Even in football's dog days in the mid eighties, when interest was at an all time low, you had these programmes that went on for four hours before the main event. The BBC would usually trail it heavily during Saturday Superstore, then have a Grandstand based on the road to Wembley and loads of analysis for three hours and finally the match. ITV would have the awful pairing Saint and Greavsie wittering away at 12, then some build up show featuring people like Jimmy Tarbuck. All, except the Road to Wembley, about as exciting as paint drying, a shame as the 1986 cup final was a classic.

nice of BBC WW to invest money in Pay TV

They've invested in a programme not a broadcaster!! No doubt most of the international sales of Sinbad will be on free channels, like the Australian deal.

Not sure when he started, but he was quoted in this article today, defending the Doctor Who scheduling: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...ns-the-silence

This is the first time I've heard of him, but I reckon he may of been in the job a little while now.

thanks for the link

Doctor Who and Britain's Got Talent should see nice healthy boosts tonight due to the weather. Predict ~6.2m for the Who and ~9.8m for Britain's Got Talent.

Steve Jones has the X Factor US gig. Nicole Scherzinger didn't like the original male co-host (Corbin Bleu) and she did like Steve (they have "chemistry" apparently). So Corbin was dropped and Steve was hired. Quite a leap for Mr Jones, there.

I was about to say bad choice, but there again Cat Deeley has done well over there. And yes, quite a leap from 100 Ways to Leave a Gameshow and Dropzone!

Steve Jones isn't a great choice. He's not great on Let's Dance. I'm surprised they didn't go for Dermot. Dermot and Nicole would be good.

Really random choice with Steve Jones there..although with all the well known British faces I reckon it could do very well on ITV2 and almost replace American Idol which isn't performing as well nowadays.

Back to BGT and I'm very intrigued as to what the semi final line up will be like. Out of the 4 audition shows so far there's only been two really talented acts that I've enjoyed- Les Gibson (the comedian who did Ant & Dec) and the french guy at the end of tonights show. There just doesn't seem to be any decent acts this year. I don't know where all the dance acts have disappeared to-every other act was a dance group last year!

The BBC have started trailing the new series of 'Luther'. I expect it to start on Sunday 29th May, the earliest possible date as it's the BAFTA TV Awards the previous Sunday. The previous series officially averaged 5m viewers. It'll be interesting to see how it fares in its new 2-hour format.

Just seen the Red and Black trailer. Not very well put together, looked quite cheap, good choice of music though with the 28 Days Later theme.


If put in the right slot, X Factor USA could get some huge audiences for ITV2, 3m maybe.

That's a real two fingers up at Dermot O'Leary. I wonder whether he'll quit the UK show in disgust?

I kinda feel bad for him.

Although Nicole really doesn't come out of this well. I feel even worse for poor Corbin!

I think The X Factor USA will give them a headache to be honest. Do they broadcast it in the autumn close to US transmission and risk damaging The X Factor UK or do they hold off to the winter where it might not do as well?

As headaches go, its quite a nice one to have. With the amount of coverage it will get with the British trio on the show, they should air it as close to transmission as possible IMO.

But then they run the real risk of The X Factor USA upstaging the UK version. Do viewers have the stamina for both? Combined coverage would probably amount to about 8 hours per week at least initially and that's excluding spinoffs and repeats.

There's no point them holding it back, though. No one'll watch a show that's been aired months before hand.

The perfect thing for ITV would be The X Factor USA airing in the spring, and Idol in the autumn. Obvioulsy either FOX or Cowell didn't want that.

It makes her seem a total b*tch!

I do feel bad for Corbin. I don't particularly think he was the right person but that sounds awful.

Steve Jones is a bizarre choice. I do quite like him (then again I also don't think Vernon Kay deserves the stick he gets so what do I know?) but not giving the job to Dermot and then going for another Brit seems odd. I'd have thought they'd have put Steve on the UK show with Dermot in the US. Then again, with Simon and Cheryl leaving they may have decided on no more changes.

Meanwhile, The Sun today reported that Gary Barlow is almost definitely getting a UK judging gig, and that Louis Walsh is confirmed to be returning. They also said Kelly Rowland may take over from Cheryl. The irony there is that if that does happen then despite all the hype the UK judges will be more 'relevant' to the UK charts right now than the US judges to the US charts.

Hell's Kitchen USA does alright in the winter, months after broadcast, so I think that's a bit of an overstatement. But obviously it would put a dent in.

But Hells Kitchen doesn't have half the hype, press or publicity...

I'm well aware of that, cheers.

A classy looking trailer, but I hope they're not making it too "arty". If they want it to be a hit and pull 5m+, they need to make it look like a mainstream drama, not something for only MediaGuardian readers to get excited about.

More people'll be interested in The X Factor then Hell's Kitchen though. How will Cheryl fit in? Is Steve a good choice? Will Nicole come across as a bit catty as a presenter? Has Simon made an error? What's it like in comparison to the original?

There's no point airing it months after original broadcast - people who want those questions answered would have watched already online.

Don't usually put much importance on these X Factor stories in the press, as they are nearly all rubbish, but there is an interesting one in the Sunday Mirror claiming Alesha Dixon met Talkback Thames on Wednesday to discuss joining The X Factor:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/tv/20...5875-23115029/