Yeah it was only marginally beaten in episode 2 but 3.5m more viewers were watching BBC1 and C5 that night than the previous week at 9pm, which was bound to knock Monroe down somewhat. I'm sure people did genuinely give up too, as you say, but it's a mixture of both things. You made it sound in your previous post that viewers were deserting Monroe in huge numbers weekly when you said people were "abandoning it", but that's not really been the case. Since the drop in episode 2 (which was the sort of drop most ITV dramas experience anyway), it's been pretty steady going.


Well yes, compared to them the figures are low. But you can't expect every new drama to be as successful as those, that's just ridiculous if you expect that to happen. Do ABC expect every new drama to be as successful as Desperate Housewives/Lost, do CBS expect every new scripted show to be as successful as CSI/TAAHM, do the BBC expect every new drama to be as highly rated as Doctor Who/Sherlock? Of course not.

Those 4 dramas (the first 3 in particular) are among ITV's top 5 most watched drama series. Midsomer Murders began in 1997 in a completely different TV landscape when it was able to begin with ~15m viewers, and because it's started with such a massive audience, despite ratings erosion over the years it still remains higher than most other dramas. Do you really think if Midsomer Murders began in this day and age, it'd be getting ~6m like it does at the moment week in week out? Wild at Heart, Lewis, Downton Abbey - they're all once/twice in a decade type shows in terms of their level of success. You really can't expect all dramas to be as successful as those ones, they only come along once every few years.


Yeah, Marchlands was a big success. It was ITV's most watched new weekly 3+ episode drama series on a weeknight in the best part of five years. But I don't think you can use that as a barrier as to what should be considered a success and what shouldn't because Marchlands rated very highly compared to how most dramas rate, especially on a night other than Sundays/Mondays.


You're right that most dramas tend to rate the highest during their first series. The Fixer, I think, was more of a "pity recommission" as it was ITV's best rated drama in a very weak year - it wouldn't have got recommissioned had it aired in 2009 or 2010 as its ratings fell below 4m by the end of its run. But I think for a new show which is getting almost almost 5m weekly pretty consistently (5.5-6.0m in the consolidated figures), Monroe deserves to be given another chance assuming the next two episodes do alright. Yes, it may well rate worse in the next series but you can never be sure, so it deserves another shot.


Yeah, it's a low strike rate. But it's not too dissimilar to other countries, is it? 33% seems to be the strike rate in the US from what I've read, which is about the same as above.

I imagine the schedule will be rested the following week as well then. Any chance of it simulcasting with Sky News throughout the day? Anyone know if Channel 4 will be screening the wedding live or if it'll just be BBC1 and ITV1 out of the terrestrials?

Cheers for that.

It looks about right - I certainly can't see ITV's changing. 8:20pm is fine for BGT, it aired a 90 minute audition episode at 8:20pm on a Saturday in 2009 and it did really well. I can't see BBC1 changing much from that either, although with SYTYCD being the first live show it'll probably be extended a bit.

A Corrie special is a little lazy at 9pm tbh and I'd have thought they'd have scheduled either The Reckoning or Long Lost Family there, although it may change. The Reckoning will be starting soon as Alison Graham said on Twitter today that she was watching the first episode - is that down for the Monday slot?

Very probably, yes.

With Channel 5's relationship with BSkyB as frosty as it is at the moment, I don't envisage there being much possibility of BSkyB agreeing to a live simulcast of their royal wedding coverage. I could be wrong.

Sky won't want to share the big event and Channel 5 probably don't fancy getting hammered by the other two sides anyway.

Channel 5 News is likely to be extended, but that's about it.

Notice Philip and Ruth down to present This Morning in the week leading up to it, so I'm guessing Holly will have gone on maternity by then. Has it been confirmed Ruth is covering?

What are your thoughts on 10 O'Clock Live then, Brekkie?

Surely it's got no chance of a recommission now, regardless of the talent involved. To be over 300k behind BBC Three's 'Enders repeat is a shocking state of affairs!

And Channel 4's Thursday night misery is due to continue for another 4 weeks at least as the 15 part series limps on. But the problems don't end there.

The big question is why was Love Thy Neighbour tossed out before anything else? Going by last night's figures, the whole lot should have gone from 8pm through to 11pm as it's a total disaster of a lineup!

The following is an extract from an advertising schedule for ITV1 in April, confirming a couple of of peaktime programme slots.

Mon 18/04/2011 21:45 RECKONING
Mon 18/04/2011 23:20 REAL CRIME
Wed 20/04/2011 19:45 FAREWELL LIZ
Wed 20/04/2011 23:25 CLOSING THE RING
Fri 22/04/2011 20:28 BABOONS WITH BILL BAILEY
Sun 24/04/2011 23:05 LOWRY DOCUMENTARY
Mon 25/04/2011 23:01 SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER

That Corrie special is a waste of a slot. Now it means they can't air a 6-part drama series on Thursdays before BGT live finals. I can see why they're not airing Long Lost Family because there's been some production delays meaning that they're still filming an episode in April so they're probably not ready to broadcast it yet. But they should've drafted in a drama on Thursdays like Scott & Bailey.


It's probably easier for C4 to throw a pre-recorded show out of its schedules like Love Thy Neighbour than a live show like '10 O Clock Live', which might have other issues to take into account such as studio bookings, keeping talent happy etc. I thought maybe at the 800k level it had a small chance of returning but now it's fallen down to 580k, I can't see it coming back. It's awfully tough getting a show like this right in the first place and C4 did themselves no favours with the scheduling. I'd say its over for the show now in terms of recommission prospects, unless it miraculously jumps over 1m next week (which I doubt will happen!).


That seems to suggest that Corrie doc might be shown on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the "filler" slot before a potential Midsomer Murders episode. Maybe they'll schedule something better on Thursday 9pm, after all. I'm guessing The Reckoning will be shown on Monday and Tuesday, with Suspicions of Mr Whicher on Monday and When Kate Met William on Tuesday the following week.

I wonder what the Daytime soaps will do for the Royal Weddnig, Doctors & Neighbours.

I guess Doctors will be off air, but Neighbours could air its evening episode as normal.

A potential new BBC1 Saturday night gameshow to air this summer:

Not sure how far behind The Mentalist is but a two week break is a good way of saving up on episodes although if they're not that much behind then they could air The Mentalist on Royal Wedding Day as the wedding would have long over, HIGNFY is being rested that week as well.

I am getting really fed up with this Royal Wedding.

Sub 600k isn't good - but considering this is basically C4's third attempt in as many years after Tonightly and TNT are they better off trying to make this work rather than try yet again with a completely new show? At 800-900k I'd say yes considering C4 isn't topping 1m much in the 10pm slot at the moment - but at 580k I'm not so sure.

That sounds like You Bet!

Today's discussions show that the response to the Royal Wedding looks to be very predicable in this thread

- BBC's rating to be compared to The X Factor for some irrelevant reason?

- ITV's rating to be over predicted before hand and then slated, regardless of how it actually turns out?

I always think this sort of thing spoils the impressiveness of big ratings. Like when the reaction to 15m watching The X Factor is discussed negatively in Autumn, and then we are left with 4m watching in January and then you realise that pre-Xmas actually were impressive ratings.

It's going to be hard to predict ratings because the last big Royal Wedding was Edward and Sophie which got 14m combined. I think William and Kate will be bigger but I think 17-18m combined would be judged as a success.

ABC1 in Australia has given Doctor Who an airdate - Saturday 30th April at 7:30pm - likely to be just days after UK transmission. This quote from TVTonight interested me:


It's a shame the BSI don't take the same view!



Agree with you both. It's a shame, because it's not THAT bad a show, but like you say, these kind of shows have a high miss rate and with ratings as low as that this show is now firmly in that category. The scheduling certainly didn't help - I wonder how many turn over halfway through for Question Time? I think, with the talent involved, and really you couldn't have asked for a better lineup of tv comedians with the exception of Laverne, C4 would have been quite confident this would finally deliver them the hit they'd been waiting for in this genre. I guess this will be their last attempt for a while, and they'll look to sign the presenters up on various new solo projects to keep them sweet.

I think 10'O Clock Live could work if it was shorter and not on Thursdays. I would keep Jimmy, Charlie and David but replace Lauren Laverne with either another female comic or even a male comic. I've mentioned before they should reestablish the Friday Night Comedy block rather than have comedy on different nights.

Campus looks good but I think it may be too long at over an hour,

What a gem Larkrise turned out to be, given that it was not exactly a well known book, and against DOI and WAH for its entire run.

This! Not rocket science really,could have predicted before it started. And there's no need for it to be live. I badly want tom see a good "Daily Show UK", shame this is fairly close and unlikely to see a second series to make those much-needed changes.

I still think BBC One will win handsomely for the Royal Wedding coverage, but a lot of people you talk to seem to think of it as an extra bank holiday rather than some major national event, esp men. I reckon it will be 20 million BBC One, 5 millon ITV1, a bit like the World Cup Final when ITV seem to come a distant second. People still can't equate ITV with covering national events.

I agree it doesn't need to be live every week, maybe record it a few hours before transmission so it can still be topical.

Not a fan of the timings on ITV1. BGT feels too late finishing at 21:50 and it pushes Life Stories too far back IMO.


As a fan of Ten O'Clock Live I had hoped it would be recommisioned but 580k is just too low. If it were to come back I think Sundays would be better, a natural end to the week and the battle for 16-34 on Thursdays from 10-11 is too competitve.


The only thing predictable has been your used of the word predictable, is it a new catchphrase?

I retained a page out of Broadcast (I think) with the ratings for the week of the funeral of Diana.(w/e 7/9/1997)

The Funeral BBC1 19.29 (Sat 11.00)
Coronation Street ITV 16.00 (Wed 19.30)
Procession to Abbey BBC1 14.78 (Sat 09.10)
Heartbeat ITV 14.07 (Sun 20.00)
EastEnders BBC1 13.65 (Thur 19.30)
News ITN 13.19 (Sun 21.00)
The Funeral ITN 11.71 (Sat 11.00)
Journey to Althorpe BBC1 11.64 (Sat 12.00)
Six Oclock News BBC1 11.21 (Fri 18.00)
Emmerdale ITV 11.06 (Wed 19.00)
OFAH BBC1 10.97 (Sat 20.45)
Funeral Abbey to M1 ITN 10.82 (Sat 12.15)
Father of the Bride ITV 9.58 (Wed 20.05
News Special ITN 9.37 (Fri 20.00)
Nine O'Clock News BBC1 9.32 (Fri 21.00)
The Bill ITV 9.13 (Thur 20.00)

A few others:

Crimewatch 7.18
Poirot 7.51
Dangerfield 6.76
Oh Doctor Beeching 6.54
This Is Your Life 6.76
X Files 7.06
Taggart 7.82

EDIT-Sorry its a bit of a jumbled mass.

I thought it was a 12 parter for HI, will be interesting how it does in the Spring rather than Summer.

Justified I think is replacing Sons of Anarchy as that finished the week before so Wednesday 20th April at 10pm,

Any terrestrial premieres or is it just repeats again on Sundays?