Speaking of Popstar To Operastar, it'll have a separate 30 minute results show this series (in addition to the performance shows) and will run for 6 weeks. So ITV are probably going to do a Q1-style Sunday schedule and sandwich it around a drama, but with them getting lower figures than the DOI/WaH combination of course.

And some other info...

Paul O'Grady Live is going to be 11 episodes this series, beginning on Friday 15th April. It'll take a week off to accomodate the live Britain's Got Talent shows.

Penn & Teller: Fool Us is 7 episodes (one more than initially reported) and due to start in Q2.

ITV also has a new 6-part factual series starting in Q2:

Sounds like Tuesday 9pm material to me.

I liked Katie My Beautiful Face but a series might be stretching the concept whereas they were a lot of mileage from MBFGW. I worry that it might be classified in the same vein as Embarrassing Bodies.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.24m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.27m
19:00 Home and Away 1.01m
19:30 My Kitchen Rules 1.36m
20:30 Criminal Minds 1.22m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.07m
18:30 A Current Affair 0.98m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 0.60m exc. Brisbane
19:30 The Big Bang Theory 0.98m
20:00 Mike & Molly 0.75m
20:30 The Farmer Wants a Wife 0.92m

Ten
18:00 6pm with George Negus 0.36m
18:30 Ten Evening News 0.34m
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.78m
19:30 The Biggest Loser: Families 0.92m
20:30 Modern Family (R) 0.56m
21:00 Modern Family (R) 0.51m

Eleven
18:30 Neighbours 0.32m

a nice improvement for Neighbours, glad to see that, the previous episode was very low

Yeah I thought that with what happened in yesterdays episode it would have been higher, but it has bounced back today.

I know it is being picky, but the peak for Neighbours was 0.4m. In Australia they have a second advert break and return to the programme for about one minute before the credits. I reckon a lot of people tune out after the end of the second part and don't return for the final few minutes. I think the average would be higher if they didn't do this.

I think they do this now on 5* in the UK as well.

Yeah that fits in well. Sing If You Can, BGT and Life Stories on Saturdays with The Cube and the 2 hour dramas on Sundays will see them through April and May. I've no idea how Sing If You Can will do, will it crash and burn like many of ITV's previous attempts at this sort of thing or will it be executed well enough and done in a way in which it'll draw in an audience a la Take Me Out or Total Wipeout? The only question now appears to be whether BGT will air on Saturdays and Sundays or just Saturdays, but I don't think we'll find out for a while.


The Popstar To Operastar performance shows should do OK but I'm not sure if they'll hold an audience for the results. I guess it depends on how the sandwich show (The Royal, I presume) does.

11 episodes of POG will see them through until July 1st, so I reckon they'll just show repeats on Fridays in July and August until Paul returns again in September. That's unless Penn and Teller airs on Fridays, but if that's on in Q2 then it may well take over from BGT on Saturdays in June (hopefully not though). I doubt it'll be ready in time to air after BGT on Saturdays (I haven't heard anything about filming starting).

That factual strand sounds crap and like something they'll show on Tuesdays in June to fill a slot. Based on the stuff we know so far, the Davina McCall show Long Lost Family may well end up on Thursdays after Monroe ends as they'll only have 5 Tuesdays after the football match before Home Is Where The Heart Is is rumoured to be starting (May 10th).

One more thing, I read the other day that ITV have given The Marriage Ref a full series to air next year.

the problem with the 5* repeat of Neighbours isnt the second advert, its the fact it ends at 19:35, and clahses with the start of EastEnders.

Well obviously radio is different to a Television Programme.

So true.
If im watching a TV show on I Player then i tend to watch it through (as most people would)

If im listening to a show from radio1 or whatever i skip most of it

I could see a lot of the BBC's younger viewers deserting the likes of BBC Three for Moyles' marathon broadcast on red button tonight. I wonder if we'll get overnights for 301 tomorrow? They are BARB listed now, but I haven't seen any programme ratings before!

I guess though ITV have the facts and figures for this and weighing up the costs and benefits they must believe the market for ads after Corrie outweighs the need for an accelerated flow into the next show.


I'm guessing it's the BBC more than Comic Relief who felt the need for EastEnders to interrupt it - and I'm wondering if the extra half hour at 10pm is some kind of compensation for it.


Yep, exactly the same slot as last year for it. Exactly the same wasted opportunity.


I'd guess that's going to fill a slot once BGT is out of the way. I wonder if Myleene Klass will present - isn't she pregnant?


Cheap they may be, but C4 need to learn these cheap observational documentaries aren't the solution to filling the void left behind by Big Brother. Isn't this like the 5th or 6th failure since September?


Remember though by rights the UK version should probably have been axed after the first series too - but ITV stuck with it (or were stuck with it!) and ultimately it paid off. Now, I'm not expecting that type of growth in Australia but think it was solid enough to justify another shot.

It's all well and good saying Seven should put the cash into drama instead, but frankly they've got that covered and if TXF had been axed, it would likely have been another entertainment format which replaced it - and that's a bigger risk than recommissioning a show which at least has a base to develop from.


Will be interesting to see how that does considering her original documentary performed rather well.

The X Factor did okay in its first series, started with 4m but grew throughout the series, same with BGT which had a very poor lead in from Grease is the Word.

My guess is that Seven is giving it another shot to capitalise on the upcoming US version. I think they need bigger and better names for the judges, maybe bring in Dicko who was the mean judge on Australian Idol, wonder if Luke Jacobz will be kept on as host or should they get a new host?

This is A KEY point.

What it means is that the I-Player figures for each programme are effectively "programme reach" figures - ie the number of people who watch ANY part of a programme.

Whereas BARB TV ratings are programme averages.

It is not meaningful to add an average figure to a reach figure.

If the BBC wants to make figures look high the easiest thing would be to report "reach" figures for the TV broadcast of programmes. They would be massively higher than the averages - obviously the difference will be greater for longer programmes.

Take a football match on BBC1 or ITV1 from 7.30pm to 10pm with a programme average of, let's say, 6m for example. What would its reach be? I don't know but would guess around 10m to 12m. That may seem very high but the point is that over two and a half hours enormous numbers of people will be channel hopping and end up watching a few minutes.

I very much doubt it. The only detailed information i've ever come across regarding BBC 'red button' usage was an interactive feature that followed the 2005 Doctor Who Christmas Special.

Attack of the Graske - 25/12/2005 (Digital Satalite Only)
(Red button) Reach +1 Minute - 250,000
Reach +5 Minutes - 230,000
Retention - 93%
Available Audience - 7%

Re moving the BBC News to 10.30 tomorrow it's apparently because donations dropped off at 10 pm as soon as the News came on. Comic Relief have persuaded Mark Thompson to move it in the hope donations will continue to flow until 10.30. As a consequence Newsnight has had to be moved as well - quite an upheaval for BBC scheduling.

In lots of offices, people watching while they should be working will have to disconnect when the boss arrives at their desk.

Only two breaks in Australia? I thought they were nearer the US model with three or four breaks in a 30 minute show.

You're absolutely correct, in fact the BBC have created their own measurment re-adjusting the iPlayer figures (collected via iStats) into meaningful average audience figures to compare with BARB (i,e, they look at total duration of the viewing and not just the request). This is called the Live Plus 7 measurement and has iPlayer viewing at a tiny fraction of overall BBC TV viewing....there is a huge difference in the number of requests and the average audience for a programme and we should be consistent if we are comparing two different systems.

I think Comic Relief will get over 8.5m to 9.5m tomorrow night but may be worng?.

The football averaged 4.2m on ITV1 last night

Masterchef got 4.9m on BBC1.

Meanwhile on C4, Jamie's Dream School tanked with
1.6m....easily beaten by Five's NCIS, which had 2m.

awful boring game last night. low ratings are no surprise

US Network News shows averages week of March 7
(includes first day of Japanese quake)

1. NBC News with Brian Williams 9.62 million
2. ABC News with Diane Sawyer 8.32 m
3. CBS News with Katie Couric 6.21 million

Both NBC and CBS improved on the previous week, ABC was down. ABC was the only network to send its anchor to Japan.

c Neilsen

Is Couric staying with CBS? I thought her contract is up soon?