It might boost ITV's award count, beaten by BBC 4 last night

5.25pm in the Spring?summer in May is primetime

This is nearly as good as your prediction that Mamma Mia the highest grossing movie ever at the UK Box office would only get in the high 2m's

Twenty years ago Andy you may have had a point when TV viewing was a lot different, nowadays 5:25pm is not primetime.

The awful CGI and the tram driver's comedy expression must have counted against Coronation St. I saw the clip again last night, and it made me laugh out loud again.

But 4.35pm is mid-afternoon?

Like the UEFA Cup that it took over from?

Strong figures for BBC1 and ITV1 last night. Scott and Bailey should beat Vera's rating next week, really, considering everything it has going for it.

to be fair, the BAFTA for "The Road to Corrie" could be shared with ITV.

With the launch of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5 a little over two months away, I thought I'd take a look at how the Channel 5 schedule may look in August, potentially one of C5's highest rating months ever. Here is my idea:

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/4388/c5bb.png

General themes:
* Highlights shows run weeknights at 10pm, where the only real competition is news, and 8pm and 10pm on Sundays.
* No highlights on Saturday as this is the lowest rated of the week, instead extra coverage is provided on the Sunday.
* Eviction nights move to Mondays with two shows at 8:30pm (after EastEnders) and 10pm, to kick start the week in style and to increase their ratings potential.
* Little Brother takes the 6:25pm timeslot on C5, with OK! TV reverting to a weekly format on Sunday evenings.
* Live streaming takes up a large portion of the 5* schedule, including every weeknight at 8pm and in the hour following any live show on C5.
* 8pm becomes the factual entertainment hour on C5, whilst 9pm showcases the very best documentaries, entertainment and drama series' the channel has to offer.
* Movies form a key part of the schedules, with a film guaranteed at 10pm every weeknight on either 5* or 5USA, and on weekend afternoons on Channel 5.
* Where possible existing successful programmes including CSI: Miami, Extraordinary People and The Mentalist retain their traditional timeslots.

Mondays
The change of night for the eviction shows may prove controversial with fans, and the outdoor eviction crowd may have to go (launch & finals would still have a crowd), but ultimately I think it makes sense to move it away from Fridays when its younger viewers are out on the tiles in many cases. In between I have slotted in Extraordinary People, which returns with some new episodes this summer and I think has a good chance of retaining a lot of those CBB viewers. Finally, Grey's Anatomy returns for a new season in the post-eviction slot.

Tuesdays
The Gadget Show returns in a new half-hour format, with CSI: Miami retaining its traditional Tuesday 9pm timeslot. Police Interceptors completes the lineup, returning for a fourth series in a new home. Steven Seagal: Law Man returns for a second series on 5USA.

Wednesdays
So You Think You Can't Drive makes its debut. This new series from Matchlight follows struggling drivers on the AA Drive With Confidence course as they grapple with their worst road fears. The Hotel Inspector also returns for new episodes, the final batch with Alex Polizzi at the helm.

Thursdays
Mexican Food Made Easy kicks things off in the 7:30pm timeslot, a new eight-part series from Blink Films. This is followed in the factual ent hour by hit consumer show Cowboy Builders. NCIS repeats move to Thursdays where later in the year they will alternate with football. Sons of Anarchy returns for a third season on 5USA.

Fridays
These stay largely the same- why fix something that's not broken? Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads arrives on Channel 5. The spinoff of the hit show offers more of the same, featuring fresh adventures from the IRT gang as they tackle some of the most dangerous roads in the Himalayas. It is followed by The Mentalist repeats, which proved popular last summer.

Saturdays
The only night of the week where Big Brother does not form a part of the C5 schedule, although a live task has been slotted in on 5* at 10pm to fill the void in its regular timeslot. Crime dramas Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and L&O: Criminal Intent return for brand new seasons on C5, forming part of a lineup of quality US crime drama, a real alternative to the light entertainment on BBC One and ITV1. Ideally start times will vary to match BBC One where possible.

Sundays
To make up for the fact there is no highlights show on the Saturday, there are two shows on the Sunday, sandwiched around Paul Merton's new series Great Escapes. Again, I think Paul stands a great chance of finding a strong audience here in a CBB sandwich. CBB itself is unlikely to have too much competition at 8pm, with The X Factor not airing on Sundays until September. It could also be used as a secondary eviction night later in the series. Completing the strong Sunday night lineup is Dave Berry fronted entertainment series The Beat Goes On, acting as a lead-in for CBB in the 7pm slot. It will be pitched as a youthful and fun alternative to older-skewing shows on BBC One and ITV1, produced by Gallowgate who were behind hit entertainment show Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway among others.

Any feedback welcome.

The Gadget Show (Five, 8pm) hoped to stop plunging ratings last week by having a scene with presenter Pollyanna Woodward in a bikini.
So tonight...a scene with presenter Pollyanna Woodward in a bikini

Dancc - Just in regards to the Big Brother evicition - I think it has to be on Friday nights (in general) because of an agreement between the production company and the local tennants, presumably because of crowd noise. I'd proposed previously on the Big Brother forum that they should move the eviction show to Sunday night for the same sort of reason you state and was told this.

Right, back to reading the rest of your post.

Hanson stated this on MOTD, and he knows Dalglish as well as anyone. And Harry has said he will send reserve teams out for the EL. Most fans don't want it, if there team is challenging for top 4. Fulham enjoyed it, but they are not CL quality.

Only people who want this are the directors. Of course, publicly the managers will toe the party line, but their body language tells it all.

(E4, Sky1, Sky Atlantic, ITV2, ITV3, Sky Sports) automatically have their HD figures included in the totals. Isn't it a little unfair not to include BBC programmes?

The BBCHD simulcast figures are:

0.12m - HATTIE (19/01/11) - BBC4
0.12m - FILM: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (25/04/11) - BBC3
0.23m - BEING HUMAN (23/01/11) - BBC3
0.04m - EASTENDERS (19/04/11) - BBC3

Junior Doctors, Family Guy and Last Crusade weren't simulcast.

Yes - they're allowed 23 evictions a year, 18 of which must be on Fridays. The only way that might change is if they ditched the crowd and opted for a studio audience instead - but can't really see C5 going down that route, though I'd be pleasantly surprised if they did.


C5 would be stupid really to revive BBLB or Big Mouth - both had kind of outgrown their purpose by the time the show finished and they'd be better off focusing energies on the main show, perhaps having a brief OK!BB feature in OK!TV instead. Streaming too would be better off focused online unless they can offer some kind of 24/7 service via TV (which isn't going to happen on Freeview!) Overnight streaming would require the ditching of Super Casino for Five and whatever 5* lets it over night hours out too - probably one of Desmonds other channels.

As for the main show - I agree they should ditch Saturday nights, but keep it simple the rest of the week. A 90-minute highlights show on Sundays at 9pm, hour-long shows Mon-Thu at 10pm then 90 minute eviction shows on Friday. There is no need to split them.

I still don't think BB is going to do C5 any favours - and considering they've been in a relatively strong position at 9pm and 10pm in regard of imports at least over recent years I think they're sacrificing a lot on one of Richard Desmond's whims really.

For me, it depends on the team. Next season, I think Fulham and Stoke will love it. Birmingham might see it as a distraction from attempting to gain promotion. Tottenham may see it as a distraction from getting fourth place.

Just think about this year - in the Champions League, Arsenal went out to Barcelona, Tottenham to Real Madrid and Chelsea to Manchester United: all three were pretty much expected to lose. In the Europa League, Liverpool went out to Braga and Manchester City exited to Dynamo Kiev: matches they were expected to win. I have no doubt if the matches had been played in the Champions League then Liverpool and Manchester City would've won.


Precisely - but if they want to rest players and are chasing for 'just' fourth place they'll play the strongest line up in the Premiership, not The Europa League.

My defination of prime time starts after the early evening news has finished and runs until the late news begins.

Seeing as you've gone into the effort to find those figures on BARB, I'll fix that for the chart next week.

I think Titchmarsh has gone, Klass going solo.

No idea about Meatloaf or Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen, I think both are disposable to be honest.

I think Grey's Anatomy should be tried out in an earlier slot, possibly on a different day. I don't think repeats should get better slots than new shows. I should've read this before remarking on the Big Brother eviction situation. I think it'll be a shame to lose the crowd but it may work better for them ratings wise. If they do elect to move Celebrity Big Brother, though, I'd go with:

7.30 How Do They Do It?
8.00 Emergency Bikers
9.00 Extraordinary People
10.00 Celebrity Big Brother
11.00 Late Night Film


This should work well. CSI always performs well in the 9pm slot and The Gadget Show may benefit from being cut down to 30 minutes...though may suffer from being directly against EastEnders.


Considering the failure of So You think You Can Dance? maybe they should rename that?


While the football is off season I'd air Grey's Anatomy at 9pm here, then NCIS repeats can take over when the schedule isn't so settled.


If they want to keep the crowd for the eviction this'll need to air on Friday nights. Maybe:

7.30 Ice Road Truckers
8.30 Celebrity Big Brother
9.30 The Mentalist
10.30 Celebrity Big Brother: The Interview


I'd air the Live Task on Channel 5. I don't think it'll be a good idea to drop the Saturday highlights package for this series. Channel 5 need to show they're dedicated to the good and bad of Big Brother; they shouldn't immediately axe the weakest performing show because they feel like it. I like the live task idea, though. I think I'd go with something like:

7.00 CSI: New York
8.00 CSI: Miami
9.00 Celebrity Big Brother: The Live Task
10.00 Celebrity Big Brother: Highlights
11.00 Law and Order: Criminal Intent


If they continue to air the Saturday night show then two episodes won't be needed on Sunday. I'd move The Beat Goes On to 8pm with a family film as a lead in, meaning OKTV can be rested throughout the summer.

According to this report....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...ay-League.html

Blackpool might pip Fulham to the Fair Play Europa League place. I could see Blackpool being slightly more of a ratings draw than Fulham (if than can keep hold of Ian Holloway), although I'm not too sure they would get past the qualifying stages.

They won't be interested either. It'd be better for England (and Channel 5) if Fulham qualify...at least they'd give the tournament a go.

Thanks for the response. Grey's Anatomy was demoted to the 11pm hour last year after consistently low ratings at 10pm. It's unlikely to return to a more high-profile slot this year I would have thought, but it may find an audience in the post-eviction slot, as well as boosting C5's late night share.

Good point about The Gadget Show clashing with EastEnders though. This could swap with Highland Emergency on Wednesdays. I wouldn't like to see How Do They Do It? back for a while though. It's been on far too much and the ratings have taken a nasty hit as a result.


LOL, good point. Some of these are working titles, such as Paul Merton's Great Escapes, and may be named something different by the time of broadcast.


If they are determined to keep Friday evictions, then this would be their best bet probably. Although I'm not sure about The Mentalist airing in that sandwich, especially a repeat, just seems a waste. In my schedule I put forward Extraordinary People, C5's hugely successful factual strand, and Paul Merton's Great Escapes as two shows which I think would rate brilliantly in that sandwich. I would rather see one or both of these utilised somehow.


Disagree here. I think C5 need to keep some things the same and the US crime dramas on Saturday should be one of those things. 11pm would be too late a start for Criminal Intent, and the new seasons of both that and Special Victims Unit will be ready to go from July. They can't air in their usual Thursday/Friday 10pm slots, so IMO the sensible thing to do would be move them to Saturdays. The removal of the low rating Saturday highlights show would be no loss, and remember Channel 4 did not carry Saturday highlights either for the very first series of BB. Back to basics is what they're promising, well this should be a part of that.

Ah, that was the fourth one. Yes, not sure why he was there in the first place really. Jenkins and the one with the hair are definately back though.

Wednesday is a relatively weak night for other channels though. The Apprentice will be over on BBC1 and it'll just be filler in the slot. ITV will no doubt go with a two hour drama but that should pull a different audience to Grey's Anatomy, Channel 4 will probably be airing either a cookery show or a show where someone gets naked and BBC2's dramas tend to be less mainstream. I'm not saying Grey's Anatomy would hit 2.5m+ but I would've thought it'd hold its own.


How Do They Do It? was just a quick example of what they could put there. The swap sounds fine between The Gadget Show and Highland Emergency.


They could always play with the theme of the programme based on the title - put Merton is Alcatraz and see how long it takes for him to get out.

Have I Got News For You may have to have some guest captains for the new series...


Fair point- maybe a simple swap of Merton on Friday and The Mentalist on Sunday?


I do think Channel 5 need to show dedication to all aspects of Big Brother, and the daily highlights package should be a key cornerstone for this; the low ratings on Saturday a kind of sacrifice for what the show's bringing in on other nights. Though in fairness two hours wouldn't be needed. The 9pm slot could be kept for one of the US shows then just the 10pm slot for the highlights package.

I actually think despite the previous dip in the show quality, tonights episode, points to a return to form, more in the Gadget Show thread.

Wow, impressive indeed.

I note from the Mediatel piece that the Saturday qualifying peaked at 3m too, which is brill.


Well, ITV could have made the drama itself. But I don't think ITV would have made a drama about the birth of ITV's greatest programme quite as well as the BBC did.

Makes one wonder how much better Coro St itself would be if the Beeb made it. I reckon it would have retained that extra touch of class it seems to have lost in the past 10-20 years.