Well, theoretically you could label any drama as a soap, in order to take a dig at a broadcaster you dislike.

ITV haven't had much luck with soap launches in the last ten years or so, where the BBC had Out of the Blue as a turkey, ITV had The Royal Today, Night and Day and two or three versions of Crossroads as a whole turkey farm, so it's not for want of trying, and they still manage to have more primetime soap than any other broadcaster.

They can't just extend The One Show on a whim. It needs to be budgeted for, and an 8pm start would harm EastEnders.

I don't normally beg but today I will make an exception... please watch! I want to see a hefty overnight figure in the morning, it deserves a big audience.

I'm annoyed they haven't promoted it enough, except for a generic one for the "finale week" which also included the two CSIs but didn't really highlight just how major tonight's episode is.

It did get Pick of the Day in a few papers today though, which is pleasing. And no, not just the Daily Star/Express.

for you Dancc I will.

Radio Times website says 11, Radio Times magazine says 9 and BBC website says 10, so take your pick.

You're too kind, sir.

The telly's not bad tonight actually for a Friday. I noticed a few good movies later in the evening. Tom Hanks is guesting on The Graham Norton Show. Plus I'll probably record C4's Comedy Gala and watch the whole thing in about half an hour tomorrow, whizzing through the rubbish bits and adverts.

just looking at Digiguide would it be alright if I watched HIGNFY first, and then start watching The Mentailst at 21:30?

Go on then. I'll let you off. All viewing before 2am counts.

I'll take your 2.5/3 hours of One Show and raise you 12 hours a week of This Morning/This Morning Saturday/This Morning Sunday.

The weather is warm and sunny now so soap figures may be down a good 10% tonight and it is Friday also. Can see Channel 4's Comedy Gala doing well tonight, although a 2hr 45mins it is a long haul - maybe 2.3m? last year it timeshifted to 2.50m but that was an April 5 broadcast (probably best watching it on 1 hour delay to ffwd ads and J Ross.)

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood moving throught the decades ought pick up more viewers, maybe breaking 2m. Clash of the night is HIGNFY against the final Injustice - can see BBC1 edging it by less than 10%.

I think there are definately 11 episodes left, 2 from last year and 9 meant for this series. They may air 10 and leave one as a Christmas special.

talking of Digiguide, an update would be nice about now.

I'd still count Holby City and Casualty as soaps as they are never off air. So much for fresh and creative programming when BBC1 can't use their strongest EastEnders lead in because of Holby City plonked in the way.

TBF, I think they're actually harming the shows by airing them so much (and it's exactly the same with Coronation Street and Emmerdale). They need to cut down and focus on quality instead of quantity.


Since when have they been primetime? (Yes, I know I picked on Doctors but I then replaced with The One Show when challenged )

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EastEnders and The Duke at 90 recorded strong figures for BBC1. Megacities isn't working in the slot; it's not the kind of programme they can really set up aainst the soaps IMO - more established programming needs to take that slot with Megacities battling it out against weaker opposition at 9pm. ITV1 had a good night, with Emmerdale's euthansia storyline still providing a boost for it. At least Injustice didn't drop anymore.

Does it show the state Channel 4 is in that I think they've had a good night simply because every show topped 1m? Extreme Fishing and Outlaw did well for Channel 5, but Zoo Days epecially struggled. Mock the Week seems to have made a sluggish start...maybe Dermot's Comedy gala taking away a few viewers? Springwatch did well.

Yeah, that sounds reasonable to me.

I notice next Friday's episode is one from last year's series ten DVD, but the following Friday's episode is not.

And if Eastenders ever moved Holby from that slot, you can bet your savings on an episode of Corrie being moved there within weeks.

If EastEnders moved Holby City from that slot? Wow, the show's got more clout than I knew.

the only way ITV could've fought the Tuesday night slaughter they've been suffering is to move the soaps against Holby yet they didn't do it. So I do wonder whether they would move Coronation Street whether Holby City was there or not.

I watched 2 BBC1 programmes in a row last night.

Just thought I'd mention that.

You know what I mean.

The ITV strategy for Tuesdays seems to be to just write it off, use it for cheap factual and concentrate on other days. Moving Corrie permanently against Holby would probably help a little but may be deemed to damage Corrie too much to make it worthwhile. If Holby wasnt there, I think ITV would definately have a look at changing their strategy for Tuesdays.


Well done George. Did you have to have a cold shower afterwards?

For research purposes ? Surely not for pleasure

Perhaps because BBC1 was showing BBC2 shows from 8-10. Its just not very often that there is something on BBC1 that appeals to me.

...Nurse!


I certainly think, with the football changing nights after next season, they'd be tempted if Holby City moved (or, heaven forbid, had a break). BBC1 needed to make the move straight after ITV realligned their soap schedule. Though ITV do throw their shows around, they don't do it lightly.

Channel 5 are launching The Wright Stuff Extra on Monday 27th June. That's an extra hour a day of Britain's sharpest daytime show. Good times!

No other details yet so I don't know who will be presenting or what the format will be, but it will run from 11:05am to 12:05pm. The rather generic description reads "More on today’s hot topics from the Wright Stuff team."

Also The Vanessa Show is gone from afternoons, with Law & Order taking its place. The new Channel 5 daytime schedule in full:

WEEKDAYS 0600-1700
0600 Milkshake!
0915 The Wright Stuff
1105 The Wright Stuff Extra (NEW)
1205 5 News Lunchtime
1220 TBC
1315 Home & Away
1345 Neighbours
1415 Law & Order
1515 Afternoon Movie

Looks like a ridiculous bit of scheduling to me, whereas other channels put their 'extra' shows on their lower ranking digital channels, 5 put it on the main channel.

Why not just extend 'The Wright Stuff' by an hour, unless by 'extra' they mean an hour full of repeats.

Five USA & 5* are not on at that time of day anymore, not sure why they didnt just extended it, maybe its partly to find out if people want an extra hour, and maybe the line up will change between shows.

He was the first producer of Millionaire, so he landed on his feet anyway.

The decline of Noel's House Party was depressing, from 1996 onwards it was in a right state, the problems began when they replaced the old dancing trestle tables titles with the ones featuring shots of a real country house (and I always thought it seemed stupid to make Crinkley Bottom look like a normal house, the point was it was a fantasy world) and that nasty dance theme tune.

Then the 1996/97 series was pretty crap, they started getting live bands on, which never seemed to fit in, and they had Gotchas in the USA which didn't work as when they presented the Gotcha they had to then explain to the victim what a Gotcha was. I also remember in show one they did a crappy "phone call" with Charlton Heston plugging a film, and that series was the first time they did the show live from America, which was disastrous, it just died on its arse, the audience didn't laugh at anything.

Then in 1997/98, it got even worse, I'd watched most of the previous series, with diminishing enthusiasm, but gave up on this one after show one and defected to Blind Date. They'd changed next to nothing and in November they did another US one, which was ridiculous. Then in December Guy Freeman left and then in January there was that unscheduled two week break because of all the behind the scenes ructions, and really it should have ended then because clearly it was spiralling out of control.

Then the final series had all those interviews with Noel saying they'd sorted out all the problems, there was a new team and everything, but show one was just as bad as before. It had got so awful in the end I couldn't even bear to watch the last one. Of course even Noel says they should have ended in 1996. It was like The Big Breakfast in the end, with constant revamps which just annoyed the few viewers who were sticking with it and not attracting any new ones.


If The Bill's ratings hadn't plummeted, ITV would also have a "soap" there week in week out, so again it's not for want of trying, Up until 2008 that was twice weekly too, and the move from two shows to one a week almost certainly wasn't down to any great thirst to freshen the schedules up. Indeed while The Bill was twice weekly, Tuesday 8-9pm was the only pre-watershed slot available in the entire week.

That said, there was a ridiculous comment on Points of View the other week from someone saying there should be a second episode of Holby City a week. There already is one, it's called Casualty!