And to counter that, I hope it doesn't. Trashy, cheap and charmless TV.

But it probably will do well, all the media interest there's been from the red tops.

As long as it gets less viewers than Junior Doctors, which it should do, I will take some comfort from that.

ITV2's Essex launch suffered competition from an unlikely source - More4 revealed its true ratings chasing non-intellectual colours by starting a full rerun of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings in the same slot. Ouch!

BBC Three had Becoming Human, Sky1 had Hawaii Five-O and Five USA had CSI Sunday. Perhaps there's hope Essex was squeezed into oblivion.

That's probably a bit of an insult to the English as I think more than football rugby fans at least watch the Six Nations for the rugby, regardless of the team, though of course there are a significant number of passing fans the England games might attract.


Remember though last time around it was kind of a tale of two halves - the Sunday night shows after The Xtra Factor performed very well, but the midweek shows flopped. I'm surprised really they stuck to the same scheduling this time around, and I hope that without a significant lead in it suffers.

The sad thing about these documentaries is producers feeling the need to fake them with staged situations and conversations - they'd be a hundred times more watchable if that wasn't the case.

Story of the night:
* Nine edges ahead of Seven in a highly competitive evening of ratings;
* All new Midsomer Murders wins its timeslot for ABC - but the network still finishes fourth overall;
* And The Biggest Loser remains king in the demos.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.42m
18:30 Sunday Night 1.04m
19:30 Border Security 1.21m
20:00 The Force 1.30m
20:30 Bones (R) 0.87m

Nine
18:00 Nine News Sunday 1.38m
18:30 A Current Affair Special 1.24m
19:00 Customs 0.90m
19:30 60 Minutes 1.23m
20:30 The Mentalist 0.94m

Ten
18:00 Ten Evening News 0.31m
18:30 The Biggest Loser: Families 1.02m
*top rated show of the night in key demographics of 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
19:30 Modern Family 1.01m
20:00 Bondi Rescue 0.90m
20:30 Hawaii Five-O 0.65m

ABC1
19:00 ABC News 0.82m
19:30 Human Planet 0.77m
20:25 ABC News Update 0.65m
20:30 Midsomer Murders 1.12m

Evening Shares (6pm-Midnight)
Nine – 22.4%
Seven – 21.9%
Ten – 15.3%
ABC1 – 14.4%

Seven and Nine were equal between 6pm and 10:30pm.

Source: OzTam / TV Central.

I like your "Bright Side"

It'll be depressing if the Only Way is Essex does well. It's the worst television show I've ever seen. I witnessed the last five minutes and felt one of my brain cells die.

I doubt a repeat of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings will pose much of a threat, if any. CSI Sunday will be lucky to get 200k and I suspect most of its audience is completely different to Essex's (elderly men in comparison to young females).

I actually quite like Only Way is Essex. I'm not a chav, not stupid, don't read any celebrity magazines, not your "typical ITV2 viewer" but sometimes I like to switch my brain off completely and just watch something to be entertained. And I find The Only Way is Essex does that for me - contrary to what you've said in a previous post, I do find it surprisingly charming and for the type of show it is, it's one of the better ones around and I can completely understand why this was a hit compared to other reality genred shows which have launched in recent years such as Seven Days, for example which was a very similar concept. It's sort of in the "so bad that it's good" category and difficult to turn off once you've started to watch a couple of episodes. And that's coming from someone who often watches "intelligent, high brow" dramas and factual programmes.

There's a place on TV for all sorts of different types of programmes and I don't see the point of complaining about a show which fills up a couple of hours of airtime per week on a digital channel whose target audience will probably enjoy this sort of programme (evidently, they do considering how well the first series rated). It just reminds me of those awful Big Brother moaners who would complain about it even though they'd never watch it. ITV2 is a channel which targets young females and it caters for that audience pretty well judging by the viewing figures - if you're an older male (not specifically you Dancc but just saying generally), what's the point of complaining about it and hoping for it to closedown? It's obviously not a channel which is particularly aiming to show programmes for you and at the end of the day there's another 300+ potential channels for you to watch. Back to ratings: tonight's 'Essex' launch has had a lot of promotion so should rate well - I'd predict close to 1m or thereabouts.


The midweek episodes didn't flop. In the first series, the Wednesday episodes officially averaged 828,000 which compared to 946,000 for the Sunday episodes (including +1). Not much of a difference, really. Also the Christmas special had a poor lead-in burned off in a Friday slot and still managed 1m (inc +1) which probably showed it was capable of getting viewers without TXF lead-in.

I completely agree with rzt, and for the record I do like The Only Way Is Essex and I like to think I'm not moronic or lacking in more than a few brain cells. It really is so bad it's good TV. Nothing wrong with that, and there's more than enough room for these kinds of shows. Sometimes you just want to watch escapist pap like this. Especially on a Sunday night, it's the perfect show for that slot. And it's perfect for ITV2.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings should put a dent in as I'd imagine the two programmes attract similar audiences.

CSI Sunday rates better than that, and your demo claims, whilst you're right to acknowledge there is a gender difference, are a bit exaggerated when it comes to age. 5USA enjoys its strongest share in the 16-34 demo on Sundays. See these shares for the past week:

Friday 11th March - 0.8%
Saturday 12th March - 0.6%
Sunday 13th March - 1.6% (CSI Sunday)
Monday 14th March - 1.2%
Tuesday 15th March - 1.2%
Wednesday 16th March - 0.6%
Thursday 17th March - 1.0%

Source: C4 Sales.

As for the rest of your post, I think you were being overly defensive in that rant. I wasn't attacking its viewers, whom I'm sure come from a variety of backgrounds, I was just stating my opinion. I'm sure everyone allows themselves a guilty pleasure or two, and that explains why this show is as popular as it is, but for me it would be too far a stretch. The biggest problem I found with it in the couple of minutes I managed over Christmas was it just isn't very entertaining watching a bunch of awful Essex stereotypes living their unfulfilled lives, churning out dialogue so vacuous and uninteresting even Hollyoaks would steer clear of it.

I'm nothing like an "awful Big Brother moaner", far from it, thank you. I like to think I can see merit in most programmes that are made, even reality shows. But not this one I'm afraid. It's about as far from "reality" as it gets.

I'm not calling for it to be cancelled though, why would I? I just wish it would go about its business quietly. I'm fed up of hearing about it already and the series has only just started. It's a fairly insignificant part of the multichannel landscape and yet it gets hyped up beyond belief due to this nation's current obsession with "celebrity", however insignificant they may be - the real hits are the ones that come from nowhere, like Junior Doctors - this one is just a desperate attention seeker that won't go away.

I appreciate Only Way Is Essex is quite successful and is enjoyed by many people but I just hate the fact that the more popular the show gets the more famous those wasters who "star" in it get. I cant enjoy a show that glorifies those sort of people.

My post wasn't a rant nor was I having a go at you, Dancc. I was just making a general point (not just to your specific post) that I don't understand why people want a channel which shows programmes like TOWIE to closedown when obviously the channel isn't really aimed at them anyway. It's sort of like someone who dislikes sport complaining about the Sky Sports channels.

Obviously you're entitled to your opinion and if you dislike the show, that's absolutely fine. Of course I'm aware the show is "far from reality" - they signpost that at the beginning of the show and you can tell things are scripted from a mile away. I don't mind that, that's the nature of the show at the end of the day.

People always complain when a show like The X Factor or something like this fills up pages in newspapers/magazines. I don't see why it has to bother you so much to the extent where you're absolutely "fed up". If there's something which annoys me, I just try to ignore it through various methods and when there was loads of press coverage about I'm a Celebrity (which I'm not really a fan of), for example, I found ways to make sure that I didn't keep hearing about it. It is avoidable, especially if you don't read red tops. There's also no such thing as a "real hit" - a hit is a hit essentially and just because one show might be featured in the press more than another doesn't diminish its hit value IMO. It wouldn't be featured in the red tops if it didn't sell newspapers/people didn't talk about it/wasn't popular in the first place, and there's plenty of examples to show that the press won't just talk about every single "reality" show. I do agree though that it can be annoying seeing some of these non talents featured in the newspapers a lot but I guess as long as they sell newspapers/magazines, they'll remain featured in them. But as I said before, there's ways getting round from hearing about them.

BBC NI is back to the network schedule next Sunday with WTD at 9 pm

Last week's officials were the first after Sky Sports News lost its 'bonus' channel status.

Before it was available to every subscriber, now it's just part of the premium sports packs and the basic News/Event pack.

The share figures haven't changed at all 10 minutes, 0.6% share for the last full week of bonus and the first full week of its new status, even though it could be in several million less homes.

Becoming Human, at 9pm on BBC3, is a spin-off from Being Human that originated as an online series, which is reported to have attracted more than 1.5m viewers. The drama follows an apparently teenaged vampire (who is really more than 40 years old) and a female werewolf. The programme drew 490,300 viewers (1.9%) for its BBC3 premiere, giving a Performance Index of 62.

The Only Way is Essex was back for a second season on ITV2 at 10pm. The Lime Pictures series, a (partly staged) docusoap about a group of young people in the titular county, attracted audiences averaging 662,700 (3.3%) for its first season, in 2010. The latest series began with a stellar 990,500 (5%), and an excellent Performance Index 222.2.

Duran Duran: For One Night Only, at 8.30pm on ITV1, celebrated the band that was a chart-topper in the 1980s, with a live performance in front of a studio audience. The show, produced by ITV Studios, was watched by 3.7m (14.3%), providing a below-average Performance Index of 72.4

http://www.attentional.com/attentional_blog/blogs/

Much lower for Duran Duran than expected. I thought it would be good for 5m in between DOI. In the same slot last year the Boyzone/Stephen Gately tribute show got 7.5m.

Very low for Duran Duran and it will have dragged the Skate Off down too as bringing in new viewers at 9:30pm is notoriously difficult (which is why the Skate Off always gets similar figures to Wild at Heart before it). 5.5-6m for the Skate Off I reckon.

Wow - it will be "for one night only" too with those numbers!

What were ITV thinking?!

For One Night Only is "An Audience With..." but featuring music acts. I prefer "An Audience With.."

Fairly good for the Being Human spin-off

I expect most people would have already watched Becoming Human online as it was meant to be a web based series with episodes released every week after the main Being Human episodes. The extra 490k for last night would just be a bonus really.

Oh ye of little faith!

8.3m watched the Dancing On Ice skate off.

EDIT: No I read it wrong. You were right. 6.14m for the skate off.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s101/...grabs-83m.html

delete

Good to see WTD the right side of 6m this week, but despite the Duran Duran flop as its initial competition, it only put on 200k.

Antiques Roadshow looks like the big winner last night with 7m - presumably it did better from 8.30-9 than 8-8.30, suggesting well over 7m were watching the last half hour?

Yes Jake. I'm a numpty!

Well here is something I can't screw up. Julian Fellowes is doing a mini series about the Titanic for ITV.

Julian Fellowes to bring Titanic to ITV -
Downton Abbey writer to retell story of the sinking of liner in a six-part, seven-hour mini-series

The liner sank faster than the mini-series

DOI still in that 8-8.5m barrier, but it has been very consistent this series and there wouldn't be anything else which could manage 8m+ for that length of time. Duran Duran really surprised me though-perfect slot with a great lead in. I thought it was guaranteed 5m+ at least. Really poor and not sure why. It seemed to dent the skate off quite a bit too. It also puts into perspective how well WAH does.

AR seemed to get a boost from the weaker 8.30pm junction, but WTD didn't really capitalise. It's very consistent though.

Strong start for Only Way Is Essex and I reckon it'll be one of those shows that increases a lot during its second run, because everyone seems to be talking about it, much like The Inbetweeners and Gavin & Stacey (although probably not in the same league).