Well you can work out the odds based on the number of cards in the pack. If the probability of the next card being higher than an 8 is less than 50%, you should guess lower. I'm not sure if they allowed card counters on PYCR though. I suspect there was a secret camera in Brucie's wig to catch this.

However, most male football fans don't watch Coronation St, but I suppose the end of My Family will have attracted a large audience. Coronation St, though, isn't the invincible force it was and due to a number of factors- overkill, poor acting, an audience that is dying out in some cases, better competition- its ratings have halved in the last 20 years. Certainly BBC One doesn't seem as fazed by it as it was and their alternatives are usually better.

Well you can say that about ever program can't you. Now there are hundreds of channels. 20 years ago there wasn't you can't really compare

Just noticed from the TV guide that ITV had moved TXF to 8.15 this week so that non-RoB-watching TXF viewers will catch the last 15 mins of RoB anyway whilst they wait for their weekly fix of singing auditions soap. Supports what I said earlier about ITV's unequalled scheduling nous when it comes to the big new "must not fail" shows.

Here are my overnight "+1 excluded" predictions for tonight:

DW - 5.4m
Lotto - 3.8m
Casualty - 4m
Bishop - 3m
News - 4m

RoB1 - 7.5m (peak 10m)
TXF - 11m (peak 12.2m)
RoB2 - 10m
Ross - 5m

Oh I agree, Eastenders has seen its audience figure halve, though Emmerdale attracts about the same audience as it did when it was Emmerdale Farm. However, the BBC does seem to compete better against Coronation St, rather than showing a repeat of On The Up or some import like Harry and the Hendersons. Yet, though, should something dramatic happen like Al Qaeda blow up the Rovers Return, then audience figures jump by 6 million.

Don't really agree with that, Robbie - ITV's scheduling is often dire, even worse than BBC One's at times. Red or Black? has a weak lead in before launching against a flagship family drama, albeit one which is not doing as well in the overnights as before. It then has no lead in tomorrow against an established schedule; airs opposite EastEnders on Monday and disappears completely on Tuesday night.

For me, they should've aired The X Factor tonight from 7.30-8.30 followed by Red or Black? in a bulk 90 minute slot then Jonathan Ross. They should've held The X Factor back at least a couple of weeks and aired the auditions on Saturday and Sunday nights to boost the Sunday schedule and gain a bit of momentum. Some of their scheduling over the summer has been questionable, even if they have had little to work with - as though they're just throwing darts at a board and sticking the show where it lands.

Back to last night, and The Million Pound Drop really struggled against the onslaught from BBC One, Channel 5 and Sky Sports. Once the opposition finished, the ratings increased.That's a poor start and it may struggle tonight depending how Red or Black? performs. Chickens didn't grab a great figure and Quiz Night was beaten by a spin off show.

BBC One had a good night with EastEnders holding up much better than Coronation Street and the last ever My Family doing no worse at 8.30pm than at 9pm. Outnumbered claimed a strong figure to start the series and Miranda remained as steady as ever. That's a very good figure for John Bishop's Britain.

Channel 5 will be releived to see that The Bachelor is not losing figures, and if it remains at that rating it could get a renewal...but how would it be doing without the Big Brother lead in? Big Brother itself did ok, but the opposition dented it considering it didn't gain any viewers even though it was an eviction show. The Gadget Show was pure fuller against the soaps and football, and performed like filler.

Fraud Squad should see a slight lift next week with no football in opposition, and it did keep to the 3m mark including +1. I think the second Coronation Street saw such a dip because the first episode was dire! Emmerdale pulled in a decent share.

Not a great night for BBC Two, with no show getting above 2m. Gardener's World did a reasonable job at 8.30pm; I think it must have been dented by My Family.

Mine in bold

I think I've over predicted RoB2 - it might dip below 6m

Its over. Last night was 2 of 2.

But hopefully it will return again. It was quite interesting last night.

Alot has changed in the tv world but you are spot on about Coronation Street. It had a magic which used to make me tune which is not there anymore, and it was on occasions the funniest tv show of the week.
It brings home the decline of soaps that ITV had an hour and a half of them last night and BBC1 was a couple of percent ahead in primetime. Obviously there are reasons but 6 or 7 million regular viewers have deserted the major soaps in 15 years marking a definite shift in viewing habits.

Doctor Who is not going to have the same overnight as last week with tougher opposition.

Glad to see Channel 5 doing so well with CBB. Where are the haters now? Back under the rocks they came from?

The total tv audience will be higher. BBC1 viewers, who were in Tuscany last weekend are back now. ITV1 viewers are back from Blackpool too.

And there is no late football game today either so m/c will be lower.

I was more worried about how they got down afterwards, cos I couldn't see any steps!

What has seemed like a fairly stable week for soaps ended with a bang last night as they all collasped to their lowest ratings of the week obviously dented by the England match. Not sure how it bodes for Corrie next week (and that clip was way to spoliery (if that is indeed a word)) for the Sunday episode of Corrie. If RoB isn't a success Corrie could get lost in that schedule next week which IMO is all over the place and it maybe a big ask to expect viewers to stick to this for a whole week. If the results show does well with a 12m XF lead-in tonight it could do OK if viewers warm to it. But with two EE clashes next week and Corrie up against New Tricks on Monday, its hard to guess which way any of this is going to go. If RoB bombs, Corrie will be hit hard. It's not like using BGT to hold up schedule, which obviously works now as its a reliebale big-hitter for ITV1, but using a completely new show is risky IMO. I would have left the soaps as they are and ran RoB 8.30-10pm every night. Much saver, and if it bombs at least Corrie would have been unaffected.

Friday 2nd September - Soap Ratings
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.39m (20.2%)
20:00- EastEnders: 7.15m (32.6%)

ITV1
19:00- Emmerdale: 6.01m (32%) , +1: 105k (0.5%)
19:30- Coronation Street: 7.05m (34.4%) , +1: 116k (0.5%)
20:30- Coronation Street: 6.77m (29.3%) , +1: 209k (0.9%)
* full-slot average: 6.4m (27%) [inc. +1]

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 910k (5.4%) , +1: 49k (0.2%)

Channel 5
13:45- Neighbours: 604k (8.7%)
17:30- Neighbours: 1.03m (7.8%)

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Multichannel
BBC Three
22:00- EastEnders: 642k (3.3%)

E4
19:00- Hollyoaks: 349k (1.9%)

Source: DS

Also, thanks to Liam O'Brien for the detailed roundups today.

You have a worrying lack of faith in your big new hope!

Do you know something about it we don't?




And Benidorm, of course.

(Interestingly, I've been to Blackpool and Benidorm, but never to Tuscany. Wierd... )

Miranda retained a good chunk of the audience from Outnumbered, that bodes well for the new series which I think should get a 9pm slot and it'll easily attract 6m.

Anyone know how the Mrs Browns Boys repeat did?

Agreed. ROB would have got a big boost anyway from starting in Corrie's slot on Monday, Thursday & Friday and I reckon it'll do much worse up against EE and being split in two. It's a big risk for Corrie considering it's got one of its biggest weeks this year. Although I think it needed to show that spoiler to get as many viewers for Sundays episode, as otherwise people may just think it's an average episode they can miss. I really enjoyed it and hope they start doing more of them.

Hope the Beeb haven't got that earmarked for a 10.35pm Friday slot when it returns. It's crying out for Saturdays at 10pm before MOTD. They should be repeating it there, not at 11.05pm Fridays.

Home & Away is back for Channel at 6pm, I wonder if this will help C5

Good point about viewers thinking its just an extra episode. But these random Sunday episodes never seem to do that well. And with last nights second episode performing very badly, I can't see any form of boost. I'd say 7.5m tops.

Not forgetting the two Ireland and the Wales matches and Andy Murray, to grab some female viewers too.

I think the Million Pound Drop did fine. The last series averaged 1.94m (9.3%) in the overnights for its Friday 9pm episodes, so yesterday's rating was in line with that. Quite decent really, given the tougher-than-usual competition it faced from Outnumbered and Big Brother. The 2.9m peak suggests it picked up to about 2.5m from 10-10.30pm, probably the second-highest rated channel in that half an hour behind BBC1. Tonight's episode, as you say, will be dented quite a lot, maybe even down to 1.0-1.5m.

My Family has gone out with a whimper for its final eleven episodes this year. It's strange how the scrapping announcement seemed to help the final series of Last of the Summer Wine, but not the final series of My Family.

To be fair, though, the BBC treated the final series of Last of the Summer Wine very well, with its best slot for eleven years, its first trails () for ten years, and some tribute programming of sorts, but I think My Family had fallen out of favour at the BBC far more than Summer Wine had, and the viewers had had enough of My Family.