That really is a terrible BBC1 schedule. I know people bemoan Doctor Who's overnights but its 1.4 million ahead of the number two show on the channel last night. They really do need to seriously invest in new Saturday night shows and revamp this schedule because its not working. And they're going to have the same problem when The Voice debuts next year. They cannot expect it to just carry the entire night by itself straight out of the gate.

Yes thats enough to get you in the car going to a 24 hour shop to find new batteries for the remote

Harry Hill's new hair had me fooled though

Some disappointing figures all round last night. Casualty stands out as being pretty low for the time of year. It's down 19% on the equivalent episode last year, in which it clashed with X Factor for half an hour as opposed to 45 minutes like last night. The X Factor and Doctor Who were also underwhelming for their standards, we know both shows are capable of better. The Jonathan Ross Show meanwhile was also low- most editions were clearing that IIRC on Friday nights in a post-news slot on BBC One. With an X Factor lead-in he should be aiming for at least 4m IMO for episodes that air in primetime.

Big Brother was at least up week-on-week in an earlier timeslot, but this in itself is not much to cheer about as the share of the audience was the same. It seems to have settled at a fairly low 1m-1.5m for most shows which is not good enough for what was supposed to be Channel 5's flagship show this autumn and quite an expensive show at that. I think short of an incredible twist, there probably isn't going to be much more than they can do for this series now except continue to support it the best they can and hope the seemingly loyal audience it does have sticks with it.

That's a shocking figure for SVU. One of the most disappointing things that has happened with Big Brother is that show's viewership has just shrunk and shrunk and shrunk due to the late timeslots. As I said earlier, it was a really fantastic episode last night and deserved better. I hope they hold fire with The Mentalist and don't try to launch it outside of its traditional Friday 9pm slot as they can't afford to risk it with their higher-profile US shows. CI and SVU are second run so lower priority, but lessons need to be learned next year from what has turned out to be quite disastrous scheduling.

Bad night for Channel 4 up to 9:30. Million Pound Drop, whilst rating low for its standards this series, was at least comfortably above 1m and prevented the night from being a total non-event. And they'll be pleased it beat Davina's former show again, quite easily this time.

I'm a bit surprised by the Rugby World Cup. I was expecting to see bigger shares than 34% for the England games. It's still doing really well obviously for the time of day and helping no end in terms of ITV1's all day shares but it hasn't really wowed me yet. I know it wasn't a particularly high profile fixture yesterday though, against bigger opposition we could get closer to that elusive 50% mark.

That is a poor rating for England's world cup match to be beaten by New Zealand v france is poor

The BBC already invested some money on the new show Epic Win but it's not doing brilliantly but still better than Don't Scare the Hare which was 10 times more expensive.

Jonathan Ross's guests on ITV1 have seemed really poor, even in comparison to his weak last series on BBC1.


Although in isolation the Judges House stage works well, I think to revamp Boot Camp they need to look at how they get from the numbers who got through the auditions to the numbers who make the live show, so in that context they should look if Judges Houses needs revamping too (perhaps replacing with a live stage?)

All indications are the judges will have 4 acts each again this year, but I think considering the talent (or lack of), especially in the groups (yet again they're having to make their own) they'd be best sticking to 3 each with just one leaving each week. I don't really think beginning with 16 benefitted the show in any way last year.


Back to tonight and do we think Downton will be up on last week or might it fall slightly - will the pre-series hype continue across to episode 2? TOWIE should do rather well - seems to have had more coverage than ever in the lead up to this series.

I agree with this. I remember last year the shock at just how high the ratings were for bootcamp/judges houses, and I can't see it matching them this year. There was just so much hype last year and whilst there's still plenty of hype this year (partly why it's still up on every series except last year's) it isn't to the same extent yet.

However, last year when the live shows arrived there was definitely a sense of the ratings flatlining. The Saturday live show didn't increase as much as was expected and remained flat for weeks. Meanwhile, the first Sunday live show was a million down on the previous week, whereas in 2009 the first results show was up +0.6m week-on-week. That caused a bit of shock and it took the show 5 weeks to climb back above where it was for the second judges houses show. I can't see that happening this year. Instead I think we'll see a more 'normal' pattern, with tonight's show and next week's show down year-on-year (although next week should be up on this week), but it should increase gradually as it gets into the live shows, rather than tailing off, and eventually it should end up getting pretty similar numbers as last year for the second half of the live shows.

Not really - England kicked off at 7am so had an hour of build up, so the match average I'm sure would have been higher. Plus New Zealand v France was the big game of the group stages, so no shame it being beaten by that.

Yes XF was down quite a lot BUT it will be at around 11.2m tonight I reckon. FF is doing very well, ITV have a good schedule, after FF finishes and TMO comes back, they should be able to get 5m+ every night, as towards the last few weeks of the second series, it kept gaining viewers.
May not be the best for BB, but I guess for a Saturday, it's pretty decent, as it was 200k up on last week, and kept around 98% of Friday's eviction interview audience, which is fairly impressive. It will be at around 1.4m tonight.

I think MPD is doing decently, but I don't see the difference it makes comparing the BB decline and the MPD decline, MPD has only been on for about one and a half years (or is it less?) and it has gone from the high 2m to the mid 1m.

Difficult to say if it was beaten since the 6-9am slot includes a 1 hour build up from 6am and the 9.10 to 12noon slot includes about 30 minutes of highlights of the day from 11.30 including the England game.

With NZ going to summer time today the time difference is 1 hour more so next weekend its all 6am and 8.30 KO times. Tomorrow Daybreak ends at 7.15am to make way for Wales.

The Drop was on much later compared to previous shows this series as it didn't finish until gone 11pm. Also the TV listings said it was running for 100 minutes but looking at the competition.

22:25- Match of the Day: 3.9m (26.6%)
22:00- Calendar Girls: 1.5m ( 9.0%)
22:30- American Gangster: 1.3m ( 8.1%)
21:30- Big Brother: 1.1m ( 5.3%)
22:30- Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: 0.6m ( 4.0%)

There is a slim chance the show was third/second place towards the end of the show. I suspect Channel 4+1 would have a boost at 11pm since they gave away £500k in total thoughout the show (and a record breaking charity win).

Given it's up against a ratings juggernaut. Secret Fortune has had a consistant rating for the whole series so far. It's always been getting around 3.5m-3.8m but has not dipped below 3.5m.

Can't really complain at second/third place. I thought American Gangster would be higher as it was the premiere last night, whereas Calendar Girls was a repeat.

It's been a big week for the Channel 4 game shows in terms of how much they've given away. Do we know how the latest DOND £250k episode did yet? I haven't heard my neighbour roar like that since the football World Cup.

Don't really see the fuss over the X Factor figure. In 2009 it went from 10.5m for the last auditions to 9.1m for the first bootcamp. Bootcamp is almost always well down on the auditions, but last year saw a rise because of the massive amount of press coverage the show recieved, mainly due Cheryl's malaria.

Back in 2006 Casualty was getting higher ratings than XF iirc albeit the shows did not clash. Casualty though has suffered badly in the face of direct competition when XF took off and the result is that more than ever it looks like a year long filler show.
Ofcourse its very easy to say revamp-The Voice is a bought in show-the Beebs own attempts at light entertainment have been largely dire and there is obviously little confidence in trying to replace the Lottery/Casualty schedule which seem to have been there forever.
Just a quick thought on The Voice. The Beeb say they want new judges and that they will be industry giants. I am fascinated by this ie who will they be? At least in ruling out current judges we wont be seeing Barrowmanesque types who have been appearing in the Lloyd Webber and all the hopeless soundalikey talent shows. Or will we! The mind boggles. If they had tried for Cheryl Cole the one thing they would have got is press coverage between now and when the show starts-the problem being half of it would have been unwelcome.
(actually that was more than a quick thought )

What did last years and 2009 Sunday Episode of Bootcamp get

2009's had 10.87m (42.5%), while 2010's had 12.56m (44.4%)

I think tonight's will rate about midway between the two.

Adele still seems to be the only obvious choice at this point. I am at least reassured by their stated ambition for the judges. Hopefully they'll follow through on that.

2008- 8.2m (36%)
2009- 9.05m (36.6%)
2010- 12.07m (44%)

Edit- thought you meant Saturday . But for comparison purposes for last night, above doesn't seem as bad.

That 2010 figure seems to be the Sunday figure (excluding HD). Last year's Saturday bootcamp rating was 11.30m (46.4%)

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s103/...s-to-113m.html

Expensive or not, its a real long shot that any new show can grow in the pre 6.00 schedule these days and putting them there does not display much confidence imo.

It's currently getting around 1.5m. We will know for definite come the offical BARB rating. They kept that £250k win very secret, so secret I didn't know about it until the day it aired! There was a Youtube video posted by Endemol recently saying whether The Banker's luck has ran out but never hinted or mentioned about a quarter million win. The Banker on twitter also stated there are some legendary games coming up next week so we might see the show have a small boost coming up to the live shows in mid-October. Don't be surprised if Channel 4 starts traling the live shows.

It has been an expensive nine days for Channel 4 as Remarkable Television's (Endemol division) two shows have given away over £1,1 million. Also the Jack & Michael Whitehall £300,000 win last night recorded the second biggest charity win on UK television. Second behind the Llewelyn-Bowen's £500,000 win on Millionaire.

In terms of the controversy with X Factor, I think there has been less. Sure, there have been stories (a few popping up today it seems) but none have quite carried the weight of last year. While the judges have been well received on forums, they haven't yet set the tabloids into a frenzy as Cowell/Cole did last year. Everyone thinks they're good, they're getting along. That needs to change for the live shows.

Also, the last auditions episode was atrocious. It would be a far better idea to stack it with talent and interesting characters right before bootcamp rather than fill it with people we'll never see on the show again. There seems to be quite a few stories going around today about the contestants which is probably good news on that front assuming some of them make the top 16. Although someone being kicked out for having a criminal record isn't going to do anything for ratings. Much as Ceri's 4th failure at the auditions isn't going to get anyone watching bootcamp either.

So 10m this year against 11.3m this year. Place your bets as to which tabloid will run an "X Factor In Crisis" story tomorrow.

And place your bets as to which tabloid will run a "Dr Who In Crisis" story. Unless they go with "Celebrity Masterchef In Crisis" or "Jonathan Ross In Crisis". There's a lot for them to choose from. It depends who they've got the biggest grudge against.

I think this lot of judges are very independent and competitive. They'll be at each others throats during the live shows so it will all change. But there is something in the press today about a contestant featured very prominently who has quit which could get a bit of interest.