People are getting carried away as per usual, The Apprentice and Waterloo Road are not on all year round. There is nothing to say that whatever airs on Wednesday in 6 weeks time or whenever will maintain the strong ratings. There is no need to revise the whole ITV schedule, after everytime the BBC has a strong night!

It's the same as the 'Casualty gets beaten by TXF, let's axe it' argument, which would happen if a long 52 weeks of the year view wasn't taken.

I wonder if a sixth episode of C/S was considered by ITV, whether the BBC's reaction would be a factor in their decision making. After all Eastenders always drags itself to be just one episode short eventually. Where would a fifth EE go?

You've deliberately not stated that its airing from 19:30 to 20:30, haven't you?

Because Torchwood starts that night, so I bet the schedule will be

19:00 - The One Show
20:00 - EastEnders
21:00 - Torchwood

Just to annoy ITV.

and the viewers presumably? Although maybe thats not important.

Difference is that Doctors is daytime, its not as though its 2.5 hours worth of soap that clogs up primetime and stifles any sort of fresh or creative programming.

Nah, I didn't mention it just because I thought it's a certainty EE will run 7.30-8.30pm like every other 1 hour ep it's had recently.


You're right in that sense regarding the 9pm slot. The Apprentice will be over in 5 weeks' time, after that they'll be back down to <5m most weeks until the end of the year. Waterloo Road, however, runs 30 episodes a year so they're looking at ratings of c.5m between 7.30-8.30pm for more than half of the year which is a significant number of weeks and I wouldn't be surprised if they extend the next run given the ratings it's been getting recently. One thing though is that it seems to me that the gain Waterloo Road has experienced has been at the expense of the pre-watershed comedies: as we discussed the other week, Life of Riley was doing a million better at 7.30pm the previous year and I reckon In With The Flynn's would've launched closer to 5m in a 7.30pm slot. So it's not all been perfect but considering Waterloo Road is higher priority than the comedies, I think the BBC will definitely want to keep it this way, even if the sitcoms are underperforming.

As said a number of times previously, ITV can't really do anything regarding their Wednesday schedule until May next year after the Champions League season is over. In terms of regaining the lead over WR at 7.30pm, whilst moving Corrie back there would be the obvious option, perhaps they will also consider the possibility of having a one-hour episode of Emmerdale there (as someone else previously mentioned) in turn dropping the Thursday 8pm episode and putting a filler in that slot which would probably do okay anyway. Personally I'm of the mindset that they should try some new scripted stuff in the Wed 7.30pm slot as there's no other pre-watershed slot in the whole week where they have such a good lead-in and not up against EE, so it's the ideal place to nurture new shows, but I can totally see why people, especially fans of the show, would want Corrie back there.

In that case expect ITV to move Corrie to 9pm as they won't let it start halfway through EastEnders. That in turn would bugger up Torchwood.

Very good night overall for BBC1 last night. The Apprentice is doing very well this series, and Waterloo Road is really benefiting from the new slot and stronger storylines. Very poor start for In With The Flynns though as considering WR will have ended with ~5.5m and TA will have started with ~7m it had a very strong sandwich and failed to deliver. It'll only be downhill from here too. Very weak night from ITV. I'm surprised YBF did that badly but Injustice hasn't really taken off. The first episode was too slow and it put people off. Airing the first episode against Case Histories will have dented it a bit too. It should bounce back to ~4.5m tonight and tomorrow which will be OK, but ITV must be a bit disappointed as it's from the writer of Collision which was a much bigger hit. They'll have higher hopes than 4-5m for The Jury when it gets stripped across a week this Autumn too.

The One Show does that instead though.

I can see why people would like to see ITV move Corrie back to the Wednesday 7:30pm slot but I'd like to see them do something a bit more ambitious there. Comedies would be ideal. As I've suggested before they could even move TV Burp there to get the ball rolling.

As for BBC1's comedies, I don't think it's the slot that's harming them as they've had very strong shows either side of them. I think it's just because they're both crap. LOR started this series with 4.5m which is where it ended up last time and then it dropped so the viewers didn't just abandon it straight away, whilst people presumably smelt how bad In With The Flynns was from miles away and gave it a wide berth. People are cottoning on to how awful most of these sitcoms are and the ratings are finally reflecting it. I'm surprised they aren't showing the final My Family series there, as it didn't do too well in the Friday 9pm slot last year and could do better in a pre-watershed slot with strong shows around it. I know it's pretty much as awful as LOR and the Flynns but it does seem to have a fanbase at least.

Aren't they basically the same show. Ridiculous to have them both running in the summer, never mind on the same night.


So The Price is Right with a budget then.

How long will Waterloo Road run for though, leaving that 8.30 slot open? I know they're filming another 20 episodes for this "series", but will they follow straight on?

The other factor at play, I suspect, is wanting to find a suitable spot for Miranda repeats. It's not an accident, I don't think, that they're trying to introduce My Family's existing audience to it. Even if those 9.30 repeats simply pull 3m, then they'll have done their job. Gavin and Stacey repeats did a very similar thing in Autumn 2008 ahead of the breakout Christmas Special.

I think the main problem for Injustice was that its launch was hampered a little bit by airing against another drama. Yes, I agree the first episode was a bit too slow, but its 20% second episode drop was very similar to other stripped ITV dramas from the last two years, including Collision (-17%). Its drop was basically in line with the usual trend so given that it launched with 5.5m we shouldn't be too surprised its settled down to 4.0-4.5m the last two nights. Airing against Case Histories probably pulled it back from getting a 6-6.5m launch overnight figure, which it most likely would've done against a factual show. If that had happened, even with a 20% drop, it'd have managed more respectable high 4's/low 5's overnights on Tue/Wed rather than low 4's which it's ended up with. Basically that's the luck of the draw regarding stripped dramas - they must've known and planned months in advance that they were gonna air it the week after BGT but wouldn't have known the competition and it basically has had an effect. Collision was fortunate in that sense that it launched against non-drama which played some part in getting such a big launch rating (the concept, novelty and promotion of the show was important too of course and it sounds more appealing to the average person than Injustice), so even when it did drop by a similar margin for the second episode its ratings were so high to begin with that it was still ending up with 6m overnights for the remaining episodes. The main lesson from this is that new 60-min ITV dramas need to begin with 6m overnights, or more ideally, to sustain 5m+ for the remaining episodes - a 5.5m launch for Injustice gave it barely any leeway to drop and remain above the "magic" 5m mark and as we know with ITV dramas, a good % do like to drop out after episode 1, so that was always going to be a tough ask for it as soon as the overnights for Monday were out.

His BBC1 stand-up shows in the 90s and 00s got pretty good figures for 10.35pm slots - 4-5m+ - even for repeats. And they were good, too.

I think it was the ratings that meant BBC1 Controllers kept commissioning them, even though to leftie liberal media luvvies, it must have been like smearing dog excrement on their own doorsteps on a regular basis.

I think the next batch of WR episodes haven't been filming for long, so they'll probably have 10 episodes in the Autumn with another 10 early next year, so the same as they did with the 20 that were filmed together and shown last Autumn and early this year. I think they'll probably stick with 30 per year now, to run like the 3 terms of the school year, so Autumn, Winter and Spring, with short breaks in-between each block of 10 and a longer Summer break.

The episodes on now weren't supposed to be on until this Autumn though, with the ones filming now starting early next year, but they decided to bring the current block of 10 forward to now (they filmed them last Summer so they were ready to go). Therefore they'll probably get a new commission quite quickly so they have episodes to run this time next year as the ones being filmed now will only last them until Easter.

Good shout about Miranda, I hadn't thought of it like that. I agree though, if they can get 3m watching Miranda in that slot then they've done well as it'll be ready to go on BBC1 then. Are they series 1 or series 2 repeats? I know they only repeated series 2 of Gavin and Stacey on BBC1 but it's Summer and they haven't got a great deal to show so I think they should repeat both. There are 9 episodes of My Family so they could run series 1 and the first 3 episodes of series 2 alongside it. Episodes 4 and 5 of series 2 could be doubled up the following week and the 6th episode is a Christmas episode I believe so they could repeat that this Christmas.

I doubt it. They've only just started filming in the last few weeks, so I expect it will return in October as would be normal. You could say these current 10 episodes are extra slotted in between the normal runs.

Then it could go back to the usual 10 autumn/10 spring format. They have mentioned before that they find it hard to film in the winter, what with it 100% being 'on location', bad weather, short daylight hours etc, so a 30 ep commission may be a bit much.

There's nothing to say it would remain at 7.30, remember the fuss around Have I got News moving to Thursdays, which lasted one series.

Some good points there, and I completely agree that stripped dramas are risky as if the opposition are running a drama or tough opposition on the night of the drama launch then the whole week of drama is damaged. I think what you say about ITV dramas is true but can also be applied to BBC1 dramas as Silk aside most have lost quite a few viewers for their second episodes recently, as Case Histories lost 17%, Outcasts lost 27%, Sherlock lost 11%, Garrow's Law lost 13% etc. Luther didn't lose too many in week 2 (-7%) due to a much stronger lead-in (David Cameron becoming PM) but lost 24% from week 2 to week 3. So basically I think new dramas on either ITV1 or BBC1 need a ~6m start to remain at ~5m for the rest of the series. I think it's a shame that viewers aren't a bit more patient with new dramas as often the first episode really isn't a good basis to judge a show on, but that's how it is unfortunately.

Very similar at least (I don't watch either). Especially with Ramsay on both. They could end up with 2.6-2.8 averages on Monday and Tuesday rather than a ~3.3 for a 2 hour HK and ~2.0 for a 2 hour Masterchef. Of course, HK will take a hit on its own average to support Masterchef.

After HK last summer, Masterchef drew 2.5/2.6. But it'd be foolish of FOX to bring it back even if it does those numbers again. It's clear that it doesn't work alone.

Very British summer on FOX. Ramsay on Monday & Tuesday (with British formats, one produced by ITV) then Nigel Lythgoe & Cat Deeley on SYTYCD on Wednesday and Thursday before another ITV format joins the schedule later this summer.


Sounds like it. They keep lining up awful formats for those 8pm slots. Two more NBC shows and I don't particularly like the sound of either.

Love in the Wild is a dating series that will put relationships to the ultimate test. It will follow 10 single men and 10 single women as they head deep into the remote jungles of Costa Rica, paddle down crocodile-infested waters, navigate through bat-infested caves and hang 200 feet above the rain forest floor as they descend down one of the most majestic waterfalls all in the hope of finding that special someone. At the end of every episode, two heartbroken singles will be sent home. The series will culminate with one couple left standing

Still Standing is a game show designed to keep contestants and viewers on their toes. The new competitive series is based on the hit Israeli series of the same title, which offers contestants the chance to win by outguessing 10 opponents in 10 fast-paced and dramatic trivia battles. At the start of the game, each player stands behind a coin whose value ranges between $1 and $50,000. The value of the coin is hidden from the players, however, and will not be revealed until one of them loses and drops out of the game –- literally -– through the trapdoor in the studio floor on which he or she is standing

Love In The Wild will start later this month at 10pm on Wednesdays. Marriage Ref returns on Sundays at 10pm from late June.

Love In The Wild sounds like Survivor meets The Bachelor - it sounds tacky but if I had to bet on any NBC summer series (and I'd really rather hold onto my money), I'd put my money on that, tbh. But it's not a good line-up, IMO.

If they cost a series at say £5m for 20 episodes of Casualty then they have to make 20 episodes, actors, procucers etc may have a written contract - they can't say oh we are making 19 now, as eg. Comic Relief took our timeslot in March. It is different with Eastenders as they make 200+ episodes a year - so one episode could be easily condensed into other episodes by cutting filler.

It's still a BBC soap that covers 2.5 hours of BBC1 each week. But if we want to talk about a programme stifling fresh or creative programme in primetime I'll drop Doctors and give you The One Show.

It is very true - but in terms of stifling creativity, what matters is the simple scarcity of any pre-watershed hours where neither ITV1 or BBC One have big soaps.

The One Show, running opposite Emmerdale, does not really add to that tally. BBC One wouldn't be showing scripted fare at 7pm anyway because of ITV - so TOS is really just an amalgamation of the docusoaps, consumer affairs and other factual entertainment stuff that would otherwise occupy that slot.

CS and Emmerdale are 44 mins per hour - so is just 4.03 hours total without the ad breaks.

Ill give you The One Show but in defence of the BBC (that may shock some people) it wouldnt be there, or on for most of the year at least, if they could commision new shows that would achieve solid ratings against Emmerdale.

I think BBC1 could air new half hour drama's/comedies in that slot. The Diary of Anne Frank rated well in that slot after all. The problem BBC1 do have is they can't utilise the EastEnders lead in because Coronation Street blocks it three nights out of four - but then again, they don't exactly show any creativity in using the remaining EastEnders lead on Tuesday.

I do agree the soaps are on too much.

I honestly think they could risk more in the slot than they do. The likes of Question of Sport and QI rate fine against Coronation Street and that pulls in more viewers.

they do ok, but they are not cheap to make, and you cant make 50 Diairy of Anne Franks a year, best limit them to say 4 a year, so they dont become routine and remain "event TV"

OK then, how about throwing BBC3 shows against Emmerdale and see if ratings could increase for the next batch of originals? Monday and Friday nights could see one hour programming; Tuesday and Thursday half hour programming. Shake it up a bit, be different.

And the same with ITV. Cut down on the soaps and take some risks. Not necessarily ITV2 shows (I'd take Emmerdale over Kerry Katona!) but how about a midweek light entertainment show or trying out some comedy?