It'll stop the fans from moaning as Doctor Who will be given a plum 7.00pm ish timeslot but I suspect they'll shove it back earlier come the series finale as it will clash with the first Strictly weekend.

As for half hour filler. They still got three unaired episodes of Don't Scare the Hare in the BBC archive basement.

I doubt they will shove it back, it will just take the slot Merlin had last year. With Strictly on at 6 with Doctor Who on after, although it depends on how long DW is, as it the last episode, and unlike previous years not a two parter.

Is Total Wipeout a full series or just the 2 celebrity specials, as there's Strictly preview which should be on the 10th, going by last year.

I think there will be a full series this time as they got series 5 already in the can and Winter Wipeout going into production soon. There was talk series 6 has been comissioned as well but I don't know if it's Winter Wipeout in disguise. Winter Wipeout will have to be aired in the original timeslot (new year) otherwise it defeats the name fo the show.

I predict Wipeout will take a week off on 10th September for the Strictly preview, thus.

5.30pm - Epic Win
6.10pm - Strictly Preview
7.10pm - Doctor Who
8.00pm - Secret Fortune
8.50pm - Casualty

I suggest (as with Brekkie) the fifth series will go into the 5.30pm timeslot as the build up to Strictly. You could have a schedule like this.

5.30pm - Total Wipeout
6.30pm - Strictly Come Dancing
7.45pm - Merlin
8.30pm - National Lottery Draws
8.40pm - Casualty
9.30pm - Michael McIntyre's Roadshow/Live at the Apollo
10.00pm - News
10.15pm - Match of the Day.

They could put the news on at 8:50pm and start Casualty at 9:10pm (when TXF will be wrapping up) with John Bishop at 10pm leading into MOTD. It would help Casualty but having the news at that time doesn't look great. With a better lead in Secret Fortune should be higher next week and Casualty should see something of a boost from that.


That looks about right to me, with Total Wipeout missing a few weeks at the start of Strictly's run due to the longer shows, before returning later in October with the final on the same night as the Strictly final. The only problem could be that they'd essentially end up with two series of Wipeout playing back to back, which could lead to overkill. It certainly looks like a strong schedule though.

Is Comedy Roadshow due back this Autumn? I haven't heard anything about a new series, only the Xmas special. I'd have thought they'd want another run of it, but maybe they're saving it for January. Having said that they could quite easily extend it to an hour and use it to fill the Friday 9pm hour for 6 weeks in Q1 next year.

We still got another series of Would I Lie to You? that is still in the storage cupboard. BBC usually air it in the Graham Norton slot over the summer but they decided for John Bishop's repeat. Unless they want to air it at 9.30pm on Friday evenings. We could see that.

So 10.83% of ITV1 live viewers turned over to watch ITV2 tie in show, yet a massive 51.58% of ITV1+1 viewers decided to switch over to ITV2+1. Or looked at another way 4.66% of The X Factor viewers watch it on ITV1+1, whereas 22.22% of The Xtra Factor viewers watch it on ITV2+1.

As digital viewing becomes more common, many people will switch to +1 channels rather than pvr the programme that they were unable to watch live. Also it it could show that viewers who use timeshift channels are more likely to switch to another timeshift channel, rather than return to 'live' television.

Very strong return for The X Factor. I wasn't expecting much of a fall overall this series (perhaps the aid of +1 might just help it match last year) as the evidence from BGT and across the pond on American Idol seems to be that losing prominent judges really doesn't hit the figures in the way you might expect. I never usually bother with the audition shows, but having caught a fair chunk of last nights, I remain convinced that the real crux of that show is the editing, not the personnel. Firstly, the sheer hyper edited bombast of it all, and then secondly, the way every contestant who walks off the stage has been subtly cast into effective protagonists for the drama/farce/tragedy thats about to unfold. It's TV genius, really.

Big Brother also doing very well at the moment. Thats a brilliant Saturday rating in the general scheme of things and rewards for very careful scheduling around TXF. On the whole, I think hostility from the regulars in the BB forum is generally a good sign. It means the changes they're making are designed to appeal to a wider audience and make it easier for new viewers. Sure the whole thing will be more constructed with no LF and new editing tactics, but thats the point. They're selling you entertainment; not real life.

Otherwise, a quiet night elsewhere, though nothing too disastrous for BBC One. Secret Fortune did OK in the death slot. They could do with trying to manoeuvre Casualty out of the firing zone while they can during the audition stages - on account that its going to get a beating when the endless XF live shows come along anyway.

Underbelly: Razor was premiering tonight.


Yes, Winter Wipeout will be series 6 and essentially on the same course as series 5, just with alot of fake snow. Interestingly in the versions on the new course which have debutted so far they still use the old Zone, so as the UK filmed the series due next week back in January I suspect it'll be the same case there, with perhaps a new zone for Winter Wipeout.

The question is though whether 5.30pm as the build up to Strictly is a better slot than 6/7pm over the summer where they've been airing repeats. This series has long been in the can and could quite easily have aired on Saturday nights from July-September so it's done and dusted by Strictly's arrival, with the repeats put in the pre-Strictly slot is necessary. The BBC seem to have a habit of having virtually nothing on Saturdays for week to having everything in the schedules. I certainly think with Winter Wipeout commissioned that it would be better to have a clear break between the two.

I guess Big Brother and to a lesser extent Millionaire took some Xtra Factor viewers at 9.15pm, especially as there isn't a C5+1. Caroline Flack though clearly a marked improvement on Holly Willoughby and Olly seemed to work well too.

From BBC Audience...
Grab your scorecards and dust off your dancing shoes, Strictly Come Dancing is on the road to Wembley.
The Wembley extravaganza takes place midway through the series on Saturday 19 November.
Raising the stakes for the celebrity dancers and their professional partners, the pressure will be turned up for the Wembley Arena programme, as the couples waltz their way across the biggest ever dance floor in the programme's history, while trying to impress the biggest ever audience of around 6,500 Strictly fans, the largest in the programme's nine series, and the many millions more at home.
The tickets for this programme will cost £20 (a £2.50 booking fee will apply) with all ticket revenue received by the BBC going to Children in Need.
Tickets will be allocated as part of a random draw to make the allocation of tickets as fair as possible.
Registration is now open and will remain open until Friday 26 August 2011 at 10pm

PS - I enjoyed 'Epic Win' yesterday, worth a look if you haven't already given it a go.

That's the one they're showing on September 2nd.

Understandable - Children in Need is on 18th November, so they're leaving Television Centre for the weekend.

Yeah, should be a bit better for BBC One next Saturday. Although the film didn't rate terribly last night, I don't think it gave the Lottery show an ideal lead-in in terms of audience profile.

There were many reasons why Davina flopped, for a start in it was in a dreadful slot back when Wednesdays were BBC1's weakest night by miles, and it also came in the middle of a traffic jam of England and FA Cup matches which meant two of the six shows were on at seven, rather than eight, up against Corrie, and one week it wasn't on at all. You couldn't have picked a worse slot.

In addition, it was such a badly produced show, the guests were all crap and it was all really heavily edited and scripted, the audience may well have been canned, it was such a badly made show, it was produced by the same people as Parkinson and they made absolutely no effort. Even Jonathan Ross said it wasn't Davina's fault but the whole production was flawed. You could have got Cheryl Cole to present it and it would have flopped.


Yeah, I guess there was a germ of a decent idea in He's Having A Baby, the idea was to bring documentary-style techniques to Saturday nights by showing dads being tested on what they know about their kids, with the potential for some humour with them cocking it up, But they picked really, really boring contesants.

A strange reading of "usually", in that it's been in that slot once. The first series in 2007 was on Saturday nights, the second on Fridays at 9.30, the third on Mondays at 10.30 and the fourth on Fridays at 10.30.


I spent ages explaining to my parents that it wasn't the lottery show with the lists, which is the one they like the most, but the one with the envelopes. I like how they don't know the name of either of them. In fact they call them all In It To Win It, which is the one they like the least.

Looking at Ch5's schedule over the next couple of weeks and the 9pm programming looks pretty strong. The Cheryl doc and Extraordinary People should both do well, the latter capturing the anti football audience. Soho Blues should do well in the Monday 9pm slot too.

However, I am surprised at the slots for Greys Anatomy & The Beat Goes On. Even though Greys doesn't perform that well, I think it should be in a better slot than midnight on Monday, perhaps 11pm on Sunday with a BB lead in? The Beat Goes On must be really bad too, because it obviously wasn't destined for a 11pm slot. It's got the BB lead in, but I thought it would be a more family show in the middle of primetime.

Another outing for Justin Lee Collins I see, but he does have the BB eviction lead in a week on Wednesday. Nice to see Ch5 using the BB lead in well for The Bachelor, The Beat Goes On & JLC.

When is the Proms finale?

I suppose they saw Nick Knowles in the trail.

10th September.

One of those is a compilation of "best bits" from the preceding eight shows.

There's still an unshown edition of Hole in the Wall, too. One where Debbie McGee t***s her face on the side of the pool. The clip's been shown in the compliation at end of series two, but the episode hasn't.

So that'll mean more tinkering with the schedule, because they show half of it on BBC One.

Howe about:

5.40 Epic Win
6.10 Strictly Come Dancing
7.10 Doctor Who
8.00 National Lottery Draws
8.10 Casualty
9.00 The Proms

Total Wipeout dropped for a week?

Could be.

Wouldn't surprise me if we get part of the new series of Total Wipeout this autumn, and part next year.

I love it when I come on here and people are trying to make negative comments about Channel 5 and I don't even feel it's necessary to step in and put them right. No need with the ratings where they are at the moment! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect Celebrity Big Brother to be rating this high. It's a monumental success story for the network so far.

CBB 2010 ratings up to this point on Channel 4:
Sunday 3rd Jan launch: 5.9m / 21%
Monday 4th Jan highlights: 3.38m / 18%
Tuesday 5th Jan highlights: 2.97m / 14%

CBB 2011 ratings up to this point on Channel 5:
Thursday 18th Aug launch: 5.2m / 22%
Friday 19th Aug live / highlights: 3.22m / 15%
Saturday 20th Aug highlights: 2.74m / 12%

Pretty extraordinary for the gap to be that close, especially considering the time of year is less favourable for Channel 5. It's almost unprecedented what we're seeing here. Still a long way to go of course, but the early signs are very very promising indeed.

And of course, it was about this time a year ago that Channel 5's last high-profile entertainment series Don't Stop Believing, which cost £1 million an episode, was bringing in ratings below 600,000.

Those dark days for the channel, which was undergoing a change of ownership at the time filled with uncertainty, feel a long time ago now. Keep up the good work Channel 5.

I don't get why they can't push Strictly back a week and save themselves a headache:

5.40 Epic Win
6.10 Strictly Come Dancing
7.10 Doctor Who
8.00 Total Wipeout
8.50 National Lottery Draws
9.00 Casualty

Yes, Total Wipeout is on a bit late but it keeps Strictly and Doctor Who away from The X Factor and it means Total Wipeout doesn't have to miss a week. I reckon November 19 will be slightly beyond the midway point, and the series proper will start at the earliest October 1st and the latest October 15th. So a one week difference for the 'launch' won't matter, really.