Bring back Saturday Night Takeaway. I liked that show.

Celebrity Big Brother did good for Channel 5, the real test though is regular Big Brother which will running from now until November and I imagine the producers will try and iron any kinks they had with CBB for the regular series.

It'll go back to the regular pattern of January for CBB and June for normal BB although I think they could potentially air it in May so they can wrap it up in time for the Olympics.

I wonder what would've happened if Red or Black? had aired on Tuesday? It seemed to maintain an average figure over Sunday and Monday and has seen the major drop off after the break. There is no point stripping a show when it's going to miss a night - especially a programme which is not established. It also dragged down Coronation Street which should've performed much better looking at opposition figures. Disregarding the lead in, it should be capable of more...I'm wondering if the Tuesday break has effected that as well. Emmerdale recorded around it's normal Thursday figure so it's not as though it saw that much of a boost. Jonathan Ross repeated decently after the news.

I really don't think that's a very good figure for Celebrity Big Brother. I guess the first half hour was up against a (weak) Coronation Street but I expected it to be in at least the high 3's. Pamela Anderson should see a boost in figures tonight but they'll need to use her well to retain that audience. Cowboy Builders did ok in the 8pm slot, albeit slightly down and I see it's been said that it was a recap show. Bit On The Side pulled in a decent figure at 11pm.

Torchwood has stabilised around the 3.5m mark, but that's a poor figure for it and I doubt it'll return. EastEnders did very well considering the soap clash - ITV1 was under 2m at one point during the soap (presumably during an ad break) looking at the fifteen minute breakdown. Watchdog performed very well and ITV1's ridiculous scheduling will be exposed again next week against it. Question Time did well.

Mock the Week seems slightly low; I'm sure it used to pull in 2m+. I guess Big Brother provided tough opposition. The Athletics pulled in a good figure over 2 hours considering it was up against the soaps and Watchdog. Adopting Abroad at least recorded a respectable figure.
The American shows appear to be dragging Channel 4 down slightly with The Killing and Undercover Boss USA struggling. Country House Rescue did well on what was otherwise a mediocre at best night for Channel 4.

That's a low figure for Celebrity Juice . I haven't seen it advertised much and it seems to be losing out to Mock the Week and Big Brother. Could do better; and should be doing better really.

The worst part of Red or Black's underperformance is what it's done to Coronation Street in what should have been a major week for Britain's top rated soap. What a waste!

Very disappointing week overall for ITV1 and a poor way to start to the autumn season. The only way is up from here.

I don't think BB will sustain the same ratings as CBB. CBB has always usually rated higher than the standard BB, so if that it is the case, we could see the figures dip below 2 million.

I think Coronation Street should be holding up better than it has been, even when you take into consideration the lead in and lead out. It had little competition last night outside Big Brother (a poorly received drama on BBC One; a low rating US drama on Channel 4 and a worthy documentary on BBC Two) and I don't think there would have been much of a crossover in terms of audience with Big Brother, to be honest.

Who Do You Think You Are? was slightly tougher but that had little in way of lead in, so again I think Coronation Street should've performed better on Wednesday as it had little else as competition.

I fear for it tonight; Outnumbered will have a decent lead in (I can see Question of Sport being in the mid 5s against Red or Black?) and Million Pound Drop will lure in viewers. I bet Channel 5 are kicking themselves that they didn't pitch Big Brother at 9pm instead of waiting until 9.30pm.

I truly believe that would be a mistake. I don't think you win the audience back by bringing back a show that was fading when you took it off the air. If nothing else ITV need a new format that audiences can get excited about not a show that's nearly 10 years old.

Both ITV and Ant & Dec should be looking for the 'new Saturday Night Takeaway'. A new entertainment format that can sustain strong-decent numbers for 9 series. Not flogging a dead or dying horse that's already been off the air for a couple of years.

With respect your view differs somewhat from all mainstream media which declared it a successful end to a successful series, but there you go. High 3's was always going to be a big ask given how it has rated up to now, the competition last night and also how it rated on Channel 4. A year ago today Ultimate Big Brother, which had the added pull of being the last ever series as well as featuring housemates which were very familiar to the public, bowed out with 2.4 million and 3.6 million respectively across two programmes. So for Channel 5's finale to pull in 3m, slap bang in the middle of those two figures is very good indeed, and it's pleasing to see that being echoed even by the likes of MediaGuardian. Broadcast have gone one step further by issuing an editorial piece, which suggests it could be "just the tonic Channel 5 needed after a tough year" and "with a strong “public” version the format could yet prove a watershed moment for the broadcaster."

Bit on the Side, which you claim rated only decently, actually won its timeslot on commercial TV.

It is very difficult to make comparisons between BB and CBB due to the differences in time of year they have traditionally aired at - which is part of the reason year on year comparisons thus far have been challenging.

On another note, I really don't expect anything great for the launch show tonight, probably around 3m again. You can keep branding it a "launch", which in essence it is, but to the casual viewer it is simply another episode in this 12 week long BB series. They wont differentiate between the two as much as in the past.

I think Big Brother will start low at 3-3.5m but it depends on the housemate to see if it can match the number CBB was doing.

I think the Secret Story format would be a good twist but I doubt they'll implement it this year.

Some of their own formats haven't been any good, but I wonder how they landed the Red or Black job: did ITV offer them the job, or order them to do it?

If it was the former, then it was bad judgement from Ant and Dec, but if was the latter, I'd be inclined to feel a bit of sympathy for them.

I suppose they gave it their best shot, though. I didn't see the series, but I've seen some cringeworthy promo pics with Ant and Dec in red and black outfits, so they deserve some credit for putting up with that photoshoot in their efforts to do their best for the show.

Some good points raised there. I think it just got lost a bit really. If you're going to move a much loved show out of its usual timeslots you have to have a mighty good reason for doing it IMO. Britain's Got Talent qualifies as one of if not the biggest show of the year, but Red or Black doesn't even come close. Maybe in terms of the staging, but there's clearly no substance to the format, and that should have been more obvious.

As for Channel 5, I doubt they will be kicking themselves about tonight's start time because last night's breakdown shows that ratings soared from 9:30pm onwards (+0.5m instantly). The 9pm half hour actually rated quite low compared to the rest of the broadcast. So take that out, and they should be on for an even higher programme average tonight.

Ultimate Big Brother was quite a poor series; Housemates had changed personalities which meant that regular viewers suddenly found themselves loathing their 'favourite'; people had already watched a number of weeks of Big Brother and were slowly losing interest as it was. Bear in mind that UBB was up against two episodes of Coronation Street, EastEnders (Peggy Mitchell's departure), New Tricks, The Mentalist and (IIRC) Graham Norton - not a struggling Torchwood, limping Coronation Street, poorly rating The Killing and a documentary that would not appeal to many. This series has also been relatively well received when comapring to UBB, and had a higher starting point than UBB which had 4m (albeit that figure included the final of BB11).

I doubt it! Tonight's edition of A Question of Sport has already been shown twice: 27th of June and 1st of July this year.

It all depends whether it loses out to The Million Pound Drop and Would I Lie To You?, which'll have the Outnumbered lead in. It'll definitely gain on ITV1 and people who are watching BBC Two will not be bothered with the show.

Red or Black? just isn't established enough to go head to head with stable BBC One shows and expect to hold up. If it had been given The X Factor lead out/lead in for it's run it probably would've help up better but it was terribly exposed. I doubt Britian's Got Talent would've been as successful if it had been pitched against EastEnders in its first series.

Now that all the figures are in for last night, I think we can safely say the big winner of last night was Watchdog. I think that is the first time it has gone above 5m in the revamped one hour format. If I recall correctly, there were one or two occasions in Winter 2008 where in the half hour slot against Coronation Street it had 5m, but apart from that, it was always below 5m. EastEnders performed well, and has been the unlikely soap victor for the week. Torchwood was the only weak link for BBC One, with it refusing to budge off 3.5m. While it may be above 4m in the officials, I'm not 100 percent sure if it will be recommissioned. I think if Starz are willing to be involved in another series, then it will be recommissioned, but if not, then either its hours will be reduced or its budget will be reduced. I haven't watched Torchwood this series, does anyone who watches the series regularly think another shorter series maybe required to bring closure to it? I haven't watched this series, so can't really comment. I would be surprised if it wasn't recommissioned though. Just quickly going to daytime, some great figures from 12:15 to 13:45 - an average of 2.4m (35.1%). I wonder if Loose Women is performing poorly on the other side, because that share in particular looks very high.

Am not sure what to say about ITV. I can't Red or Black coming back. If it does, it'll be a daytime show, under an entirely different brand name. I dread to think what the overnights could be tonight and tomorrow, could be very bleak for ITV. There is a good chance it could lose both of its slots tonight, and tomorrow we could well see Red or Black below 3m which will just add to the humiliation. Someone at ITV is probably hoping it doesn't hurt The X Factor, in reality it shouldn't, but if more people are watching BBC1, and by some margin, that may hurt X Factor dare I say it. It shouldn't though. I imagine there are some people annoyed high up in the Coronation Street line looking at the ratings this week, their big week is getting under 7m thanks to Red or Black. Some may say "why don't they just tune in later, they have a TV Guide", its a routine for people to tune in Mondays at 7:30, Wednesdays at 7:30 (well, used to...) and Fridays at 7:30 at Corrie, break the routine and your break the camel's back. The reason they're not tuning in as much at 9pm is that they're watching something else, because Red or Black in their view is poor. It's not like Britain's Got Talent, where they would be watching ITV1 anyway. The scheduling this week has backfired badly.

Not much to say about BBC2 or Channel 4, as expected on both channels it has to be said although I am surprised The Killing never went below 1m. Whether you think the Celebrity Big Brother final did good depends on your expectations. I think it did good to break 3m, but do I think it could have been higher? Definitely. But 3m is not a bad figure by any stretch of the imagination so I think they'll be relatively pleased. Who knows, the rate ITV is going, they may even beat Red or Black tonight! Seriously though, the Big Brother 12 launch is interesting ratings wise. I don't expect it to stack up to Channel 4's launch figures but I do think it should be aiming for the low to mid 3m's. Not sure what to expect after that, depends how people react to the housemates, really.

Fair enough. We could argue about which series is best until the cows come home but personally I thought Ultimate Big Brother had more going for it than the Celeb series that's just gone, especially since it was supposed to have been the last ever. Whilst I've enjoyed CBB on the whole, and the production values were high, it lacked many big moments. That gives me faith that it could build on these figures in January with a stronger cast and more gripping stories.

I still think despite your arguments to the contrary that 3m is a very solid figure for 2 hours of Channel 5 primetime, winning its slot for the majority of the last hour. That has only happened a handful of times in the last 4 or 5 years prior to CBB launching, virtually exclusively for high-profile sporting fixtures. Maybe you could argue the figure is slightly disappointing in the context of Celebrity Big Brother's ratings history, but the move from January to August makes comparisons very tricky indeed.

Overall Channel 5 will definitely be pleased with how this series has rated.

I'm sure Channel 5 with how it's done, I think their aim is to try and overtake Channel 4 in primetime, Big Brother is the starting point but I think they need to overhaul 8pm, this week only two shows have broken 1m.

Is that the best figures ever for TBBT - and in a new slot too. It got 930,000 last week - so not a massive jump (didn't realise how close to 1m it was actually). Be interesting to know too if last night was boosted on E4+1 with people tuning in at 9pm to find out they'd miss it.

Still no news on Happy Endings then?

Channel 5 overtaking Channel 4 is definitely achievable IMO. The gap is as close as it has ever been!

Also note these comments from Nick Bampton, Channel 5's commercial director, over on Media Week:


Those comments were echoed by Chris Locke, group trading director at Starcom MediaVest:


Source: http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1090...-attracts-37m/

The bit in bold I particularly agree with, but it is still early days of course.

I would say whatever new US import Channel 5 does acquire, they should launch it around Celebrity Big Brother like Channel 4 did with Lost. So for example if it was Person of Interest and they have a live Monday task based on PoI, it could be scheduled:

8pm CBB
9pm Person of Interest
10pm CBB Live Task.

I think UBB's biggest weakness was that it was just an extension of BB11. There was no break (even just one night) between the two; the House didn't change; even a Housemate remained albeit not for long. I think it would've done better had it waited and aired in the 10pm slot in October/November - given people a rest from the brand for a while.


I agree; it's a figure that Channel 5 will be delighted with. I do think the show lost momentum in the run up to the final instead of gained mometum but, as you say, that may be down to a lack of big storylines.

The Friday night repeat was only shown in Northern Ireland that week, so for the majority it's only had a Monday 10.35 showing. It's also not showing in NI or Scotland tonight.

By the way the last episode of Miranda series 2 has not been shown on BBC1 yet has it? It's made way for Would I Lie to You? tonight and the final episode seems to be nowhere to be seen. Could of had that at 8.30?

Cat among the pigeons......Is Corrie the No 1 soap in terms of raw data?

Using the logic of the Doctor Who brigade of timeshifts and catch up viewings, doesn't the crown belong to EEs?

I love both btw.

that is how I see it, but in fairness ie not see much data for the various Corries repeats and online figures.