I think the quality of Eastenders and Corrie has been woeful in the last couple of years. I switched off both for good last year. Too many over the top characters and outrageous plots, and too many older established characters having their personalities changed to suit the outrageous plots.

I also think the internet has had a big effect on shows like this. People now spend hours each night online, and only switch on the TV for 'event' television like sport, one-off drama's, movie premiers, XFactor/BGT/Strictly etc Shows that are on all the time the soaps and drama such as Casualty and Holby have been ignored in the process.

Thanks for the news! It makes sense since the BFI screening of the first episode is on 15th September.

Let us not forget that the Docusoap was "The Next Big Thing" in television back in the 1990s with the likes of Driving School, Vet School and The Cruise. So if it's worked before as a big ratings hit, it can work again <Shudders>

And look at this feature on the Original Docusoap "The Family" from 1974.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/444743/

Note the quote

Ah, yes, there's nothing new in television. You could probably copy and paste that quote into the review for the new ITV1 show. Just substitute the apppropriate programme title and name of participants.

We've already seen the "stars" <splutter> of TOWIE saturate the newspapers. How wild would the tabloids go for something that could grab a big ITV1 audience?

Nope, I'm already seeing this one topping the ratings. Thanks very much. Now I'm thoroughly depressed.

I'd have thought they'd be more likely to promote TOWIE and have TOWIL on ITV2. It would slot in well in any after-news slot or Sat/Sun at 10pm. but it'll probably get a 9pm slot.

Actually it being on ITV1 might not be a bad thing - it could get three times as many viewers as TOWIE but if it's on ITV1 that'll be considered a flop and it will be killed off sooner rather than later.

By the sounds of it this Liverpool one isn't just going to be about people in their teens and early-20s as they're also after families, local businesses etc. It sounds a bit more like a docusoap about the people of Liverpool, with a style not dissimilar to TOWIE but focusing on a broader range of people. I'm still not convinced by it and if they do give it a 9pm slot I can't see it doing well, and from what we've heard so far it doesn't really deserve to do well.

My only other thought is that they could be trying a tea-time 'docusoap', but I think that would flop quite badly. (and I'm not sure why Lime Pictures would want two soaps on terrestrial... let alone both from Liverpool!)

I admire your pessimism (or is it optimism) but I still fear this will storm it and make Downton Abbey look like a repeat of Unforgiven or The X Factor look like Popstar To Opera Star.***

On the other hand, ITV1 bosses may think the same thing. In which case, it's doomed.




***NB - exaggeration for effect.

People were wondering what Geordie Shore got on Tuesday. It had 208k.

I think that's lower than all its previous ratings, even though it seemed to be promoted quite a lot - there was an advert for it during CBB the other night! They've announced today though that it's been recommissioned for a second season.


If they do one, it'd most likely be post-watershed as I reckon they'd want to have some swearing and controversial things happening in it which are not suitable pre-9pm. It may be sad for British TV, but I think there's definitely a gap in the market for a constructed reality show/docusoap on terrestrial TV at the moment, so I can see why they're looking into doing one, especially after recent successes in the genre, and if anyone get it right it's probably Lime Pictures due to their expertise in the field. The key to this will be the casting in terms making sure there are 'characters' in it who appeal to the tabloid/magazines which create buzz for these sorts of shows, but at the same time because it's going to be on a terrestrial channel, they'll need a wider age range of characters in it too to appeal to a mainstream audience and not make it too trashy. Although it could flop, let's just say, I would bank on something like this rating higher in the Tuesday 9pm slot for them than the sort of run-of-the-mill factual series they've been showing recently.

Channel 5 Week 37 (w/c 10th September):

Popular US crime drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent returns for an eighth 16 episode season.

The Revealed strand continues with new documentary Mysteries of the Vampire Skeletons.

Highland Emergency returns for a third 15 part series.

Vantage Point (2008), a conspiracy thriller starring Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox gets its terrestrial premiere.

Europa League Football returns to Channel 5 for a new season.

www.channel5.com

Big Brother Week 1 Scheduling (Provisional):

Fri 9th September: 21:30 - 23:00 (Live Launch)
Sat 10th September: 21:00 - 22:00 (Subject to change)
Sun 11th September: 22:00 - 23:00
Mon 12th September: 22:00 - 23:00
Tue 13th September: 22:00 - 23:00
Wed 14th September: 22:00 - 23:00
Thu 15th September: 22:15 - 23:15 (Due to football)
Fri 16th September: 21:00 - 22:00 and 23:00 - 23:30 (Live eviction?)

It looks like they could be splitting the eviction shows up into two again when the normal BB starts. That 11pm show seems a bit late though.

I am accepting bets now - will Show Me The Funny make it to 2 million viewers tonight? No New Tricks in opposition - my estimate is 2.1m, anyone else ought feel free to make a guess....

I'm not sure there's any need for it to be on at 10:15pm following the Football, in fact it should stay at 10pm to capitalise the post-football audience.

As for the eviction, that probably is too late, but I can't see them moving it forward half an hour given they've made every effort the previous week to avoid clashing the live shows with Corrie.


It should do, but on the other hand I hope Torchwood clears 4m this week.

You could in theory watch tonight's show without having seen the rest of the series, as it's just 3 people doing standup and then deciding who is best.

The public will probably just see the title and skip straight past (in a reverse direction back 2)

IIRC, the Europa League matches kick-off about 20.05 so matches finish at 21.55-22.00. Hence with an ad break and post-match talk and then another ad break, the earliest they can probably begin BB on that evening is 22.15.


Yeah, it's too late, even for a Friday night. Not sure why they don't just stick to the 1 hour format as they're doing with CBB, which is better.

That reasonable rating for the football on ITV1 can partly be attributed to the fact that there was a very real possibility Arsenal could have been dumped out. Opposing fans love that and I will hazard a guess that will be the highest Arsenal rating till Christmas.

Let's be honest - there's not too many people who can watch tonight's show with having seen the rest of the series.

Does anyone know how well The Killing is doing on BBC4? It's being repeated nightly at 10pm. Thanks

It hasn't gone unnoticed either. Jason Manford said at the start of tonight's show that 'the finalists will be performing in front of 3000 people here at the Hammersmith Apollo, and possibly up to double that amount at home.'

21/8/11: The Killing: 161k
22/8/11: The Killing: 178k
23/8/11: The Killing: 196k

I bet Cowboy Builders will do very well tonight it may even beat ITV1.

Some Europa League games kicked off at 19:45 tonight, they're not as strict as Champions League in that the kick off times in the Europa League can be adjusted on a broadcaster's request.

Thank you Hmm .. I thought it might be doing a bit better than that, seeing as it's been raved about a lot since it was first shown, but I guess it's fairly niche. It's an excellent series though

Ah right. I'd thought it was just the qualifying matches which were flexible in terms of kick-off times, but the proper round matches had to be 6pm/8.05pm. You're right though, that 7.45pm kick-off would've been better.

BTW, for anyone wondering, the Born to Shine overnight average was 2.27m (9.7%).

Show Me the Funny's overnight average so far after 6 episodes is 2.07m (8.6%). Of course I don't need to state the obvious by saying neither will be returning ever again. I don't think there's been one ITV entertainment show this Summer that has been a hit of any description, maybe Penn and Teller: Fool Us but even that is pushing it. I've still amazed ITV never pulled any of the disastrous flops...

Averages excludes +1. (even with +1 the ratings are still crap)

Good old Jason

To be fair, they have had the excuse of being up against the mighty New Tricks. But, on the other hand, the programme has been heavily slated for being a bad format.