I agree - otherwise Pointless will struggle because of over exposure, like The Weakest Link did.

Channel 4 must be mightily relieved they didn't with new Come Dine currently airing in a similar slot.

The king of food shows doing battle with the one that pokes fun at the genre, could have got ugly.

oh right...i thought the last wad 9pm.or was that something else?

After watching Strictly Come Dancing Launch i am going to change my mind about the low ratings It looks like it's going to be a really great fun series and i have about 5 celebrities i want in the final already.

I'm sad, there was nothing at the end of Red or Black to suggest it will be recommissioned....

2 years ago Strictly's opener ran from 8.30 to 10pm and clashed with Coronation Street. Last year it ran from 9pm-10pm. Last year they cut the contestants from 16 to 14 to cover the budget cut that all BBC programmes had to cover so they were fitting 7 contestants into an hour instead of 8 contestants in 90 minutes.

Last year they had no elimination in the first week so that it ran for only one week less than the year below.

I didn't realise they cut it to 60 minutes last year. I think the cut was needed; 16 was too many contestants.

US Open tennis 2nd semi-final just starting on Sky Sports 1, Andy Murray vs Rafael Nadal.

That was a really good Big Brother highlights show. I hope it held up well in the ratings. It's getting a really positive reaction too, even on DS.

Ten years ago tomorrow, the world as we know it changed forever, when the terrorist attacks in New York happened. Below is a look at how the terrestrial networks rated that day and a look at what they scheduled in the days after, the terrorist attacks.

Tuesday 11th September 2001
BBC One
18:00 - BBC News at Six: 9.36m
19:30 - EastEnders: 13.43m inc Omnibus
20:00 - Changing Rooms: 6.58m
20:30 - America Under Siege: 6.75m
21:30 - BBC News 24: 5.71m
22:00 - BBC News at Ten: 5.91m

BBC Two
17:35 - Neighbours: 2.33m
19:30 - BBC News 24: 2.58m
22:35 - Newsnight: 2.49m

ITV1
14:15 - ITV News Special: 4.55m
19:05 - Emmerdale: 8.46m
20:00 - Who Wants to be a Millionaire?: 8.10m

Channel 4
19:00 - Channel 4 News: 1.77m
20:00 - Brookside: 2.66m inc Omnibus

Channel 5
17:30 - Home and Away: 1.89m inc Wednesday repeat
18:00 - Family Affairs: 1.51m inc Wednesday repeat
20:00 - The Dog Listener: 1.06m
20:30 - House Doctor: 1.51m
21:00 - Perfect Murder: 2.12m

Media Guardian's overnight reports from that day are here and here.

From Wednesday 12th September, ITV moved their Night bulletins to 9pm bringing 7.06m, 6.93m and 6.51m. BBC1 had a News Special on the Wednesday at 7pm, which had 5.89m. Moving the News to 9pm was not uncommon for ITV, it occurred again in March 2003 at the start of the Iraq War, this went on from 19th March to 11th April looking at BARB. They also had a 9pm bulletin on the day of 7/7. The highest bulletin on the day of 7/7 coincidentally was 6.65m.

God (Simon Cowell) himself has said there will be a second series, what more do you need?

When it's getting a positive reaction on DS you know it's been good.

Indeed! Talk about against all odds.

I've not watched it yet but really looking forward to it from the bits I've seen . I saw the start where Spearmint Rhino girl called Pamela Anderson a slag (the irony), and then a bit later when said girl was in the toilet telling someone in quite a matter of fact way that a man once asked her to wee on him but the point of the story was that tap water makes her want to go to the toilet .

Although the launch figure was horrific, it could end up doing the unthinkable and actually increase throughout the run because it does seem to be a lot like the BB5-7 era. The editing seemed a lot different too, but as I said I've not managed to watch the whole thing yet. It all depends how the next week or so goes.

After watching that brilliant first show of Big Brother, word of mouth should increase ratings.

Does anyone know how the ODIs between England and India have done, particularly yesterdays which was pretty exciting, please

A couple of weeks ago at the MGEITF, Jeff Ford mentioned that he was looking at Panel shows or entertainment to potentially go out of Big Brother, I wonder if they would doing either a UK version of Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation which is an hour long but easily be reworked into a 30 or 45 minute format or reviving The Friday/Sunday Night Project which I alway thought was the perfect companion show to Big Brother when it was on Channel 4, it would need new hosts, maybe Jack Whitehall and Holly Walsh?

Leaving aside your valid point about soaps dominating schedules generally, you still miss what I am saying - when XF and BGT air, ITV place so much reliance upon them in such a relatively short space of time that the two programmes totally dominate the schedule and publicity efforts (perhaps much more than the soaps do) at that time). The difference with soaps is that the writers, producers, characters and storylines change over time, and soaps differ from each other - the same cannot be said for XF and BGT. And the soaps don't take up a massive 2 hrs 30 mins unbroken chunk of primetime TV on a flagship channe, and no one soap airs for 60 mins or more a day for two weeksl. In that respect, ITV place too much reliance upon spot programming that will at some point lose its shine.

In the UK perhaps although in fairness they've only launched four(?) shows in the UK.[/quote]

Doctor Who was watched by 6.0m last night.

Source: Doctor Who News

More shortly...

Saturday 10th September Overnights
BBC One
06:00- Breakfast: 1.3m (25.0%)
10:00- Saturday Kitchen Live: 1.5m (14.9%)
11:30- Football Focus: 1.4m (16.6%)
12:00- BBC News: 1.8m (20.9%)
12:10- F1: Grand Prix Qualifying: 2.8m (28.1%)
14:15- Golf: Walker Cup: 1.1m (10.4%)
16:30- Final Score: 1.8m (14.6%)
17:10- BBC News: 3.0m (21.9%)
17:25- Epic Win: 2.4m (16.1%)
18:10- Strictly Come Dancing: 7.6m (37.3%)
* peak: 8.9m (41.5%) at 7pm
19:15- Doctor Who: 6.0m (26.8%)
20:00- The National Lottery: Secret Fortune: 3.6m (15.4%)
20:50- BBC News: 3.5m (14.4%)
21:10- Last Night of the Proms: 4.3m (19.8%)
22:45- Match of the Day: 3.9m (29.1%)
00:05- The Football League Show: 1.4m (16.6%)

BBC Two
10:00- Dick & Dom Go Wild: 0.2 (1.6%)
12:15- The Great British Bake-Off: 0.4 ( 4.1%)
13:15- Escape to the Country: 0.5 ( 5.2%)
14:00- EastEnders Omnibus: 0.5 ( 4.7%)
16:30- Golf: The Walker Cup: 0.7 ( 4.7%)
18:15- Flog It!: 0.8 ( 4.0%)
19:00- Dad's Army: 2.0 ( 9.2%)
19:30- BBC Proms: 1.5 ( 6.5%)
21:00- QI XL: 1.6 ( 6.7%)
21:45- The Making of QI: 2.0 ( 9.3%)
22:45- QI: 1.8 (10.1%)
23:15- QI: 1.3 ( 9.4%)
23:45- QI: 0.9 ( 9.1%)
24:15- TOTP 2 Goes Disco!: 0.4 ( 7.8%)

ITV1
04:10- Rugby World Cup 2011: Fiji v Namibia: 0.2 (17.7%)
06:40- Rugby World Cup 2011: France v Japan: 0.8 (16.0%)
09:00- Rugby World Cup 2011: Argentina v England: 3.2 (33.6%)
12:05- Coronation Street Omnibus: 0.5 ( 5.4%)
14:50- Johny English: 1.1 (10.4%)
16:25- Rugby World Cup 2011: Highlights: 0.9 ( 6.6%)
17:50- ITV News and Weather: 2.0 (12.8%)
18:05- All Star Family Fortunes: 2.6 (13.2%)
19:00- Red or Black?: 4.6 (20.7%)
* 5-min peak: 6.9m
20:15- The X Factor: 10.6 (43.6%)
* 5-min peak: 11.9m
21:15- Red or Black?: 5.8 (25.7%)
21:45- The Jonathan Ross Show: 2.7 (12.3%)
22:45- ITV News and Weather: 2.0 (10.9%)
23:00- United 93: 1.1 (10.4%)

Channel 4
08:00- The Morning Line: 0.2 ( 2.7%)
11:45- T4: The Simpsons: 0.3 ( 3.8%)
12:15- T4: The Big Bang Theory: 0.3 ( 3.7%)
12:45- T4: The Big Bang Theory: 0.3 ( 3.3%)
13:15- Road to London 2012: That Paralympic Show: 0.2 ( 1.8%)
14:00- Channel 4 Racing: 0.5 ( 5.1%)
16:00- Sainsbury's Super Saturday: 0.2 ( 2.1%)
16:35- Come Dine with Me: 0.7 ( 5.7%)
17:05- Come Dine with Me: 1.2 ( 8.8%)
17:35- Come Dine with Me: 1.3 ( 8.7%)
18:10- Come Dine with Me: 1.0 ( 5.3%)
18:40- Come Dine with Me: 0.9 ( 4.5%)
19:10- Channel 4 News: 0.7 ( 3.4%)
19:45- Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill: 1.1 ( 4.5%)
21:15- The Million Pound Drop Live: 1.6 ( 7.4%)
22:45- Rhod Gilbert and the Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst: 0.7 ( 4.1%)
23:45- Sainsbury's Super Saturday: 0.1 ( 1.7%)

Channel 5
07:15- The Save-Ums!: 0.1 ( 4.2%)
07:30- Noddy in Toyland: 0.2 ( 4.4%)
08:15- The Adventures of Bottle Top Bill and His Best Friend Corky: 0.3 ( 4.9%)
08:30- Mist: Sheepdog Tales: 0.3 ( 4.2%)
08:45- Rupert Bear: 0.3 ( 4.2%)
09:00- Olivia: 0.3 ( 4.0%)
09:15- The Mr. Men Show: 0.3 ( 3.5%)
09:30- Roary The Racing Car: 0.2 ( 2.5%)
09:45- Animal Families: 0.2 ( 1.7%)
10:00- Meerkat Manor: 0.1 ( 1.5%)
10:30- The Gadget Show: 0.2 ( 1.8%)
11:30- Big Brother: The Launch: 0.4 ( 4.3%)
13:00- Calamity Jane: 0.5 ( 4.9%)
16:50- White Hunter, Black Heart: 0.5 ( 2.9%)
19:05- Law and Order: 0.6 ( 2.9%)
19:55- NCIS: 0.9 ( 4.0%)
20:50- Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: 0.8 ( 3.4%)
21:45- Big Brother: 1.4 ( 6.4%)
22:45- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: 0.6 ( 3.5%)
23:45- Forensic Files: 0.4 ( 3.2%)

Ratings include HD, do not include +1, are full-slot averages

Understandable why BB is low, was a Saturday and a lot on!! Should be around 2m tonight.

RoB did better with TXF there

That Strictly rating is the highest ever for the launch show, above last year's 7.07m. Fantastic figure.

Thanks rzt.

That's a bit better for ROB-I didn't expect it to be comfortably over 5m for the results show tbh. The shows Saturday ratings show it definitely has potential for a weekly show with a lower prize limit. Not many entertainment shows on ITV can get over 5m on Saturdays anymore-the one off entertainment specials and WWTBAM even struggle with an XF lead in as seen in recent weeks so it might be an idea to try that out. It definitely should not have been stripped though.

Solid as ever for XF, but ROB seemed to hurt the shows it pushed out of its slots like ASFF especially. We'll see how Ross performs with an XF lead in next week.

Excellent rating for the Strictly Come Dancing launch, up +0.5m from last week. I expected Doctor Who to be boosted a bit more but it has a very loyal audience and it should be much closer to Strictly after timeshift. Solid as ever for Last Night of The Proms.

If those ratings don't include +1, then TXF was up very slightly versus last week and should get around 11.1/11.2m with +1, which is slightly up y-o-y once again. It's rating very consistently this year. A nice rebound for RoB - with +1 the first show should be close to 5m and the results should hit 6m. A decent note for the series to end on, but probably not enough to save it. Poor for Jonathan Ross. Again, he'll probably hit 3m with +1 but that's no better than he was doing on BBC1. The guests werent great last night, but next week's are better and he has an X Factor lead-in, so he should bounce back.

Poor for BB, which has got off to a disastrous start which doesn't bode well for the next 9 weeks. MPD isn't doing well this time around either - has it been overexposed?

Brilliant for Strictly, that's higher than last years official figure I think?

Disappointing that Dw couldn't benefit more from a weak spot on ITV. Also that the Proms didn't beat ROB results, although it will be interesting to see a full breakdown to see whether there was crossover.