Originally Posted by Score:
“The Chase will be fine when new episodes begin. It's only on repeats at the moment which haven't been promoted for obvious reasons. Repeats are fine after a new series of a show like this has finished but running repeats on their own and not off the back of any new episodes was never going to work that well.”
Will Pointless have switched to repeats (indeed will it remain in the slot?) by the time new episodes of The Chase airs. I didn't think they had that many episodes stored up.
Originally Posted by rzt:
“It was the third lowest overnight rating in the Tuesday 9pm slot for ITV1 this year, so yeah it did bomb! Their Tuesday 9pm slot average this year (excluding BGT) has been 2.9m, so it was more than 30% under the slot average.
For the first primetime repeat of a drama, generally BBC1/ITV1 has to pay about 60% of the actors' royalties, which themselves equate to around a third of the cost of an episode. So a drama, such as Unforgiven, costing about £700,000 an episode would be made up of just over £200k for actors' fees, and 60% of this would equate to almost £150k. With additional costs such as music and writer fees, a repeat of something like Unforgiven probably cost ITV £150,000-200,000. At a guess, I think that would be similar, if not slightly more, than how much an episode of a 'cheap factual' as Homes From Hell costs.”
Thanks rzt. I think too we remember the worst (and the best) figures when comparing ratings, but as you say third lowest isn't great - though the flip side of that might be that you'd expect the lower ratings to be in the summer anyway.
ITV's main worry now will be reclaiming Wednesday nights once the football switches again - it used to be one of ITV's strongest and one of the BBC's weakest, but for the BBC it is probably now one of their strongest nights.
Originally Posted by The Unknown One:
“The Channel 4 continuity announcer introducing Twilight -
If Channel 4 are really so convinced that Big Brother is a spent force, why are they so bothered by it?”
I wouldn't take it too seriously - just an off the cuff quip being blown out of proportion. I notice though the press releases about them outperforming last year with a BB free schedule seem to have stopped.
Originally Posted by russellelly:
“That's the problem - Unreported World is great at telling me things I don't know. A more accessible version on BBC1/ITV could do decently (and be fantastic PSB).”
Fantastic PSB and decent ratings rarely go hand in hand. There is nothing to suggest they'd perform better than Panorama and Tonight - and as we've seen with them often the more serious and challenging the subject matter, the more viewers tune out. They'd also be more expensive too.
. There's been an amendment to the schedules, meaning TXF's second episode is 75 minutes long from 8pm and Will Young's show therefore begins at 9.15pm. BBC1's schedule remains the same as above.”
