Seriously?! That's unusual.

For all the good Masterchef is doing they may as well air it on Sunday's. That way Final Score can be anything followed by the news etc.

In all honesty, I don't blame the BBC for running the schedule they are. But if there's going to be clash disagreements then ITV are not the only broadcaster to blame.

Is Strictly and X Factor Clashing in a couple of Weeks?

I'm baffled as to why on earth ITV haven't restored the soaps to Sunday nights. It would sit perfectly with Downton Abbey, and if Downton can come after The X Factor, Corrie can certainly come before it.

Let's face it, entertainment has flopped on Sunday nights. Corrie would get 8-9m+ very quickly if it was restored (from analysing the shares) and I fully hope it is when the Thursday episode moves back to Wednesdays.

No it certainly hasn't.

I wonder if, because it has Downton Abbey as a lead-in, it won't be helping matters as the older demographic viewers won't want to watch what seems like a young-ish skewing demographic show (if someone can provide demos for the show). It fared better with Dancing on Ice as a lead-in IIRC.

The Sunday specials haven't rated that highly (6/7 million). I think something like Emmerdale is more suited to Sunday nights. But it could work so, like it used to be:

7.00 Emmerdale
7.30 Corrie
8.00 X Factor
9.00 Downton Abbey
10.15 News.

We have four series of the Lottery quizzes per year, now. This year, we've had two of Secret Fortune and one each of In It to Win It and Who Dares Wins. And we've even had the extra "bonus" of five additional In It to Win It episodes left over from last autumn.

It is surprising that they've run out of this year's quota of quizzes already. Especially so, as they had a few left over from last year. I guess it was because there was no Lloyd Webber talent show this spring, and no football tournament this summer.

I wouldnt think Adrian Chiles is a big hit with the youngsters, he is hardly Justin Beiber is he?

I'm not sure I agree that the drop we've seen for The X Factor was "inevitable." Even as recently as the weekend that has just passed it was rating below expectations. The average DSRPG prediction for Saturday's show was 10.8m, 400k more than what it actually got. In comparison Strictly was up 400k on where players thought it would be. The previous Saturday players were again expecting 10.8m and it delivered 9.7m, albeit on one of the hottest October days ever recorded. The drop does seem bigger than what many thought, even if a drop of sorts on last year was widely predicted.

I think with the twist that was unlike anything they've done before, they probably thought it would compare more favourably to 2009 and 2010. It didn't, so they'll have to get used to some less complimentary press than usual just like any show on the decline experiences.

15th Oct
Strictly 6:25pm - 8:15pm
X-Factor 7:45pm - 9:55pm

22nd Oct
Strictly 6:25pm - 8:15pm
X-Factor 7:30pm - 9:40pm


I don't think ITV have enough advert allowance to show all of that in one night. One of the soaps would have to run without an advert break. (I think)

It got more then 10.8m with +1. it's still higher then 2009 and only 0.5 away from last year at the same stage

Why can't X Factor start at 8:05 then Strictly could start at 6:00. The Clash is going to hurt both shows

I assume X-Factor was down to people not liking the twist?

Emmerdale can remain off Sundays. It's mainly Corrie I think that would benefit from a permanent move back.

Bear in mind that the schedules for October 22nd aren't confirmed yet. We'll get updated ones tomorrow and they'll be confirmed on Wednesday.

I Know this is a long thought but what is everyones prediction for Both X Factor and Strictly this weekend. I can't see X Factor going any lower so maybe with the Public vote more people will watch

The clash didn't actually hurt Strictly much - more its early start did.


Time-BBC-1 (Share %) - ITV-1 (Share %)
18:00 - 6.04 m ( 31.2% ) - 2.68 m ( 13.9% )
18:15 - 7.85 m ( 36.7% ) - 2.85 m ( 13.3% )
18:30 - 8.50 m ( 38.1% ) - 3.19 m ( 14.3% )
18:45 - 9.04 m ( 39.4% ) - 3.38 m ( 14.7% )
19:00 - 9.39 m ( 39.8% ) - 4.21 m ( 17.8% )
19:15 - 9.74 m ( 39.9% ) - 4.59 m ( 18.8% )
19:30 - 9.01 m ( 33.3% ) - 8.29 m ( 30.7% )
19:45 - 8.95 m ( 33.1% ) - 8.66 m ( 32.0% )
20:00 - 6.53 m ( 24.4% ) - 10.73 m ( 40.1% )
20:15 - 5.47 m ( 20.3% ) - 11.52 m ( 42.8% )
20:30 - 5.51 m ( 20.8% ) - 11.09 m ( 41.9% )
20:45 - 3.76 m ( 14.6% ) - 11.29 m ( 43.9% )
21:00 - 3.68 m ( 14.8% ) - 10.82 m ( 43.4% )
21:15 - 3.92 m ( 15.8% ) - 10.31 m ( 41.7% )
21:30 - 3.84 m ( 15.4% ) - 10.69 m ( 42.9% )
21:45 - 3.74 m ( 15.2% ) - 10.95 m ( 44.6% )
22:00 - 4.20 m ( 19.5% ) - 4.71 m ( 21.8% )


I think there will be a bit of crossover for the first few weeks but Strictly will become a shorter show possibly so it might reduce.

X Factor is the one suffering because of the clash. In the past Strictly had to 'retreat' this time I think X Factor might be forced to.

Its daft for it to start at 7:30 at least, but then again with 45 minutes cross over - Strictly could be hurt a bit more.
But I think BBC want to almost keep a few viewers on their channel for Merlin (even if theres not much crossover) so I think they'll want at least a 15 mins crossover atm.


Its more a problem that both shows are overly long.

I just think its a very hard situation for either party to get out of - end of the day they don't do much better from not clashing, as ITV can't go later as the Beeb might then try and put Strictly later to boost it - putting Merlin on first.

I just don't quite see any logic in the 'no overlap' stuff. Plus ITV +1 which isn't in the above kind of makes it all a bit...pointless really.

For the last three years in a row, TXF has dropped in the ratings for its 2nd performance episode. The last couple of years it fell about -5% week-on-week while in 2008 it fell -10% week-on-week. IF that same pattern happens this Saturday, sub-10m (exc +1) is a possibility.

With the show skewing so young I'm not surprised they're going for an ITV2 extension show. Obviously it won't get Xtra Factor/BGMT numbers but if it can get 0.5-0.7m with a nice young skew it'll be a job well done as ITV2's Saturday nights with no spin off show can be a bit grim. As for the main show thinking about it I can see why they aren't launching it on XF Final weekend as it would have to skip 2 weeks (Xmas Eve and New Year's Eve) 2 episodes into the series, so it isn't worth the fuss. I just hope they pair it up with something decent this time in January (not Primeval!) and it could then get a consistent c.5m throughout the run. Ideally it'd be Dancing on Ice at 7pm, TMO at 8:30pm and Jonathan Ross or something at 9:45pm, but they don't seem to want that.

I think it was D.M.N. that mentioned that Primeval is returning to BBC America next month. Hopefully ITV1 are doing the same as it means they can burn it off in the Family Fortunes slot against Strictly and won't have it stinking up January. The announcer at the end of the last episode did say it would be back 'later in the year'. As for the 9pm spin-off, I suspect that'll be for ITV2 if ITV are in any way involved with it.


They do seem to have got through them pretty quickly this year. I think they could do with either running 2 series per year of each or extending each series to 12 episodes instead of 8. Who Dares Wins in particular has room to be extended. Alternatively they could find a fourth format but they've struggled in the past with that.

I also notice that there is no 9:40pm-ish comedy this Autumn at the moment. I'm not sure if there's anything in the pipeline either other than The Impressions Show, which I guess could take over that slot again. In fact, when MasterChef is done and Strictly is shorter I wonder if we'll see this sort of schedule:

17:30 - New Total Wipeout
18:30 - Strictly Come Dancing
20:00 - Merlin
20:45 - Casualty
21:35 - National Lottery Draws
21:45 - The Impressions Show
22:15 - BBC News
22:30 - Match of The Day

Looks pretty decent there (the lottery is at that time so they can start The Impressions Show around the time that XF ends).

Hmmm. Maybe but i can't see it falling below 10m. If it does Robbie and the press would have a field day though. My Prediction is 10.7m becuase of a shorter show i think Strictly will be lower with 8.3m though

God - that's like Tesco being happy they made £1 more in profit than Lidl!


I think Dallas will either be really good or really bad, though being on TNT rather than a network gives it a better shot. Not sure though if it fits on C5, though then again not sure if it really fits on any channel.


Firstly love how The X Factor gets a clear 2m lead over Strictly and yet is deemed the flop of the night!

Secondly can't believe Holding Out for a Hero is still in the schedules - they should swap it with Family Fortunes which would probably get 4-5m in the slot and stick Holding Out for a Hero in the ad-free slot on Saturday nights to burn off the episodes.


Not too surprised about that - I guess it'll feature expanded footage of the dates.

I think a wee bit less than this Sats but not by much. And Strictly maybe up - it tends to catch people as time goes on.
I don't see any real reasons for a sudden change with X Factor though.

I think X Factor will probably remain around the place it is at the moment. But should start to increase as time goes on.
But thats just based on my view that none of the contestants have really 'established' themselves (chucking a bunch out hasn't helped imo and was a failed ratings grab (well it didn't add anything did it?)) yet and its a bit generic Factor.

As we get rid of the dead wood and some competition appears - I think the news stories will increase. At the moment all there really is is 'theres an annoying person in the house!'...again... - the ratings will go up.

Sunday should be the same as usual.

IIRC, weren't the HD overnights for the second performance episode a bit dodgy last year? I remember everyone being surprised that it only got c.0.3m on ITV1 HD (and how low the ITV1 HD overnights were across the board that night) instead of its usual c.0.8m and then it timeshifted back to normal. The second performances show last year got an overnight of 11.5m but if there was a cock-up with the overnights (and I think there was) then it should have been c.12m instead, meaning that there was barely a drop for the second performances show. I think the retention will actually be pretty strong this year too.

The pilot script must have been good for Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy to return. It was never exactly hard hitting television so I think it should do well if they make it as over the top as the original.

Facebook - Only Connect
For the first time tonight Only Connect Walls will appear live online to play along at home, see how you get on against the teams on screen! Tune in at 8.30pm!

www.bbc.co.uk/onlyconnect

I'm old enough to remember when it had 22 million viewers and was the biggest talking point on the television in 1980 due to Who Shot JR? I'm sure a million or so nostalgia freaks like me might tune in to the remake.