Some disappointing news regarding E4: The Big Bang Theory will not be returning next month, as me and Charnham previously speculated in the thread. Although the programme does return to its usual Thursday night slot, it returns in the form of Season 4 repeats, continuing where they left off before Glory Daze interrupted the run.

It means a likely return date for The Big Bang Theory of June 30th, several weeks after it finishes in the States. However, the other half of that hugely successful comedy pairing How I Met Your Mother does resume new episodes on May 12th at 9:30pm.

Possibly 5 million if it is good and Man U do well tonight as this does impact on who Man U get if they look like beating Schalke. However, should Schalke flatten Man U 4-0 in the first round and it looks like an all foreign final, then 3 million could be likely.

I see E4 have got what looks like a TOWIE rip off: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-revealed.html

at least 1 of the 2 is back.

Was a good digiguide update

a BBC 4 showing for Doctor Who, but I was surprised there was only 1 new episdoe of Family Guy on BBC 3, its normally 2.

Still would like start dates for Mock the Week, Lead Balloon & Angry Boys

Definitely helped by having the first ad break over twenty minutes in, to hook viewers and then only three more breaks in the two hour slot.

Compared to the six break, seven 12-13m segments of Midsomer or Lewis, it makes drama far more watchable.

Not good enough. E4 is dumbing down to ITV2's level with shows like Made in Chelsea, at the same time making us wait for the quality stuff like The Big Bang Theory. If E4 is so keen to go down that road, maybe they should relinquish the rights like they are doing with Friends and let a competent broadcaster treat it properly.

Certainly disappointing, but you can't really defend everything C5 do and attack E4 for this? Sadly I dint think _any_ UK channel has a perfect track record with US imports (Comedy Central who are 'competently' taking over Friends are how many months behind US pace for 30 Rock?!).

I don't defend everything C5 do though, see just a few posts ago when I said they should be aiming higher than these god awful fly-on-the-wall shows like There's Something About Josie. But at least the US imports on there are aired mostly uninterrupted, or where they do air close to the US airdate like The Mentalist, with as few interruptions as possible.

E4 a bit like Sky1 is getting a reputation for keeping the big US shows back far longer than they have to, and fans like me are getting very fed up with it.

true, but I would rather those shows were on E4 and not Sky One

Still I am annonyed with these gaps, taking it off air for a show that could only fail, and now not even brining TBBT back, its like they dont want people to watch, and doing all they can to encourage downloading.

I wouldn't even include Sky in my list of competent broadcasters when it comes to US shows. Maybe a couple of years ago but not now. They've delayed a number of big shows this season including Lie To Me and Supernatural, with the latter shunted to a ridiculous summer slot.

It seems to me this has been done to keep the focus on Sky Atlantic. Sky1's stranglehold on the US dramas has been broken, especially with Living recently joining the Sky family as well, and they are struggling to juggle all their imports effectively.

Even Atlantic is not immune to the delays - In Treatment Season 2 finally arrives on Friday, over 2 years after its US broadcast. If Sky had a reputation for treating US shows well and airing them fairly close to US transmission, they've well and truly destroyed that now.

I've got United sat on my PVR ready to watch when I'm ready thank you very much. Gave up on Crimson Petal though, prematurely it seems.


Have to agree with you there.


E4 don't seem to like running new episodes of both at the same time, which is stupid really. You'd think too E4 would be really supporting these two considering the impending loss of Friends - but seems they're going for the option of airing as much Friends as possible rather than working repeats of the shows they do have into rotation in the traditional Friends slots.


To be fair the two are not related at all - Made in Chelsea isn't stealing the slot. I do think though like other C4 attempts lately Made in Chelsea will flop, simply by being too posh. Hopefully though it is at least a documentary and not a scripted reality show, but either way it doesn't fit comfortably in the E4 schedule. They need such shows to be fun, cheeky and kind of ironic.

They are describing it as a "reality drama", which made me chuckle at least.

It also implies that people still like watching films at peaktime and suggests networks (especially BBC1 who seem to NEVER show films now outside of afternnons or midnight) should take more effort, especially at Bank Holidays.

If I were the BBC1 schedulers I would have done this for the entire Easter holiday:

GOOD FRIDAY

As scheduled until 4.50pm
4.50 Total Wipeout Celebrity Special
5.50 BBC News
6.20 FILM: Enchanted
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 Britains Royal Weddings (part 2)
9.30 Have I Got News For You
10.00 BBC News
10.20 The Graham Norton Show
11.05 The Lottery Draws
11.15 FILM: Win a Date with Ted Hamilton

EASTER SATURDAY

5.20 FILM: Bee Movie
6.45 Doctor Who
7.30 So You Think You Can Dance
8.45 The National Lottery Draws (postponing Who Dares Wins until after Eurovision)
9.00 Casualty
9.50 So You Think You Can Dance

EASTER SUNDAY

1.30 Life of Riley
2.00 FILM: Mary Poppins
4.15 Points of View
4.30 Life of Riley
5.00 Lifeline
5.10 Songs of Praise
5.45 BBC News
6.15 Land Girls
7.00 Countryfile
8.00 Antiques Roadshow
9.00 Rock and Chips
10.00 The Bee Gees
11.00 BBC News
11.20 FILM: The Naked Gun (or similar)

EASTER MONDAY

As scheduled until 2.45pm

2.45pm FILM: Chicken Run
4.05 Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut (rpt)
4.50 Don't Scare The Hare
5.25 BBC News
6.00 FILM: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 FILM: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
10.55 BBC News
11.10 A Question of Sport

The William and Kate Documentary is being shown in full on Thursday so there's no need to show it on Easter monday. Masterchef could have run Tue-Thur as originally planned!

A bit more imagination is required nowadays!

Lol, I reckon Shalke would need half the United team to be sent off to get four goals. The only think likely to be flattened to any degree is the second legs rating. The final though almost certainly a dream for ITV. United against Barcelona or United against Ronaldo. Thats the kind of script written by the ratings gods.

Even longer now it's abruptly disappeared from the schedules, despite still being billed in the Radio Times, and last week's even being a Choice, and that's after their continued inability to show it in widescreen and their rescheduling of it a few weeks back from 10.30 to 10pm at the last minute, again contrary to the Radio Times. In fact what Comedy Central bills and what it shows seems to be two different things entirely. What a mess of a channel it is.

Interestingly, only the second-most watched programme in w/e 17 April.

EastEnders beat it with 11.07m.

Simon don't like coming second, does he?


You may have noticed I didn't add them up and claim an 11m audience...

Just noting the excellent ratings for something shown only 3 months ago - and indeed, last week.

[EDIT: just realised, whilst looking back through the thread that it was the Temple of Doom film that BBC3 showed last week to 1.2m - my bad. I do get it wrong sometimes... ]

but that is where both shows would end up, if E4 gave up on them.

What did each of the Indiana Jones films get rating wise over the weekend?? I seem to remember them getting good ratings when BBC3 screened them before in 2008.I think they where shown before an episode each week of the 2nd series of Gavin And Stacey

Oh dear for Daybreak. Breakfast didn't record much of a loss but it's opposite number certainly did! The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher performed strongly, but Masterchef held up well against it, and should take advantage of the relative lack of opposition tomorrow. The soaps recorded good numbers, as people arrived home after bank holiday weekends away.

Link: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...y-the-cw/90700

CW has announced early renewals for Vampire Diaries, 90210, Gossip Girl, ANTM and Supernatural.

New shows Nikita and Hellcats' fates are still unknown. By the looks of recent ratings, one of the two shows is likely stay (or neither).

Also, will One Tree Hill get renewed for season 9? Most of the cast members have signed on for next season, according to reports.

The CW's development sounds a bit off, IMO. I could see Nikita moving to Fridays, Hellcats taking its Wednesday post back and then just 2 new shows (Tue/Thur @ 9pm).

The Secret Circle for 9pm on Thursdays is the only one for me. Awakening is a bit late to the zombie party but I guess The Vampire Diaries was as well and this puts a CW twist on it with young female leads. So I'm thinking it'll be this vs Secret Circle for 9pm on Thursday. Witches haven't been done as much as zombies lately (and I think there's only so much you can do with zombies) so my vote goes to The Secret Circle especially with Kevin Williamson on board as Exec Producer.

Looking at the others I'd actually take both Awakening & The Secret Circle but I doubt they will. I'd expect one of the other 3 to get the Tuesday slot. None of them really appeal to me based on the information we have just now - Heavenly in particular sounds terrible. And much as I loved Rachel Bilson in The OC, I can well believe that she's not convincing as a small town doctor in Hart of Dixie. Plus, Cooper & Stone sounds like a firm of undertakers, not a new show for a channel targetted at women 18-34.

Obviously things can change in pilot season so I could be wrong.

Secret Circle will likely be picked up, not sure on the other show. I'm surprised The CW passed on Wonder Woman as it would have been a natural successor to Smallville.

Upfront is in less than a month so it'll be interesting what shows will be picked up and what shows are cancelled. I think both JJ Abrams shows Alcatraz and Person of Interest will be picked up but it's hard to tell for FOX and CBS as they have solid schedules.

I'm guessing that FOX take one drama for the fall and one for midseason. Probably Alcatraz and Touch but then there's the Bones spin-off as well... Throw in a couple of comedies too.

CBS also ought to focus on comedy. I'd agree about Person of Interest, perhaps for Thursdays at 9pm bumping CSI to 10pm. Undercover Boss probably can't do a full 22 episode run next season so maybe more scripted on Sunday?

God knows what NBC will do. They've got a big gamble tonight and if it pays off then it could be so much easier. So much money has been put into The Voice at $1.4m an episode plus a massive marketing budget. If it does well, I suspect NBC will go for the ultimate X Factor spoiler and stick it on in September for a second season. If it doesn't do well, then it's a bad way for Paul Telegdy to introduce himself to his new bosses.

I think Person of Interest will end up on Tuesdays after NCIS but if CBS are confident then Thursday would be good too but I think FOX is going to place either Alcatraz or Terra Nova although I'm starting to have doubts about Terra Nova as it's been pushed back twice, I imagine FOX will have a backup in either Touch or Locke and Key.

FOX's new drama scheduling may depends heavily on where X Factor goes. With Simon no longer planning to travel, they can have their pick of either Tuesday/Wednesday or Wednesday/Thursday.

Tue/Wed is easier for dealing with the baseball (they can move a day later if necessary and it's better to move to Thursday than Friday). And at least one week will be Tue/Wed because of Thanksgiving.

But it does mean uprooting Glee again and relocating the comedy hour. And the only slots for the comedy hour would be Mondays at 9pm, Wednesdays at 9pm or Thursdays at 9pm which aren't great as they have 3 of the biggest sitcoms in those slots already.