I think it was five programmes:

Total Wipeout: Fast Forward (Fri): 1.4m
Robin Hood (Sat): 1.9m
National Lottery Draws (Sat): 1.6m
Reggie Perrin (Sat): 1.5m
BBC News (Sat): 1.3-1.6m

This week Auntie can relax. ITV1 only has its two big soaps to guarantee it big ratings and I reckon the ratings balance will shift in BBC One's favour.
Between BGT and TXF ITV1 tends to fare badly in the ratings and they don't seem to care as if the weather is good, most people will be out. This is when they tend to show more of their PSB output, or stick on a reality show they know would die in the winter.

Thanks. I remember a My Family repeat just creeping past 2m on the Thursday night, and I think the first screening of Reggie Perrin got 2 point something on the Friday night.

I can't remember much else about what was on that week.

Well there would be the BBC One staples like EE and TOS, Channel 5 no doubt would be showing an imported drama and BB would have started on Channel 4. 2009 was the year BB fans would rather forget, as the ratings fell to 1.4 million at one stage and Channel 4 decided to call it a day.
As for BGT, I predict it will run until 2014 at least.

An underwhelming number for the final after an up and down series. But overall, to be level with last year is pretty good going considering the first few weeks were supposed to be ratings disasters!


In the US the producers (John De Mol & Mark Burnett) had NBC convinced that another network was going to buy the format and ended up getting $1.4m a show.

Right now, it probably pays for the producers to hold off and count on the idea that the US ratings go up again for the next few weeks when it returns to 9pm. Especially with the America's Got Talent lead-in which has drawn in a larger total audience - something that the BBC are likely more interested in than the adults 18-49 number.

I don't know why Channel 4 are staying out of it. Sure, it's highly derivative but if the BBC are in for it I don't see why they shouldn't be. At least they can use the excuse that they actually do have to make some money!

The thing about ITVs saturday night programming is that it really isn't that good, but it's a great deal better than the BBCs (other than Dr Who)

I'm sure the BBC could get 12m for a sat night entertainment again, but they must more away from dancin' celebs and twee theatre-land singing contests.

BGT's 5 minute peaks (incl +1) were 14.0m and 14.4m last night, which interestingly is exactly the same as in 2008. Overall whilst the number for the final result is a bit underwhelming overall it's done well this year. Rzt made a good point that as the performances show was a bit flat less people were bothered about the result (or just thought Ronan would win and didn't bother).

Operastar's rating will be interesting tonight. Last night's rating doesn't fill me with hope, but also I suspect there are a lot of PSTOS viewers who have no interest in BGT and won't have even known about last night's preview as all the trailers have only mentioned tonight. I still think it'll get 4-5m.

Sorry, but can someone post Take Me Out's official ratings for the first 2 series? Looking back it was even a bigger success then we though considering PTO just got over 6m last night with an extremely strong lead in. I'm sure TMO was constantly 5m+ with no good lead in.

ITV have a stripped crime drama this week in the vein of Collision, so if that takes off, it might not be a straight win for BBC1.


With the big advertising push aimed at tonight and not last night, its probably not the best indication of how it will do. I imagine it will start somewhere around 5.5m, drop to around 4-5m for the rest of the series and then back up to 5m for the final. Last years show was up against a strong series of Celebrity Big Brother and the ratings for Popstar to Opera Star went up a fair bit, but as it was so close to the end it couldn't really gain momentum. But the results show will be a disaster, I can't see that getting more than 4m from 10-10.30pm.

I'm glad you said that, because DS are comparing 5-minute peak (2010) vs 15-minute peak (2011) - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s107/...rabs-125m.html


I know you don't have access to the 5-minute peaks now Paul, but please don't do invalid comparisons...

I should note however that their 14.1m in last year's article actually excludes HD, so technically both peaks in the context they are presented in are wrong...

Regarding The Voice, I think ITV are probably thinking that as it's pretty certain it'll be airing in the UK on a network, it might as well be on their own network. At least then they can control when it airs and how long it runs, and if it works they have a new hit. NBC are paying $1.4m per episode which isn't cheap, and BBC1 won't spend anywhere near that amount on it, so there is a question over whether they can afford it, and if they get it will it look cheap? The judging panel needs to be really good for it to work, and star judges don't come cheap (Gary Barlow is apparently getting £1.5m for TXF, whilst the SCD judges get £120k or something similar to that). Of course if ITV get it, it could only run in certain parts of the year (Q1 or Q3) whilst BBC1 could run it whenever except during SCD. So it really could go anywhere, and I'm surprised C4 don't want it. I think we'll definitely be seeing it over here on a main channel next year though.

Any estimates on Popstar tonight, I reckon 4 million, which is respectable for a summer show. Also as it is opera based, I reckon a high percentage of the audience will ABC1s, which will please ITV1.

I thought Operastar would shed a lot of viewers from Talent, but I can't help wondering where they all went for half an hour.

4.2m I reckon.

Some more ratings from DS yesterday:

ITV1
19:30- Britain's Got Talent Final: 11.18m (47.7%) , +1: 430k
* peak: 13.4m/14.0m (exc/inc +1)
21:00- Popstar To Operastar: 6.28m (27.1%)
21:30- Britain's Got Talent Final Results: 12.19m (49.3%) , +1: 300k
* peak: 14.1m/14.4m (exc/inc +1)

Channel 4
18:30- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King: 1.33m (5.8%) , +1: 296k
22:15- X-Men: The Last Stand: 1.31m (9.0%) , +1: 212k

BBC Three
19:30- Doctor Who Confidential: 540k (2.3%)

ITV2
22:00- Britain's Got More Talent: 1.83m (9.2%) , +1: 175k

Primetime Shares
ITV1: 37.9% (+1: 1.3%)
BBC One: 13.6%
BBC Two: 7%
Channel 4: 5.9%
Channel 5: 4.1%

Sources: DS

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Full roundup already posted here: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=2361


Take Me Out official series averages:

Series 1: 4.83m
Series 2: 5.14m (inc +1)

Officials for each episode of series 2 were (in episode order): 6.23m, 5.26m, 3.30m, 4.26m, 4.78m, 4.93m, 4.91m, 4.80m, 5.27m, 5.01m, 5.53m, 5.94m, 5.58m, 6.19m.

Well it certainly wasn't to So You Think You Can Dance! It's pretty odd actually, as most of them were probably still watching TV. I think ITV missed a trick not having More Talent on for half an hour on ITV2, but that might have dented Operastar even more I suppose.

Do we still get all day shares on any websites?

And with 18 episodes down, 2 left the So You Think You Can Dance series average is now 3.11m (16.0%). Looks like the average won't slip under 3m.

I have to wonder how low SYTYCD results would have gone at 9.30pm!

Maybe the BBC will be hoping to keep hold of last night's 2.2m for next week's final.

Thanks. Quite high ratings, two surpassing 6m, not bad for a show which had Push The Button lead in which was getting just over 4m at the time. What happened to the third episode getting 3.3m? What was the competition?

could that be the BBC 2 finale rating, when it was moved due to tennis?


i dont think it did too well, despite giving us Girls Aloud, also back then Cowells dominace was not what it is now.

If you can believe it, there was a time when ITV didnt have a Simon Cowell show on it.

I feel bad for Doctor Who, it was an awsome episode, and the series has over all been good, guess the weather hasnt helped.

BBC 1 does seem to need something on Saturday

The bidding for the US broadcast rights to the 2014/2016 Olympic package could bring some big changes. NBC have had the Olympics for years now and under the previous owners, seemed willing to tolerate big losses for a showpiece event. New owners Comcast aren't so willing to see a big loss and have axed the long standing head of NBC Sport.

Cable is the major factor here. The big concern for Comcast is that Walt Disney Company (owners of ABC & ESPN) are sniffing around. As a cable provider, Comcast pay ESPN nearly $5 a month - more than they'd like and far more than any other channel. But they have no real choice and ESPN getting the Olympics would make the situation worse. On the other hand, Comcast could use the rights to boost their cable channel, Versus.

News Corp are also interested. CBS won't be bidding.


The other problem ITV have is that if they run it in Q1, it gets caught up with Dancing On Ice.

The third episode was up against EastEnders and Come Fly With Me, which dented its rating. The ratings for TMO really picked up once it started having a decent lead-in (Push The Button instead of Primeval) and officially settled into the 5's for the second half of the series.


What's the problem with running two talent shows at similar times though? One would be on a Saturday, the other on a Sunday. The Voice could easily start 3 weeks after DOI's premiere and end 3 weeks before DOI's finale (if they strip the live shows over one week a la BGT) so those key episodes are advertised enough and not close to the other show's important episodes. It's not like DOI generates much press coverage (relative to other talent shows) anyway.

Nope, that particular episode had 2.2m in the overnights.

They could run The Voice on Saturdays and DOI on a Sunday. Ideally they do need another reality show to fill the block left in the summer, but an X Factor clone probably isn't the right one to do that with. If Popstar to Opera Star increases on last year then that could well be ITV's summer hit. It doesn't need astronomical figures as advertising traditionally dries up in the summer and ITV would move it elsewhere anyway.