He wasn't even in the US, though. He was in London the whole time. I think it was about trying to reduce the reliance on Cowell as a TV personality (something a senior Syco exec spoke about last year) and as you say, BGT auditions seemed like the safest place to start.


If they have any chance of getting Cheryl back, I think they'll have to bill her as Simon's replacement and have him leave altogether. Plus, I doubt the budget would stretch to paying them both!

It'll potentially be announced in January, so there's plenty of time yet to sort something out.

BREAKING NEWS

Ashton Kutcher's debut on Two and a Half Men lifts the show to its best ever Australian audience.

Seven
18:00 Seven News 1.31m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.28m
19:00 Home & Away 1.17m
19:30 The X Factor 1.43m
20:30 Packed to the Rafters 1.64m
21:30 Dinner Date UK 0.56m

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1.04m
18:30 A Current Affair 0.97m
19:00 The Big Bang Theory (R) 0.91m
19:30 Two and a Half Men (R) 1.44m
20:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 1.73m
20:30 New Season: Two and a Half Men 2.29m
21:05 New: The Joy of Sets 1.17m
21:40 New: Charlie Sheen Roast 0.81m

Ten
17:00 Ten News 0.57m
18:30 6:30 with George Negus 0.38m
19:00 7pm Project 0.76m
19:30 Modern Family 0.81m
20:00 The Renovators 0.65m
20:30 NCIS (R) 0.66m
21:30 NCIS: Los Angeles (R) 0.66m

It also set a series high in Canada, was the most watched regular series broadcast for 6 years and the second most watched comedy broadcast in Canadian TV history.

(From Deadline).

Wowee for TAAHM on Nine, that's must be their second or third to crack 2m. Kind of a shame TAAHM never took off over here although I suspect it'll do very well for Comedy Central.

Rafters held up surprisenly well, the Roast did decent as well.

Comedy Central must be licking their lips by now. When does it land here?

Nine did very well to fast-track it to that extent. Seven held up surprisingly good.

What does it usually rate, over a million is unlikely but I think 0.7-0.9m is a possibilty.

I think it aired last night if Digiguide is correct.

they shouldn't, no one watches the show here, and most people have greeted the news about Charlie Sheen with a look of bewilderment wondering who the hell he is, and why we should care.

Same for Ashton Kutcher, seriously what is he famous for? Comedy Central will not see record ratings for 2.5 Men, as no on watched it in the first place.

Looking at BARB, makes for interesting reading



hard to know what it rates on Comedy Central, but it would be a damm miracle if it rated 200,000

The last season opener pulled in 433,000 in February. (587,000 inc. +1)

If it follows the same pattern as other countries that looks like a good ballpark figure you've outlined there.

Between this and Friends, should be a strong autumn for Comedy Central.

I do wonder whether rebranding it from Paramount Comedy to Comedy Central has helped because they have a good selection of shows from Friends, Two and a Half Men and South Park.

With The Hotel Inspector airing on Mondays, wonder if Paul Merton's Great Escapes will be held back until Big Brother is done in November or possibly January as 9pm weekdays is chock a block at the moment. Extraordinary People and Nature Shock on Thursday will work as they are standalone films and so will not be affected by the football. The only other option is Sundays but I imagine they dont want it to face Downton Abbey and whatever is on BBC One.

Theoretically since both The Hotel Inspector and Paul Merton's Great Escapes are 6 episodes each, they could fit both in on Mondays between now and Christmas.

They aired the premiere as a "sneak peak" last night followed by new Mike & Molly and then the Roast from 10pm.

But they didn't really promote it that much. I watch quite a lot of CC (Frasier/Scrubs/TAAHM reruns) and I've seen far more promotion for Mike & Molly.

The series returns proper on October 10th. So they'll probably run through to mid December then take a break until March/April.


Also noticed they started plugging a new UK sitcom tonight. So at least they're trying to do something with the boost that Friends should give them.

Even if Friends "only" does about 150k-200k for them, it'll be a massive boost to that 8pm hour.

But they still seem to be at the bottom of the pile when it comes to new US comedy acquisitions. It's definitely a channel that could be doing a lot better than it is, IMO. It just needs a bit more investment.

On similar topic, just watched 2 Broke Girls and I think it has potential. The leads are very good, some snappy writing in the pilot and it was well paced but I'm not sure about the supporting cast (although that's easier to work on). Rather surprised to hear the line "you're getting me wet" in a CBS comedy that is intended for the 8.30pm/7.30pm timeslot!

Did Hotel Inspector last series only air 6 episodes? Thought it was 7 or 8. Hope they let this series of HI go out with a bang.

Paul Merton airing in November would mean it would avoid Doc Martin and I imagine it has a loyal enough following to take on IAC.

HIMYM can be quite racy at times at that air at 8pm! The Big Bang Theory is quite tame in comparison!

CBS has picked up scripts to a number of single camera comedies for next season, it's interesting that want to find a single camera comedy as multi-camera ones have done really well.

New Girl premieres tonight and FOX is desperate to get a Tuesday Night comedy block going as does ABC. With CBS on Mondays and Thursdays, ABC on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, NBC on Wednesday and Thursday and FOX on Tuesday and Sundays with comedy blocks, comedy seems to have a comeback in a big way!

It started Tuesday Night 9pm - followed by the Charlie Sheen Roast, I have seen almost every episode at least a few times (on dvd mostly.) Not sure why it never took off here - most episodes are hilarious. Some of the humour is very near the knuckle. Ashton Kutcher will take a while to settle in and the show felt totally different, but it was still funny.

Winning!!

While the series of 30 Rock they abruptly dropped halfway through in April despite still being billed in all the TV guides remains on the shelf.

Overnight Ratings for Channel 5

06:00 Milkshake!: 144k (2.8%)
09:15 The Wright Stuff: 260k (5.0%)
13:45 Neighbours: 718k (10.2%)
15:20 Jane Doe: Vanishing Act: 599k (6.8%)
17:00 5 News at 5 with Matt Barbet: 765k (6.0%)
17:30 Neighbours: 1.30m (8.2%)
18:00 Home & Away: 829k (4.6%)
18:25 OK! TV: 280k (1.5%)
19:00 5 News at 7 with Emma Crosby: 219k (1.1%)
19:30 New Series: Real Food Family Cook Off: 367k (1.7%)
20:00 America's Planned War on Britain: Revealed: 1.00m (4.3%)
21:00 CSI: Miami: 1.56m (6.7%)
22:00 Big Brother: 1.46m (8.7%)
23:00 Ali G Indahouse: 408k (5.5%)

Excellent for Neighbours yesterday, reaching over 2m viewers across the day. Honestly can't remember the last time the teatime hit 1.3, anyone know?

Good retention for The Body Farm....4.7m.

It was clear to me when I saw the CSI: Miami figure. It was an obvious alternative for viewers if they didn't like, but Miami was flat week-on-week.

How did ITV1 get on then?

TV was terrible last night and I did not watch one thing after TOS on BBC1.

ITV1 (inc +1 figures in brackets)

Emmerdale – 6.6m (6.7m)
Mayday Mayday – 2.6m (2.6m)
Missing Millions – 2.5m (2.6m)
71 Degrees North – 2.6m (2.8m)
News at Ten – 1.7m (1.8m)

BBC2

Great British Bake Off - 3.8m/16.3%
Hairy Bikers - 2.1m

C4

Inside Nature's Giants - 900k (1m inc +1)
Seven Dwarves - 1.4m (1.6m inc +1)

Pending officials, it's not that good for the WTD successor series, really. I watched again last night. I was perhaps too harsh last week but I just don't get the premise of this show at all.

If they wanted to carry on WTD but Trevor Eve didn't, they should have just carried on without him - perhaps with Keith Allen, whom it has to be said is this series' main asset. (Along with Rosa, who's a bit hot...)

Good Tuesday for ITV that, holding steady against BBC2.

Nice +1 figure for Mayday, Mayday....