yep I think that explains it.

Digiguide scheduling update for week beginning 9th April:

Saturday 9th:
- ITV1 have the premiere of Mamma Mia! at 18:50, with When Piers Morgan Met Andrew Lloyd Webber at 21:00.
- The Masters golf takes up BBC2 primetime and Sunday 10th also.

Monday 11th:
- An extended Time Team special at 21:00 on Channel 4.

Wednesday 13th:
- DIY SOS airs between 19:30-20:30, with Life Of Riley returning at 20:30 on BBC1.
- Desperate Housewives returns to Channel 4 at 22:00.

Thursday 14th:
- New Tricks repeats continue at 9pm on BBC1.
- Channel 4 have one-off documentary Meet The Middletons at 21:00.

Friday 15th:
- QI repeats continue at 9.30pm on BBC1.
- Paul O'Grady Live returns to ITV1 at 21:00 for an 11-episode series.

Thanks to Elgin for the above info

also the Thursday episode of EE is 19:25 - 20:00, not sure why.

deleted

I don't watch it, but I'd suspect some regular viewers left when they got fed up with at least two repeat editions being shown every week.

Not the same two repeats, obviously.

But ITV are currently showing five repeats of The Chase per week but it's still way ahead. I think it being on all year round for years is finally catching up with it. Fern flopped miserably at 5pm, and was way behind the other channels at that time. Worth noting that all the 5pm ratings are down a bit now due to the switch to BST, but 2.4m for repeats of The Chase is still brilliant, and the share is the same as it was when the figures were in the high 2's for new episodes in January/February.

Elsewhere Law and Order bounced back a little against WTD, which fell a little due to the lower Sunday rating. If STV was showing Law and Order they'd be getting officials of 5-5.2m based on the overnights which isn't bad against WTD. The Dales did very well at 8pm and was about half a million higher than recent episodes of The Lakes.

Nothing too surprising in those schedules. I predicted that ITV schedule a while back, and now I'm predicting that Mamma Mia will comfortably outrate SYTYCD. That scheduling for Life of Riley is very clumsy; it'll suffer at 8:30pm as it isn't a natural junction. 7:30pm with DIY SOS at 8pm would be better and much more logical. With that and yet another QI repeat at 9:30pm despite it being shunted back over to BBC2, it seems the BSI have struck again.

Last Summer they did 4 entire months of repeats
For its 10th birthday they showed a week of originals and then returned to full repeats. Considering they only air 3 new episodes a week along with all the repeats during the Summer, they must only make 100 a year? Anne really doesn't like going to Scotland does she?


Pizza is referring to the fact that for the last few years it hardly Ever does a week of original episodes. The Chase hasn't being doing it for years.

The Weakest Link can't carry on limping like that for very much longer. You'd think the BBC would be rather keen to dispense with Anne Robinson and her very expensive contract too. Mind you, they're probably scared of someone screaming ageism at them. Time was when the BBC seemed to be contemplating a variety of options for that pre-news slot on BBC One, but I'd imagine any replacement now would just be another show promoted from BBC Two.

Not all that much to comment on from last night. Waking the Dead recovered OK and L&O continued with just about passable numbers.

Not surprised to see Barrowman's Tonights the Night renewed either. It might be the most cringeworthy attempt at a shiny floor show since Totally Saturday, but by the low standards of summer, its audience is passable. Keeps Barrowman in the BBC fold, as well - which it seems they're rather keen to do.

The mixture of new editions and repeats in the same week is a bugbear of mine, though, because they've started doing it with Bargain Hunt, which I watch.
Will Midsomer Murders be on ITV1 that Wednesday? If so, Neil Dudgeon will be competing against himself. One positive for Life of Riley is the fact it's airing the month after filming finished, unlike My Family where the remaining episodes have been in the can for between 12 and 18 months (because they were filmed over a seven month period).

I thought a new comedy might have gone with HIGNFY after Benidorm finishes next week, but no.

I was going to ask how many shows they're making per year, now. It must have been 200 a year at one time.

At one point it wa 240 for the UK and 240 for the US that Anne Robinson was making per year.

ITV1 has Champions League football on April 13th, April 27th and May 4th so on those Wednesdays 7.30 is the junction (and 8.30 co-incides with half-time.)

And the BSI isn't responsible for the serious lack of comedy on BBC1 these days. HIGNFY runs for 10 weeks, so if there's a 6 part comedy to run alongside it, they'd still have 4 other slots to fill,

Anyone know if there are any possible contenders to sit alongside HIGNFY? Any new sitcoms on the horizon? No? John Bishop's Britain due back soon perhaps?

Maybe they could combine the two programmes and have DCI John Barnaby investigate the brutal murder of a dull, irritating sitcom family. Could be a long-runner cos there would probably be 5 million suspects.

Regarding The Weakest Link, maybe they're running out of contestants?

I'd put on quick turnaround repeats of Mrs Brown's Boys myself, considering its success at 10:35pm. Okay, it'd probably only get 3/4m, but add that to the original airing and you get a much better following.

We shouldn't be seeing Flopzone size ratings for ITV1 tomorrow, but I wonder if Holby / Silk will get the better of England reserves ?

With The Chase finishing this week, can anyone remind me how well Britains Best Dish rates - is it a good performer at 5pm ?

The Take Me Out website on itv.com is inviting applications for series 3. So I think we can take that as confirmation it will be back.

You have to indicate dates that you aren't available to film between now and November 2011. So I guess it will return some time around Christmas again.

Get your applications in guys and gals

Maybe in the new series of LoR, the Reilly Family could acquire a foul-mouthed, Irish granny who looks like a man in drag. That would spice things up.

I think it will get over 5M to around 7M for the England Game tonight?

I know it's cable - and I believe a subscription add on too, but those figures just look awful when you consider what digital channels achieve here. Indeed looking at the US as a whole advertisers must pay far more per viewer than they would here to support some ridiculous production fees and salaries of many US shows.


That is typical BBC short sightedness though - they fill one slot then worry about what sits along with it (before opting to repeat a couple of editions of Live from the Apollo, half a series of Outnumbered and throw in a random episode of something else).

Channel 4 has recommissioned Friday Night Dinner, according to TV critic Boyd Hilton. The first episode was C4's highest ratings-performing debut for a sitcom since Max & Paddy in 2004, and the series has gone on to average 1.6m (inc +1) in the overnights so far.

Showtime is a premium channel like HBO, with no commercials during the show (similar to Sky Movies here).

Like most premium cable channels, shows get a couple of showings on their debut night and several more during the week.

So like Sky Movies, the first showing isn't the total story.

Dexter on Showtime does over 2m an episode.

As derek500 notes, Showtime is a different example because its subscription based, but alongside higher ad rates there's another source of revenue even for basic cable channels - carriage fees paid by the cable/satellite providers (Comcast. etc) to include the network on their package. It's perhaps only a few cents per subscriber, but makes it worth while for the networks to invest in a few marquee programmes that add to their prestige and puts their price up in negotiations.

Mark Thompson proposed more of this in his McTaggart lecture last year, but its received little attention - broadly, I suppose, because Sky have a relatively dominant position both as a TV supplier and in non-freeview content.

So the clocks move forward an hour at the weekend, and the result, over 1m+ viewers have deserted the big three soaps in the space of a week. All were down on last Monday. EE was down 1.3m. I wonder where all these viewers suddenly go in the space of a week. Do the clocks change and these viewers just decide to give up on TV until they change again? WTD recovered from Sunday but if viewers missed the first episode it is pretty pointless watching the conclusion on a Monday night. L&O: UK recovered slightly but still 4.0m (inc. +1) isn't a great rating at all. That rating for The Event is terrible. I know it's been dumped in the graveyard slot now, but IMO TE is quite a good show. It's really picked up the pace recently. Overall, a pretty uneventful night.