sorry what have I done now?

also for what its worth im not a Royalist.

You weren't hanging out the flags then?

If I recalll correctly I was asleep.

Well the service did go on for a long time...

I saw the segements recorded by the Chaser for it, so its wasnt a total waste.

Worth noting that during the period in question there was a massive heatwave in the UK. Temperatures exceeded 30 degrees celcius for 5 days consecutively here in Northamptonshire, something which hasn't been achieved since.

The heat continued right through July, culminating in severe thunderstorms at the end of the month, causing power cuts locally.

Naturally all this had an impact on viewing figures and makes comparisons to this year's uneventful summer somewhat difficult.

Decent viewing shares for the soaps, not a huge amount watching tv last night even at 9pm. Reasonable for Rob Brydon - likely to have beaten Alan Carr. Phil Collins - ONO really low under 2.5m, ITV ought have decent 1 hour back up shows to repeat even something like 'The Unforgettable....' but a 9pm version. My Family & Miranda still rather lacklustre not even a 20% share.

to be fair EE would have been higher if I had watched live, but my chips were undercooked so I watched on BBC 3 instead.

I guess people are still travelling abroad though, which hits figures slightly. The fact they're so low before the school holidays across the channels indicates they could dip even lower come next week.

BBC1 figures held up really well though, maybe older viewers tend to stay at home and ITV1 viewers are more likely to be out and about. That seems to be what is happening some 5 years later also.

DS have posted America's ratings from Wednesday (this may have been posted already ):

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/s67...m-for-nbc.html

NBC really had a quiet night around America's Got Talent. CBS held up well Royal Pains and Necessary Roughness performed well on Cable.

As we were getting a little nostalgic here are some Saturday ratings for the nearest Saturday in 2001 (July 21st)

BBC1
19:30 National Lottery / Winning Lines - 5.73m
20:15 Jurassic Park - 5.75m

BBC2
17:15 Golf / Murphys English - 2.99m
19:15 Escape From Fort Bravo - 1.73m
21:00 I Love The 70s - 2.03m

ITV1
19:00 Bruce's Price Is Right - 4.71m
19:30 New You've Been Framed - 6.17m
20:15 Stars In Their Eyes Kids - 8.56m
21:10 Where There's Smoke - 5.49m

ITV1 would love to have a July Saturday like that some 10 years later. BBC1 & BBC2 seem so steady a decade later, ITV1 are on a downward spiral until the return of TXF.

Probably a good time to mention the American ratings website: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/

Although they determine winners and losers by the 18-49 ratings and not by the total viewers like we do.

Strangely I think the one channel that doesn't need to worry about 18-49s - BBC1 - is the one that does best in general with the 18-49s. I'm unsure if my impression is right or not.

talking of Classic ratings

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...-30-years.html

A streamgraph showing the five most popular shows each year since 1981

So, looking at that...it appears the 'lower rating' genres have closed in on the 'higher rating' genres in recent years. Ceratinly, the gap doesn't look so big.

Am I the only person that is somewhat confused by that graph?

I didn't realise the first series had done so well. All the more remarkable that the wheels came off so quickly in the next couple of years.

I was slightly, but only because I didn't read the chart properly lol.

It cleary shows how dominated X-Factor and BGT have been over the past few years even Corre seems abesent in 200, but for all the hype around the ITV shows, Strictly still came out on top.

Doctor Who, Wallce & Grommit, The Royale Family & The Vicar of Dibley all come out well, I guess this speaks to the BBCs strenght on Christmas.

Why was Emmerdale so high in 2005?

Reality & Comedy seem to be the winners of 2010

yes its not a type of graph you see alot of.

It's better for viewers if there's no mixing and matching of old and new episodes in the same week. Recently, BBC One had three series of Bargain Hunt on the go at the same time: one of which was new, with the other two series being repeats.

That's ballsed up the 20th August theory, then!

Was that the death of Tom King and the subsequent reveal?