Yeah, that would just about fit, bit of a squeeze though!


Sorry, I meant Alibi. AFAIK it has not aired on Watch.

I hope so, tbh despite the bad reaction Made In Chelsea got for its first episode, its ratings went up for the 2nd episode

Idol has aged a lot this year and I can only put it down to the new panel and the new scheduling as it now clashes with Survivor instead of Dancing With The Stars, and the former is a much younger-skewing show. The week-on-week decline is really weird for the first part of the final (if it gets confirmed) - the change of day must have confused people. On the positive side it means the finale is on a Wednesday rather than a Thursday and it's been much stronger in the demo on Wednesdays than on Thursdays this year for some reason.

4.0 looks about right for The Voice too. It should get a boost next week as the AGT premiere averaged 12.4m and a 3.6 from 8-10pm last year, rising to 13.4m and a 4.1 in the 9pm hour and ~4.3 between 9:30-10pm, so the stronger lead in should boost it in both the demo and especially total viewers as AGT skews older than The Biggest Loser.

I wonder how So You Think You Can Dance will do this Summer for FOX. SYTYCD starts tomorrow and last year it premiered with 8.25m and 3.0 in the demo last year but lost a lot of steam over the series and the final ended up with 6.75m and 2.3 which wasn't too much more than the previous few weeks and only in line with the series average, which suggests that people just weren't interested in the result. The final was also down a whopping 34% on Summer 2009, which suggests it could be a decent bit down on last year tomorrow. Where it goes from there depends on how good this series is as last year's series was criticised by fans of the show due to format changes, which definitely accelerated the decline.

EDIT: You're predictions were very good, Idol averaged 19.96m and 6.2 in the demo, whilst The Voice dropped to a 3.8.

just think one day there may be one set in Peterborough

As for CSI Miami, double episodes are possible, but I like the Saturday option better.

Ridiculous state of affairs re Luther. It's been trailed for weeks already. Aren't viewers going to get fed up of seeing the trailer before the show starts?

More so given that BBC1 has filled its flagship Monday night slot with low-rating crud all this month. They could have aired Luther during May on Mondays.

Were they scared off by a cheapo documentary about a prison?

Confirmed C5 Schedule Mon 06.06.11

8pm The Gadget Show (Series Finale)
9pm The Hotel Inspector (Series Finale)
10pm The Restaurant Inspector (New Series)

Bit of a risk they've taken there, but you can see the logic behind it. May work, may not.

Does anyone have any predictions about how EastEnders will do next week versus Britain's Got Talent? Last year in the week they clashed, it was:

31/05 - 4.9m (19.0%) vs 10.7m (43.1%)
01/06 - 6.2m (26.0%) vs 9.8m (39.5%)
03/06 - 5.0m (25.4%) vs 9.6m (48.2%)
04/06 - 4.3m (20.7%) vs 9.0m (45.0%)
Average = 5.1m (22.8%) vs 9.8m (44.0%)

With the officials looking like:

31/05 - 5.95m vs 11.82m
01/06 - 7.01m vs 11.16m
03/06 - 5.71m vs 10.41m
04/06 - 4.99m vs 10.13m
Average = 5.92m vs 10.88m

Providing their schedule actually stays intact this year, I don't envisage any big rises however I don't see any dramatic falls this year. Of course the figures will be good, I just don't see any big 11m/12m figures like they were in 2009. Plus, I think the amount of genuinely good acts is less this year; although I haven't been keeping much of an eye on the show this year, have watched some episodes - but its not been 'must watch' TV like previous years.

ABC:
9pm - Dancing With The Stars - 20.97m (4.5)
* Season finale
* Up 15% from 2010 spring finale (its lowest ever)
* Up 29% from last week
* Final half hour - 22.59m (5.0)

FOX:
8pm - American Idol - 19.96m (6.2)
* Down 7% from last years final numbers
* Down 16% from last weeks finals
* Second lowest rated in season performance show ever
* Likely to end up similar to last year in total viewers
9pm - Glee - 12.10m (4.6)
* Season finale
* Highest rating since March
* Retained 74% of lead-in and held throughout the hour (first half - 4.8, second half - 4.5)
* Up 28% from last week

NBC:
8pm - The Biggest Loser - 8.08m (3.1)
* Season finale
* Up 11% from last week
* Down 21% from last spring
* Lowest ever finale episode
10pm - The Voice - 8.55m (3.8)
* Down 16% from last week
* Has lost 1.9 points in 3 weeks (33%)

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...e-voice/93836/

So, that didn't turn out as I expected!

So what happened?

Firstly, for Idol. One factor is that it aired for just one hour at 8pm - the first time this season it hasn't run at least 90 minutes. Aside from the fact that 8pm rates worse than 9pm, these shows build over their runtime anyway. But even compared to the 8pm hour (6.7) last week, it was down quite a bit. Perhaps the change of night caught people out. A Tuesday semi-final earlier this season didn't see any notable change so I can see why FOX wouldn't have expected it to make a difference now.

NOTE: When I say second lowest "in-season", it means September-May. Season 1 had lower episodes but they all aired in the summer. The lowest is a top 5 show last season which had a 6.2 and 17.5m viewers. In finals, last nights show will likely eclipse that number.

Great numbers for DWTS. ABC already have a press release out which notes that it's the first show ever to top a Tuesday finale of American Idol.

The Voice is more of a puzzle. You'd think that if it just lost viewers to DWTS, it would have seen a proportionately greater fall in total viewers than A18-49? But as it happens, it was the other way around with total viewers down just 13%. Furthermore, it had a stronger lead-in than last week and only built slightly on the 3.6 for the final half hour of TBL whereas it has tended to grow significantly.

Next week, the lead-in is America's Got Talent. The season 5 premiere averaged a 3.6 rating and finished up with a 4.0 (or a 4.1, can't remember exactly) in the final half hour. The following week, The Voice shifts to 2 hour shows from 9-11pm with AGT airing 8-9pm.

Jeez, that's a lot of reality TV in one night. We don't know how lucky we are over here sometimes!

Clearly great numbers for Idol and DWTS. The Voice was squeezed out by the big boys it seems.

you are right, but I wouldnt go saying that too much, people tend not to like to look on the bright side.

I think it must now hold the record for longest trailing of any BBC show for as long as I can remember, and that means with a trailer specifically for one show, not including the "season trails" we see, or Doctor Who, which had it's first 2005 trailer, just short of 4 months before TX.

Hustle had a full three weeks for it's first season and that's as long as I can remember., this is gonna be approaching 6 by the time it's on... and Case Histories is going to get about 10 days !!!

Anyway, it couldn't be on during early May, It was still filming during March, too fast a turnaround.

It seems to happen like that because US seasons are more structured (which is why Idol ended up on a Tuesday this week) and the reality "tent-poles" always go right to the end. I remember last September, the week before the season started "officially", you had the Survivor premiere, a 2 hour Big Brother finale, the Masterchef (I think 2 hour) finale and the 2 hour America's Got Talent finale all on one night.

I suspect CBS would have been fine to air their season finales last night - they tend to hold up well vs Idol & DWTS anyway.

Of course, from Thursday it's all reality. Even less effort being made for network scripted this summer. Meanwhile there's going to be more scripted series on more cable channels than ever this summer - probably in the 30-40 hour a week region.

For historical comparison, American Idol finale ratings:

Performance:
2002: 18.96m
2003: 25.67m
2004: 25.13m
2005: 28.05m
2006: 31.78m
2007: 25.33m
2008: 27.06m
2009: 23.82m
2010: 20.07m
2011: 19.96m (preliminary)

Results:
2002: 23.02m
2003: 38.06m
2004: 28.84m
2005: 30.27m
2006: 36.38m
2007: 30.76m
2008: 31.66m
2009: 28.84m
2010: 24.22m
2011: ?????

Last night should post an increase vs last year in total viewers once final numbers are in (though it'll be down in A18-49). Back to a 2 hour show on a regular night after a strong season, I think tonights show will be back on track with several million more viewers than last year and probably a decent rise in A18-49.

I read he's presenting BSkyB's Champions League football coverage next season, but it doesn't mention Premier League. Maybe if he was doing Premier League only (with no overseas travelling), he could have kept the Countdown job.

I thought you didn't approve of all-in-one Strictly Come Dancing shows at any stage of the series?

I recall a bit of grumbling about them in 2009.

Jeff Stelling will be a huge loss to Countdown. They will have a very tough time replacing him as he was the perfect host for the show after two disasters.

As they seem intent on continuing the show according to the press story they have to get it right.

Jo Brand would be an interesting option, given her new found status and her Countdown pedigree - though - and sadly it will not happen, of course - but why not ask Carol back to host... The viewers would love that reconciliation and she always talks fondly. Frankly she is one of the few people who could rescue it from losing yet another host so soon.

You're quite right, I don't approve - for any show they're a terrible idea (as was the concensus for BGT last year).

I'm just interested by the way Robbie seems convinced that ITV are solely driven by the desire for The X Factor to beat The Royal Wedding and BGT to beat SCD in the Digital Spy Ratings Thread Year End Chart. I didn't realise we awarded prizes for that.

They talk about nothing else in the ITV Towers canteen apparently.

Am I wrong to think that ITV can move Corrie back to Wednesdays soon?

They could move it back to Wednesdays from the week after the BGT finals, but what's the point of that, as it'll have to move away from the slot when the football season starts 10 weeks on anyway.

Oh right, when does football move back to Tuesdays then?

Didn't realise EastEnders had collapsed so much against BGT last year - and interestingly not really picked it up in the officials (indeed BGT had the bigger timeshift), though of course I'm sure EE performed well at 10pm on BBC3 for the week.

As you say I think ratings will remain pretty steady this year, though the show is certainly lacking talent this year, which is a shame really as the refreshed judging line up has really worked. Having seen six of the seven audition shows I couldn't say anyone stands out as an obvious potential winner, unlike previous years.


It's always seemed odd they had just an hour for the performances in finale week - I suspect if Cowell gets his way he'll have the full two-hours both nights, though probably with an extra finalist.


I think it is more down to filming dates than overseas travel as Countdown is usually filmed Monday to Wednesday or Monday to Thursday, filming a week a day. Jeff has always been honest that he is first and foremost a football presenter, and an opportunity has come his way which is too good to turn down.

Which of Britain's Got Talent/The X Factor do you expect to rate higher for its final (results show) this year? The former because it's only thirty minutes, or the latter because it rated so well last year?

we could invite them, and if they come, we can book a venue.

The football moves back to Tuesdays from September 2012. The last Wednesday Champions League football match will be in April 2012, so in theory they could bring back the Wednesday 7.30pm Corrie episodes from the start of May next year.

But knowing ITV, I have a feeling it might not end up being as simple as that, and they might not necessarily reinstate Corrie back to its old Wednesday slot, even though they ought to.

I see. Well, I think they should do something now, really. I've run out of ideas as to what.