Newsreaders should not host entertainmen shows as very few have the personality for it. Pamela Armstrong being the absolute worst I've ever seen, with Sir Trev a close second for his National Television Award hosting duties.

That means he'll be doing 2 days most weeks, because during the last football season he didn't do Wednesdays & Thursdays. It could be paving the way for his exit.

Because the 2 situations aren't the same at all. He now has to work a lot harder at ITV for his money, involving frequent travel both inside & out of the UK as well as 3.30am starts.

Its a lot different from a 5 night a week 7pm gig and studio based fottball highlights

I agree re the Golf. What a great rating over 6 hours and a very decent peak. I dont know how long the contract goes on for but I reckon the BBC will be quietly trying to add to it now in the same way they are doing with the Six Nations. I dont watch all that much Golf but always make a point with The Open-I saw virtually all of yesterdays coverage and excellent it was too.
Certainly cant argue with The Apprentice given its getting its best figures ever. Its so brilliantly put together that it just makes for compulsive viewing and it creates characters along the way. Dara O'Brien talks a bit too fast sometimes but the two hours last night were must see really.
Good weekend for BBC1 and their cherry picked sports are doing very well for them this spring and summer.

BBC has the Open golf up to and including 2015.

This was the first year of a 5 year contract, 2011 to 2015.

Thanks for that, wasnt up to speed with it. Looks like its put to bed for a while then.

Glad to see that Law and Order:UK held up better than expected. The changes have rejuvenated the show. With the demise of Law and Order: Criminal Intent confirmed over the weekend and Sky now airing the last ever Law and Order original series. And with the major cast changes to Law and Order: SVU this summer (BD Wong is the latest to up sticks in the last few days and head for new series Awake) then that faces a possible earlier than expected demise.....So Law and Order:UK might end up being the franchise's English language swansong and Dick Wolf might need Bradley Walsh's apparent popularity.

If it does get another commission I hope they find a way to bring some of the US cast over here - eg Linus Roache as Mike Cutter.

yes this Adrian Chile sitution is interesting, cant help but feel that whilst there are SOME differnces, its a tad convient that this was apparntly planned
.

Most Watched Shows of 2011 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 13.95m - THE ROYAL WEDDING (29/04/11) - BBC1/HD/BBC NEWS
02 - 12.63m - BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT (04/06/11) - ITV1/HD
03 - 12.56m - CORONATION STREET (14/02/11) - ITV1/HD
04 - 11.42m - EASTENDERS (03/01/11) - BBC1/HD
05 - 10.76m - BBC NEWS (29/04/11) - BBC1/HD

06 - 10.26m - COMIC RELIEF (18/03/11) - BBC1/HD
07 - 10.23m - DANCING ON ICE (09/01/11) - ITV1/HD
08 - 9.68m - THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST (14/05/11) - BBC1/HD
09 - 9.52m - EMMERDALE (13/01/11) - ITV1/HD
10 - 9.42m - THE APPRENTICE (06/07/11) - BBC1/HD

11 - 9.20m - NEW TRICKS (04/07/11) - BBC1/HD
12 - 9.11m - SCOTT & BAILEY (29/05/11) - ITV1/HD
13 - 8.86m - DOCTOR WHO (23/04/11) - BBC1/HD
14 - 8.80m - BIG FAT GYPSY WEDDINGS (08/02/11) - C4
15 - 8.80m - COME FLY WITH ME (01/01/11) - BBC1/HD

16 - 8.69m - WILD AT HEART (09/01/11) - ITV1/HD
17 - 8.50m - SILENT WITNESS (17/01/11) - BBC1/HD
18 - 8.31m - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LIVE (28/05/11) - ITV1/HD
19 - 8.22m - BENIDORM (25/02/11) - ITV1/HD
20 - 8.10m - MIDSOMER MURDERS (02/02/11) - ITV1/HD

Notes:
- No duplicates: i.e. no BGT/DOI in there twice.
- HD audience included for all programmes airing on HD
- BBC1 HD is bundled in automatically with BBC1
- ITV1 +1 excluded
- Thanks to MattJ and rzt for some of the missing ratings off BARB
- The Royal Wedding is BBC1 and BBC News only.

Most Watched Multichannel Shows of 2011 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 2.69m - LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (06/02/11) - Sky Sports 1
02 - 2.63m - GLEE (17/01/11) - E4
03 - 2.25m - CELEBRITY JUICE (19/05/11) - ITV2
04 - 2.00m - HATTIE (19/01/11) - BBC4
05 - 1.99m - BRITAIN'S GOT MORE TALENT (04/06/11) - ITV2

06 - 1.97m - LIVE FORD FOOTBALL SPECIAL (01/03/11) - Sky Sports 2
07 - 1.94m - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LIVE (12/04/11) - Sky Sports 2
08 - 1.77m - MAD DOGS (03/03/11) - Sky1
09 - 1.72m - EASTENDERS (30/05/11) - BBC3
10 - 1.71m - FAMILY GUY (22/05/11) - BBC3

11 - 1.69m - JUNIOR DOCTORS (15/03/11) - BBC3
12 - 1.57m - THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX (04/05/11) - ITV2
13 - 1.57m - BEING HUMAN (23/01/11) - BBC3
14 - 1.56m - FILM: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (25/04/11) - BBC3
15 - 1.49m - FILM: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (30/04/11) - BBC3

16 - 1.47m - LIVE FORD MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (11/04/11) - Sky Sports 1
17 - 1.45m - GAME OF THRONES (18/04/11) - Sky Atlantic
18 - 1.44m - OUR WAR (07/06/11) - BBC3
19 - 1.43m - LIVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL (26/03/11) - Sky Sports 1
20 - 1.41m - MIDSOMER MURDERS (08/01/11) - ITV3

Source: BARB. Excludes +1, Includes HD for Terrestrial Chart. Only 1 programme per 'show', i.e. only one Ford Super Sunday game.

Wow, The Apprentice moves into the Top 10, brilliant figure for it! The final could surpass 10m in the officials, that's even including the "You're Hired" bit! It's not its highest figure ever though, that was semi-final in 2009 with 9.76m.

Superb as well for New Tricks, over 9m.

Luther series two officially averaged 6.43m, which was up +1.42m/+28% vs. last year's series. It was BBC1's eighth most popular drama series broadcast so far this year.

Brilliant day for BBC One. The Apprentice is as popular as it has ever been, and the breakdown is particularly impressive for the You're Hired segment - and justifies the decision to run a 2 hour Sunday finale. Hopefully with a good timeshift, this will become the series' all-time high. Thats pretty damn good for the third weekend in July.

Also brilliant for the Open Golf - UK and European contenders in these tournaments are proving gold dust for ratings, and that peak is massively impressive. And the perfect argument for the mainstream attention being on the BBC can grant.


Another stellar rating and the best of the series so far. People keep predicting its decline and moaning about it being over the hill - but the show shows no sign of slowing just yet. When you add in the big timeshift, repeat numbers and huge iPlayer hits, the overall +7 rating must be massive.


Dismal for Born to Shine, but thats hardly a surprise. Yet another half hearted summer entertainment format bites the dust. On the other hand, a really solid rating for Law and Order against massively tough competition. Thats a very good sign.


Interesting to see C4's strategy. They seem to be avoiding the main broadcast network drama completely and concentrating on the more niche cable or premium offerings. Creatively, its admirable, but it wont win them huge ratings. That said, the large majority of new broadcast dramas flop in US anyway, and if they do establish themselves, Sky will only go poaching after 2 years. Perhaps they consider the risks not to be worth it.

Solid acquisitions for E4, though.


The whole things a bit of a mess, and you get the sense both sides are just trying to find a way out without losing too much face. Of course, Chiles can always fall back on the football - hosting the WC Final last year is something he'd never manage on the BBC, so the move will always seem worthwhile in something other than monetary terms for him. For Bleakley, career-wise, the move looks suicidal.


A brilliant recovery for a second series. How rare it is too see that, and how timely - we were saying just before it aired how badly BBC One needed new 6m-ish weeknight drama.

Pretty good for Matilda last weekend, well up on the 1.26m it got last August. It tied with Cowboy Builders as C5's highest rated programme.

Onto 8 O'Clock Heroes watch...


All the new shows above 1m in the officials at least, albeit marginally. Only Eddie Stobart repeats on Thursday below 1m.

Meanwhile over on multichannel, did anyone see this coming? My number of the week:


Fourth highest rated multichannel programme of the week. Absolutely superb for a pay channel, especially a non-Sky pay channel, and a non import at that!

Elsewhere, FX enjoyed a pretty robust start for Falling Skies, which was a massive 96% up on its overnight audience:


How does that compare to other programmes on FX? Well that's 43% up on the last high profile series launch on the channel The Walking Dead in October 2010. It was also up 115% on the Season 5 launch of Dexter in June 2011. So an impressive premiere certainly, I'm not sure how well it will retain those viewers though given the reviews have been mixed.

... the highest ever figures for Watch, unsurprisingly.

Also of note:


Highest ever 'non sporting' figure for the channel.

Even the two repeats slots did well, securing 2nd and 3rd respectively in Watch's top 10. The total reach for episode 1 including +1s was 2.23m.

Watch's next most popular show, also including +1s and repeats, was Jim Carrey movie The Mask, which had 467k!

Outstanding performance. Didn't the overnight increase for episode 2 also?

New Tricks (series highs):

6.69m (2003)
7.74m (2004)
8.25m (2005)
8.73m (2006)
9.25m (2007)
9.36m (2008)
8.78m (2009)
8.19m (2010)
9.20m (2011)

The opening episode this year is the programmes' 4th highest rating ever. Behind 9.36m (2008) 9.25m (2007) and 9.24m (2008).

She still has the National Movie Awards

I doubt it was his choice, I think they'll slowly try to ease him out of Daybreak.
He can't really make such a big a fuss now as it would bring him a heap of negative publicity and question his move in the first place.

Yes! From 622k in week 1 to 731k in week 2. Like Sky1's An Idiot Abroad last year it seems to be growing through word of mouth etc.

I'm surprised UKTV haven't put out a press release yet. One thing I did spot whilst on the UKTV website, is a full 6x30 series has been commissioned of Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask for TX in Q1 2012. The pilot was really good earlier this year, so I'm pleased about that.

Great rating for The Apprentice. I think that will put it up there with the big top 10 shows of the year once the officials are in.


Not quite head-to-head news broadcasts, but a rare "almost win" for ITV. (assuming nobody watched the news on the inc +1)


Excellent, made a solid recovery since that 4.59m rating 2 weeks ago.


Huge rating by C5 daytime standards, even mid-winter wouldn't get close to this. Also that 13.2% share is one of the highest program shares I've seen in a while on Channel 5.



As for tonight, I think New Tricks could be back above 8million. ITV look to have potentially offered New Tricks a new flop to eat up tonight; the weather is poor across most of the UK and temps are well below average for July today. The soaps should do relatively well tonight too.

Sounds like desperate spin from them

According to Kevin Bakhurst on Twitter, the BBC News Channel averaged 443,000 viewers for it's 10pm bulletin yesterday. A very impressive figure, presumably boosted by the phone hacking scandal and the fact there was no 10pm bulletin on BBC One.

The BBC NC had an all day share of 1.06%. Sky News had 0.61% and 85,000 viewers at 10pm.

http://twitter.com/#!/kevinbakhurst

since he was working 7 days a week quite a lot of last year I dont think so. Linekar gets nearly the same money from the BBC for one day a week and gets to hold down a 2nd job with AJ so I think quite a bit of the snipping is just the usual begrudgery.

The Apprentice did brilliantly although the second hour was a million up from previous years while the first hour was slightly up.

Amazingly the other terrestrials held up okay especially Law and Order UK. Australia did decently considering the length, I think it would have 2m had it not been against The Apprentice. Channel 5 was under 1m at 9pm but Finding Nemo made up for that, wouldn't be surprised if was second in its timeslot. Any breakdown for Nemo?

Homeland is a good buy for Channel 4, I assumed it would end up on Sky Atlantic. New Girl, Apartment 23 plus the two animated shows are from FOX so I guess the money saved from Glee are going towards new shows.

Clearly not too upset at Glee moving to Sky - all 5 of those shows are made by FOX (Apartment 23 will air on ABC, Homeland is produced by FOX 21 for Showtime).

Homeland would have been better suited to More4 but good acquisitions for E4 - New Girl and Apartment 23 are probably the most hotly tipped new comedy series this season (although it was quite a surprise that Apt 23 was held for midseason).

I wonder if we'll see:

9pm - The Big Bang Theory
9.30pm - How I Met Your Mother
10pm - New Girl
10.30pm - Apartment 23

Could be quite a strong comedy block for Thursday nights.

The BBC had a brief news update before The Apprentice. Is that normal? It looks like it was effective anyway in driving viewers to the news channel once You're Hired started.

No boost for Sky News. Do Sky no longer bother to promote Sky News on other Sky channels when there's a big breaking story?