Corrie did pretty well, and Waterloo Road was above 4m, suggesting they could co-exist if against each other next year.

Not a good night for WDYTYA? - maybe the old horse needs to put out to grass?

Five seems to be killing everything placed in or around Big Brother - Law & Order and CSI are suffering because of it.

Midsomer Murders is a bit low given the lead in.

Excellent for Ch 4's property shows. Seems that the recession hasnt killed these shows after all.

Is any wonder WDYTYA got a low ratings, it was a very boring ep about a very boring man, it took me all of 10 minutes to fall asleep.

ITV commission 3x60 comedy romance drama 'Love Life': http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press...e/default.html

That title seems a little familiar... http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre.../26/love.shtml

I wonder who will have to change it, should be ITV but when did they ever play fair .

You say that now! My eternal hope is that Person of Interest bombs.I think there's a chance it'll get a decent sampling but I don't think it'll hold that audience for very long. Which is saying something because that Thursday 9PM slot is crying out for a big new drama.


In fairness she was never going to be as bad as being fired after a couple of days of auditions suggested. And she has had the benefit of good editing during the auditions. I suspect Fox were more concerned about the live shows and looking at the marked difference between her performances during the auditions and live shows on the UK version they were probably right to be worried about that.

On the subject of last nights numbers personally I'm more interested in that 10PM dramas. In fact Monday-Thursday at 10PM is shaping up to be what should be some super competitive slots.

It was an extra episode last night following on in the aftermath of the rape plot.

And, yes, it's on tonight too

Thanks. I do think it's overkill - the other soaps don't add extra episodes every time they have a big storyline. This seems to be a regular thing with Corrie as we've had a few Sunday episodes crop up as well in recent times.

If it was any other show they would have strangled it by now with this treatment. It's only because soaps are so resilient that Corrie has survived such disrespect.

They gave it plenty of chances. For the launch of Grey's Anatomy on 5 way back when they went to town on it, pairing it with House, see video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzHi8znO2m8

Even as recently as last year it had its own special ident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZ190UmtF8

But after 4 seasons of disappointing ratings, it lost its right to a decent timeslot. I think maybe things might have worked out differently if Channel 5 had the first run rights instead of Living. They might have been able to make it work then.

As it is, and especially with the arrival of Big Brother, there is no room for it anywhere else. Sadly I suspect this will indeed be the last season on 5 and they are just burning off the episodes they still have. I don't think a move from midnight to around 4am is going to make much difference though. Only about 100,000 people are bothering to watch it live at that time. I suspect for most it is something they stick on series link and forget about. At least they are still showing it for those that want to see it.

I don't think it can really be compared to Tru Blood, which was getting mucked about by Channel 4 last year in only its second season. Or indeed The Big Bang Theory which is their most successful current US import. There was in my view no good reason to interfere with these two programmes. In The Big Bang Theory's case they haven't even bothered to schedule them in a different timeslot, it's just disappeared 2 episodes before the end of a season.

Pretty uninspired across the main players last night. WDYTYA underperformed, to be honest - but then its playing in a slightly lacklustre schedule. Waterloo Road was bound to be hit and did fine to survive, I suppose, but the 8.30 slot is proving to be a real problem. The comedies have failed and now something with as much promotional support as Planet Dinosaur is doing poorly there, too.

Corrie itself did OK, though I do feel Midsommer was lower than it ought to be. Channel 4 made hay with the old stalwarts again, but its a shame they can't bring 2m in to sample a hyped new scripted show.

Also of note: The Fades launched moderately well on BBC Three. The reception has been rather good, actually, with positive reactions on here and some critics seeming inclined to give it time. Could bode well for its future.

I didn't even realise The Fades was launching last night, which shows how much I watch BBC Three. I saw it listed for Sunday 10pm on BBC Three & BBC HD. It isn't marked as a repeat so I assumed that was the first showing:


I'll give it a chance at the weekend. But last night it was well and truly upstaged by Fresh Meat which launched well.

During the 7.30-8pm soap clash, Waterloo Road had 3.85m before picking up to 4.3m for its second half hour. It wasn't dented as much as I was expecting (although that may have been helped by inflated BBC Scotland numbers). Come next Autumn, the Beeb will have to decide whether to stick with WR at 7.30pm or shift it back to its old 8-9pm slot. It could probably continue averaging c.4m where it is at the moment when Corrie's there but I suspect between 8-9pm it'd be up to about 4.5m.

As for 9pm, WDYTYA does tend to be quite erratic ratings-wise depending on the celebrity who's featured but <4m is low by its own standards - possibly its lowest BBC1 overnight rating? Midsomer Murders seems to have settled at the low 5's mark for recent episodes - it's a little low compared to how it used to do and I do wonder why ITV don't promote it more as it's on and off so much. Grand Designs did alright, but again, it's down from the 3-4m figures it was capable of getting a couple of years ago. L&O: CI was hurt by Midsomer Murders and I think it's the sort of show which is better off at 10pm anyway.

Fresh Meat's launch rating isn't too good. It's okay but considering last night's episode dipped under 1m in its final 15 minutes according to Broadcast, it seems like there's going to be a pretty significant fall for it over the next few weeks, possibly settling at the 1-1.2m mark. With Shameless, their only returning drama series, faring poorly this series, C4 really need new dramas coming through getting closer to the 2m mark. They've failed to do that so far this year with shows like Sirens and the initial signs aren't good for this one either. This is England did really well last year but IIRC that's only returning for something like 1-3 episodes, they need something with 6-8 episodes rating at that sort of level.

Decent rating for Ask Rhod Gilbert for the first episode of the series. Although I suspect that may be down to the fantastic sight of Kimberley Wyatt and her clevage on show.

I'll answer that. It was because they feared for Midsomer against WR and WDYTYA had it stood on it's own two feet. It's known as a "Corrie Crutch"


Doing better than some of ITV's 9pm nags! You know it it's unusually low and was dented by Corrie and the fading MM. I suspect the Ross County match in Scotland boosted Corrie and MM north of the border.


But disappointing actually, as he was getting over 2m on Mondays. But the breasts were fantastic, and I'm sure will have been noticed on the Best Boobs thread (I don't check that one when I'm at work.....)

It's particularly daft that Rhod is languishing in a Wednesday graveyard when the Friday 10.35 slot is filled with.repeats pending Norton's return.....

rzt - do you have any data to back up your assertion that the Ross County match was a major turn on north of the border and boosted BBC1's overnights?

I'm inclined to think the opposite. But happy to be proved wrong...

LOL - BBC minority sports drag down premier channel

Not yet, I'll post the regional figures tomorrow. But usually these matches involving Celtic rate really well in Scotland and have boosted BBC1's overnights in the past - there was an occasion previously IIRC when Waterloo Road got ~6m, helped by BBC Scotland showing football.

Worth noting too that new episodes of Midsomer Murders aren't shown in Scotland, so STV would've pulled down that national Midsomer Murders average. So more reason for people to tune into BBC1 Scotland north of the border due to STV's repeat offerings.

Probably embarrassed by the race storm last year, so burning them off quietly? I doubt it will return, unless ITV has now decided it wants to be the home of the mostly female Daily Mail pensioner, and leave the racier broader demographic stuff to the Beeb and others?

I've read that Midsomer Murders has been recommissioned for at least a further 3 episodes next year. I think the lower ratings are due to a few factors: there's an element to some viewers not liking the new Barnaby, the constant "is it on this week?" scheduling catches some people out, STV not showing these new episodes, poor promotion- I didn't see one advert for it apart from a small clip at the end of Doc Martin, Wednesdays generally don't rate as well as Sundays when it used to air. I think all these things come into it as to why MM rates in the low 5's these days instead of high 5's which it used to be capable of. But I reckon ITV will stick with it as long as the show repeats well across the ITV portfolio and first showing ratings are respectable.

Just for comparisons purposes, MM was slightly up from the equivalent episode on the same day last year, though I suppose the Corrie lead-in would've helped yesterday. But it shows its ratings decline hasn't been too dramatic in the last 12 months, all things considered.

Some early US metered ratings in from yesterday (I'm sure C14E or AlexiR will have a proper roundup later):

The X Factor (Fox) had a 8.7/14 households rating yesterday.

If my maths is correct, that's equivalent to about 13m viewers, with possibly a 4.5-6.0 A18-49. Not as big as many were expecting, and more in line with The Voice levels than Idol levels.

ABC's Modern Family had 9.8/15 which was the most watched TV show yesterday.

Trying to translate households into anything else can be tricky especially with demo numbers. However those households make it pretty clear that The X Factor isn't in the Idol league that people expected. It'll be interesting to see if it can beat Modern Family in the demo or not.

On another note Modern Family was brilliant last night - I rode a horse for the first time today. Wasn't surprised when it went neigh!

Yeah, I'd say 13m-14m viewers. Lower end of the demo range as well, I'd guess. (As Alex says, very difficult to do accurately, though).

Well below what was expected. I didn't think we'd be looking at 20m+ but I did think 16m/17m and a demo that beat The Voice premiere.

Like history repeating itself as well - UK then Australia... now the US. Pressure on to hold that audience this season and then build. And of course, it might get a similar number to The New Girl, but with the weight of expectations, it won't be seen as a positive.

Great for Modern Family! Should compare favourably with last year. And #1 show of the night in the demo as well - another guess there!

Yeah, they'll be disappointed with those XFUS numbers considering how much money they spent on marketing and big expectations with Cowell and Abdul involved. I forgot, what did The Voice launch with earlier this year? TXF is in the same ballpark as that but I think FOX would've definitely been hoping for more than that. In the UK and Australia the show has grown in its second season but I'm not too sure if it would follow the same pattern in the US.

As for Modern Family, great ratings for it! Do you happen to know what it launched with last year or what its record 18-49 rating is? ABC will be thrilled with how it did last night, especially after its been a mixed couple of days for them with DWTS under-performing.

If US X Factor doesn't get a second series i wonder if Cowell will return to UK X Factor and Britain's got talent.