E-mail received from BBC Studio Audience Services.....

Saturday night quiz show: The Speed Of Light (pilot recording)

A new, visually spectacular Saturday night lottery quiz show pilot, The Speed of Light where knowledge alone is not enough to win.
Seven contestants battle it out for the chance to walk away with the top cash prize by taking on the lights in a test of skill, timing and nerve.
The pressure mounts as the three finalists try to take control of the largest cash amount.
But who will crumble under the pressure? Who will triumph when facing the lights the final time?
Miss their target by a fraction of a second and they could walk away with nothing. Don't miss your chance to see this brand new lottery show first.

Recording on Sunday 21 August at BBC Television Centre, London. Doors open at 4.45pm. Please note the minimum age is 18 and proof of age ID may be required on the day.
Please note there will be flashing lights present in the show so if you have photosensitive epilepsy it may not be suitable. Please also note that the studio can get quite cool so please dress appropriately.
To apply for tickets visit the BBC Tickets website or call 0370 9011227 (calls charged at no more than 01 or 02 geographic phone numbers).

ITV's logic-

"Lets axe a much loved show like The Royal- which gets 4 million (and is are third most popular show bar Corrie & Emmerdale) and replace it with a repeat of Joanna Lumleys Nile and get 1 million."

It didn't even manage that.

I think a lot of viewers felt shortchanged by how The Royal ended.

Assuming this all-foreign fixture will air on ITV1 on August 17th, it will be competing with the network premiere of Twilight on Channel 4. I can't see any other eventuality in that scenario than a comprehensive win for Twilight both in terms of Total People and the demos.

so it probaly isnt making that much money for ITV then. I said at the time it was ITV dipping its toe in to the Pay TV market, and that it will need go deeper to get any kind of pay off.


not sure what to make of that, I wonder if its based on that thing peope use to test reflexes.

And which one made them more money?

I think its probably a close call.

Bit unfair of them to take it out on Joanna Lumley.


When The X Factor returns ITV executives are going to get a nose-bleed.

When Downton Abbey and Doc Martin return their heads will explode.

Bless 'em.

Would it be better for ITV if Joanna just invited the audience back to her house and showed them her holiday slides?

The problem with The Royal was that although it got respectable ratings of 4-5m in a difficult slot, the show was expensive to make and didn't do too well among any of the key demographics, which at the end of the day is what advertisers will pay to reach. If it had been a cheap show getting those sorts of ratings and demos, it would've been saved. But The Royal was a loss-maker, they didn't make enough advertising revenue throughout the hour to cover the costs. Also, if they kept The Royal going, due to a fixed drama budget, it would've meant one fewer drama series at 9pm which could get 5m+ and potentially run another 5 years. At the end of the day, they had to weigh up their options and say do they want to keep renewing a show which gets a respectable 4m at 7pm but is a loss-maker financially or use that money to commission a new drama that gets 5m in the more key 9pm slot that could actually make a profit.

I don't particularly agree with the decision, nor do I like the way ITV quite deliberately killed off the show in the last few years, but you can see why they decided against having another series of it. Basically what they've done is sometimes sacrifice gross ratings/ratings share for financial reward. The irony is that although Joanna Lumley's Nile repeat rated terribly yesterday (and should be pulled ASAP as someone else said- ITV must've been expecting 3m at least), they would've probably made more money from this last night than The Royal last week. Obviously they have to get the balance right between ratings and cost of programming (which certainly wasnt the case yesterday), but this sort of thing is something which has been happening more and more in recent years and will continue to happen as programming budgets shrink.

Just seen an advert for The Gadget Show, moved from Mondays with the new series starting on Friday 19th August.
The ad showed all 5 presenters from the last series (Suzi, Pollyanna, Jon, Jason, Ortis) , so will assume there's no change on that front.

yes ive seen nothing to suggest any changes to the show for this series

I wonder what being on Friday will do to its ratings, I would guess nothing good. Last series saw some low ratings in the second half.

No one got any news channel ratings? Be interesting to have seen their shares for late Saturday evening when it all kicked off in Tottenham. Likewise will be interesting to see tonight's ratings with so much going on all over London.

One low rating series doesn't mean the show is dead. The run up to Christmas alone will provide a boost.

rzt posted some data yesterday from late on Saturday:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...8&postcount=38

The News ratings will be very interested tommorw.

it does depend if the show makes some changes.

I'm sure Show Me The Funny has nothing to worry about
Live final notwithstanding, this would be a good night to abandon that for a news special.

knowing London as I dont I hope this roiting is not anywhere near the Olympic stadinums. The only flame I want to not watch being lit in the Olympic stadinum, is the one on opening night, not the one of roiters.

If this continues, I wonder if TheFA will postpone England v Holland 'on safety grounds'?

They get a a share of the HD subscription. In their annual report ITV said the HD channels on Sky HD were 'performing well'.

I'm surprised no channel has yet decided to run a news special, it doesn't usually take much for the BBC to run one. I suppose their schedule is too jam packed with high rating programmes tonight to risk it.

ITV on the other hand could have run one at 8pm or indeed do at 9pm.

I very much hope there is no live primetime coverage for these little scum bags. Any channel that does that should be taken off air.

Uefa Super Cup: Barcelona vs Porto. Friday 26 August at 7pm on @ITV4
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Should be another bumper month for ITV4. July I believe was ITV4s best rating month ever.

1.24m at 7pm then 1.94m at 8pm for ITV1. What an absolute disaster in every respect. L&O: UK's 3.83m looks quite respectable in comparison. Looks like Sunday is becoming the new Tuesday for ITV. The problem is once DoI has finished there's nothing until TXF really. I know BGT get a few Sunday eps but something drastic needs to happen to fix this. The return of TXF can't come soon enough. It is very likely to be down on last year, but surely we can expect at least 10m for the launch, if not more.

Too true