5-5m against the last series of WTD and that was with STV opting out. Had STV aired it it would probably have got a series average of 5m or so, and Blue Murder was an incredibly mediocre drama, so hopefully something like L&O can get 5m or so against it (I assume STV are airing L&O). It averaged 5.4m against Hustle last year which was great but as you've said it'll have more of a crossover audience with WTD.

If it can hold 4.5m+ against WTD then it'll have done pretty well I think. It's doable, as other crime dramas such as Blue Murder and Taggart have got 4.5-5.5m against WTD in the last couple of years on Mondays, and going back even further, Trial and Retribution was getting 5.5-6m against it in 2007. The last couple of series of WTD have got around 6-6.5m in the overnights so whilst it's tough drama competition it isn't invincible and L&O should hopefully still hold an audience against it.

It's far too late now but it might have been a better idea to put Benidorm on Mondays and L&O on Fridays as I can't imagine the former having much of a crossover audience with WTD and the latter would only be facing repeats.

You've made an interesting point about it possibly falling out of favour as I wondered this too. I'm not sure as they must have been OK with the ratings for the last series as they ordered another batch of 13 episodes after 6 episodes of the last series had aired. The lack of a press pack is odd although maybe that's because it isn't really a new series and is just the second half of the second batch of 13 episodes. I guess it depends upon how soon they start advertising it to show if it's fallen out of favour as if they don't start until just before the series begins then it could signal a problem.


I agree, style over substance is the impression I got, and whilst I'm surprised they axed it after keeping the dreary Wallander with similar ratings, I'm not particularly sorry as BBC1 can do better.

Oh dear, it's quite obvious how anti-ITV this thread is.

One slight comment about EastEnders and suddenly half a dozen people jump on it, defending the show and slating Corrie in the process.

I can't recall this sort of reaction when certain people were going on and on about how great EastEnders was last year.

Yep, that should rate well. I think 6m+ is likely. It's a shame they haven't done another Comic Relief Apprentice as the previous ones were really good and rated fantastically well.


Interesting. I think ITV will be very reluctant to let it go, particularly as it's their only sitcom at the moment. I think they should bring in a few new writers with one working as an overall showrunner rather than just one as it would reduce the burden on each individual writer and allow them to make more episodes than they currently do. An eight part series plus a Christmas Special each year would be brilliant but obviously they'd need more than one writer, and hopefully having more writers would improve the quality of the show compared to if they only brought in one new writer. If the stories with the main cast members end then they might be better off completely rebooting it, possibly even setting it in a different hotel in Benidorm.


That would mean it would start on Sunday 29th May, which fits perfectly into ITV's Sunday night schedule as it's the week after Lewis will probably end. I hope ITV launch some new shows in BGT week this year, possibly at 10pm straight after the semi finals, with the news bumped to 11pm for the week, as ti would really help them in the long run.

With WTD probably airing on Sundays, I think ITV will keep Vera in the slots planned for it, as launching after the DOI Final is too good an opportunity to miss, but I think they'll play around with the schedules so that it doesn't start at 9pm and gets a head start on WTD. They could run the DOI Final from 18:30-20:30 with Vera then getting a half hour head start on WTD, and subsequent episodes could also start at 8/8:30pm.

Good spot. Home and Away is moving to 1:15pm before Neighbours. Has someone at Channel 5 been reading this thread? Someone suggested that last week!

Andy, you must be paranoid if you think this thread is anti-ITV. Perhaps if you stopped baiting people into arguments you could sleep a little easier at night.

Eastenders is going through a pretty dull patch which its been in for a while, Corrie has a had a biggish stroyline recently and is probably in better health anyway.

So, the new Channel 5 daytime schedule as of 7th March:

0600 Milkshake
0915 The Wright Stuff
1105 Build a New Life in the Country
1205 Meals in Moments
1210 5 News Lunchtime
1215 House
1315 Home and Away
1345 Neighbours
1415 The Vanessa Show
1505 Shorts followed by Afternoon Movie

Digiguide scheduling update for week beginning 5th March:

- BBC1's Saturday 5th schedule shifts forward to allow a Live At The Apollo repeat before the news, so Let's Dance runs 6:40-8pm.
- Liam Neeson film Taken premieres on Saturday 5th, 9pm on Channel 4.
- Motorway Cops airs on Monday 7th March at 9pm for BBC1.
- Caroline Quentin travelogue A Passage Through India debuts on Tuesday 8th, 9pm on ITV1.
- Bang Goes The Theory special replaces Human Planet at 8pm on Thursday 10th.
- Famous, Rich & In The Slums and New Tricks repeats continue on Thursday 10th/Friday 11th.


Yep, seems like previous dramas have held up alright against WTD. But Trial & Retribution and Blue Murder were more popular dramas back then IIRC (Blue Murder was in the 6m range the previous series) which is better than what LOUK has ever done apart from the first ep. But yeah if it can mid 4's against WTD, it'd have done well. I did think ITV would try out Benidorm on another night, like Mondays, this year and it probably would've been more complementary scheduling for them to have that on Mon and LOUK on Fri, but I suppose they weren't to know that Outcasts would be pulled mid-run to help WTD come back a bit earlier than originally intended.


Interesting idea - I guess it would make sense having a few writers doing some episodes instead of just one writer. I'm not sure if the show would work without the Garvey family in it though, I reckon they're essential to it, especially Madge. If wholesale changes are made to the cast it could put off a lot of viewers and people might just think it's a natural point to stop watching the show, and because it would be 5-6 years old by then, it would probably have difficulty picking up brand-new viewers to replace the ones dropping out by that stage.


I think Vera could be starting on semi-final weekend of DOI. Wild at Heart finishes the week before and I dont think ITV have commissioned any one-offs recently which could air then (like the Stephen Gately one last year). Yeah if they start it 30 or 60 mins earlier than WTD, it could hold up okay. IIRC, Marple was getting 4.5m-ish against WTD, so a new well-promoted drama like Vera should be capable of more with a DOI lead-in. I wouldn't be surprised however if ITV airs Lewis around that time which would send WTD down to ~5m (I remember something like that happened a few years back) and that would have a beneficial effect on LOUK the next day as I don't think many more people would watch the second parter of WTD if they've not see the first part. That would mean Vera would have no DOI lead-in but the competition it'd face would be much easier probably.

Famtastic for Coronation Street last night - EastEnders is going through the traditional slump that one seems to suffer when the other is doing well though 9m+ shouldn't be sniffed at. Awful for the 9pm slot for the big two, though.

And Philip Schofield?! Why not have the ice panel voting on the dress and be done with it. ITV's getting tackier and tackier in it's old age.

Yeah you're right, the Garveys and Madge would need to be in it, but I think as long as they were there the ratings would hold up fine even if the rest of the show was revamped.


I hadn't thought about starting it on semi-final weekend. That could happen as they don't seem to have anything else commissioned but Lewis is due out on DVD on Monday 23rd May, and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher on Easter Monday, suggesting an Easter Sunday airdate, so working backwards that means that Vera would start on DOI Final night unless they have another one off drama, but I don't think they do. Lewis has knocked WTD down to ~5m before and could do it again with a head-start, and it would help L&O so swapping it with Vera could work. I think Vera's going to be a hit anyway as it has a lot going for it from what we've heard so far (good cast, given a full series before pilot was aired etc).

I wonder if Monroe will be any good. ITV's last attempt at a medical drama, Harley Street, was crap and tanked in the ratings but this has a better cast and a good writer so may do better. I haven't seen any early reviews/previews yet but I've got quite high hopes for it as it could run for years if it does well.

Check your facts before you put your BBC hat on. ITV are showing their remaining fifth round tie, which they are committed too.


And this time check your facts before you put your anti-BBC hat on! (oh, the irony!). Doctor Who has debuted Easter weekend most years since it returned.


If it's any good it'll sustain a weekly slot, just as it's intended to air.


Exactly. ITV will get thrashed regardless, even though often their coverage of such events can be superior to the BBC - and the nature of the events usually mean they're ad free too.

TV ONE
12:30 Emmerdale 139,000
13:30-23:00 One News Special 506,000

TV2
18:30 Friends 128,000
19:00 Shortland Street 372,000
*down over 100,000 week-on-week.
19:30 Hell's Kitchen 277,000
20:30 Go Girls 302,000
21:30 Off The Map 193,000

TV3
13:25 3 News Special 351,000
19:30 3 News Special 424,000
20:00 3 News Special 381,000
20:30 3 News Special 356,000
21:30 3 News Special 402,000

All-Day Shares
TV ONE: 39%
TV3: 24.6%
TV2: 11.5%