Manchester United v Arsenal will always draw in viewers, so that's going to be a problem as well.

I think Channel 5 need to rethink the Saturday schedule because the US drama repeats are not going to work now all the big entertainment formats are returning. Last night's CSI: NY was one of the best episodes of all-time and it logged a pitiful 2% share because of the stupid timeslot it had. They should ditch the US drama repeats for a while and try movies instead, like Sundays. Providing they start before TXF, they should be good for at least a 4% audience share and prevent the night from being a total flop.

Unfortunately I fear they are going to put the new season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in the pre-BB Saturday slot, which will be doomed to fail against Casualty and TXF and a waste of a good rating show.

im not sure what Channel 5 has to put in that slot, if not US drama.

Maybe Desmond wil revive Generation Game next

If the new series of Charlie Angels had been a few years back I would suggest they use it to replace Charmed, but that is going to far back now.

Without Big Brother the line up of US drama made sense on a Saturday night - but BB frankly throws a spanner in the works as it's after a completely different audience to the shows around it.

Yes, I agree. It's hurting SVU being so late, but it has to be because of BB taking priority and SVU not being pre-watershed friendly. Meanwhile the US dramas are not providing a relevant lead-in for BB at all. It's just not working and needs to be looked at urgently unless they want to sink to a depressing audience share every Saturday night.

Still, it could be worse. 3% for Channel 4? I thought their 3.3% a couple of weeks ago was bad. ITV2 must have ran it pretty close last night, if not beaten it.

4 goals in that one already at HT.

Duh duh duh! Very eventful day in the Premier League, MOTD should perform very well indeed tonight.

I only checked for the first week of the two, where the swimming sessions start at 7.30pm, so BBC One will have room for EastEnders at 7pm that week, if they choose.

DS forgot to mention how The Gadget Show did on Friday. It had 768k (3.4%) between 8-9pm.

Well, it's going to take a hit whatever happens: it'll either be on the right channel at the wrong time, or the wrong channel at the right time!

Whichever option (or combination thereof) is chosen, I'd still prefer it over having no EastEnders for a fortnight.

Or maybe they didn't forget, they just wanted to save it embarrassment.

Ah, so the wrong end of the stick was grasped second hand.

I wouldn't say ITV1 has had a good year since the last Festival, but it did have a good seven or eight months, so I suppose that what the judge(s) looked at.

Good start for Doctor Who, I always look at the 6m overnight and then think "ouch", only to think "oh yeah, 2 million people can't be bothered to watch it live". I do find it peculiar, to be honest. Another great rating for X Factor. I see not many hung around for Will Young though.

Not sure what to think about CBB, but I'm not hopeful for tonight.

I wonder how Upstairs Downstairs would have rated on ITV1, straight after X Factor results.

I watched it, but, despite having seen every episode since the mid-1980s, I'm not entirely sure I understood it all.

However, if technology allows it, why not take advantage of being able to timeshift to a more suitable (or less TV-busy) time. So it's not always a case of not being bothered to watch live, more a case of using technology and devices to fit in with lifestyle.

After all, why have a PVR if you watch everything live, or miss things when you are otherwise engaged?

Stlll think it's hit a plateau now and still excellent in our multichannel world. However, there are millions of antis who want an alternative and the other channels are at least providing a decent alternative. I was watching Vintage TV.

I'd be happy to see My Family repeats there, and there have been a few there in the past, but the BBC are unwilling to pay for primetime repeats of it anymore, (I think the last ones in any evening slot were in 2009), and I have a feeling 5.30pm on Saturday might count as primetime for repeat fees.

They now waste at least 4 minutes per episode on the competition segment with someone running around naming as many gadgets as they can that you can then win. What braniac thought this was a good use of airtime for a show that was already losing momentum? If anything the competition segment needed trimming down. I highly doubt making it as long as possible has that much of an impact on how many people enter, but it sure makes for a boring 4 minutes of telly.

What I don't get is why people would view Family Fortunes 'live' compared to Doctor Who? It just seems to me odd why people don't consider Doctor Who appointment to view anymore. I could understand if it clashed with X Factor or something, but it doesn't. It's odd.

In the meantime, have two graphs: http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1061/graphsq.png

(Don't press "show" if you want to watch MOTD2 without knowing the scores - no results in post but there are hints.)

I suppose Family Fortunes is easy to watch even if there are people chattering beside you, but I think Doctor Who needs 100% (or more!) concentration these days. so possibly better to watch it alone sometime during the week.

I don't know - technically it begins at 6pm but I guess unofficially it's news to news. Something like the reworked Horrible Histories would work there too.

Thanks. It'll be interesting if people find it today for the 100m final and 10,000m final - both of which were very eventful and landmark moments in the Championships really. And if people haven't seen them, will they tune in for the highlights tonight against lesser competition having heard about them this afternoon.