Royal Wedding Bank Holiday Friday on Digiguide so far :

BBC One

06:00 Breakfast
08:00 The Royal Wedding
13:40 BBC News
14:00 Regional News
14:10 The Royal Wedding
16:00 Regional News
16:05 Film : Shrek
18:00 BBC News

As normal with a Royal Wedding programme at 20:30

ITV1

06:00 Daybreak
08:30 The Royal Wedding
16:10 Film : Nanny McPhee
18:00 ITV News (including regional bulletin)
19:00 as normal

Hmm, I've been tempted, but am put off because it all seems terribly imprecise. They don't specify what rating they're talking about. It can't be average because that would be free money, it's probably peak, but the BBC also often quote overall reach for events like this.

Far too uncertain for a tight git like me to risk my cash on.


Ridiculous schedule. I just don't know where to start. Come back George Dixon - all is forgiven! That schedule is going to get battered.


The Europe League is definitely more attractive since the 'Big 4' cartel got broken at the top of English football. In the past, it was home to Everton, and even Fulham or Bolton. Liverpool, Tottenham or Man City are very attractive prospects, by contrast.

No there isn't! So You Think You Can Dance has been consistently falling, which is most worrying for a talent show, despite starting fairly healthily.

Nobody's under-predicting for Britain's Got Talent, I only pointed out that it would be *GOOD FOR THE SHOW* if it did premiere low, so it could gain some momentum and more popularity as it went on, rather than peaking at the start.

You're always banging on about Channel 5 doing well when it isn't not so pot calls the kettle black there!

is this right?


Just checked the PI, and it says its the 1984 version.

Despicable that the BBC is shunting its most popular family drama to a 6pm slot simply to prop up the ailing So You Think You Can Dance.

Doctor Who should be at the heart of the schedule, at 7.15pm-8pm. There is no reason why it shouldn't be there.

Well let's not forget that these schedules still aren't confirmed, it could and has changed in the past.

The times aren't up at the BBC Press Office yet.

Easter Sunday films :

BBC One

13:30 Film: Mary Poppins (again)

ITV1

16:00 Film: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (again)

Some interesting scheduling on Tuesday 26th, with Channel 5 getting their royal wedding prequel documentary in an hour before ITV1's effort.

im "hiding" all the Royal Wedding stuff I find

Are you for real? I asked a polite question and you come back with this shouty nonsense.

Regardless of my own obvious viewing preferences, I would never ever try and spin a bad performance by Channel 5. I tell it like it is and where they are doing well I praise them and if they are getting something wrong I am critical.

I would tone down the personal attacks against FMs if I were you, I doubt the bosses would approve!

I think it'll be quite fun to compare the Royal wedding ratings with the last ones. I must admit that's the thing I'm looking forward to the most in regards to the wedding which I guess is pretty bad

The 8.30-10pm re-run on BBC1 is pure overkill. It's going to be the most-watched TV event of 2011, and if people want to watch the wedding they will be there in the morning. If they can't make it, they will tape it.

If anything, put the re-run out on BBC2 at 8.30, but don't write off BBC1's evening for a low-rating re-run hardly anybody will watch. Could be a shocker of a figure - 2m? 3m?


Saturday 10pm is such an obvious slot. The Beeb could test it out from mid-August with a timely repeat showing of s1 alongside the start of the season MOTD.


A shame if confirmed like this. It means that the biggest TV event of 2011 will almost certainly not feature in the Top Shows of 2011 chart at all, and will probably only get a mid-ranking rating in the BBC1 and ITV1 top 30s for that week. As far as the TV records will go, the Royal Wedding 2011 will be on a par with Holby City in ratings terms.

The X Factor will very probably now be the top-rated show of 2011, even if it only gets 16-17m against a 20m+ BBC1 audience for the wedding ceremony.

this thread is awful for that, if WW3 broke out, all we would be discussing is which News at 10 got the best ratings, and why even in the time of War, ITV is still falling back on Simon Cowell too much

Ratings 'flop' maybe, but 10.5m peak for instance on a Friday is 10m more BBC would have on a typical Friday. Of course, it should peak higher than that in reality.


Did someone at BBC throw darts against a dartboard? Did they deliberately put So You Think You Can Dance on after Doctor Who so they get a 15 minute head-start on Sing If You Can? The Results show is going to be get thrashed.

I hope for Doctor Who's sake it is not weather like this for Easter weekend because it may get one of its lowest ever overnights by some margin. And it will probably be, because of the ridiculous time, its lowest ever opener. Considering the amount they spend on this programme, I do think a higher profile slot is necessary. 6pm on a Saturday in April is not primetime.

Although I've not seen the description for it, The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher sounds like something a good ~5/5.5m of the Coronation Street audience would tap into and watch, Rock & Chips after its poor Christmas showing could find itself with another poor rating. I actually think Good Friday may have been a better slot in this case, but they've got HIGNFY..... I guess they could move that to 8:30 for one week though. Would be nice complimentary scheduling against Paul O'Grady. Drama vs Drama just shouts out stupidity (hey, we have 5 9pm weekday slots, let's put our drama against ITV's! Yeah....)

And who would want to watch highlights on the Friday? O'Grady should do well providing no one has died yet from boredom....


I think ITV would wait to see what BBC does with F1, first.

That is clearly not the only reason they have put it there. They did the exact same thing last year airing it before Over The Rainbow, which IIIRC, did pretty well numbers wise. It's a bad habit the BBC have but actually they are being quite consistent with this. To suggest normal service is being altered purely to assist SYTYCD's numbers is grossly misleading.

If the BBC were that ratings obsessed, they would have given Doctor Who the later slot.

Woops missed a programme from the line-up when I originally posted. W&G at 16:05

It's still going to be a big event and it will be bigger than anything than is usually scheduled in the morning and afternoon. Had it been in primetime, it would be even bigger but fortunately, The Royal Family don't cater to the TV execs.

6pm for family dramas has worked with both Doctor Who and Merlin and while I would prefer it aired at 7pm, it isn't exactly a death slot.

No, it's not. See below:

Snooker on BBC Two. It's a public service, should have a primetime re-run for those that didn't see it.

It should do ok, it's got Paul O'Grady and Million Pound Drop against it.

Over the Rainbow's results shows (except the final) were broadcast on the Sunday. Why couldn't BBC have done the same with SYTYCD this year and put it on at 7:30pm?

Saturday 23rd April

BBC One

17:25 Don't Scare the Hare
18:00 Doctor Who
18:45 So You Think You Can Dance
20:00 The National Lottery : Who Dares Wins
20:50 So You Think You Can Dance Results
21:20 Casualty

ITV1

17:00 March of the Dinosaurs
19:00 Sing If You Can
20:00 Britains Got Talent
21:00 Piers Morgans Life Stories

If that is the BBC One schedule, I don't think it's as bad as some would have you believe.

ITV have completely capitulated with this dinosaur film. Doctor Who would perform strongly at 6pm, and SYTYCD will start ahead of Sing If You Can. ITV would have done better with an hour long 'special' YBF I reckon.

SYTYCD should come out on top against Sing If You Can, given that everyone is expecting that to flop. And Who Dares Wins will perform better against BGT than Nick Knowles other lottery show would have, I can see why they held that back now.

The official rating for Doctor Who: The Vampires Of Venice (8th May 6pm as stated above was 7.28m which is excellent. It was 5th in BBC1's ratings behind Eastenders and it beat all but one of that week's episodes of Emmerdale.

Plus the second half of this year's series has been promoted to an Autumn slot, so stop fretting guys, Chillax!

The BBC has made a big committment to SYTYCD. It's only sensible to make an effort with it and give it a lead-in from Doctor Who.

I think ITV see SIYC as their answer to Let's Dance For Comic/Sports Relief.

It just seems like they're stopping perhaps their single biggest drama from hitting its full potential. It'll do OK at 6pm, and will recover well with time-shifting and repeats, but its hardly treating it as the 'event TV' its clearly so designed to be. They plough so much money and promotional effort into the series, then push it out in a slot that just isn't primetime.

I also thought it was telling that Merlin performed better last year - running opposite XF - than it did the year previously when it had been banished earlier to make way for the silly super-length Strictly.