Police drama, police drama, police drama, costume drama...about police.

Sometimes I wonder why FiveLife/Fiver/5* bother when they air quite a lot of new programming, but it all flops. Apart from Home & Away, Neighbours & film repeats I can't think of anything really which gets more than 100k. I've said it before and I think it would be really beneficial for Ch5 to merge 5* and 5USA to strengthen one channel. Atm 5* is getting around 0.5% of the audience share with 5USA around 0.8% and I do believe merging them could create a station getting an audience share of 1%+ on a daily basis if all the strong programmes are put through and the 5th repeat showings of Just For Laughs etc are dropped.

I think he'll shoot his monitor. Sing If You Can will be disposable, enjoyable summer hokum, not very good but not very bad either. At least rumours that the world's worst reality show ever coming back weren't true.

I'll be giving Sing If you Can a miss when it's on

I like a lot of what I've just seen, except Suranne Jones who has got yet another gig :sleep:

I can't wait till The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher, It's based on true story, a real who dunnit itn the style of Agatha Christie- a Large house where the youngest son is cruelly murdered, only about three years old- and it was someone from the house who had to have done it, either family or a servant. From what I've just seen it looks like ITV have done this intruiging true life who dunnit justice.

Only one downside to knowing summer is on the way - it's only weeks till X Factor returns... :yawn:

It isn't great if you don't like crime drama, is it? Not a fan myself really - the only crime drama I can ever stick is stuff with so much of a twist it doesn't feel like one (Ashes to Ashes, Sherlock. etc.) But you can't blame ITV for sticking to what works for them, I suppose.

Disappointing start for Parenthood, but unfortunately it got very little promo on Channel 5 itself so they probably deserved that low rating to a certain extent. If I didn't follow these things closely I wouldn't have known it was launching either.


The Mentalist has been going from strength to strength on there though. In the last week of officials both showings were above 200,000:

THE MENTALIST (THU 24 MAR 2101) 256,000
THE MENTALIST (SUN 27 MAR 1859) 239,000 inc. +1

For 5* those ratings are seriously impressive, as it's rare for any show other than H&A to break 200k, especially a repeat.

Add in the 2m or so that watch on Channel 5, and it means The Mentalist is reaching around 2.5m savvy viewers a week.

out of interest how often does the 5* episode of H&A, out rated OKTV! ?


lol I hadnt planned on watching it, so thanks for the warning.


*hides gun in safe* must be bad if I would shoot the monitor I need for looking at webpages.

We have said many times that reaction on here is not a good guide to ratings but I fear for SYTYCD. There are at present 8 posts for the current show thread. And, as if by BBC decree-Barrowman has turned up on the panel. No matter how controversial the judges try to act, its still like peering into a very niche dance school world.

Having watched most of it, I can confirm its absolutely dire.

Also is it just me, or is having Cat Deely doing the presenting, it kind of reminds of that pi$$ take show that Peter Kay did.

Didn't see the National so don't know what you're specifically referring too, but BBC Sport is getting awful for taking breaks - not just for their own BBC Sport promos, but often to run standard BBC trailers too, which they did for Delhi last year even when it wasn't a change of presenter shift.

As for SYTYCD - I see next weeks show is billed as a showcase for the top 20 - so that suggests they're getting an extra live show if the first week isn't an elimination week.

I have to say for the DSRPG I went back and researched HIGNFY openers in April for the past 6-7 years or so and last night's was easily the lowest rated. Normally it's rock solid around the 5.2-5.7m mark.

Your argument about the QI repeat is valid but it's been paired with other weak shows before and still come out with a 5m+ rating.

The other guys are right, it was a poor rating for HIGNFY last night. (for its standards anyway)

If thats the case, its a mistake. One less reason to tune in-it might be immediate family only the way it seems to be going.

It gets good figures on ITV2 and ITV2+1 too.

My Sky+ series links the Tuesday repeat, which is the fourth showing (not including +1s).

It is a drama hit for ITV and they would be idiots to cancel it yet, not that they will. I still think ITV is doing OK in drama and has several hits. Also I notice they seem to be moving away from banal reality shows on their main channel- after flops last year like Marco, I can see why. Perhaps ITV have realised that reality has no long term potential for repeats in future years.

..which should also be on 5USA. I don't really understand why it was transferred to 5* when it is a US import I am surprised viewers have managed to find it on 5* though.

However, like you say it does highlight how The Mentalist is finding viewers in other places, despite viewing being down on the first showing.

I think it was transferred purely to boost ratings for 5* - which it has done.

There's probably also a bit of a female skew in the demos (the ladies love Patrick Jane!) in which case 5* is arguably a better fit for it out of the two, with 5USA's imports more male oriented.

same could be said for NCIS, the older ladies love Gibbs.

However I agree with Lisbon around it is the most female friendly of the CBS shows that C5 has, and its move was partly due to increasing ratings for 5*

5* should consider Cold Case, an excellent show with a good female lead, and part of the CSI verse.

Any bets on how many watched the Grand National? I'll go for 8 million, but I reckon a lot of people went to the pub to watch it and the true audience will be about 13 million.

Yes that's all the drama seemed to be but it did seem like it would be good, I'll especially be on the look out for Vera and Injustice as the leads in both seem quite impressive. I'm also quite intrigued by the period drama as i'm not usually into them but this one has definitely caught my eye. The factual programs also look quite good, I think I'll watch out for Smugglers (I'll see if it's on ITV player) and the family reunited show as it seems quite sweet. I'll probably be thrown out of the thread for this but I actually thought that Sing if you can looked like an okay entertainment show. The thing I hated the most about the video was, in all honesty, the video player. You clicked for "full screen" and it only enlarged it by about a third plus it didn't even have numbers on its timeline.

When there's less casual viewers floating around, the Benidorm clash didn't help as well. Yes, I know they've clashed before, but I don't think they've clashed when temperatures have been above 20 degrees and 22m were only watching TV in the 9pm hour.

If you are a fan of both and had the choice between the Benidorm series finale (and maybe even final ever episode) or the HIGNFY series starter, it's a no brainer decision which one you go for.

HIGNFY can be watched on iPlayer at some point, and I doubt BBC will lose any sleep that it's rating wasn't the best. They may lose sleep if O'Grady beats HIGNFY next Friday, but I'd be very surprised if that happened.

I see in a few weeks time a new episode of Life of riely is oppisite a new episode of Midsomer Murders (both starring the same person)

The 5* episode of Home And Away outrates OKTV on C5 every weekday. In fact that's a particularly low episode of Home And Away on 5*, normally it would be around 500k.

Bare in mind though, that the H&A episode on 5* is a first look premiere and not a repeat. (obviously still bad for OKTV though).

OK!TV should be on at 6pm instead of Home & Away - Its competing with Hollyoaks & Home and Away 1st Look. 3 shows all competing for the same type of demo.

So I would have :
5pm : Channel 5 News
5.30pm : Neighbours
6pm : OK! TV
6.30pm : Home & Away

Or move Home & Away permanently to 5*
It gets about 800K - 900K on Channel 5 at 6pm & on 5* it gets normally around 450K-500K if they moved it permanently to 5* it would easily get around 800K I believe.

Surely that's worse as it would clash with Hollyoaks anyway? Bizarre.