Benidorm won't be shown on Comic Relief Night (18th March) - confirmed by the writer. The series will resume the following week.

Also I think Britain's Got Talent is returning on Easter Saturday (23rd April), maybe even as part of an "Easter Weekend double-header". I thought it would've been the Saturday before that but Money Super Market's sponsorship deal of the show begins on 17th April which means it's unlikely to start before that day. Their deal ends on 4th June so like the last three years, it looks like the final will be on a Saturday.

Another very strong rating for Lets Dance on BBC1. ITV seem to have fallen to remarkably low levels against it relative to what their lineup should be capable of. I suppose in some respects it's no different to the BBC having to put up with the X-Factor, only Lets Dance pulls half the ratings... Take Me Out did well though in its inappropriately late slot and definitely deserves a re-commission.

On the plus side I imagine ITV1 will have done relatively well outside of primetime with their popular movie repeats of Thunderbirds, Star Wars and James Bond.

Match of The Day over 4 million again too.

The Endemol insider/PR guy who regularly posts on Bother's Bar confirms Million Pound Drop returns in the second week of April.

Phillip Schofield's twitter



Intresting

Isn't that what they tried to with this series of PTB? Time to give up on this one though - it just hasn't connected and I imagine if it were anyone else hosting it would be sub 3m. I always felt the strongest feature on Sat Takeaway was Undercover - this concept has historically worked well here and abroad (Beadles About etc) and I'd love to see a format developed around that premise.

Lets Dance has established itself as another event and was a fast paced load of silliness for which there is a considerable audience these days . The fact that it lasts for 80 minutes dominates the evening for BBC1.
I dont think there will be a higher peak for the Rugby this year-these figures puts it well on par with football and the BBC promotion together with the strengthening England team, has produced a real result. The Beeb will be keen to hold on to the rights when they are next due but the vultures will be circling as the cuts bite.
ITV1 is poor, their weekend schedules struggle more often than not without the big Cowell shows or DOI propping them up. Ant and Dec need a new style of format, not sure there is the will to do another Takeaway which was very tired in its last run out. Harry Hill's ratings have been bizzarre over the years sometimes brilliant sometimes average or poor-very much a fair weather show.

Oh dear.

Couldn't they have let Pip present on his own, didn't they have a similar situation on Strictly when Brucie was off sick and Tess presented with Claudia interviewing the celebs.

Great result for the Rugby and LDFCR, I wonder if they could extend the series so it could start in January and end in March or would 6 Nations interfere too much?

I imagine The Mentalist will move to 10pm for a week to avoid being dented by Comic Relief although they could keep in its normal slot as NCIS did 2.2m against Comic Relief two years ago.

Is Coleen Nolan really the best they could do?! Surely they could have got Christine Bleakley to do it.

yay

Has anyone got the rating for Wales VS Italy, it was a very good match to watch

X Factor, BGT & DOI (and not even counting celeb) cover most of the year - how many more could they fit into the schedule? You'd be looking at running one of the big ones over the summer months which would be a complete waste. Running DOI Sat/Sun would be the solution for Sat nights in the winter.

PTB doesn't work. They've attempted to shoe horn elements of Takeaway (like Ant v Dec) into a gameshow format.

The end game (based on that 80's Simon Says game) is terrible and was it really necessary to recycle that Simon Cowell teeth game from last series ? It all seems really lazy. Also, the phone-in competitions are executed really badly.

I'd much prefer another run of Poker Face.

Well i agree re X Factor as it feels like it goes on forever, but BGT is only 7 weeks I think and there is a four month slog this year till that starts. I agree splitting DOI would answer that, though its clearly not as strong as the others and stuff like Lets Dance would provide stiff competition.

Cricket World Cup heading for an exciting finish (Sky Sports 2).
I fear though it won't get the viewing figures it deserves as it gets squeezed out by the Carling Cup Final (Sky Sports 1, BBC1) and the rugby with Scotland vs Ireland (BBC2).

It will be interesting to see how Outcast and Crimewatch do tonght and tomorrow.

General question about Childrens programming.
When usually do the programmes peak on the satellite channels like Nick, CBBC etc? Is the 3pm-6pm slot still key? Also does the CBBC channel beat CBBC1 during the afternoons and mornings?

I don't think it will be that bad and they should have better chemistry then Schofield/Bleakley, although it would have been a chance to try Bleakley out and see how she copes with a live entertainment show. I guess with the short notice they couldn't do much else, as Bleakley already has her early start tomorrow morning.

Coleen Nolan is a bizzare choice. I'd have thought Bleakley or even Kate Thornton would have been more obvious choices.

I can kind of see why ITV don't bring back Pokerface as it didn't do that well in the first place. I don't think it did badly enough to be canned at the time, but probably not well enough that they really miss it. However, of the options from Gallowgate TV, it seems to be the best. I definitely can't see PTB returning next year so it's either something new or something old (Takeaway or Pokerface) assuming that it has to be a Gallowgate format.

Caught a bit of Secret Fortune last night and it seemed OK. Basically Deal or No Deal with questions and envelopes instead of boxes and the banker. But it strikes me as the sort of thing that would probably flop on ITV without the Lottery tie-in.

Not really, she did present the ill-fated Dancing on Ice Friday.

Coleen Nolan often hosts the This Morning 'hub' section (viewers phone-in) so will have worked with Pip Schofield many times before on live telly.

I did think before I opened the link that this would be a Bullseye clip and would you adam and eve it, it features Jim Bowen.


When there are two News programmes that go head-to-head with each other most days and one is constantly getting at least double the audience of the other its hard to say the one with half the audience is a better show.


Excellent night for BBC1. Six Nations did great numbers and that must be the most watched match for a while. Let's Dance again did very well. A very enjoyable Saturday night show that ticls all the boxes for me.

Funny how things change for ITV, the golden duo of Ant and Dec and Harry Hill now being well beaten by a Paddy McGuiness show.


I think your right. As a fan of Ant and Dec, I watched Takeaway pretty much every week but I have only ever watch a few minutes of PTB, it just doesnt appeal to me at all.


I think its a logical choice. Works with Phil on This Morning, presented DOI Friday and was a contestant a few years ago.

Unfortunately the most logical choice for DoI - but does highlight the great lack of female presenters around at the moment. Indeed the same would apply for the men too - if Phil was off they'd probably hope for Ben Shepherd, but if he was tied up with Sky I've no idea who they'd go for.


It would be dangerous to take them for granted, but ITV don't seem to be that interested and though money always talks, I suspect the rugby unions (especially Scotland/Ireland/Wales) probably favour the exposure on free to air TV. If ITV lost the FA Cup and England games they might show an interest - but in all honesty I think any money saved there would be spent elsewhere.

No can do, as Comic Relief is running until 10:30pm this year. The news is at 10:30pm.

Judging by the success rugby union has had on BBC One, maybe ITV should make a bid for the Six Nations. After all, a sport with a heavy ABC1 following would delight the advertisers. Also it would finally give a valid alternative to You've Been Framed, which is an antique now and just isn;t funny.