If it was 50% male and thus 50% female - unless a few dogs and cats were rated - surely it did not actually skew at all?

How is the longer Deal or No Deal faring in the ratings compared with this time last year?

Only Fools and Horses was a sitcom (it won Best British Sitcom) and contained more drama than Benidorm, such as main character deaths, births, even a miscarriage. Benidorm is a lot siller than OFAH too, I wouldnt have expected to see Del Boy racing a gay gangster called Mr Pink on a Go Kart track to settle a debt.

Just because its an hour long doesnt and doesnt have a gag a minute doesnt mean its a comedy drama. Just my opnion and Rzt is free to include what he likes in his lists though.

Doesn't really matter at the end of the day - just people seem to like categorising things, like many of the "reality shows" which IMO are not a reality show in the slightest.

Talking of which though, C4's latest attempt to get into the docu-soap market a decade after it closed begins tonight with The Hotel - which I'm sure the BBC did 10-15 years earlier.

I'm in no doubt they were right to dump Big Brother, but even with the notice period of well over a year it seems they had no plan in place for how to fill the schedules once it is gone - which is why they should be cautious over Hollyoaks too. Many suggest moving Come Dine with Me to 6.30pm - but then that opens a hole at 5pm, and not much else is working at 5pm for them either - although with Deal now an hour they could push Countdown and Deal to 3.45pm/4.30pm. Indeed without axing Hollyoaks they could just have Come Dine with Me and Coach Trip alternate at 5.30pm, and perhaps recommission Perfect Recall for a 3.15pm slot.

I guess you're right. Only Fools did have a fair bit of drama and more so than Benidorm. I can see why people would want to call both series 'sitcoms' or 'comedy dramas' and it's a bit of a grey area. Back to where this all stemmed from though and I think it's nice to have Benidorm on the list so I'm not complaining.

Although with that said, you did say the other week you class it a "comedy drama" . As Brekkie said, it's just sometimes difficult to categorise these things under a definitive label.

I called Benidorm a "comedy drama" after only watching the first episode of the most recent series. I watched the other 5 episodes last weekend on ITV Player and would probably change my mind and say it was more sitcom than comedy drama. I dont think I could call it a drama after the Mr Pink Go Karting scene.

I wasnt saying either way in this instance whether I thought Benidorm was a drama, comedy drama or a sitcom. Just making a general point that a sitcom or comedy drama doesnt have to be defined because of its length, whether its a gag a minute show like Not Going Out or a show like Only Fools with a bit more depth or whether it has a laughter track or not.

Interesting results for last night. BGT was more or less where I thought it would be- a little down on last year's stellar heights, but not alarmingly so- while Sing If You Can performed a lot better than I thought, which I put down to me seriously underestimating the effect being in that high rating 'sandwich' would have. I'm expecting a steep drop next week though based on viewer comments, down into the high 3s/low 4s, with SYTYCD climbing over 4m thanks to the Doctor Who lead-in and quality of the opposition.


Brilliant. You've got an analogy for everything.

Thanks for these. The Walking Dead did brilliantly, with more 16-34 aged viewers than Law and Order: UK. Very impressive.

I agree that's not what you'd expect but then the golf was very popular last Sunday and may have tempted some of those male viewers away. That's why I think The Walking Dead may increase slightly tonight.

It does still have football highlights to contend with - including a much anticipated 'top 6' clash - but the shorter runtime tonight compared to last week is also in its favour.

Next Saturday I'm going for 9.5 million for BGT, 7.5 million for Doctor Who and 3.5 million for SIYC. SIYC could turn into this year's Celebrity Wrestling and get shunted off to a graveyard slot as it is so bad. BGT, if it finds the next Subo, could start to soar, though.

Accoring to play.com, Series 5 of Primeval is due for release on 4th July, which would mean it would be on DVD before ITV could screen it (as its being shown on Watch first) which means we could have even more disasterous ratings for series 5 than what we saw at the beginning of the year!

Solid ratings for Life Stories last night but something of a slide for Piers in the US, though it's in line with declines across CNN.

Monday-Thursday averages (Adults 25-54 in brackets):

8pm - In The Arena - 548,000 (165,000)
9pm - Piers Morgan Tonight - 682,000 (181,000)
10pm - Anderson Cooper 360 - 667,000 (207,000)

9pm+Midnight (ET) Showings

FNC - Hannity - 3,020,000 (821,000)
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 1,510,000 (461,000)
CNN - Piers Morgan - 1,044,000 (326,000)

Rachel Maddow seems to have taken over from Keith Olbermann as MSNBC's lead anchor. She passed 1m at 9pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and her ratings growth is compensating for declines at 8pm and 10pm.

Yeah, Monday nights at 9.30 on BBC One in autumn 1997. I think it had around 10m viewers, but I don't think it got a second series.

Yes, good of ITV to sling a lifeline to SYTYCD. Talk about lying down with that 2hr dinosaur film and SIYC.

If thing's don't improve for SYTYCD against opposition like SIYC, then it's got no chance.

I always classify a sitcom as being shot on multi-camera, primarily in a studio and with a live audience.

Comedy dramas are more in the mould of Outside Edge (the first I can recall), single camera, usually shot on location and no audience or laughter track.

Excellent start for BGT. Pretty much exactly in line with what I expected. Just shy of 10m should hopefully set the series up for a good run. And when you inc. +1 is was almost flat y-o-y. As for SIYC. What a terrible, terribke show! I switched off after 10/15 mins. I don't know how 5m sat through that. Just dismal.

depending on price, I may be tempted.

As for Sing If you Can, higher than expected, but I agree it held up over the hour alot better than expected, still think it will flop next week.

Here's the consolidated rating averages for some programmes so far this year until Friday 8th April (all include HD):

Soaps
Coronation Street: 10.25m
EastEnders: 9.74m
Emmerdale: 8.17m

Those are for the first showings so don't include ITV1+1/BBC3/ITV2 etc. Compared to the same period last year: Coronation Street is down 102,000 (-1%) , EastEnders is down 665,000 (-6%), Emmerdale is up 144,000 (+2%).

Emmerdale's rise has meant that The One Show has taken a dent. Here's the consolidated average and share for The One Show so far this year and the averages the previous few years for the equivalent period:

The One Show
2008- 4.81m (22.5%)
2009- 4.93m (23.0%)
2010- 5.19m (23.0%)
2011- 4.60m (20.7%)

It's been the worst rated start to a year for The One Show since it began, with its average officially down 590,000 (-11%) vs. the equivalent period last year. I suppose it's worth bearing in mind that there were some factors which boosted last year's equivalent average like the "snow period" but the share is down a couple of points too.

Moving onto a couple of reality shows:

Reality Shows
Dancing on Ice: 8.33m (inc +1: 8.53m)
MasterChef: 5.32m*

* currently airing- average will probably rise once all episodes have aired.

Dancing on Ice was up +1/+3% (exc/inc +1) vs. the 2010 series. Overall it was its 4th most watched series/3rd least watched series: 2006- 9.12m, 2007- 8.00m, 2008- 8.93m, 2009- 8.86m, 2010- 8.28m, 2011- 8.33m (inc +1: 8.53m)

MasterChef is currently up 745,000 (+16%) vs. last year's series average. Worth noting that a lot of episodes last year faced Coronation Street so a rise would've been expected.

One more official average:

Take Me Out
Series 1 (2010): 4.83m
Series 2 (2010-2011): 4.96m (inc +1: 5.14m)

So a rise of +3/+6% for TMO series 2 vs. its first series.

Corrie still well ahead without even a big storyline!

Good for it only to be down 1% as this time last year the Gail in Jail storyline was pretty prominent I believe?

I'm clueless about what'll happenw ith Sing If You Can now. The fact that it lost little from the start of the show maybe says more about the opposition than the show itself but it may just keep around the 5m next week, depending if there's a mass exodus from BBC1 after Doctor Who.

ITV1 had a very good night - Britain's Got Talent recording a reasonable start alongside Piers Morgan, Sing If You Can and the football. In comparison, BBC1 really struggled. If So You Think You Can Dance? can't record an improvement for it's opening live show against Sing If You Can it's got a problem.

I actually think that SIYC could benifit more from Doctor Who than SYTYCD will; Doctor Who is going to get a few million of people sat down in front of the TV, so i feel some of them are likely to turn over to ITV one Doctor Who is over while waiting for BGT. SIYC is more filler tv and will pass an hour while people are waiting, they don't have to buy into an ongoing series such as So You Think . . .

People who like Doctor Who generally don't like SIYC and vice versa, but I think the ITV show will struggle against stronger BBC opposition. However, it is quite a cheap show for ITV and its loss wouldn't be a big deal.

Sing If You Can is up against the same opposition as yesterday, as BBC1 are airing Doctor Who at 6pm to try and give So You Think You Can Dance? a lift.

I would say there is more of a cross over between Sing If You Can and Doctor Who than Doctor Who has with So You Think You Can Dance.

I don't know if i dare admit this, but i actually really enjoyed Sing If You Can it was stupid, but it was easy entertainmnt viewing so i quite enjoyed it, and i'm a massive Doctor Who fan as well so i shall most deffinatly be watching both