Anyone have ratings for Deal or no Deal for yesterday please?, channel 4, 16:00, thanks

Over in the US after a couple of weeks of bad news ABC finally have some reason to be happy. Tim Allen's new sitcom Last Man Standing debuted with a 3.5 across the 8PM hour. We'll see how well it holds up over the coming weeks and how well its stable mate Man Up will do when it debuts at 8:30 next week but for now its a win for ABC.

I think it's partly because they usually put all their cheapest shows (and largely untested new shows) of the week on Tuesdays, one after the other, which really drags the night down. ITV could quite easily have pulled up their Tuesday night averages this Autumn by putting something like Doc Martin there which would've got 7m or so and switched it with 71DN which would've got c3.5m on a Monday night. But from their point of view, there's no point doing that - with a limited programming budget, they have to put their most expensive programmes in the best slots (i.e. post-Corrie) on Mondays/Thursdays/Fridays to get the highest ratings. They'd rather have Doc Martin getting 8.5m and 71DN getting a pitiful 2.5m than DM getting 7m (on a Tuesday) and 71DN getting a more respectable 3.5m on a Monday. What that means is that the cheaper programmes, which generally rate lower anyway (factual generally rates low on ITV) end up all airing in one massive block one after the other on Tuesdays and that has a massive negative impact on their Tuesday primetime share in relation to the rest of the week. They don't spread their 'cheap stuff' (I count the rubbish gameshows in that) evenly throughout the week, it's all mostly concentrated on one particular night, and that really damages the nights' ratings for them.

With the changes to their football contract from next Autumn, what we'll see now is basically the cheap Tuesday programmes move to Wednesdays and Thursdays, quite evenly balanced between Wed/Thu I suspect. Their Tuesday primetime % will rise to a respectable level on football nights, but I suspect we'll witness the Wednesday and Thursday primetime %s drop, especially Thursdays which is going to lose Corrie. They probably won't drop down to 12-13% shares like what's happening on Tuesdays at the moment because all the rubbish stuff is all packed in on one night at the moment, but I suspect rather than getting something like: Tuesday- 13%, Wednesday- 20%, Thursday- 21% = Average- 18% as they are at the moment, it'll be something like: Tuesday- 17%, Wednesday- 19%, Thursday- 17% = Average- 18%. So the same sort of average across the three nights but more evenly spread shares rather than the really skewed ones they experience at the moment.

As sn_22 says though, that Thursday 20.30-22.00 block looks like a potential min-FlopZone to me. If they play comedies on this night (as what's been suggested), they might get the occasional successful show, but they'll get a lot of flops along the way because comedy has a low hit rate. Factual shows in that 9pm Thursday slot, I reckon, won't do too much better than how factual shows are rating in the 9pm Tuesday slot at the moment. So there's definitely, I feel, a major problem looming there on Thursday nights. With Wednesdays, the Corrie 19.30 will bring a good lead-in for the 8pm programme: they ought to keep Midsomer Murders and the awards ceremonies on this night which will bring in pretty good ratings for about ~20 weeks of the year. The other 30 weeks though will be quite difficult to fill and could result in some relatively low ratings. But with the 40 hour increased investment in drama for 2013, I would suggest they try some pre-watershed dramas in that Wednesday 8pm slot for 20 weeks of the year and play some dramas at 9pm too. With the Corrie lead-in, I think the potential is there on Wednesday nights for them to get decent ratings at 8pm for pretty good dramas in that slot and bring some stability there. I think the major issue though will be, as I said, the Thursday 20.30-22.00 zone which looks like a big problem and also on non-football Tuesday nights.

rzt,
dont forget ITV is upping the drama budget next year so there will be more of that in the 2012 schedule & less factual

Are they definitely upping the drama budget next year? As it's a European Championship year, I would've thought the drama budget will remain stable y-o-y (or even go down) due to increased investment in sports, which means less or about the same money spent on drama. I know the article recently about ITV increasing drama funding was specifically for 2013. For next year, ITV hasn't really announced many new drama series - the only new 6-part series they've announced is Eternal Law, even though usually they have 3 or 4 new 6-parters in a year. I suppose that might partly be due to a high recommission rate from the new drama batch they've had this year which has meant less space in the schedule for brand new dramas in 2012. But I still don't think they're going to show (significantly) more hours of drama in 2012, it'll probably be quite similar to this year, give or take 10 hours or so.


Hi Zoe. Good to see you back !

Mount Pleasant:

01: 0.93m
02: 0.83m
03: 0.95m
04: 0.80m
05: 0.87m
06: 0.77m

Total weekly reach is averaging: 1.25m

Good post Rzt.

It just boils down to not enough hit shows for too many slots. As you say, Tuesdays are going to be a lot better off with the football returning to that night next year but then Wednesdays will be slightly weakened and Thursdays dented a lot. The expression rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic springs to mind. ITV1 desperately needs a Waterloo Road type show that can air run for most of the year in an 8pm slot and get 4m+. If only they hadnt buggered up The Bill.

All would be solved if their Factual and Entertainment departments commissioned some decent shows. They don't even have to be big hits - just not the stinkers that they serve up with alarming regularity.

Good to hear from you. I was starting to worry.

sory what I meant was what could have been a good night for C5 was let down by those disappointing figures.

but CSI Miami was down vy alot apparently so it wasn't a good night so the whole part of that post was abit redundant!

rzt, do you have any idea how Jo Brands Big Splash did on Dave? I would like to know how original commissions do on those type of channels.

Too simplistic a view. We've seen tens & tens of formats air on Tuesdays, you can't possible say every single one is rubbish. We've seen similar shows air elsewhere become a success (Cops on Camera v Traffic Cops being an obvious example)

From the articles I've read it seems to be usual lazy tabloid spin, quoting Fellows on how he had it planned out for three series as proof he isn't thinking about a fourth series - although if it does jump into the 20s next time around they will surely have to move to the next generation for future series.


Thanks for providing that - I'd only seen it being discussed rather than the original source. Hadn't realised too HD versions of BBC1 in the nations had been confirmed - though personally I'm not sure that is a luxury they can afford.


Trouble is with ITV1 we can be pretty certain it'll survive to episode 8. I wonder how episodes of his daytime show would fare if they replaced it.


I guess now England's qualification is confirmed there should be some movement on the Euro 2012 rights.

Better scheduling to have X Factor starting at 8pm. Not really sure what the thinking was behind the 7.30pm and 7.45pm starts: maybe the first two studio shows were just overlong, maybe ITV thought it would be more resilient against Strictly Come Dancing, maybe they were worried about Ross's ratings, or maybe they were just trying to bully BBC One into starting Strictly Come Dancing at about 5.30pm.

Horrible ratings for Kyle's quiz last night. I was worried I'd gone a little low with my 2.4m prediction. Turns out I hadn't gone low enough.

Welcome back, Zoe. I hope your naked rambling holiday was enjoyable.

Yikes, awful for ITV1 last night. It's like ITV1 and Tuesday's are a disease. It just ocurred to me why ITV may be putting episodes of Corrie on Wednesday and doubling up on Emmerdale sometimes on Wednesday's.... I think they're going to be doing this for I'm a Celebrity's evictions....

19:00 - Emmerdale
19:30 - I'm a Celebrity
21:00 - Coronation Street
21:30 - I'm a Celebrity... Results

I hope I'm wrong, though.

I was kicking myself because I'm sure initially I put down 2.2 but I chickened out at the last minute thinking I was letting my opinion of Kyle cloud my judgement.

I thought I'd been too harsh with my prediction because of my feelings.

I upped my prediction, based on not wanting to make it look like I was showing an anti ITV bias.

For the full effect, they need a football match on Tuesday night, to mess the pattern right up.

I must admit I've been wondering where all the extra Emmerdales and Coronation Sts are coming from.

There are 8 on paper.

Indeed. One can only wonder why drama was taken off from Tuesday nights. The Bill used to be a ratings juggernaut on Tuesdays in the half-hour days when it was on Thursdays and Fridays.

When it switched to an hour-long episode in '98, it was only on Tuesdays from August to October. It used to regularly get 10/11 million. If only The Bill could have remained in this Tuesday slot instead of moving to Wednesdays later on, maybe ITV wouldn't be in such a spot of bother on Tuesdays.

Speaking of which, when is I'm a Celebrity starting? Early November?

Sunday 13th November at 9pm based on previous years.

Good point. And yet ITV used to dominate Tuesday nights many moons ago. I can't help but feel that if The Bill was kept on Tuesday nights instead of being moved in 2002, maybe ITV might still have a solid Tuesday night performe, as some people have already said. Moving The Bill from Tuesdays and Fridays not only gave Holby City a clear run, but paved the way for EastEnders to add a fourth episode on Fridays.

at the whole of ITV1 last night (bar Emmerdale). Totally terrible. I wasn't expecting Jeremy Kyle's gameshow to do much, but that figure is dire. I wonder if it'll dip below 2m?! Could be a major problem for ITV. Meanwhile 71DN is still plodding along. It's not a bad show IMO but the day/slot pretty much gives it no chance. On side note, with ITV1 flopping badly on a Tuesday shouldn't the shows on BBC1 be doing abit better?! Yeah the figures are good but with that set of ratings I'm surprised Holby isn't hitting 6m yet.

Shameless continues its run of bad ratings. In fairness this half of the series hasn't been as bad as the first half but this is the worst series ever IMO. If they do another 22-episode run next year I think it will be over the show. Looks like its going to end on a soar note which it most definitely doesn't deserve. As for the Tuesday problem been fixed by the football next year and causing problems for the rest of the schedule I don't really agree on. Sure, Thursday is going to have a few problems, but Corrie returning to the Wednesday slot is certainly the right move. The gap from Monday to Thursday just makes it lose momentum instantly. Possibly moving the 20.30 Corrie on a Friday to Thursday would work, but then that opens problems for Friday then. Who knows they might just order another Corrie to prop up the schedule!

And welcome back Zoe!!

ABC did well on Tuesday night. I am worried about Body of Proof though (1.9). However, their older-skewing mission isn't doing too badly as they still attract around 9.5m-10m range. Unforgettable on CBS is still going down though, to a 2.3.

Meanwhile, some news on full-season/renewal pick-up:

1. Ringer receives a full season (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...llar-cw-245246). I suppose since all CW shows are performing well below their past season, Ringer seems to have satisfied the new network boss. Although, I was expecting The Secret Circle to get a full season first. Maybe it's a vote of confidence to Sarah Michelle Gellar more than the show.

2. Boardwalk Empire gets renewed (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...-empire-247428). After their Emmy successes, HBO has renewed the show for the third season. HBO has been saying how the reception has been very positive and "surpassing their expectations".

3. Prime Suspect gets more scripts (http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/10/12/nb...-more-scripts/). Just like Harry's Law, Prime Suspect has been ordered six more scripts from NBC. Getting more scripts is different from ordering more episodes, let alone a full season. I guess NBC don't want to make it three cancellations before midseason. Then again, The Sing-Off is continuing their piss-poor performance, so we can make it a three cancellations anyways. Interesting thing to note that NBC's cable sister channel, USA has beaten NBC not only in viewers, but in the key demos as well on Monday night (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...etwork/106943/).