As far as Life Of Riley goes, they ordered 3 series after the sucsess of the first one so I believe there will still be another run.

More strong ratings for Waterloo and TA. As rzt says BBC1 have a very strong Wednesday schedule now, especially since ITV took away the winning 7-9pm formula they used to have. Waterloo is now rating on par with Casualty and Holby-very impressive really considering the competition is pretty much the same what Holby gets. I think the boost is obviously from the slot change, but also from the hugely improved quality of this series addressing school issues and hard hitting stories more.

Pretty strong for Emmerdale with almost 7m and a share above 35%. I really am surprised how much it has held up since January, because almost everyone has noticed a dramatic decrease in quality. Poor for Midsomer-will be interesting to see if it bounces back after TA finishes.

24 Hours In A&E is doing very well considering the competition and I reckon a recomission will see it move to an easier slot, perhaps on Mondays.

Not sure what's going wrong on Ch5 in the 8pm slot atm, because last year they has virtually everything above 1m and they set that as a benchmark, but now there's hardly anything above 1m-even the reliable Gadget Show. NCIS held up well.

Great rating for Waterloo Road, highest since November 2009. In fact 5.3m fits in as one of its top 5 overnight ratings ever, depends on how it is to 2 decimal places.

I think it should timeshift to its highest rating ever, because in 2009 the Scotland viewing aired on Sundays I think?

Ratings banker Midsomer Murders being walloped by Grange Hi..., sorry, Waterloo Road!

That 7.30 shift seems to be a rare BSI scheduling masterstroke!

I wonder how ITV will respond? Shift the 8pm programming to 7.30-9.30 with filler at 9.30? Or panic-move Corrie/double EmFm to Weds 7.30?

Like a game of scheduling-chess, it's ITV's move next...

Brilliant for The Apprentice. I guess WR denting MM early helped it later, even with LOR continuing to do badly.

Notable mention for You're Fired, a very good number for that too given the news would probably have been a draw for the ABC1 audience with the Obama visit/speech.

Good to see I'm not the only person watching the brilliant Stewart Lee. 400k is pathetic, obviously, but listening to him last night I think he'll be disappointed it wasn't lower than that - he keeps talking about "refining" his audience.

That's a good bit of euphemistic spin we could use in this thread...

5.33m (25.6%) for Waterloo Road to 2 decimal places. It looks to be the joint 4th highest overnight rating for the show. Although I'm not certain as some of the older ratings I have are only to 1 decimal place:


Yes it could well do. The highest ever overnight rating for Waterloo Road was on 13th March 2008 when it pulled an overnight of 6m. However that is a false rating as it was not aired in Scotland. Waterloo Road dropped to 5.47m in the officials for that episode. The reason for the huge difference was BBC Scotland airing the 2nd leg of a big football match (Werder Bremen v Rangers) thereby inflating the overnights. The same thing had happened the previous week with the 1st leg of the match when Waterloo Road came in with 5.9m overnights.

Actually thinking about it, taking into account all the inflated Scottish football episodes last night could well have been the 2nd highest overnight Waterloo Road rating ever.

I would have thought they are two completely different audiences. WR is as you say basically a kids show in primetime. MM is reaching a much older audience. I doubt the overlap in audiences is very significant.

MMs low figure is probably due to irregular scheduling with no show last week or next week denting any momentum it might have from a regular run.

Of course longer term in 15 months time, CL coverage will be going back to Tuesdays and ITV will adjust their schedule according (although why should give the BBC 15 months notice of their intentions?)

Yep, interesting times ahead for that Wednesday night slot. As you've said, surely ITV will have to respond to this because at the moment their shows starting at 8pm are being dented by a stronger Waterloo Road having a half an hour head-start. Although whatever they do probably wouldn't be possible until May next year at the earliest. The options I see are:

1. move Corrie back to Wednesday 7.30pm, dropping either the Thu or Fri 8.30pm episode. The problem here is that they'd be left with awkward 30-minute slots to fill on Thu/Fri at 8.30pm and also on Thursdays in particular, the 9pm shows would not rate as well as they have been doing recently due to the loss of Corrie inheritence.
2. have 60-minutes of Emmerdale on Wednesday 7pm, dropping the Thursday 8pm episode. Like point 1 though, they'll have an awkward 8pm slot to fill, although something like Countrywise in a 30-minute slot could do alright there. But this would isolate Corrie at 8.30pm and that Thursday episode could rate even worse than how it does atm due to more people watching BBC1 from 8pm and not switching over at 8.30pm.
3. shift the current Wednesday 8-10pm programming to 7.30-9.30pm, however that leaves another awkward 30-minute slot at 9:30pm. Last time they had a show at 9.30pm like that, it bombed (2.1m for TV Burp repeat).
4. leave the soaps where they are at the moment, launch a new continuing scripted drama on Wednesdays at 7:30pm (initially for 10 episodes) in a similar mold to E'Dale/Corrie - set in a Northern place, working class people, lots of elderly female characters, simple storylines to follow. With a E'Dale lead-in, it could get a solid 5-5.5m I reckon, especially bearing in mind cheap factual filler in that slot recently like The Unforgettable and Poms in Paradise have been managing 4.0-4.5m. If the show's a hit, have an extended 20-week run the following series, then 30-weeks, slowly extended the episode order, exactly like what the Beeb have done with WR.
5. commission an extra 30-minutes of Emmerdale/Corrie to air at Wednesday 7:30pm. Hope this doesn't happen, it would be the lazy option and cause a further decline in the quality of the shows.
6. do nothing, leave it all as it is at the moment and continue to see BBC1 making inroads on Wednesday nights.

I can see pros and cons with most of the above options. I'm sure there are some other, more radical options available to them too! Don't have a clue what they'll do to be honest, but the BSI's scheduling change for WR recently and the demise of The Bill has certainly made things more interesting on Wednesday nights.

And we know how much importance the oldies place on being regular...

It's just a shame that nobody at all on either side of the Atlantic highlighted that might be a problem beforehand. I just don't get why TV execs can't see the obvious so often!


Some interesting stuff there, but apart from Anthony and Cleopatra I don't see much potential for returning series.


Surprised actually they're holding them back till next year - I thought they'd be back in the autumn at latest. Perhaps C4 are finally learning not to milk their hits.

I'm sure it'll rebound quite comfortably.


The last thing ITV needs is yet another soap-esque drama - and frankly it makes much more business sense to have something like Poms in Paradise getting 4m+ than a scripted series getting 5-6m.

If they did go for scripted in the slot it would be nice to see them dip their toe into comedy, but I do think the best option is the lazy one - move Corrie back (from Friday). I'm sure something like Countrywise would do better in the 8-9pm slot on Fridays than it does on Tuesdays, even with the half-hour clash with EastEnders (indeed, especially with the half-hour class with EE) - and of course the lazy option of drama repeats from 8-10pm would also be open to them.

And as I've said before I'd like ITV to take the opportunity to revamp it's midweek schedule and commission some midweek entertainment formats, rather than just more Midsomer Murders.

Could they not chop the remaining The Royals up into 30 minute chunks and burn those off over the next [x] months/years(?) in a 7.30 slot, post EmFm?

Is it worth it though? I would guess if they wanted drama at 7.30pm they're more likely to go for 90-minute formats than 30-minute.

If they went for the hour-long Emmerdale option they could always have an hour-long Corrie on Thursday at 8pm (dropping Fri 8.30) - or indeed have the two hour-long editions back to back on Wednesdays, opening up Thursday 8pm for something new - perhaps a police drama set in London or something!

Pleased to see Luthor on the BBC Press website, lets hope it sticks, wonder what day it will be on, I fear it will be Tuesday.

I think this is clearly the option that works best. The only issue is whether it is Thursday or Friday Corrie that moves.

In any case, the BBC success at 7.30 on Wednesdays should actually help them craft out better slots for themselves in future. If it is the Friday 8.30 Corrie that gets shifted, then BBC One will at last have won back one more post-EE slot that serves as a great launch bed for comedy (much better than the Wednesday 8.30 slot they're getting by with now).

I noticed from Piers Morgan's interview that Des O'Connor is available for tv work. Maybe ITV can bring back Des O'Connor Tonight to ITV1 on Wednesdays at 8 o'clock

Was it definately new? Radio Times said it was new but DS Ratings report said it was a repeat.


http://www.digitalspy.ie/tv/s108/the...en-by-75m.html

EDIT just checked the MM thread and it was new.

I do enjoy reading Paul Millar's ratings roundups, but there's several mistakes & omissions in there:
1. Saying Midsomer was a repeat
2. Quoting the wrong figure for NCIS.
3. Missing out key primetime programmes: Waterloo Road, Life Of Riley, Poms In Paradise.

What Australia Watched Wednesday 25 May 2011


1 State Of Origin Rugby League Qld V Nsw 1st – Match Nine 2,227,000
2 State Of Origin Rugby League Qld V Nsw 1st – Pre Match Nine 1,471,000
3 Today Tonight Seven 1,352,000
4 Australia’s Got Talent-Wed Seven 1,286,000
5 Seven News Seven 1,277,000
6 Masterchef Australia Wed Ten 1,236,000
7 Nine News Nine 1,171,000
8 Home And Away Seven 1,131,000
9 State Of Origin Rugby League Qld V Nsw 1st – Post Match Nine 1,108,000
10 The Oprah Winfrey Show – Finale Week Wed Ten 1,006,000
11 A Current Affair Nine 956,000
12 ABC News ABC1 895,000
13 The 7pm Project Ten 826,000
14 Angry Boys ABC1 805,000
15 Spicks And Specks ABC1 729,000
16 Ten News At Five Ten 686,000
17 Hot Seat Nine 660,000
18 Criminal Minds (R) Seven 641,000
19 The Big Bang Theory -Rpt Nine 618,000
20 Deal Or No Deal Seven 603,000
21 Criminal Minds-Ep.2 (R) Seven 522,000
22 7.30 ABC1 512,000
23 6.30 With George Negus Ten 460,000
24 Lie To Me Wed Ten 457,000
25 The Bold And The Beautiful Ten 435,
26 Sunrise Seven 406,000
27 Neighbours Eleven 394,000
28 The New Inventors ABC1 365,000
29 Hungry Beast ABC1 360,000
30 Two And A Half Men -Ep1 Nine 355,000

In fairness, with it only getting 4.58m and losing out to Waterloo Road, it might have been safe to assume it was a repeat...


I'm sure people would watch. It was a good show in its prime.

I often wonder why ITV doesn't try and go "back to the future" a bit, to the glory days of churning out hit after hit, rather than continually plugging every gap with cheap filler, fluff and endless soap.

And why does nearly every entertainment format have to involve celebrities and/or "talent"?

Maybe they just haven't got the cash any more?

Because they have the same budget today spread across 5 channels as they used to have to run 1 channel. Welcome to the world of multi channel.

Surprised it isnt being brought back this year to gain from the Christmas advertising rates.

I'm a pretty big ITV fan but that logic makes no sense to me. ITV weren't forced to launch digital channels. They did so believing that they would make money. They digital channels should turn their own profit and hence not impact the budget for ITV1.

If it's 2 stories of 2 x 60 minutes, it might be going out on Thursdays and Fridays.

Poor for Midsomer it has to be said. I do wonder if it is heading in the same direction as Heartbeat and The Royal to a certain extent. It's done well for its lifespan, but now is probably the time to rest it.

Waterloo Road's future is secure, that's for certain. Brilliant move whoever thought of moving it to 7:30pm.

If ITV didnt have digital channels they would be in a worse position - because ITV not having them wouldnt stop Sky, Ch4, five and many others - rolling out digital channels. ITV1 share would have decreased regardless without the offset of ITV2/3/4 in your proposition.