The ratings for OK! TV are slightly up on Studio Five a year ago, but not by much. It pulls in around 300,000 viewers.

Family Affairs would probably be rating a lot worse if it was still on air today. Just look at what's happened to Hollyoaks!

I don't believe there is much of a future for UK made soaps that exist on the "fringes" of primetime. They sort of get lost in between the Aus soaps and the big UK soaps.

Hollyoaks ratings only fell because it was changed dramatically into a completely different show and its tripe anyway.....

Didn't that happen on Family Affairs too when a load of the characters were killed off in a boat explosion?

I don't think it ever recovered from that myself. I gave up on it at that point.

Yes but what i mean is Hollyoaks tried changing its genre... from a teen soap to a family drama...... They got rid of the students and brought in lots of families.... Kind of a school drama also and a poor one at that......

Personally i think FA was amazing right to the end.......

The Hart family were wiped out, I gave up on it too at that point.

I didnt reallly watch until it moved to London, but the shows best peroid was wit the Costellos, an excellent soap family if ever I saw one, but even they couldnt save the show.

Around what I expected for The Apprentice - I mean, it didn't have much in way of opposition. ITV collapsed as per normal. No one can find the effort to express surprise anymore, but the leading commercial channel should not fall that low on any night of the week. Supersize v Superskinny seemed to benefit, and recorded a reasonable figure at 8pm for Channel 4. CSI did well for Five at nine, but CSI: Miami lost a lot of the audience at 10. You're Fired did well on BBC2.

Worth noting with BBC3's figures; EastEnders didn't start until quarter past ten so the overnights won't be completely accurate.

I think that's the last episode I saw. Watched it a bit when it first started, then tuned in a couple of years later to see them all killed off.

C5's main issue at 6.30pm is it doesn't want to compete with the 5* airing of Home and Away.

It was a bit higher than 4.0m, I think 4.5m once factoring in +1. I wonder if that suggests recommissioned. You can't put it down to a show you're thinking of axing.

Marchlands can't be recommissioned unless they do some kind of spin off or something as it was 'self contained'.

Well I watched NCIS over The Apprentice, the guaranteed winner of the 9pm slot, because I enjoy it and don't watch a programme because of its ratings. I was one of the 1pc who watched Doctor Who on BBC Four because I wanted to, even though 40 times as many viewers will have watched Eastenders.

well I recorded Doctor Who, and watched it after I had watched EE, and yeah I watched NCIS as well.

As far as drama is concerned both BBC1 and ITV1 would consider 4m a success now, although shows are kind of on the bubble when it comes to recommissioning.

No doubt about it though ITV have kicked of 2011 in much better shape than 2010 when it comes to drama. Virtually everything worked for them after a few years when virtually everything didn't.

Looks like Channel 5 will continue to bring more of the best pay TV shows to UK terrestrial viewers. Joining the likes of Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men, Sea Patrol UK, The Walking Dead and NCIS at the end of this month is the History series Pawn Stars:

http://digiguide.tv/programme-detail...s/Documentary/

It's an interesting programming strategy this. It sometimes works (NCIS, IRT) and sometimes doesn't. I don't know much about Pawn Stars but I understand it is pretty popular on U.S. cable so it may just find a decent audience in that slot.

Another 8pm series below 1million, after Essex Jungle and even The Gadget Show recently. Shame, because that and the awful pre-8pm performance really drags down the primetime share after a great 9pm performance and decent 10pm performance

Though I note Eddie Stobart is back next Friday, following on from Ice Road Truckers, which should at least keep Friday 8pm doing OK

I think that is true. ITV has had a strong start to 2011 in terms of drama with a much higher hit rate of late than has been the norm. Other less costly genres like comedy (almost nonexistent) and factual entertainment (too generic, been done before) are still a problem for them though.

The level that is considered acceptable for new dramas in terms of ratings on BBC One and ITV1 is lowering all the while, so I wouldn't be too surprised if Monroe got a recommission. It's one of those borderline ones ratings wise but the critics liked it IIRC and they seem quite keen to have a British answer to House.

Was it any good? I thought they missed a trick by not getting a personality to present it and make it more of a UK answer to Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe makes that show. As it was it didn't sound like a very compelling offering, although the trailer at least provided a laugh. "Not for the first time, Channel 5 presents utter filth..."

Good to see Eddie Stobart back, will be interesting to see if that performs as well as the first series. They should also consider picking up the IRT spinoff Deadliest Roads for that Friday 8pm slot, then they'll have a nice collection of returning shows to keep that slot warm across the year.

Pawn Stars should do decently, it's like the anti Antique Roadshow. Eddie Stobart was a bit of a surprise hit and definetly appealed to those who liked Police Interceptors, Emergency Bikers etc

Can Somebody Tell me how 60 minute makeover and the Alan titchmarsh show does in the afternoons please

I'll be interested to see the US version of The Killing.

I'm looking forward to the Charlie Brooker series, as long as it's low on the gore. I couldn't watch Dead Set though I wanted to, BB housemates being zombiefied, what's not to love, because I'm too squeamish.

Why don't C4 save some money and repeat the adaptation of A Very British Coup they did 20 odd years ago?

Story of the night:
* New ABC/HBO mockumentary series Angry Boys gets off to a strong start with a slot-winning 1.4 million viewers.

ABC1
19:00 ABC News 1.03m
19:30 7.30 0.59m
20:00 The New Inventors 0.46m
20:30 Spicks and Specks 1.17m
21:00 New Series: Angry Boys 1.37m
*most watched show of the night in 16-39 and 18-49 demos.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.34m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.35m
19:00 Home & Away 1.06m
19:30 Australia's Got Talent 1.51m
*most watched show of the night in Total People and 55+.
20:30 Criminal Minds 1.08m
21:30 Criminal Minds (R) 0.76m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.16m
18:30 A Current Affair 0.88m
19:00 The Big Bang Theory (R) 0.84m
19:30 David Attenborough's Madagascar 0.71m
20:40 RPA 0.69m

Ten
16:00 MasterChef Australia (R) 0.33m
16:30 The Bold and The Beautiful 0.40m
17:00 Ten News at Five 0.69m
18:30 6:30 with George Negus 0.47m
19:00 The 7pm Project 0.89m
19:30 MasterChef Australia 1.44m
*most watched show of the night in 25-54 demo.
20:30 Glee 0.81m

Eleven
18:30 Neighbours 0.31m

One
21:30 New Series: Sons of Anarchy 0.23m

Channel Shares
Seven – 24.6%
Ten – 17.5%
Nine – 17.2%
ABC1 – 14.2%
Eleven - 3.2%
One – 3.1%

there is also some BBC money in Angry Boys.

Looks like Australia's Got Talent is hurting Masterchef, Angry Boys did decently although I wonder if the ABC expected higher ratings.

im pretty sure ABC will be thrilled with those ratings, unliked the BBC, the ABC really isnt meant to or expeted to get good ratings.

Some slightly concerning results for Ten there IMO. Neighbours and MasterChef did not bounce back from last night's glitch affected broadcasts as well as they could have done. And Glee was on the low side for an extended episode with Lady Gaga. The only impressive result is that 230k for Sons of Anarchy. I don't think it does as well as that in the UK!

Strong night for Seven, with no weak links in that schedule. Nine had another shocker. Mixed results for ABC, ending on a high note with Angry Boys.

agreed Neighbours does seem kinda low, I expected more from this week.