Basically yes - but not so much down to BB itself but ITV trying to replicate the BB scheduling with it's scheduling of Survivor, a show which is designed to air once a week - not four times a week with filler interview episodes with a different host - plus the fact Big Brother was raking in the revenue from voting and ITV wanted a piece of that.

Series 2 stuck with a weekly slot (usually 9.45pm on Wednesday after the football) with an eviction interview after the news (this time with the same host).




Was a very odd piece of scheduling last night - even if they'd put it against the SYTYCD final it would have made more sense, but for most people now The Cube is a Sunday show and though it's been a bit lacklustre this series it does pair well with The X Factor results.


They still bill them as series and indeed try to make a big deal out of the series finale/premiere - but the gap between them now is rarely more than seven days.


Though that was C4 wasting their best drama in years against The X Factor.

Good to see Camelot came in above 2m for them last night, and a good move to start with a double bill as the first hour was rather slow and it took some time to get into (and disassociate it with Merlin), so I suspect if the second episode hadn't aired until next week they'd have been a bit of a drop.

Indeed any news yet on the split for the 9pm/10pm hour?

Normally Yes, but when SYTYCD wins its slot, you know the opposition is bad.

Survivor only achieved 4 million in its slot, very low 10 years ago, but the idea of a remote location and a jungle reaped its rewards when IACGMOOH replaced it the following year and has continued to be a hit. It is odd that Survivor continues to be a big hit in America, but here it is a little remembered early reality show.
ITV1's next attempt to upstage BB did equally badly, when Celebrity Love Island came off worst and even a name change couldn't save it the following year. Also this was a summer when three reality shows were shown at once- Only Fools On Horses, which stiffed, Love Island and BB.

Fine it won the slot due to poo competition so its not possible those 3.45m viewers actually enjoy the show, is it out of line with previous ratings?

Also its a succesful format elsewhere.


I dont recall that one

Hello, Charnham, it was some silly showjumping reality show with Sarah Cox in. I only watched it because the two commercial alternatives were so bad and BBC 2 had Wimbledon on.
However, if you look at ITV1's record in reality programming, and not including talent and singing contests, IACGMOOH has been their only long running hit, with shows like Hell's Kitchen and Celebrity Fit Club falling by the wayside. It does seem now reality of the Z list celebs in unusual locations is more the preserve of ITV2 and even they seem to be moving on from it.

Only Fools on Horses - I think it was a Sports Relief spin off where a bunch of celebrities had to train as showjumpers.

Poor night from BBC1 and ITV1. Casualty's figure seems low when looking at the opposition. ITV1 had a nightmare and it will continue until the end of August probably! It's a slight shame; Penn and Teller deserves to get good figures going on the very entertaining pilot.

Oh, and it's raining in Canada which should make the Formula One interesting! And should also see a boost in rtaings, I would've thought - everyone loves a wet race.

I see, thanks

Yeah, Survivor wasn't helped by the scheduling, initially it was actual episodes Monday and Thursday at 9pm and the eviction interviews on Tuesday and Friday at 8.30pm, but nobody cared about the eviction interviews, especially in the early shows where we barely knew the contestants. Indeed the first one saw half an hour of telly lavished on someone who'd appeared on screen for less than an hour.* Eventually they cut it down to just the main show on Monday and the eviction interview on Tuesday, now at 10.30, and rebranded as Survivor Unseen - which is rubbish, it's all bloody unseen until they show it!

As you say, the second series was all on one night, and the eviction interviews were done at the same time as their eviction (in the first series they were studio based and recorded months later). Ridiculously, the ITV2 spin-off was also on the same night, both 10.45 -11.05 during the news, then 11.35-1.05 after it, so you had nearly three and a half hours of it all in one lump. Who was going to watch that?

But it flopped mostly because it was very dull, really, I don't think anyone bought into a show filmed months ago miles away, especially one which they had no say over. It's like people didn't like the idea of Fame Academy as they had little say over what happened. It's remarkable to think how successful the original Popstars was when there were no opportunities to join in at all, that would be unthinkable now. It was also really boringly presented as well, Mark Austin was such a tedious host and it took itself far, far too seriously. It was just relentlessly humourless.

* The best bit of the whole thing was after the first show, Heat did a big bit about how Nick was a brilliant contestant and was going to be the man we'd love to hate all summer and his antics were going to be well worth watching, based on the preview tape of the first episode they'd received... which clearly didn't include the bit where he was the first to be voted out.

Yes, and very much a one-off which was never intended to be a long-running thing, just a bit of a fun over a week. And it did very well, thank you.

I always thought the lack of interactivity is what killed Survivor, but it doesnt hurt the Apprentice.

Yeah, but you get to laugh at the contestants at The Apprentice and all their ridiculous trash talk and their hopeless encounters with the public, instead of just watching people stand on a log in the middle of the sea for ages.

About what I expected for SYTYCD's finale. At least it beat ITV1, so not a total disaster for what is likely to be its final instalment.


Ouch. I bet ITV were expecting higher than that as according to my records it's not been shown on ITV1 since at least Christmas 2009, possibly even longer than that. It's had a few airings on ITV2, but compared to some of their films it hasn't been shown many times at all. No surprise that it did okay with 16-34s though.


Excellent start there for Camelot across the two hours. Better than I expected to be honest. C4 will be very pleased with that result.


Decent for S.V.U. also, up nearly 20% on last year's opening episode. Also the highest rating open to a series of S.V.U. since 2008. I'm gutted this is Diane Neal's last season.

It was up against BB in its glory days and some people saw it as an attempt to upstage BB. Also reality as a concept was quite new then, there was only BB and Survivor, and had it appeared a few years later, then Survivor could have been bigger. However, the concept lives on with I'm A Celeb and Shipwrecked.

No major surprises last night, Casualty & Who Dares Wins getting decent figures, SYTYCD (on a pro-rata basis beating the US figures) and Camelot (a decent opening) as expected, Sahara was below what it deserved. I knew Ice Age 2 (over exposure) & The Cube would be low, partially due to the celeb format. A night of mostly repeats for C5 didn't deserve any more. I predicted 1.5m for Batman Begins due to late ending and number of recent showings.

So last night's without substitutional opposition was quite poor?

Wonder why C4 don't do repeats during the week to build up the audience? Perhaps they can't afford multiple showings?

1) Ice Age 2 has NOT been overexposed. As my records show it has not been aired on ITV1 since at least December 2009.
2) S.V.U. was a new episode on Channel 5. The remainder of the crime dramas were repeats, and held up very well IMO, especially CSI: NY.
3) Why did Sahara deserve more in your eyes than C5's crime drama repeats when Sahara was also a repeat, shown as recently as March on Film4?

Yeah, it's definitely risky having 3 new-ish shows back to back like what they're doing from next week. Odd One In is basically a flop which only got brought back because the last three episodes did relatively well, but those episodes were boosted by having TXF airing after it. I thought axing All Star Mr and Mrs was a bit of an odd decision because it had a decent audience (4m or so is okay). I can only guess that ITV wanted Philip Schofield to do more episodes of The Cube, which at the time was rating better, and with Fern Britton falling out of favour at ITV they decided to scrap it. The schedule you've come up with would almost certainly have got a higher audience than what will happen next week. Also, what's happened to WWTBAM this year? I know they were reducing the number of episodes this year, but they've only shown 1 in the first six months! Fair enough the show was overexposed and well past its best, but I didn't expect its episode order to be cut down so much (they had ~20eps last year I think) as it still has a decent audience when not scheduled on Tuesdays (even on Tuesdays it was one of their better raters). I think 6 live editions during the summer could've done a ~4m average and help bring some stability to their schedules.

I meant Ice Age is forever on ITV2 - some films do have viewer fatigue, yes I noticed Law Order SVU was a 1st run and corrected it pretty quickly - once I read earlier in the thead. I am a CSI NY fan myself but don't feel the need to watch a rerun.

I watched Sahara and really enjoyed the silliness of it, it had the feel of National Treasure meets Indiana Jones - I thought it would give a decent lead in for Camelot, personally I hadn't seen it before, so based on enjoyment & quality it deserved more. As far as I can recall Film4 does not rate that well (1.2% audience share - May 2011) - even though they show decent films.

I really think ITV isn't that bothered about the period between the Cowell shows. They still have the two soaps to tide them over and this is usually the time when they show low budget shows and old films.

ITV will be well aware that all you need is a heatwave and suddenly the entire schedule is dented. It isn't worth airing expensive programming on Saturdays in July & August.

This has been the case long before Cowell came onto the scene.

Very well. In full:

Episode 1 - 1.61m
Episode 2 - 1.57m
Episode 3 - 1.42m
Episode 4 - 1.39m
Episode 5 - 1.39m
Episode 6 - 1.22m
Episode 7 - 1.24m
Episode 8 - 1.33m
Episode 9 - 1.37m
Episode 10 - 1.41m
Episode 11 - 1.31m
Episode 12 - 1.32m
Episode 13 - To Be Broadcast

So the tennis is a washout, thankfully F1 is finally underway despite the heavy rain- Hamilton just been taken out, the power of water is incredible at times - trying to wreck BBC1 schedules!!

Hoping James May does well tonight on BBC2, I think F1 will hold on to a decent audience share, will it beat The Royal on ITV1 though? Popstar to Operastar ought beat the best of Antiques Roadshow. Can Case Histories pip Scott & Bailey this week? C4 and C5 taking the double movie option again tonight for primetime - saves money I guess.

There are some decent programmes on tonight, much better than Saturday - with the rain can see 25+ million watching tv tonight at peak - and several shows getting higher than expected figures.

Thanks to Charnham for last weeks rating.


Wow it is doing very well. Thanks

no problem, Dancc making me look bad on the other hand, big problem.

Well it was nice to see the city breakdowns on yours