Yep, you were right all along, good shout there. Very poor numbers for it last night, and it is declining like SYTYCD did. ITV will be desperate for it to rise and if it goes below 3m it'd be embarrassing for them. As other have said, they should swap it with The Royal, which would provide a much better lead in for the 9pm drama (and if Single Handed does replace S&B then it'll need the lead in!). Good rating for Scott and Bailey considering, and it's timeshifting really well, so last night will be another ~7m official rating. Good stuff, it'll definitely be back next year. The same can't be said for Case Histories though, which is doing OK but nothing special, and with the lead actor working in the US I don't think it'll be back. Good for Countryfile but poor for Horrible Histories, but it was dreadful scheduling.


Thanks for the figures rzt. I completely agree with your analysis too, BBC1 have had mixed fortunes but some strong successes to prop them up. However, the amount of those shows that'll be back next year and have a future beyond it is concerning, and I don't think axing shows like Waking The Dead, Hustle, Spooks and Zen was such a good idea as they should have waited until they have new hits to replace them, as their cupboard of returning hits is going to start looking a bit bare if some of their new dramas don't take off.

ITV have had a strong year so far, and with new dramas Vera, Kidnap and Ransom, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Case Sensitive and Scott and Bailey all either definitely recommissioned or almost certainly to be then they've had a solid year. In addition, returning titles Wild at Heart, Benidorm, Lewis, Above Suspicion, Law & Order: UK and Midsomer Murders will all be back in the first half of next year, along with Whitechapel, meaning that their drama slate for the next year and even further ahead is looking very strong. They could do with one or two new non-crime dramas to take off for the first half of the year to sit alongside the ones they have there and Downton and Doc Martin in the Autumn, and I think they'll be looking to Eternal Law to be that drama (I know there's a bit of crime there but that's not really its genre). That one could either be a hit or a big miss depending on the quality of it and the slot, but I'm glad they're still doing more risky dramas like this. They've also got new comedy The Security Men to take off to sit alongside Benidorm, and if that one works then I think we could see more new comedies on ITV which can only be a good thing.


Single Handed certainly feels like a Sunday night drama so unless BBC1 put New Tricks on Sundays then I think we'll see it there. I agree that they'll want it to do better this time too. If they swap PSTOS with The Royal to give it a better lead in then I think it stands a good chance of doing better as it was a quality drama that went somewhat unnoticed last time. As it's cheaper than most dramas for them I don't think their expectations will be quite as high as they usually are with new drama but I think they'll still be looking for 4m+ overnights for the whole series if it's to return.


Cheers for those. Marple did skew very old, and whilst it did OK with ABC1s I think it used to do better in that demo. A disappointing rating for it on Wednesday and based on its recent performances I won't be surprised if ITV axe it as they haven't treated it well for years and it doesn't rate that well anymore. They haven't filmed any since 2009 and there are no current plans to film more so I think it's done. The Christie dramas are really useful for them at Christmas as they can burn them off whilst looking like they're making an effort, but really they don't do that well these days. I think they'll let Poirot have its last 6 episodes (one of which was commissioned recently) out of respect, along with the fact that it does a bit better than Marple (it did well on Xmas Day, for instance), but I can't see them bothering with any other Christie stuff.

Elsewhere, The Apprentice remains a demo powerhouse, whilst The Marriage Ref at least managed to skew young, but it still did very poorly. Penn and Teller skewed nice and young too, and more interestingly skewed much more towards males than other ITV entertainment, which will make it more appealing to ITV. If the numbers hold, I think ITV will be pretty satisfied with it and it'll probably be back for more.

I hope we do see a situation in the future where ITV are able to run 5/6 different dramas on 5/6 different nights. I doubt they'd take such a risk though... although in the Autumn I presume we will see:

Sundays - Downton Abbey
Mondays - DCI Banks
Thursdays - Doc Martin

Unless there is a new 5/6 drama they could put after X Factor and take a big risk and put one of the above 3 on Tuesday or Friday?

Brilliant ratings for Downton Abbey. I wonder whether its one UK drama which would have worked on US network TV - I think it probably would have as they have a big appetite for this sort of stuff, the Kings Speech did over $100m box office there.

I know Downton Abbey was shown on PBS instead (which was fair enough as they part funded it) - it seems really hard to get ratings for the PBS though.

Am sure in the early 90's they virtually showed a new drama at 9pm every night, barring Saturdays where it was light entertainment. Am sure it was much easier to make drama pay for itself back in the days before digital tv and the internet though!

For the fans, I do hope BB improves and makes money for Channel 5 so this not so bad station can invest in some more home made programming.

I'd be tempted to hold Doc Martin back until the New Year and run it on Sundays, either nicking Wild at Heart's slot (which would move to Spring) or filling that 9pm slot which would free up should Dancing on Ice be split over the weekend, with Wild at Heart at 8pm and the DoI results at 7pm.


Popstar to Operastar won't worry ITV too much - the same slot next year is basically taken by Euro 2012 anyway. However baddle PTO does, I expect Born to Shine to do worse.

There aren't any big new weekly dramas for the Autumn. The only new titles are What To Do When Someone Dies which is a 3 part thriller and The Jury which is a 5 parter and has already been confirmed to run nightly across a week. I think what you've suggested is almost certain, although Doc Martin and DCI Banks may swap days (Doc Martin is more likely to do huge numbers on Mondays).

This has probably been discussed before, but when is BBC1 showing Torchwood? I assume it's before Starz does in America.

I think they should've continued making Waking The Dead, even though it's an expensive drama to make. Ashes to Ashes, Hustle, Spooks, Lark Rise To Candleford all ended (or are ending pretty soon) due to creative reasons/writers departing/natural end but the actors and producers on WTD wanted to continue to make more and I think it's even more important for BBC to keep hold of their big dramas right now as they're going through a transitional period, with a lot of the early/mid 00's stuff ending. As you say, they should only really axe the big shows when they've got the replacements in the wings to get those sorts of figures but at the moment they're not in that position to do so.


I really have no idea how Eternal Law will perform. It sounds like the sort of drama which in the last 5-10 years hasn't done well on ITV generally but earlier this year Marchlands did really well, so I think viewers will watch something, and more importantly stick with it, if it's good. They need to keep it pretty mainstream though and not too niche. As for Security Men, I'm quite disappointed it's taken this long to get the project to air. The show was talked about in August 2010, yet it'll be Q1/Q2 2012 when we get to actually see it on screen and it's just 4 episodes. That means, Benidorm aside, there's no scripted comedy shows on the channel this year at all, although that's more than last year I guess! Security Men, I reckon, needs to be shown in a non-Friday slot. It's too risky putting a new show on Fridays, the track record is poor. Once a show is established, it can be moved to Fridays, but launching a new show like Security Men would ideally go into the Monday/Thursday slot.


These co-productions come in handy because they're cheaper to make so they can air them in summer, and even if they get lower ratings than the usual dramas they're acceptable for the time of the year. The BBC are also doing it with Torchwood this year, although I think that's capable of good figures anyway (but I don't think it'll rate as good as the 5-parter a couple years ago). I'm surprised TV channels don't do co-productions more. Even something like Taggart, despite the poor ratings and demos for the last series, they could've continued putting in £200-300k per episode and showed it during the summer where on a Thursday night it could've got ~4m- respectable enough for summer and they could claim it's "original drama" for a time of the year when they usually don't air much dramas.


Julia McKenzie seemed quite unsure about there being more episodes of Marple in her interview on This Morning. She originally said that the new episodes hadn't been "greenlit" officially (sort of indicating that the episodes were in development) but then backtracked and said that they need more viewers to watch. Well, the opposite happened, and I think last Wednesday's Marple was their lowest (or at least one of their lowest) rated ever! I guess it might come down to how well the show sells broad, because I don't think it's as popular as something like Poirot/Lewis worldwide, so external revenues from International sales might not be good enough to make it worth producing further episodes of. It doesn't really repeat well on ITV1 either.


I don't think the budget is there to do that, apart from one-off weeks of stripped drama a couple of times a year. Basically, ITV shows about 160 hours of drama (excluding soaps) per year. I think it's pretty similar with BBC1 too (excluding continuing drama series like Casualty etc). So airing 5/6 nights of drama is not something which really can be done. At a push, they can get 4 nights of drama in the Autumn for a few weeks on Sun/Mon/Wed/Thu but 5 or 6 in this day and age simply wouldn't be possible as basically they have to air (relatively) cheap stuff (factual/chat shows) on Tuesdays/Fridays most year round to counter-balance the expensive dramas shown on Sun/Mon/Thu. Airing drama 5/6 times a week would easily raise the 9pm slot ratings average as dramas automatically tend to have a higher threshold than other genres like factual, but then factoring in the costs, they'd probably lose money doing that. As Ads said, 20-30 years ago it was possible but not nowadays. Alternatively they'd need to get rid of the expensive football rights to raise the drama budget, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

RTE1's schedule is much more rigid than BBC1's [more like BBC1's schedule of maybe 30 years ago in terms of serious current affairs & news content which you would more likely see in the UK on Ch4 or BBC2]

Pre 9pm you have a magazine show nightly at 7pm then 4 x 30 of Eastenders and 3 x 30 of Irish soap Fair City. The gaps against Coronation Street of 6x30 are filled with consumer/ rural/ lifestyle shows.

There is a 30 minute news at 9pm followed by current affairs on Tuesday and Thursday at 9.30pm. Fridays at 9.30 is reserved for the Late Late chat show.

Mondays at 9.30 are used for either dcumentaries, sometimes more current affairs or ocassionally a drama.

Wednesdays at 9.30 are usually held for a 2 hour Hollywood film.

So the remaining slots are either 10.15pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays or 9.30 on Sunday nights [Saturdays are basically film, lottery show, news, chat show]

You assume incorrectly, it premieres on Starz first and was always going to, despite some thinking it would be here first.

But having said that, it will be very soon after......

Watch this space...

By the way, the Press screening which has just finished as gone well by all accounts.

Hmmm... doesn't sound too great. GeorgeS do you know the sorts of ratings the last series of Single-Handed and also drama Love/Hate got on RTE? I find it hard to believe that ad revenue only covered 5% of the costs! I know you said ratings were dented by TXF/DA, but even say for example it had got double the ratings, does that mean that still well over 50% of the show's costs wouldn't have been covered by ad revenue? Are all RTE drama really loss-making?

Well, tonight it seems they actually put the HD channel numbers for the different platforms on screen during Wimbledon!!

May I ask why? Surely UK viewers would be tempted to find illegal copies the morning after US broadcast? (and yes, I know you could use the same argument but vice-versa, except the difference is US's viewership is a lot lower than UK's)

My guess is that the US 'Starz' channel are the majority investor of this series so demanded that they get the first worldwide airings. C.M.W seems to be suggesting that Torchwood will slot in on Saturday nights, perhaps in a post-Casualty slot. I think it'd do pretty well there, especially up against The Marriage Ref.

C.M.W.: any clues on what day of the week New Tricks might air?

Money. If your paying the higher proportion of the budget, you get first dibs. Torrenting is something we'll just have to live with, but it'll be only for a few days at most. We should get a date by the end of the week.

Ah, fair enough. I wonder what would have happened if they couldn't find anyone to co-produce the series with?

Programme change, BBC2
11.20pm Today At Wimbledon (which was moved from 8pm due to the Andy Murray match).

Single Handed was shown in Nov/ early Dec-10 by RTE. It doesnt make their Top 30 shows in Nov-10 (the #30 show got 433k). From memory I think it got somewhere about 350k-400k

The previous episodes in Apr-09 got 407k adults; Jan 2008 467k adults

Love/Hate averaged 406k adults

All figures are adults only - there might be another 10-20k under 16s watching too that arent in those numbers

The real problem from an ad perspective is that the audience is a lot older on RTE1 (RTE2 has all the youth shows, sport & US imports). It tends to skew heavily to over 45s so even with those numbers the ad revenue wont be great. RTE is also heaviliy discounting ad rates to fill airtime due to the recession, so its the worst of all worlds for them right now.

Saturday looks too cluttered though, MOTD would be back halfway through the series, so I can't see it fitting in despite earlier thinking.

New Tricks? Well, it has arrived as a bit of a surprise this year, being filmed pretty much straight after series 7 and ready months earlier. Monday's most likely.



It wouldn't have happened, certainly not on this scale anyway.

Simon Brint (TV composer and comedian) has died aged 61.

http://www.simonbrint.com/londons-burning.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13845248

Tuesdays for Torchwood perhaps? Luther ends on the 5th so it could start on the 12th. Sundays (and Mondays if New Tricks doesn't go there) also seem reasonable options. It could fit in on Saturdays as I think Casualty goes on its break around the time MOTD returns so it could go at 9:10pm (or 9:20pm if it's 50 mins) with John Bishop before it, as one episode of JB's Britain aired at 8:50pm last year and there's nothing particularly 'post-watershed' in his show.

As for New Tricks, its highest rated series was on Summer Mondays in 2008 so the move makes sense. ITV won't be happy though as they'll have to move Law and Order which they had planned for Mondays. That shouldn't bother BBC1 though as they quite rightly can put their programmes wherever they want to.

Thanks George. Not great numbers for the last Single Handed looking at that. A shame because I think it's one of the better Irish/England dramas around but the chances of another series look slim at the moment based on that. Ah right, didn't know about the RTE ad situation. It generally doesn't seem like a good time for the broadcaster at the moment!


Cheers. It could be fit in as: 18:00- Total Wipeout, 19:00- National Lottery, 19:50- Casualty, 20:40- Torchwood, 21:40- Lee Mack, 22:10- BBC News, 22:30- MOTD

But you're right, that would be too clustered, with Casualty starting in the 7pm hour which is early for it. I guess Torchwood could take over the Tuesday slot from Luther.

Edit: Score mentions the Casualty break, so yeah, Torchwood could just about fit in on Saturdays if the Beeb wanted to do that.

I wasn't aware BBC would even consider for one second moving a first round tennis match from BBC2 to BBC1. There is a reason the match was on BBC2 in the 1st place, if it was a really big event primetime Wimbledon would be on BBC1 but it has a natural home on BBC2.

Also if people were that interested they would be following him on BBC2 in the 1st place. The way people are talking here is it likely to win non soap primetime?

I can see Case Histories holding up to 4.1m tonight. the 9pm hour is very competitive tonight all 5 programmes could do well.

According to DS reporter Morgan Jeffery:

So maybe Torchwood will be end up on Thursdays, and New Tricks on Mondays. Seems like we're going round in circles- hopefully we'll have a better idea tomorrow with the Digiguide updated schedules .