I don't know exact averages, but there seems to be about one 10pm slot a week which airs new programming and it's normally Law & Order on Wednesdays or Fridays. There's the odd factual on Mondays at 10pm, but probably for only 1/5 of the year, if that.

Looking at past figures the averages roughly seem to be 1.0m across the 7 10pm slots. And considering there's about 6 repeats there it's not that bad. Investing a large sum of money in something which is unlikely to get much more than that figure is bizarre imo. I also don't think the spin off shows will boost 5* much, considering E4's spin off shows were very low during the last series IIRC.

I think C4 should stick with CDWM in my opinion. It rates higher, and the show doesn't seem tired yet, so make the most of it. Being a student, Come Dine is HUGELY popular and I know our teatimes are not the same without it!!

Newsnight started a bit late last night....because the jazz band on Later With Jools Holland wouldn't shut the **** up
Check out Jools's face from 5 minutes in. They're probably still playing now, with no lights on and the audience long since departed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUg6ykKWeTI

It was very funny watching live.

At least they let Elbow play out in full. I was worried they would cut away early, which is what the commercial channels would have done.

That would be 40 pc of their programming budget and would mean even more TV movies, Vanessa and repeats of John Wayne films. I think £ 40 million a year is nearer the mark, about 16 pc of their programming budget. Also the two year deal suggests that if BB stiffs, C5 can get rid of it quickly, unlike Channel 4 who were left with a series they wanted to cancel two years earlier.
However, the nature of BB, which is an almost impossible show to repeat and has no DVD potential( the DVDs stopped after the fourth series due to very poor sales), means Channel 5 need to make money while it's running. This means use every trick in the book to keep BB in the public eye: billboard advertising, the Desmons tabloids, HEAT magazine, Vanessa, even using rival shows like This Morning. Also don't be surprised if Des decides to sex it up in a late slot.

so your "fact" is really just speculation.

Countrywise was born out of ITV reducing its regional programming in primetime. It was originally a collection of old clips from the regional shows and probably started out a sop to those criticising ITV for reducing primetime regional opt outs.

The problem with ITV doing series like that is that they don't really offer anything you couldn't get on other channels. The first time they did that kind of thing, I think, was when they launched Holiday Showdown and Take My Mother In Law in, I think, the same week, which was surely a case of them seeing Wife Swap and asking for something exactly like that. But because they were late, they were all terribly contrived, the kind of thing you get when you try and find the one variation on a format nobody's done, then realise why nobody's done it (cf Baby Ballroom).

The nadir of course was the likes of Tycoon, Natural Born Sellers and You Don't Know You're Born, which were all straight rip-offs of BBC formats, but ridiculously contrived. You Don't Know You're Born is a classic example. Nobody wants to watch a programme that's like Who Do You Think You Are only worse. And if you rip off BBC2 programmes, you get BBC2 audiences. Or lower.

The other thing is that even the good ones are in no way distinctive, there was Driving Mum and Dad Mad, which was similar to all the parenting shows on BBC3. Any channel can do these shows. They can't all do drama and light entertainment.

Maybe ITV should look at current affairs in a tuesday slot. Something like World In Action as well as a Cook Report type show might be something might be cost effective programming that although not massive ratings draws, may help raise the channels profile.

No it's not speculation. My goodness you are very defensive of ITV1! Sorry to offend you! Common sense tells everyone that if Countryfile wasn't successful then Countrywise wouldn't exist! The only person not accepting that is you.

It's exactly the same as the BBC ripping off Pop Idol and making the abysmal Fame Academy, but at least Countrywise is a half decent show.

The facts speak for themself - Countrywise aired in primetime before Countryfile, so it is you being over defensive. ITV didn't launch it knowing Countryfile would be hitting 7-8m in it's Sunday slot when it launched - it was simply a cheap way of filling slots against EastEnders where previously regional shows of the nature had existed.

Nobody though is denying the switch to 60 minutes is undoubtedly a reaction to Countryfile - and arguably a bigger risk than Countryfile itself moving to primetime considering most ITV shows pitted against EastEnders actually hold up rather well.

Mean Girls has some kind of spell on people. This is the umpteenth repeat on Film4, and it's the #1 TT in the UK, and Film4 is #7.

Well, you've only got ITV to blame for that. At least their John Craven-a-like anchor has a very different name.

Found this piece from February 2009: "ITV set for copycat of BBC's Countryfile"

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/...5875-21140017/



And that's from the Mirror, essentially ITV's in-house paper!

It even quotes an ITV source: "Elements of Countryfile and The One Show are being put together in a magazine-style format."

Over to you, George?


Time for me to trot out this old clip again?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1le_8ZhOU




That's fantastic. I only ever watch the Friday episode, never see the point of the Tuesday live show and then sitting through it all again on Fridays. Be interesting to see how they "edit" this for the full show!

to be fair it doesnt sound like the worst show ITV have ever made.

however ITV really need to obey there own embargos


why even make it avabile to view before that date?

Personally I agree...but it'll need a pretty major restructure of ITN and ITV News - at the moment it's pretty trashy and it has a pretty trashy reputation despite winning a couple of RTE Awards.

Change the look back to conservative and professional, install a World in Action-type show at 7.30pm on Tuesday's, followed by a Cook Report show, and a factual show at 9pm - and maybe we'll see some dismal ratings to begin with, but maybe they'll slowly improve and whatever happens, ITV's reputation will rocket in that department.

I think it's just an instruction to the press not to publish any features based on the press pack material until that date.

but its out there on the web now, we are discussing it, the press waiting only makes the news out of date.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.15m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.15m
19:00 Home & Away 0.99m
19:30 My Kitchen Rules 1.35m
20:30 Criminal Minds 1.02m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.04m
18:30 A Current Affair 0.98m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 0.57m excluding Brisbane
*axed from timeslot nationally as of next week;
*will be replaced by The Big Bang Theory.
19:30 The Big Bang Theory 0.99m
20:00 Mike & Molly 0.78m
20:30 The Farmer Wants a Wife - Reunion 1.12m

Ten
17:00 Ten News at Five 0.65m
18:30 6:30 with George Negus 0.42m
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.76m
19:30 The Biggest Loser: Families 0.92m
20:30 Lie to Me 0.41m

Eleven
18:30 Neighbours 0.40m

Negus still slighty head of Neighbours, but im not sure he is doing that much better in the new time slot.

Poor night for TEN over all, one of many gone, and to come I am sure.

Has TEN ever considered MasterChef: 365

Like the normal MasterChef but on every day of the year

ITV1 laying down for the night works again for BBC1. Candy Cabs did very well. Frankly, no programme is going to work in the 8pm slot for ITV outside the soaps and top reality shows and the sooner they realise that the better.

Caroline Aherne comedy 'The Security Guards' confirmed for ITV1.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-a-decade.html

The Security Guards is likely to be an hour long rather than a half-hour but given that Caroline Aherne has written hour long Royle Family specials plus The Fattest Man in Britain which was two hour long, it should turn out fine.

The cast looks good especially Brendan O'Carroll who had a small role in The Fattest Man in Britain although I imagine they'll be shooting Security Guards in July/August as he's doing Good Mourning Mrs Brown from April to July then recording Series 2 of Mrs Brown's Boys in September followed by the second leg of the tour!

Candy Cabs did really well, it may dip but it shows there is an audience for drama that isn't crime or soap. The Australian drama Packed to the Rafters has proved to be a hit after 4 series and I wonder if BBC One or ITV1 would consider remaking it.

Where do you get the figure of £250m per year for C5's programming budget?

Last year (2010) it was £135m.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...el-6-channel-5

Has it really been increased by 85%?

Co-starring Bobby Ball and sounding worrying similar to Cannon & Ball's Plaza Patrol, which is not regarded as one of ITV's finest comedies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxkW2lwFohc

Not sure avbout that. This sounds very similar to the BBC1 80s sitcom No Place Like Home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packed_to_the_Rafters#Plot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Plac...V_series)#Plot

Also, the last time the BBC adapted a smash-hit Aussie comedy, Mother And Son, it turned into the disastrous Keeping Mum. (One of about 10 brand new sitcoms BBC1 made in 1997, every single one of which flopped, hence the shocking lack of sitcoms on BBC1 these days.)

Denise Van Outen on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 Live, on her withdrawal from OK TV...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12990686