The length of Titanic has increased significantly from first reports, probably due to success of Downton.


http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/c...e?referrer=RSS

I wonder whether the Guardian haven't realised it was 4x 60 OR 2 x 90 minutes format.

I can see this being a hit.

Ouch. Very poor for this week's DOI filler, with Duran Duran not as big a draw as ITV expected. It just shows how good a job Wild at Heart normally does in that slot. It's easy to assume people watch it by default just while they wait for DOI, but last night's figures show this isn't the case - viewers won't just watch anything while they wait.

Elsewhere, good night for BBC Two including the new addition of the MotoGP. I do wonder how much better Wonders of the Universe might be doing with an all new Top Gear lead-in, but it's still rating really well. Middling night for Channel 4, and not much of an improvement week-on-week for BBC One.

Excellent rating for the Death Race premiere, which scored highly with male viewers. It meant that Channel 5 trailed ITV1 in the Men 16-34 demo by just 1.8%. Last week the gap was as big as 5.4%! However, overall in the 16-34 demo - including females - ITV2 did manage a rare win over the terrestrial network if you include +1. C5 struggles to attract young females at the best of times in primetime, so airing about the "blokiest" film possible was always going to put a dent in.

Essex did well, probably enough to become the 4th most watched multichannel show of the week behind Glee, Junior Doctors and Celebrity Juice. I wonder how much of an effect ITV1's mini collapse might have had on its numbers though.

actually that would not surprise me and it wouldn't be the first time they published dodgy figures.

yes with the 100th anniversary in 2012

The Guardian are correct, as they say 'versions'.

Sunday 20th March Roundup
BBC One
19:00- Countryfile: 5.74m (22%)
20:00- Antiques Roadshow: 6.98m (26.4%)
* highest rating this year
21:00- Waking The Dead: 6.14m (23.3%)
* 21:00-21:30: 6.32m (24.2%)
* 21:30-22:00: 5.96m (22.38%)
22:30- Comic Relief Highlights: 2.15m (15.2%)

BBC Two
18:30- Moto GP: 1.44m (5.8%)
20:00- Best Of Top Gear: 2.39m (9.0%) inc HD
21:00- Wonders of the Universe: 3.16m (12.1%) inc HD
22:00- Match Of The Day 2: 2.4m (12.5%)

ITV1
18:40- Dancing on Ice: 8.32m (32.3%) , +1: 286k (1.1%)
20:30- Duran Duran: One Night Only: 3.92m (15.1%) , +1: 86k (0.36%)
* 20:30-21:00: 4.28m (16.5%)
* 21:00-21:30: 3.56m (13.7%)
21:30- Dancing On Ice: The Skate-Off: 6.37m (23.8%) , +1: 163k (1%)

Channel 4
19:00- Come Dine With Me: 1.58m (6.1%) , +1: 417k (1.6%)
20:00- Civilisation: Is The West History?: 990k (3.7%)
21:00- Country House Rescue: 1.49m (5.7%) , +1:186k (1%)
22:00- Shooter: 950k (7.3%) , +1: 132k (2%)

Channel 5
18:40- Stealth: 905k (3.5%)
21:00- Death Race: 1.72m (7.7%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 23.3%
ITV1: 22.3% (+1: 0.6%)
BBC Tw: 9.2%
Channel 5: 5.4%
Channel 4: 5.1% (+1: 0.8%)

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Multichannels
Alibi (inc +1)
20:00- Miss Marple: 103k

BBC Three
21:00- Becoming Human: 490k (1.9%)

Dave (inc +1)
20:15- QI: 195k

E4 (inc. +1)
19:30- 90210: 148k

Film4 (inc +1)
19:15- Hot Shots!: 209k
21:00- What Happens in Vegas: 412k

Gold (inc +1)
20:15- Only Fools and Horses: 230k

ITV2
21:00- The Only Way is Essex: Totally Vajazzled: 369,700 (1.4%)
21:55- The Only Way is Essex: Music Video: 437,900 (1.7%)
22:00- The Only Way Is Essex: 991k (5%) , +1: 117k (1.1%)
* most watched ever episode
* previous high: 885,800 (5.27%)

More4
22:00- Big Fat Gypsy Weddings: 291,100 (1.1%) , +1: 61,400 (0.32%)

Sources: Broadcast (1) (2), C4Sales, DS

Channel Five ahead again.
Something really needs to be done at channel 4 I think people are getting feed up because the same shows are on all the time.

Indeed, the interminable Winslett/DiCaprio movie only lasted 3 hours. How are they going to spin it out to 7 hours?

Unless it's a Belfast-set period drama about the building of the Titanic, rather than its sinking?

"County Down-ton"?

Only way is Essex was on at 10pm as well as 9.
Any idea of ratings?

Updated my previous post. That rating was actually for 10pm. Got my timings wrong.

Well, the Duran Duran music special completely tanked! Was expecting a couple million more than that in such a good slot. I guess this shows that not any old thing can get a good rating in that slot and Wild at Heart does a good job getting 7m+ ratings every week. The first Dancing on Ice show did okay but the second one suffered from a poor lead-in and got its lowest rating this series.

Looks like Antiques Roadshow benefitted the most from the weaker opposition with an excellent 7m figure. Waking The Dead improved too but not as much as I would've thought it was capable of up against sub 4m opposition for half an hour. The stronger rating than last week, however, isn't good news for Law & Order UK which could fall below 4m tonight. Good night for BBC1 to win the primetime shares, I think that's the first time it's ever happened on a Dancing on Ice Sunday night!

Good news for Wonders of the Universe to increase its audience week-on-week, it's done very well so far this series. Would've loved to see it get a proper Top Gear ~6m lead-in as I suspect it might've been capable of 4m. Poor night for C4 - it says a lot when Come Dine with Me is their top show of the day. Death Race did well for C5 and once again another C5 win over C4 this week. Solid start for The Only Way is Essex at that 1m mark and always a promising sign when the second series of a show launches with a better figure than the first series.

But there's a world of difference between the Sunday-night-drama-lite-by-numbers of Wild at Heart, aka African Heartbeat, and a frothy pop promo for an 80s band making a comeback which, if it was to air at all, surely should have been Saturday teatime fodder?

You could say the fact Duran Duran got 4m at all shows the benefit of being sandwiched between the two parts of DOI. Had it stood on its own two feet, it may not have cleared 3m.


Well, it got 6.3m+ for the half hour it was up against DD. I think some people still have it in their heads that WTD is still an 8-9m rated drama; it only really achieved that for a couple of series.


Not necessarily - WTD after all only engaged 5.96m for its final half hour. So that seems to be its starting point this week - probably not much different to last Monday.


Indeed. Presumably WOTU was ready to air a month ago - it would have complemented TG nicely, and been out of the way before WTD started, thus not denting that. (But then it would have dented South Riding, so swings and roundabouts possibly)

Meant to add, is anyone keeping count of how many hit shows Christine Bleakley has had since her big money move to ITV last year?

I make it - er, none!

People were wondering how the Live Frankenstin drama on Saturday rated. Here's the Saturday 19th March digital ratings:

BBC Three
20:00- Frankenstein's Wedding: Live in Leeds: 440,200 (1.89%)
* below slot average of: 534,400 (2.15%)
21:20- 24 Hour Panel People: 315,000 (0.55%).
01:45- Frankenstein's Wedding: Live in Leeds: 201,000 (8.86%)

BBC Four
21:00- The Killing: 416,000 (0.7%)
22:00- The Killing: 393,000 (6.9%)
* series average thus far: 364,000 (0.6%)

E4
20:00- The Big Bang Theory: 225,000 (1%)

ITV2
19:00- Jurassic Park: The Lost World: 469,000 (2.1%)

Sky Atlantic
21:00- Boardwalk Empire: 227,600 (0.97%)

Source: Broadcast

rzt - do you have a breakdown for Comic Relief?

I know in previous years you managed to acquire a full 15 min breakdown, which revealed some interesting peaks and troughs.

Would be particularly interested to see for how long the post 10.35 show retained the big numbers for. Seem to recall that 2 years ago it was going great guns with 9m still past 11pm.

Absolutely, Duran Duran would've rated worse in a Saturday night slot not sandwiched between DOI. I had thought, however, that being in a DOI sandwich, people would just leave ITV1 on and watch it and it'd have got over 5m just by default in a way.


Waking The Dead hasn't been a 8-9m drama for a few years now, people know that. Last series I think it was rating in the high 6's. Yesterday's was a solid rating, don't get me wrong, but I would've thought it could capitalise more than +0.2m week-on-week with 4m fewer viewers watching ITV1 between 9-9.30pm.


I suspect last week's episode also experienced a similar sort of 2nd half hour drop as last night and maybe fell to ~5.7m during the second half hour (average was 5.9m). It still managed to increase its audience on Monday from that though and the same might happen tonight too, which could send a frail L&O - already close to that 4m mark anyway (4.1m last week) - under that barrier.


I make it one: she hosted 'Simply Red For The Last Time' which had ~5m IIRC, although that was in a post-TXF slot so we probably shouldn't read too much into it.


Yeah, I do. But not on me at the moment. I've already posted a partial breakdown on the Soap Ratings Thread, as CR peaked during the 10-minute mini EastEnders episode.

Well the Duran Duran filler obviously made a difference, but maybe the fact that BBC1 squeezed a win on DOI semi final week says something that the skating show isnt setting the nation alight.

Great - look forward to seeing that.

Surprised the peak came at 9pm rather than immediately after Coro St. And if it averaged 10.3m in the 8pm hour, then it must have been pretty high during the second half of Corrie too looking at the 8.30-9pm breakdown in the other thread.


Gosh, hadn't realised it was the semi-final last night!

Dearie me, that's not good!

They're going to change the ending so it doesn't actually sink

Good point - save that for the second series, if it's a hit....

I appreciate there will be a lot of "Titanic Centenary" stuff about next year, but I do wonder if people will be that engaged by a 7 part dramatisation when everyone and his dog has seen the 1997 film version to death, which is regularly repeated too, and when that will no doubt be getting a prime-time repeat by whoever holds the rights next year.

You can bank on the Beeb, Ch4 or Five re-showing that the night before the Fellowes effort as a spoiler if they have the rights.

This year once again it had a brilliant 9m+ watching after 10:35pm but not past 11pm like the one you seem to recall a couple of years ago. Here's the Comc Relief breakdown:


The performance show rated better than the equivalent episode last year but the results show was down. DOI this year has done okay - it's rated better than last year's series on the whole but it hasn't hit the highs of 2008-2009. It's been one of the middling rated series.


I think MG has it wrong and it's 4 hours long because that's the duration every other website is reporting. I think it'll probably be stripped across the week of the 100th anniversary.

Wow, Essex did a lot better than I expected. 1.1 million overnight is pretty good.

Does anyone have a comparison for this year's Dancing On Ice and last year's?

I seem to remember the 2010 series was the lowest for a few years so wondering whether it has stopped the rot this year.