maybe the BBC is right, but obviosuly in the BBCs case its not about doing what is commercaily right all the time.

That said I thought Fern would do ok.

Good ratings for EastEnders, lets hope we dont for some odd reason see a drop after Ronnie leaves, and Kat settles into being a mother.

rzt - thank you for the sky1 numbers.

Just as a note, as pointed out over on GB, if it does go into extra time, either Life Stories or Sing if You Can will have to budge as the ITV News has to be on before 11pm otherwise they would be airing no news between 6pm to 11pm. (Unless they choose to air a 2 minute bulletin somewhere, but I don't think Ofcom will approve of that)

So it should be. Unlike ITV1 HD, it's available in the whole of the UK.

It's a 9:15am start for TWS, thanks for the rating. We don't get them often but I am absolutely delighted that it has maintained a share of over 5% despite the increase in broadcast time. Excellent rating for it there, but I'd expect it to go down next week with Matthew on an Easter break.

The Vanessa Show has also improved, possibly due to the holidays. Still not rating well but not the embarrassment it was before. Content wise it's no worse than This Morning/Loose Women IMO.

Alternative schedules during the World Cup were only because the BBC/ITV didn't split knock-out matches in advance - nothing to do with extra time.

Usually on all channels they just put a disclaimer in about the schedule being subject to change in such an event, though C5 did have an alternative schedule on Thursday for the Europa League which saw the 10pm film axed and replaced with a different, though not much shorter, film at 10.45pm. A bit stupid really as people were not going to tune in at 10.45pm on the off-chance a certain film might be on.

Best evidence might be whether they promote Sing if You Can during the football. If it's to air no matter what they'll probably say "After the football", and I wouldn't put it past ITV to sacrifice their second biggest show in order to get it to air.

I suppose even though MOTD is not in HD, the PQ is better on the HD channel.

I'm sure I remember seeing 'in case of extra time/penalties' as a different schedule last summer.


Very true. I won't be surprised if they just trail Britain's Got Talent, meaning they can drop Sing If you Can if need be. It's a tough decision to make.

Thanks rzt for those drama ratings. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see Lark Rise averaging nearly 7m across the series and for it to be axed. Pre-watershed dramas very rarely rate as well as that. I think it was an odd decision. The Beeb are going to struggle to find anything that rates that well and has potential for returning, particularly at that time, and lets not forget it was often against tough opposition on the other side.

Another calamity for ITV Sport.
Their High Definition coverage of the FA Cup went ka-put after 90 seconds, so its been Standard Definition only for the last half-hour (and even that is rubbish, with fuzzy pics if trying to identify the players' faces from long distance).

wrong: exceptions are available anyway for exceptional events (live sports events being the example cited by Ofcom themselves in the licences)

Ah, okay. I tried to find the rule in the licence earlier, but I couldn't find it on the Ofcom website. (all the individual regional ones are there, but no national ITV1 one)

the problem with that, is that compared to ITVs other mess us, that is minor.

It is still a (as the kids say) epic fail, but it doesnt seem as bad, as it would have done if the other stuff hadnt happened.

SD flickered very early on; I wonder whether that's when HD went kaput. There's been no problem with it since.

Since SIYC and BGT aren't live, can STV definitely not show them ahead of the network? I remember them showing X Factor auditions a bit ahead of the network (maybe just 5/10 mins though). Seems a bit unfair on STV if they're screwed when it's out of their control (well, I guess they didn't have to opt-out).

I don't know but historically we don't get shown things before the rest of the UK as I remember on a few occasions ( both BBC1 and STV) TV shows were pushed back for seemingly no reason when England were getting football. I guess it's fair enough though because they wouldn't want about two hundred thousand people watching the first in a series before anyone else.

Thanks a lot for this. I've only just got HD and I was so disappointed with the picture when I tuned in. I couldn't understand how it was so much poorer than Wednesday night. That explains it.

I think they fixed it near the end of the first half, but I've been in and out of the room so can't say for certain. It looked better anyway.

Thank you - and also for the drama consolidated ratings chart.

Monroe's figures really aren't good across the run - very reminiscent of what happened to both The Fixer and Identity - but with much weaker competition.

Not really, both of those were below 4m by the end of their series', whereas Monroe's final episode will be above 5m in the officials.

I don't think that applies at weekends. There have been many occasions of news bulletins airing before 6pm and after 11pm.

Yep, fixed during the first half.
I may have heard wrong (I apologise if I did), but I may have heard Andy Townsend saying he didn't watch Liverpool vs Manchester City last Monday night.
Nothing like a co-commentator doing their research

A key difference though is that in the consolidated figures The Fixer and Identity only went above 5m once or twice throughout their whole series, whereas Monroe has been above 5m for all but one episode. Also both The Fixer and Identity got their lowest ratings for their final episodes, whereas Monroe rose for episode 6 (albeit not by much). Averages for the 3 dramas:

Monroe: 5.5m*
The Fixer: 4.9m
Identity: 4.7m

* based on estimated average for final episode which has yet to be reported by BARB.

Disagree. Quite a good night for C5 IMO. Shame to see the ever watchable Truckers dip a little, but all new Mentalist was up 200k week-on-week and L&O rose slightly as well to post a solid rating at 10pm.

Fifth Gear was low but it never rates well anyway. No chance of renewal when the 40 episode contract runs out. But for what it's worth I'm glad C5 persevered with the show. Even last night there were comments on DS praising it so it's not like it's a terrible show or anything. I just don't think there's 'room' on TV for many motoring shows, Top Gear has this genre pretty well covered on its own!

Okay.

ITV have to hope Man United get a goal now otherwise the cup final will be Man City vs Bolton/Stoke, which won't get many people watching.... neutrals love Man United losing, but ITV won't like this.

I guess Truckers was hit by EastEnders performing better than normal. I thought The Mentalist would benefit more with lack of opposition from ITV1 but I suppose any boost is good, and Law and Order could've suffered with extra competition from BBC1 post news.