Yeah, but it wasn't hemorrhaging viewers at least an average of 5 million isn't really disgraceful - and it looks somewhat stable.

ITV wouldn't give a toss if it beat EE or not.

If Red or Black makes money for the network, the execs will be very happy. I would go as far as to say that ITV would be happy if their show makes money, and would not care in the slightest if every other person on Earth was watching EE.

An interesting stat: of the 6.5m overnight viewers who watched last week's Doctor Who, 4.8m actually watched it live between 7.15-8pm while another 1.7m watched it before 02:00 to be included in the overnights. All Star Family Fortunes probably actually beat it directly head to head, although of course DW is way more popular once everything's taken into account.

On another note, the AIs for Red or Black were: 76 and 79 (Sat), 82 and 82 (Sun). For a new light entertainment show, that's about normal. It's not as low as what I would've expected.

I'm amazed at the number of people who watched the second half of New Tricks but not the first.

Surely, you watch a drama or not?

Did they put a 'previously' up at 9.30pm so that new viewers could follow the story??!!

If the show was shorter (as it was last night) I'd expect the AI to be higher as the slow pace and padding is one of the problems with it.

Obviously it isnt the perfect format, but I'm wondering if it could be successfully re-jigged for a second series.

Its certainly got people talking!

I think a lot of people watch it for the characters as much as the story.

Strange but true.

Really?
Their spokeperson went to great lengths on Sunday to point out R or B beat Doctor Who.


Anymore stunning revealtions? Is the Pope a Catholic?


Happy Birthday, 1 year on since people were trying to spin their Launch as a great opening, which they could build on

In fairness they'd expected to be able to say a lot more, but you can't really deny them their consolation prize of crowing over their pyrrhic victory. Of course, that victory will only last until the consolidated ratings appear. But, y'know.

a show which costs more per hour than RoB of course as you seem to have forgotten.

Wednesday's ratings for ROB will be interesting: as it got 6.2m between 8.30-9pm last night, it might suggest that on Wednesday when it's facing Village SOS (~3m), it could be averaging closer to 6m than 5m. Also, Corrie ought to rate better than yesterday up against WDYTYD (maybe around 8.5/9m), and in theory, if ROB continues to have a ~65% retention out of it, then the results could be in the mid 5's.

I'm really impressed how New Tricks held up yesterday, it was down only 0.4m compared to last week, despite facing ITV competition which averaged over 4m more than last week in the slot! It's just massive, especially in the Monday timeslot, with an audience who are largely very loyal. No wonder it's been recommissioned for another 2 series, I bet the BBC wish they could just recommission it for another 5 years at this point!

Very good! But in typical Hollyoaks fashion, just as things are picking up they've brought in another new producer...Emma Smithwick (the 4th in 2 years).

It's to do with bragging rights and ITV love to beat the BBC's big guns and vice versa. Plus if the show doesn't beat its competition, then the advertising slots don't command as much money. So it's in their interests to beat the competition.

Doctor Who has had a budget cut. It's not £1m per episode. Doctor Who costs less now per hour and Red Or Black cost far more than people expect.

For me the ratings of the night are New Tricks and Corrie. New Tricks faced one of ITV's top shows and only lost a few hundred thousand. And Corrie at 9pm was pretty much bomb proof and did well against a popular show on BBC1. Both will be pleased.

It seems to me that on the face of it Red Or Black is doing OK and if it was just a regular Saturday night gameshow it would be doing quite well with ratings of 5m +. However given it's situation with cost, production, presenters etc the ratings are not good enough. It would have been better to have it around the X-Factor once a week and then it would have had more of a chance to maintain above 6 million.

New Tricks ratings were incredible given that was on against Corrie, I thought it would collapse to a lowest ever rating.


Anyone know how the new series of The Real Hustle did at 8:30pm last night on BBC3?

The breakdowns for Red or Black since Saturday have been pretty telling I think. The show seems to grow during show one but then those viewers don't seem to stick around for the second show or return for the start of the show the following night. That's a pretty good indication that it is entirely dependent on having a big show on after it and regardless of what you think of its numbers (which are disappointing but not horrible as far as I can tell) that's a major problem and obviously not what ITV wanted. The breakdown for last night also suggests that ITV got very lucky that the BBC had Panorama in that 8:30 slot. If they'd had a stronger show there last night could have been terrible for Red or Black.

Elsewhere New Tricks held up incredibly well opposite Corrie and Corrie itself doesn't seem to have been massively dented by New Tricks or Red or Black. But then again why would it be? As a raw number Red or Black is doing pretty well.

Just a note, Tom Spilsbury here was referring to The Impossible Astronaut in April, not Let's Kill Hitler last weekend.

I think you'll find this was in answer to the negative reports about ratings in the newspaper. If you say Red or Black is not performing well, then the same must be said about Doctor Who??? No???


Any need???

Oh, here's one:

If you have nothing constructive to add, don't bother posting!!!!

An interesting set of overnights. I think BBC1 will be very pleased with their night. EastEnders a bit down share wise and New Tricks lost out to Corrie, but the latter's raw figure is fantastic, and it is no wonder it has been recommissioned for two years. If you put to them this time last week that EastEnders and New Tricks would beat Red or Black? comfortably, I think they would have taken that comfortably! It seems like they were totally unaffected in reality by ITV1's schedule.

Very good figure for University Challenge on BBC2, up from the 2.4m/2.5m range we've seen for the past few years. Pity that the Facebook programme was under 1m, but I guess it was it was always going to attract only a niche audience, it seemed to be getting very good reviews on Twitter ironically. Shooting Stars performed solidly at 10pm.

I think ITV, although they will no doubt be very disappointed with Red or Black's figures, I imagine there is a bit of relief that Red or Black didn't plummet. Okay, it was under 4 million against EastEnders, but at least it held up somewhat against New Tricks. It should stay above 5m on Wednesday and Thursday, unsure about Friday, but it should be fine. Obviously still below ITV's targets but at least they can 'save face' if it stays respectable and potentially improve by Saturday. Solid for Corrie with the tough New Tricks competition, and it should be higher itself like Red or Black on Wednesday and Thursday.

Solid night for Channel 4, about as expected there. Hollyoaks is the standout there, no doubt getting a boost with the kids back to school while the Later show did well on E4. Someone suggested swapping Soho Blues and the Royal Navy on Channel 5, that would be a great idea looking at Soho Blue's rating at 9pm. Celebrity Big Brother doing well as well in its final week.

Doctor Who timeshifts 2 million viewers nearly. Red or Black won't. Doctor Who is still doing brilliantly for BBC, okay its overnights may be around 5.5m to 6m but it gets another 2m timeshift to take it up to 7.5m/8m and then another 1.5m on iPlayer taking it to near 10m.

In May this year at the Red & Black Launch
The ITV director of entertainment and comedy, Elaine Bedell, said it would be "one of the biggest TV events on ITV this year".

Quote from the Guardian...

What were ITV thinking, don't they do audience research?

Does anyone have the ratings for yesterday's This Morning and Loose Women. Be interesting to see if they've gotten any better, especially TM, since Phillip and Holly are back.

In fairness most of the press are saying that aren't they? I'm not sure 'we beat the show you've been saying is in ratings free fall' is the greatest line of defence however inaccurate the reporting of Doctor Who's numbers are.

Cowell said the idea for the show was first mooted 10 years ago and he was immediately attracted to it.

"A lot of shows I see are quite boring to watch. "I like the fact we are doing something that is high concept. Thank goodness ITV gives us the budget to do something big and put their money where their mouth is," he added.

I bet ITV wish they had kept their mouths firmly shut.

Well of course they said it was going to be a big hit. Who launches a new show and says 'we expect this to bomb' or 'we expect this to do so-so'?