Another arguentof course is that it could have done even better an hour later (9m+). That is a brilliant result though.

Very poor for DW last night. I've just watched it and it was one of favourite episodes in a long time. 5.4m isn't great for one of the BBC's biggest shows. I know everyone keeps mentioning the scheduling, and I just wish they would move it to 7pm. On a plus side that 8.86m for the first episode is very respectable and I hope last nights episode gets a good timeshift too. Solid as ever for BGT. Hopefully the auditions can stay above at 9m mark.

Congratulations to ITV for getting 6 million people to watch their Royal Wedding coverage. This must be their highest daytime figure, excluding football, for a very long time. Yes we all knew Auntie would take 70 pc of the audience but 6 million is quite an achievement and similar to what a decent drama would get in peak time. However, I must admit out of tradition, I stuck with BBC One, though I did have a late look at Sky and found them quite good.

I agree about too much emphasism on the overnights but the problem is people only ever hear about the overnights and not the official ratings. So if the press report that 5.4m overnight it looks bad. In a weeks time they won't report the official rating. I guess its only people that have big interest in ratings that know the true story!

Not necessarily. Looking series by series, the trends show that the higher the overnight rating, the higher the official rating. For e.g. last year, generally the higher overnight ratings equaled higher official ratings. So it's possible if DW had been on at 7pm it'd have got a 7.0-7.5m overnight and ~9.5m official rating. 8.9m is fantastic but I think it would've been higher with better scheduling and that's why I think they should switch it with SYTYCD to maximize DW's total reach. SYTYCD is dead anyway, and probably would still get ~3m-ish in the earlier slot so why not try and maximize DW's audience?

Does anyone know how OKTV is doing. Talk of the presenters and show being incorporated into BB, but can't see that if the rating are still flat-lining. Could see them just replacing it with BBLB, then thinking of alternatives afterwards.

That's down to the BBC press office, then. They should get their finger out.

Excellent news
Doubt it will shut up the doubters though! The dedicated DW ratings thread is getting very heated

I did read it was getting about 0.5 million. Trouble is this type of programming is done better by ITV2 and Living and Channel 5 seem to be latecomers to the party.

How did the Neighbours omnibus do on 5* yesterday please?

Well, if that's what it's getting that's not to bad I suppose, considering it's built-in advertising of another Desmond product.

Fantastic timeshift and really transforms your impressions of how the first episode performed. Right inline with past comparisons. Still a shame it has to rely on the shift so much though - one of the most inexplicable scheduling decisions in ages.

It wouldn't be so bad if it were helping the show afterwards - but as we can see from last night, SYTYCD is flopping dismally. Utterly awful figures for both shows. It's a credit to the Lottery show that it manages to hold a solid 4m with such a terrible lead-in and BGT opposition. And how long can Don't Scare the Hare last before its pulled? It's an embarrassing stick to beat the BBC with and pulls truly awful ratings/shares to boot.

BGT itself did just fine again. There doesn't seem to be any radical momentum this series - either up or down. But when your 'stable' figure is 9m, thats hardly a problem!

There is no spin you can put on SYTYCD really, its a disaster for the schedule. Its not up against BGT so it should stand on its own two feet against feeble opposition, it doesnt because it hasnt made the public care about it. Surely it wont come back, and if the BBC actually believes in the reality/talent format it needs to somehow pitch into the XF/BGT zone and come up with another version of its own.

Dr Who figures are very poor imo, completely wasted by the Beeb and turning its flagship very expensive entertainment into a "oh Il catch it later" brand. Splitting the series was presumably to keep it away from the lighter nights but global warming being as it seems to be its likely it wont make any difference.

Dont Scare The Hare-little chance of that -any bets on sub 1 million figures? Another 7 episodes to go.

Casualty did pretty well but the news being BBC1's second highest rated show tells a sad story for licence fee payers on Saturday nights.

I have to agree, alot of poor decesions have been made.


fair enough


maybe not for the Generation Game, but Lee Mack would seem to be the BBCs new rising star.

Has anyone mentioned that DW was up against a pretty big football match, Chelsea v Spurs on Sky Sports 2?

Must have dented it big time.

They've been quite active recently dissing the overnights as have Sky.

It's difficult though, the media will use what they can, as soon as they can and not wait ten days to mention ratings

That's a big dip for Doctor Who - I think BBC1's blase attitude towards the show is rubbing off on the viewers as the consolidated figure for The Impossible Astronuat is very good. It's a shame some second rate talent show is getting the better slot, and doing nothing with it. They need to switch the schedule around as soon as possible IMO. I think Casualty should be doing better than that considering the relative opposition - I guess having So You Think You Can Dance? as a lead in isn't helping it much!

ITV had an ok night - they'll be pleased to see Sing If You Can didn't fall any further, though that isn't a superb figure by any stretch of the imagination. Britain's Got Talent did well, though I wouldn't be surprised to see a dip next week considering the poor standard of yesterday's show. Piers Morgan is really dependent on the person he can attract, and he hasn't really got a 'star' this series.

I'm a bit stumped by the DW figure as this was an excellent episode and better than the rather geekish one last week. However, I know next week I'll be at football and will be watching it on BBC Three.
SIYC seems to have stabilised around 3 million, but I can't see ITV wanting to commission a new series as the show has been slated by the critics and will probably die against better BBC opposition.
BGT has steadied out at 9 million. This is still very good and I think ITV would be stupid to either cancel it or radically change it.

Bit of a strange dip for Doctor Who. Much better episode than last week and the weather wasn't as great so I expected it to recover to around 6.6-7.0m.

Perhaps it was as bad idea to start the series with a two-part story.


Some low, at times very low, daytime ratings for ITV1. Even the news should have done better opposite the turkey that is Don't Scare The Hare, which is a harmless but ultimately daft programme.


Some OK ratings for the Aussie version. It's not as watchable though with their voiceover guy who isn't half as funny as our Dave Lamb.


Very good rating for a very long, very old movie.

CNN averaged 1.6 million viewers for the Royal Wedding on Friday morning from 4- 10 am EST, beating FNC and MSNBC in total viewers and the demo.

Piers Morgan had 1.286m for his two hour special from 8 -10 pm EST.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...source=twitter

One of Sky's biggest football ratings of the season might be on the cards next Sunday with a potential title decider between Man Utd and Chelsea kicking off at ten past 4. I imagine the Sky Sports marketing department will already be getting to work on what to call it!

How did Football Focus fare yesterday?
It also looks like these " highlights" shows for This Morning aren't doing much for ITV1. I think they'd be better employed showing a film from the Columbo canon in this slot.

I imagine that Doctor Who will look a lot better once the timeshift has been included. I recorded it and watched it a little later, due to the Chelsea vs Tottenham game, I can see many others doing the same.

Just out of interest, I am fairly new to this ratings lark (I have been lurking for a few weeks). When talking about a "timeshift", is that only repeats of the show (i.e. on BBC3), or does it also include things such as Sky+?

As far as BARB is concerned, timeshifting only includes later viewing of the original broadcast (Sky+ etc.), not repeats on the same or other channels.

Timeshift only includes things like Sky+. Each and every viewer that plays back and watches a recorded programme is counted up to 7 days after broadcast.

Repeats, especially those aired on another channel, are not added automatically to these final consolidated figures, although in theory if you really wanted to you could add them up manually yourself in order to obtain a total reach figure for a programme.

Dr Who, oh dear. It rates respectably well on overnights and incredibly well on timeshift but it just seems such a waste to leave it languishing somewhere it can't reach its full potential. SYTYCD seems to be killing off the whole night for BBC1 at the moment. Viewers are clearly switching over and then not returning for Casualty, which is 4 share points down on the seasonal average this week and last week. Well done to Who Dares Wins though for keeping some dignity in that horrendous SYTYCD sandwich opposite BGT.


Good on C5 for pulling in 0.8m viewers to a 4 hour long movie on a sunny Saturday afternoon.