Shame about The Cube, it does seem a bit 'lost' in that slot.

I think it's better suited to Saturdays and in an ideal world, SIYC wouldn't exist and The Cube would be leading into Britains Got Talent. Wonder how it does on STV an hour later at 8pm ?

I think it's a great show (last night was particularly good), and I still reckon it will be back for more later this year.

Outside of DOI, ITV have a bit of a Sunday @ 7pm problem, because Countrywise really does have a stranglehold there.

Also, for me Lewis is a 9pm show, however I can understand why ITV schedule it at 8pm, in an attempt to 'nullify' the BBC's 9pm hour.

The Royal Wedding docu did ok, I thought.

Excellent results for that time of the morning. Do we have a breakdown at all regarding the peak for the race?

It seems that going back behind the paywall hasn't improved the accuracy of Broadcast's ratings reports! At least The Daily Mail's agenda is obvious, but for an industry publication to be so sloppy is poor. It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder why ITV don't, like commercial broadcasters around the world, put out some ratings notes to "guide" the press. They would have had quite a bit to talk about on Saturday - The FA Cup, a strong debut for Sing If You Can, BGT returning well and I suspect Piers probably scored higher in young demos than he usually does.

Plus - I'm biased by being on this thread - those notes often provide far more information than we'd usually get as networks attempt to polish the numbers.

They do it in America, so why not over here? Whether it's ITV praising Lewis; BBC praising the sport; Channel 4 praising The Hotel and Channel 5 praising The Walking Dead - I'm surprised they don't do it.

Curious though that the Mail have chosen to bash BGT rather than SYTYCD which presumably is presenting a very soft target for BBC bashing.

It peaked at 5.14m, which is a fantastic peak: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...one-tv-ratings

I think that's a 15-minute peak, so 5-minute peak will be higher.

It's the highest ever live rating for the Chinese round. The re-run rating will take it over 4m altogether, maybe near 5m.

Fantastic figures. Deserved as it was a tremendous race.

As an aside the BBC website is now reporting Simon Cowell will no longer be a judge on XF.

Looks like WTD has helped give AR a lift in the last 3 weeks, as viewers watched the pair live and viewed later (in 90 minutes..) the 2 hour Lewis. That's a poor AR figure, and obviously dented by crime drama fans watching Lewis this week. Not just down to the weather, as Countryfile did exceptionally - particularly as it was still warm enough to sit out where I live at 7pm.

I did expect a bigger lift for Lewis though with WTD out of the way - I anticipated close to 7m.


Superb. Last week the F1 averaged 3.6m but starting an hour later, so to be down only 400k with a 7am start - and a clash with the start of the London Marathon - is brilliant.

It turned out to be the best race in years, so fully deserving of that 5.14m peak . Let's hope 2011 continues in a similar vein, delivers great ratings, and kills off any chance of the Beeb accountants forcing the rights to be handed back early.


Most unusual to see the Mail bashing ITV for once. Perhaps the usual correspondent (the one who takes daily delight in spinning every ratings performance in the most adverse way for the Beeb) is on holiday this week?

(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not covering for her... )

In fairness, that Mail piece is hardly bad for ITV - given the big numbers being bandied about, and the portrayal of the show as a "national obsession".

And the Cowell absence from BGT and TXF is, much to my irritation, becoming a news story. Even the business pages in the weekend papers were all over it, and a full page interview with Archie Norman in the Sunday Times business section yesterday was in reality all about Cowell and headlined thus.

I despair...

Just to be pedantic, they actually weren't, both semi-finals were at Wembley in 2000, and actually held on consecutive Sunday afternoons, the first live on ITV and the second live on Sky.

For what it's worth the first Wembley semi was Spurs vs Arsenal in 1991, because it was felt it was the only nuetral venue big enough to hold it, then when it happened again in 1993 they held it there again, and the clubs in the other semi, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, said their match should be there as well, so it was. And in 1994 they were both at Wembley, presumably just as they'd got in the habit, but the attendances were awful and the FA said they wouldn't do them at Wembley again. Then they did again in 2000, seemingly to make the most of it while it was there.

And in 2005, they did both of the semi-finals at the Millennium Stadium, for the hell of it.


What, like the Junior Eurovision Song Contest? That worked so well for ITV. I don't know what you can do to make the Eurovision selection process any bigger, because it'll always come across as a second rate X Factor, it's the same format. Indeed if ITV were to have it, they may as well just send the X Factor winner.

The Lloyd-Webber thing two years ago was about as big as you can get it, ITV wouldn't do anything different. I don't see what else can be done. Twenty years ago it was just the songs on Wogan and then one hour-long show.

As for So You Think You Can Dance, I don't suppose it really helped that nobody went out this week so it wasn't all that important. Twenty contestants is way too many, though, meaning nobody will care about what happens. It's just such a boring show.


No, but I remember people moaning to Points of View because there were two "update" episodes of Hotel the following year and the Radio Times billed it as "another visit to the Adelphi Hotel", and everyone assumed it would be a new episode when it was just a clip show with two minutes added at the end. Apart from Airport and Vets In Practice, the Beeb never used to bother bringing docusoaps back for a second run, even big ones like Driving School and The Cruise, presumably they assumed a second run would just be too similar to the first. I remember a repeat run of Driving School being yanked out of primetime, though.

I liked how Channel Four trailed The Hotel as "From the makers of One Born Every Minute", despite it having nothing to do with hospitals or babies or anything else, just from the same production company. They may as well have trailed Sing If You Can as "From the makers of I'm A Celebrity".


Yeah, but that episode of The Impressions Show has already been on twice in six months. And the Eurovision thing was just housekeeping, they've already unveiled the song, I presume it was just considered important to keep us onside now we're not picking the song by showing us everything that happens. It probably did better than the Sunday afternoon selection shows did a decade ago.


It's always like this, they're only allowed I think ten minutes of highlights of the day's matches, then they use the rest of the show for discussion and yesterday's goals and so forth. It's more of a magazine approach and it works very well, I think. It's just more obvious when there's only been one match. The only time that didn't happen was that very strange West Brom vs Wolves show.

You'd have thought ITV would have had the wit not to schedule their highlights up against MOTD2, with the live match already being up against that match earlier. I always say this but it baffled me why ITV didn't have Saturday night highlights, I know they showed it live but they do highlights of England games they've shown live half an hour after they've finished. And they're in primetime, whereas this was a 5.15 kick-off, so if you came in late or were, gasp, actually at a match on Saturday, you had to wait more than 24 hours to see it.

Broadcast:

"ITV has confirmed that Simon Cowell will not be a main judge on the next series of The X Factor"

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/

They're not big BGT fans. Every year they tend to write the same articles having a pop at Britain's Got Talent just as the series starts. Then they spend 8 weeks writing rabidly about it. As the final approaches they write another article - usually featuring contributions from Steve Brookstein - slamming it.

They could write an article about SYTYCD, but nobody would read it!

The BBC have done the right thing by ditching the selection show, A lot of broadcasters in Europe have done the same thing and in most cases it is successful.

The selection show has never really been a big draw in the UK because they were poorly produced, even Eurovision fans didn't like them. For most non-die heard fans of Eurovision, it's just the show in May that interests them.

Hopefully it should be in the 2m range.

Changes are highlighted, as per.

Most Watched Shows of 2011 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 12.56m - CORONATION STREET (14/02/11) - ITV1/HD
02 - 11.42m - EASTENDERS (03/01/11) - BBC1/HD
03 - 10.26m - COMIC RELIEF (18/03/11) - BBC1/HD
04 - 10.23m - DANCING ON ICE (09/01/11) - ITV1/HD
05 - 9.52m - EMMERDALE (13/01/11) - ITV1/HD

06 - 8.80m - BIG FAT GYPSY WEDDINGS (08/02/11) - C4
07 - 8.80m - COME FLY WITH ME (01/01/11) - BBC1/HD
08 - 8.69m - WILD AT HEART (09/01/11) - ITV1/HD
09 - 8.50m - SILENT WITNESS (17/01/11) - BBC1/HD
10 - 8.22m - BENIDORM (25/02/11) - ITV1/HD

11 - 8.10m - MIDSOMER MURDERS (02/02/11) - ITV1/HD
12 - 7.98m - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LIVE (06/04/11) - ITV1/HD
13 - 7.98m - LET'S DANCE FOR COMIC RELIEF (19/02/11) - BBC1/HD
14 - 7.91m - FILM: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (01/01/11) - BBC1/HD
15 - 7.70m - SOUTH RIDING (20/02/11) - BBC1/HD

16 - 7.68m - LARK RISE TO CANDLEFORD (09/01/11) - BBC1/HD
17 - 7.50m - ABOVE SUSPICION (03/01/11) - ITV1/HD
18 - 7.38m - TOP GEAR (23/01/11) - BBC2/HD
19 - 7.38m - RUGBY SIX NATIONS (26/02/11) - BBC1/HD
20 - 7.36m - WAKING THE DEAD (20/03/11) - BBC1/HD

Notes:
- No duplicates: i.e. no BGT/DOI in there twice.
- HD audience included for all programmes airing on HD
- BBC1 HD is bundled in automatically with BBC1
- ITV1 +1 excluded
- Thanks to MattJ and rzt for some of the missing ratings off BARB

Most Watched Multichannel Shows of 2011 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 2.69m - LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (06/02/11) - Sky Sports 1
02 - 2.63m - GLEE (17/01/11) - E4
03 - 2.00m - HATTIE (19/01/11) - BBC4
04 - 1.97m - LIVE FORD FOOTBALL SPECIAL (01/03/11) - Sky Sports 2
05 - 1.86m - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LIVE (08/03/11) - Sky Sports 2

06 - 1.78m - CELEBRITY JUICE (31/03/11) - ITV2
07 - 1.77m - MAD DOGS (03/03/11) - Sky1
08 - 1.69m - JUNIOR DOCTORS (15/03/11) - BBC3
09 - 1.57m - BEING HUMAN (23/01/11) - BBC3
10 - 1.43m - LIVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL (26/03/11) - Sky Sports 1

11 - 1.41m - MIDSOMER MURDERS (08/01/11) - ITV3
12 - 1.39m - EASTENDERS (08/02/11) - BBC3
13 - 1.37m - GOT TO DANCE (27/02/11) - Sky1
14 - 1.37m - THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX (20/03/11) - ITV2
15 - 1.35m - FOYLE'S WAR (13/02/11) - ITV3

16 - 1.21m - THIS IS YOUR LIFE: HATTIE JACQUES (19/01/11) - BBC4
17 - 1.20m - LIVE CARLING CUP FOOTBALL (12/01/11) - Sky Sports 1
18 - 1.17m - TOP OF THE POPS: THE STORY OF 1976 (01/04/11) - BBC4
19 - 1.10m - LEWIS (30/01/11) - ITV3
20 - 1.09m - LIVE FORD MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (14/02/11) - Sky Sports 1

Source: BARB. Excludes +1, Includes HD for Terrestrial Chart. Only 1 programme per 'show', i.e. only one Ford Super Sunday game.

The Champions League match also becomes the most watched sporting event so far this year, with the Six Nations game that is listed in second. And for anyone that wants a count for both charts:

Main
10 - BBC1
8 - ITV1
1 - BBC2
1 - C4

Multichannel
6 - Sky Sports
6 - BBC
5 - ITV
2 - Sky1
1 - E4

As an aside, the 2nd and 9th April episodes of SYTYCD failed to make BBC1's Top 30. Ouch.

Brilliant timeshift for the 10th April episode of Waking The Dead.

Overnight: 5.24m
Official: 7.03m

An increase of 1.79m, not may shows can boast a timeshift like that. I can think of only Doctor Who that can get those sorts of timeshift.


I think you will be disappointed with the actual ratings. The majority of people just arent that fussed and I would be surprised if we see any numbers over 20m.


If only the show was on ITV1, it would be pushing for a top 20 place.

16-34 Shares for Sunday 17th April

Channel 5 - 7.7%.
Channel 4 (including +1) - 7.3%.
ITV1 - 6.4%.
ITV2 (including +1) - 4.6%

Another week where Channel 5 is top in this most lucrative of demos.

Channel 4's improved performance narrowed the lead a little bit, but Channel 5's lead over ITV1 was just as strong as last week.

Could you post a fuller list for all main and the top digital channels - with ITV1 so low it's hard to see where all the rest of the viewers could be!

What was the timeshifted ratings for The Walking Dead? Will be interesting how much it gained from people recording it.

There is a fuller list on the Channel 4 Sales website:

http://www.channel4sales.com/data/overnights

Unfortunately they no longer provide data for the BBC channels on this site, but it's still a useful resource for the commercial networks.

Thanks!

Overnight: 1.46m
Official: 1.81m

Timeshift of 350,000. Not the biggest timeshift, it has to be said.

1.81 million, 5th most watched show on Channel 5 that week. Very similar to True Blood's 1.91m opener for Channel 4 back in 2009.

The big story for Channel 5 in this week's officials is CSI hitting a series high of 2.78m. The equivalent episode in 2010 had 2.49m, so that's an increase of around 12% y-o-y. Looks like CSI is bouncing back nicely from its lows last year and there may be life in the old dog yet!

I wish they would do something about Home and Away though, like ditch the lunchtime showing. The ratings look miserable at the wrong side of the 1m mark, with lunchtime Neighbours now closing the gap on teatime H&A:

23 HOME AND AWAY (MON 1800) 0.97
30 NEIGHBOURS (MON 1346) 0.87

25 HOME AND AWAY (TUE 1801) 0.95
29 NEIGHBOURS (TUE 1347) 0.88

You are basing the above assumption on what?

I think you will find that "the majority" will watch the wedding at some stage of its broadcast, or are at least curious about it. It is generally the small amount of "Republicans" who will likely to be disappointed due to a larger than they anticipated rating!

"The majority" will probably tune in at some point, including myself, to see what all the hype is about. It doesnt mean 30m people cant wait for the big day and have their street party all planned out. Its a bit like the X Factor final in some regards with the huge amount of publiclity that sort of beats you down into tuning in at some point.