GW's slot is normally 8:30, but next week's 60-min programme is coming from Gardeners World Live at the NEC and has its normal practical gardening features as well (which is why it is an hour long).



Certainly this series of GW with Monty Don has a more practical approach based upon Monty's own garden than previous series (and seemed to have more practical gardening elements that LYG), and yes, when it does have a feature on another garden, it tends to be the larger one (although smaller terraced gardens and other small gardens of interest do feature).

The childrens audience seems to be very fragmented across a lot of channels.

CBBC 120k; CITV 48k; Cartoon Network 28k; Nick 22k; Five 167k; Cbeebies 147k; BBC2 71k gets you to 603k plus a few more probably.

But there really isnt a big enough audience for any single channel to survive on except the BBC. I do admire five's persistence in this area.

agreed EE does seem low, same for the BBC 3 repeat, guess people didnt care for Micheal Moon cliff hanger on Thursday

Good night for ITV1. They seem to be using Alan Titchmarsh quite a lot lately, but his programmes tend to rate decently. Strong for Corrie to be quite far ahead of EE and another solid share for Emmerdale.

Decent for The Mentalist finale & I would guess it would have topped 2m without Injustice. Eddie Stobart is performing OK, but iirc down on last series.

My gardening programming is limited solely to Gardening Question Time on Radio 4 which makes me laugh out loud frequently.

Best figure I've seen for The Mentalist since it returned (I think?!) so fitting it was for the excellent finale episode last night. Should timeshift to 2.5m in the officials.

Injustice edges out HIGNFY. Got to say I thought it might have done abit better, but as I mentioned earlier this week, perhaps another stripped show directly after BGT week maybe have been too much for viewers (I know it was for me).

Corrie way out in front of EE. Quite surprising as the comments about the show this week have been quite poor but every episode has recorded a very similiar figure this week so it's very stable. Perhaps due to last weeks episodes?! Emmerdale has had an excellent week too.

EastEnders has sadly introduced too many new characters no one really cares about. Lydia (why?) Michael (yawn) and now Eddie (who cares). Also there are so many storylines now that don't really attract long term interest. Time for a new Exec-Producer!

Second highest overnight rating of the season, after Jolly Red Elf on December 17. (2.1m) As a massive fan I'd liked to have seen it crack 2m but that's still a strong showing in what looks like a very competitive Friday.

Very good for C4's Comedy Gala as well when you take into account the one hour clash with BBC One's comedy hour and the late finish.

Okay figures for ITV. Love Your Garden seemed to fair better than other formats they've tried in that slot recently. Injustice meanwhile has pretty much followed the pattern of Father & Son last year. Nothing special but decent for a Friday.

I think the problem with Thursday cliff hanger moment was that pople knew it would not be nearly as simple as Micheal made it out to be, and no surprise on Friday it wasnt That said I think Fridays episode set some nice ground work between him & Roxy, which I hope will pay off, same for Janine and Lydia.

I think the main problem is that the producer has forgetten that Alife is the only popolar Moon family memeber, and even he annonys plenty. Alife may have been well liked by some but not the other Moons, and Shane isnt a strong actor.

There's a bit of a buzz around here for Castle next Friday. Wonder why C5 don't pay for a few slots on Sky1/Sky Atlantic to give it a bit of a boost? Or even better get the first episode on Anytime (C4 and E4 put a few new programmes on there).

The ABC1s who who've got Sky and appreciate quality US scripted dramas would be the ideal demo for Castle.

That is true. Those Saturday repeats were quite low rating IIRC but they would have had an effect definitely.

I won't be complaining too much if it comes back in October. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

HIGNFY was low again. Only reason I can see is the poor lead-in and lead-outs it has had. Anyone know what show/s it was paired with for the series this time last year?



Disagree with that. Ive just started watching regularly again and have been impressed with how much better the show has been than for most of Kirkwood's time as show runner.

It was paired with brand new Outnumbered and (for a couple of weeks or so) repeats of Would I Lie To You.

It's not been a vintage run for HIGNFY. I suppose the news cycle for the past 6 weeks or so hasn't been amazing for it, but I don't think it holds up as well as it used to when its isolated in a schedule. BBC One really do need to get smarter pairing up half hour sitcoms and panel shows for mutual benefit. It seems very inconsistent at the moment and filler repeats of Outnumbered are too common. I don't mind so much when the repeat run is complete and well-timed (as the upcoming Miranda repeats are) but it sometimes looks like they're just trying to cobble together the second half hour after HIGNFY.

It was a good night for Channel 4 and 5, with their more significant programming. But there's very little to write home about for the others.

Good episode of HIGNFY last night I thought. Jo Brand was fine on it, as she usually is when she guest-presents.

Surely the 2.2m+ comedy audience for Ch4's gala dented HIGNFY last night - and regular HIGNFY fans will know they can tune in for an extended episode tonight.

Don't see any particular concern over HIGNFY. It remains on good form and popular. I'd prefer BBC1 to schedule it Sept-November and late Feb-late April with a Christmas special, and network it so we would get more accurate overnights and actual UK-wide official ratings.

As for the gardening shows - GeorgeS's new passion it seems today, must be a cracking good demographic or something - I don't think you can compare filler on ITV betwixt 2 eps of Corrie and a standalone show on BBC2 (which clashes with Corrie). But if we are, the fact ITV's can only manage 1.5m more despite those 2 advantages says a lot.

Perhaps ITV should get someone recognised for their gardening expertise rather than for being a heavyweight interrogator of the great and the good...

I was just thinking that ITVs show would be for us ordinary folk whereas Gardeners World would be for those who have become too good for the backyard and allotments.. The Mr & Mrs Buckets if you like

The Canadian Grand Prix qualifying is interesting - due to the threat of rain practically all runners are currently out on track. What will happen to the schedule if it does rain and qualifying is delayed? So You Think You Can Dance? could be pushed back, and subsequently maybe see a boost with Ice Age loosing out.

Now I've commented on it it probably won't rain at all.

I know this sounds optimistic, but faced with weak ITV opposition I think SYTYCD could hit 4 million for the final. However, I doubt the BBC will be making another series as ratings have been very poor.
Indeed overall with no DW and BGT ratings will be low across the board and I daresay the real winner tonight could be Casualty with 5.5 million viewers.

The BBC will hope it rains till midnight

It's only qualifying. If it runs late it'll surely move across to red button.

Looking at the BARB website, HIGNFY & Bit More News are attracting about 7m viewers between them. But for me and my brother HIGNFY is no longer must see TV as it used to be. I didn't watch several episodes last series because it clashed with Autumnwatch and I also didn't watch the first episode of this series for a reason I can't remember. My brother has only watched the last two episodes of this series.

If you read the HIGNFY DS foums you'll find that quite a few people are(were) becoming irritated by Hislop's alleged Grumpy Old Man routine and/or Merton's alleged occasional lack of enthuiasm (sometimes looking like he was bored or wanted to be anywhere but here).

I can't seem them doing that, even if it is only qualifying. There'd be uproar - especially as it's not huge show following it. I'm sure Strictly Come Dancing has been pushed back before due to sports events so they'll have no issues with So You Think You Can Dance?

I think the pressure is kind of off for BBC One on Saturday nights now anyway with BBC Two performing so strongly on this night of the week. Between them they are doing very good business indeed.

SYTYCD should improve a little bit for its finale, I'm not expecting a miraculous recovery by any means but I reckon around 3.5m or so for the result is not out of the question.

The ITV schedule is very uninspiring but it will probably do okay. I can't remember the last time the ITV News was as early as 9:40pm.

Elsewhere Channel 4 welcomes Camelot, a new series which has had a fair bit of publicity. Similarly Channel 5 starts a new run of Law & Order S.V.U., which has also been trailed heavily and returns to its traditional Saturday night slot. So a number of interesting things to watch out for in the data tomorrow.

I don't have yesterday's figure yet, I'll post it tomorrow. On Friday 27th May, the 20:30-21:30 averages were:

BBC1 Network: 3.56m (15.8%)
Holby City (BBC1 Scotland): 162k (8.5%)

Friday 3rd June (20.30-21.30):
BBC1 Network: 2.9m (12.7%)
Holby City (BBC1 Scotland): 155k (8.3%)

It seems like Holby City underperforms on BBC1 Scotland and pulls down the network average by 100-150k.

Makes Underbelly's figures on STV look rather good.