New Tricks airing its 2nd batch of repeats might be helping boost Benidorm, but I think Benidorm would be doing really well anyway as it got ~6m against Upstairs Downstairs (tough competition) just a couple of months ago. People don't have to watch Benidorm just because there's repeats on BBC1 - there's other channels too and in the past there's been plenty of times when original programming haven't necessarily done too well against repeats.

The Motorway Cops scheduling is a bit daft. Yes, I know it's down to Outcasts flopping, and WTD not being able to start till South Riding finishes, but I'm sure the BBC must have something original and first-run it could have aired on Monday - rather than handing the return of Law and Order a big debut audience purely by default.

At least WTD should do Ok the following week with the Sunday head start for part 1.

Yes, I don't deny it's (baffingly) popular, and has got more popular as the quality of its content has gone down. But it would never have got 7m+ had it been up against, say, Hustle or something stronger on BBC1.

And the Boxing Day one got 7m against Upstairs Downstairs because it was Christmas.

Motorway Cops is a one week stop-gap before Waking The Dead returns on Sundays and Mondays and it's only on because Outcasts was a complete pile of **** and had to be moved out of primetime to Sunday at 10.25 (CBBC didn't have a free slot available and besides, they have higher standards than that.)

Is there a reason why the BBC always repeat episodes of New Tricks from the past year or two? As in now repeating recent episodes twice.

Surely they would be better off repeating ones from a few years ago that viewers might have had a chance to have forgotten.

BTW on the programme thread here it was posted that Great British Railway Journeys had been renewed for a third series. The ratings and viewer popularity justified it but have not seen any confirmation from the BBC yet.

Radio Times next week also has some protest at the axing of Just William (I agree it was a great show tossed away by terrible scheduling at Christmas). The protest points to exactly that.

Curiously in the same magazine is an ad for the DVD of the programme which bills it as Series One.

That is really bad though. Also it will be so much lower an average once the ratings for the last two episodes are added. The only reason it is that high is because of ep 1 getting good ratings. Take that away and the average is pitiful compared to past series.

Law and Order on Monday is getting the best possible launch it would seem.

Even given the BBC may be having to prune the schedules it does seem extremely lazy to keep New Tricks on a permanent loop and presumably damaging the show to a certain extent too. I cant believe there isnt something else.

Hadnt hear about Just William. Very strange all round, a somewhat high profile remake buried in daytime at Christmas and now dumped. Someone did not like it methinks.

Good news about GBRJ, Portillo is a natural at this type of stuff and I think there will be other travelogues in the future.

I think being on against Outcasts would have been better.

Actually you are probably right-maybe ITV should launch LAO on Sunday at 10.25

Their reasoning might be that Motorway Cops may well rate better than what an original one-off programme would. For example, Motorway/Traffic Cops got 4.3m against Law & Order UK's 5.6m when the two shows clashed last time. So it held up decently and we've seen in the past that quite a lot of one-off BBC1 factual programmes have rated worse than that (as recently as last week, Crimewatch got just 3.4m and the other factual 9pm programme a few days later didn't do much better).


Yeah sure, it probably wouldn't have got 7m+ up against something like Hustle. I still think, though, it would've got ~6m up against someting like that since it's had those sorts of ratings before against programmes such as My Family/Have I Got News For You which I suspect have more of a crossover audience with Benidorm than Hustle. Hustle would've probably lost some of its viewers too, and could've fallen below 5m - if that had happened, you'd still be complaining about the scheduling!

Honestly Robbie why can't you just accept that Benidorm is one of ITV1's top performers for the 9pm slot. It's (baffingly) odd why you just have to slate EVERYTHING that is shown on ITV1, even when's it's doing well. How you can have such a hatred of one channel is beyond comprehension. rzt it right. Benidorm would be doing well regardless (whether is was close to 7m or sub 6m), it's still a good result.

How has Hawaii Five-0 been doing on Sky 1 since it began a few weeks ago? The only ratings I've seen posted in Digital Spy news articles for Sunday nights were for last Sunday's episode "Nalowale", 633K viewers.

Also, how have the following new and returning shows been doing on satellite:

Bedlam (Sky Living)
Blue Bloods (Sky Atlantic)
The Killing (BBC Four)
The Listener (FX)
The Simpsons (Sky 1) - new episodes on Friday nights
Treme (Sky Atlantic) ?

Didn't think there was room for Top Gear to dumb down further. A non-story I'm sure, but would be interesting if it happened. Would ITV keep it in it's Sunday night berth, or could it perhaps be the answer to it's Tuesday night woes.


Is New Tricks a BBC production or an independent? If independent, usually after a period of time (dependent on contract) of I think 12-18 months - probably 2 years at most - the BBC lose the rights to screen them and the producer can sell them on to whom they wish, which may or may not include the BBC.

The BBC though are going to need to get much cleverer with their repeats over the next few years as the Coalition cuts bite - the strategy introduced just a couple of years ago of attempting to keep BBC1 prime-time repeat clear has long since been abandoned.

I'm the only person in my family who doesn't watch Benidorm but I saw the bit on the waterslide last night. I thought I was watching Holiday On The Buses.

But that's why the series has been such a hit; it harks back to the "glory" (ahem!) days of ITV working-class sitcoms e.g. On The Buses, Bless This House and, especially, Duty Free.

Agreed, BTW the news of series 3 comes direct from Michael Portillo himself to the OP so I think even without BBC confirmation we can take it as confirmed.

It's independent - made by Wall To Wall (part of Shed Media).

Yeah I've never watched it either, but it's a relieable hit for ITV and that's what they need.

Just looking at the schedule for the US Masters Golf on the BBC (here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/6103550.stm )

Are BBC1 really going to give all of this weekend primetime airtime to the tournament ? Isn't it normally on 2 ?

Saturday 9th April
BBC1 2030-0000 BST Live coverage of day three

Sunday 10th April
BBC1 1900-0000 BST live coverage of day four

I think it's probably a typo and it'll end up being on BBC2. A Waking The Dead episode should be airing on that Sunday at 9pm and I can't see the BBC delaying that for Masters Golf.

Yeah, pretty sure that's a typo and it'll be on BBC2.

Don't be silly. I often praise ITV shows I've enjoyed on here.

That Sunday Night Show has been a good end of weekend watch.

Kidnap and Ransom was very good.

TV Burp is having a bit of a return to form, -ish.

I quite like the Freddie Flintoff vs The World programme.

Lewis is one of my favourite shows, when it appears.

Interestingly, and this is probably a complete coincidence because it doesn't make much sense from their perspective, but I've noticed Watch repeat the exact same episode as BBC One the following day!

I am a defender of the BBC but I can see why Benidorm is performing extremely well. The BBC seem to have shut up shop on Fridays now which is odd. Last night in BBC1 primetime, there were 3 repeats. That is unacceptable. I am not suggesting that the BBC should put on a massive show against Coronation Street, but ITV were inevitably going to win the ratings on Friday with what was offered on ITV1. Benidorm isn't as good this time round, but it's still cracking good telly compared to the lacklustre effort on the other side.

It's high time BBC1 developed a new, permanent 7.30pm slot rather than just showing daytime repeats. If I were the BBC1 controller I would do something like this:

Monday:

7.00pm The One Show
7.30 Regional Programmes

Wednesday:

7.00pm The One Show (Extended)

Friday:

7.00pm The One Show
7.30 Bang Goes The Theory
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 A Question of Sport


Consistency is definetely needed on BBC1's schedule at present. While they're at it perhaps they can stop showng daytime rubbish on Sunday afternoons as well!

Having just looked on Google about this, it looks like this year's Masters is the first one under a new deal the BBC negotiated last year. Maybe it's stated in the new deal that the final couple of days have to be shown on BBC1?

On Saturday 9th April, it doesn't look like BBC1 has much lined up for primetime. Six Nations and Let's Dance will be over by then. I expect So You Think You Can Dance will be back but that would air in the 7pm hour, and Casualty could be taken off for a week, so maybe it's true and the Masters will be shown from 8.30pm onwards? As for the Sunday, they could just have Waking the Dead airing the first-parter the following night (Monday) and the 2nd part on Tuesday as Silk will be over by then.

Edit: Actually, scrap the above - just read that MOTD will be running on that Saturday. I don't think the BBC would relegate MOTD to BBC2, so Golf would probably have to be shown on BBC2.


Let's be honest here, substitute "often" with "rarely" and that's more of a realistic statement ! Name-checking 5 programmes you "quite like" doesn't change anything really. Your opinion of ITV is (and has been) pretty clear for a few years and that extreme bias comes across in nearly every post you make. You've even admitted you sometimes post like that because of the "wind up merchant" inside yourself! ITV are in a no-win scenario with you - they get poor ratings and you're on it like a rash, they get good ratings and you usually dismiss them by saying it was only due to "poor scheduling by the BBC" or just ignoring the figures completely by either not posting at all or just commenting on the actual show and not the ratings by saying it's "terrible/Chav TV" (or words to that effect )!