Given how the premieres are doing on Channel 4, I think it would wiser for Channel 5 to save some of their own until November and December. I think something Angels and Demons would benefit airing in December or January as Downton Abbey will have finished and it would attract a high audience,

Good article by the always interesting Steve Hewlett in today's Media Guardian: BBC3 and BBC4 need to be sorted out if the BBC is to save itself

I agree with a lot of what he has to say. Certainly the importance of multi-channel offerings was totally overstated 10 years ago, and the importance of the big channels was very undervalued.

BBC Four is the biggest problem - it's more mainstream than it was at launch (but it couldn't of carried on with the arty farty stuff no one wants to watch- have a look at a schedule from 2002) and is way to similar to BBC Two. But if BBC Four is axed there would be a uproar, so they've created problems for themselves.

Those are strong plus 1 figures for The X Factor and Downton Abbey - I wonder if some people tuned in at 8pm, realised they'd missed half hour of X Factor and simply hung around to watch on ITV1+1 instead? 8pm is the perfect start time for The X Factor; I don't know why they keep messing about with it. Holding Out for A Hero saw another slight dip; the sooner TV Burp returns the better.

Big Brother is keeping a stable audience rather than continually falling which'll be a relief for Channel 5. I guess From Hell did ok if not fantastically at 10pm. That's a brilliant figure for Mrs. Doubtfire in the teatime slot. Warship struggled against the tough competition.

X Men performed very well for Channel 4 but the broadcaster didn't take advantage of the relatively strong led in with Fighting on The Frontlines and Predator both suffering drops from the lead in.

Countryfile and Antiques Roadshow are perfectly scheduled against the ITV1 schedule though I do wonder if they'll ever leave the slots now, or whether that's two more we can immediately discount in regards to new programming. Spooks held up relatively well; yes it's down but it should timeshift. Nature's Miracle Babies did ok in the early slot.

QPR v Aston Villa was never going to be a major puller for Match of the Day 2 and it shows in the ratings. BBC Two held up in the ratings without doing anything spectacular but that's the best it will be able to do on Sunday nights for the next couple of months, really.

Best of luck at uni D.M.N, have an amazing time.

All the best with that, some of the best times of your life lay ahead in the coming days and years - not that you'll remember them all

Good figures for ITV last night, with the exception of Holding Out For A Hero. The station really starts to come alive during the Auttunm months and some of the figures for Downtown Abbey and Doc Martin can help ITV forget there disaster of a summer.

Brilliant for Mrs. Doubt fire, but C5 will be disappointed that there big Auttumn highlight is floundering. OK figures for the rest of the night, with Warship struggling...

C4 did well with there film aswell.

Good Luck at Uni D M N Have a great time

Sky 1 boss Stuart Murphy has said on Twitter that it looks as though the opening episode of An Idiot Abroad will be in the Top 5 rating programmes ever on the channel.

http://twitter.com/#!/stuartmurphy100

I guess ABC are always on the backfoot with a lack of football but they had a decent evening despite this. Even if Desperate Housewives is down on the previous premiere that's still a decent figure for it and Pan Am launched well in the 10pm slot.

It wasn't such a great night for CBS who have a few crinkles to iron out in their schedule. I think they should maybe try switching CSI: Miami and The Good Wife around and see if CSI: Miami can exploit The Amazing Race's lead in, which was decent. I'm sure The Good Wife is only there for the awards; I think even CBS would admit that if questioned!

It was a good night for FOX with the animations still pulling in strong figures. The overrun from the football would have helped, and in the process dented NBC.

NBC had a very good night; even if it didn't light up the ratings board as much as expected the season must be a welcome relief for the channel compared to how it struggles for the rest of the week. I'm not sure how the football rights are shared in the US - is it on rotation where Sunday Night Football moves between channels each week?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good luck at university, D.M.N.!

Or start charging!

I was excited by the Nicky Campbell version because it gave me the opportunity to test whether my new Freeview box was sophisticated enough to allow me to play along. And it was!

Sadly, it wasn't sophisticated enough to provide me with my total score at the end of it all.

It probably is the right slot. I don't think it would do any better against Doc Martin on Mondays. Tuesdays were needed to give Body Farm a fighting chance, Wednesdays and Fridays were taken, and Thursdays were ruled out by the Friday comedy hour moving across this week.

D.M.N. - just to echo everyone else's comments, have a fantastic time.

Thanks for all the time you have put into this thread.

On this occasion, Robbie is 100% correct. You have far better things to do over the next few years than worry about TV ratings!

Only if they're a bit thick! X Factor is hardly renowned for its fixed start times.

I'm sure more people would have watched if it had been a studio show. I think there's simply a little bit less enthusiam from some fans for the stages between the straight audition shows and the studio shows.

Scratching around for +1 viewers makes little difference.

That's a good point. They used to in the 1980s, but they don't anymore.

I have some ratings lists from summer 1988, where old episodes of Bread were being repeated on Thursday nights, and they're marked "(Excluding Ulster)".

Yes good luck, dont worry I'll keep Robbie honest in your absence.

btw is rzt going to uni too - he seems to have gone quiet at roughly the same time...

D.M.N. - good luck at uni. I started on Monday 26th September, too, but many years ago!

I was disappointed to see DH at such lows. I was expecting a boost, since it was the final season. If it went down, I thought it would be down a few tenths, not a full point! Interesting thing about DH though is that it always rises in the second week. Even if that happens, I'm not too optimistic about DH getting a 4 range anytime soon. Perhaps it will be there by midseason, as their series finale nears. Despite this, ABC should be pleased their two of three new shows debuted well (Revenge, Pan Am). While one show only managed to improve in their timeslot (Charlie's Angels). It is a huge comparison from last season.

Even if CSI: Miami and The Good Wife did swap, it won't make much difference. May not be as bad as Grey's and Private Practice, but won't do CBS much favours either. Plus, CSI franchise is just "getting by" now since Vegas and Miami are airing at 10pm slot.

I wasn't suggesting moving Castle to Thursday 10PM just saying they need to free up the Monday Dancing and Grey's Anatomy lead-ins for new shows. I think I'd probably put Castle on Tuesday 10PM since I have my doubts that Body of Proof is going to last the year.


Channel 4 have (or at least had) their eye on Good Christian Bitches/Belles which is the much more natural Desperate Housewives replacement. It'll be interesting to see how ABC ends up scheduling that.


NBC air Sunday Night Football exclusively (and pay a lot for it). CBS and Fox share the rights to afternoon games and alternate national Sunday airings. ABC did own the rights to Monday Night Football but Disney opted to move it to ESPN to boost it. The big downside for that move for Disney is that it means ABC can no longer air the Super Bowl which alternates between NBC, CBS and Fox.

It's a shame that new or growing ABC shows cannot benefit from a Superbowl lead-in anymore. The last ABC show to get the Superbowl push was Grey's Anatomy with 38 million viewers, way back in season 2 (2006). In the long run, did moving MNF to ESPN help or hurt ABC/Disney?

I do wonder why ESPN doesn't air the Superbowl, I imagine it would the highest rated programme on cable. ESPN pay a lot more money for Monday Night Football compared to NBC, CBS and FOX. I do wonder if SNF would be lucrative for CBS at the expense of Sunday Afternoon football and it solve their woes on Sundays,

Can't help but feel that this is a big night (good or bad) for Five's The Gadget Show, back on Mondays as of tonight. Taking a commercial at 8.06pm for an 8pm show won't help.

PS - Attached is an extended preview (via BBC America) of Saturday's Doctor Who (which will be the first of the series I will watch "as it happens" rather than timeshift as someone on Facebook is bound to spoil. Perhaps others will follow suit).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcukGKj-nsY

It'll be interesting how Terra Nova does tonight, I think if it can break 10m, it'll be considered a success. After X Factor fell short of expectations, FOX must have finger crossed this will perform well,

Interesting figures from UTV in Ulster regarding Saturday nights - figures for 3rd Sept

7pm Red Or Black 248k 40%
8.15pm X Factor 474k 60%
9.15pm Red Or Black 321k 44%
9.45pm Jonathan Ross 150k 22%

and on BBC1
7.00pm Doctor Who 69k 12%
8.35pm Casualty 70k 9%

Primetime Share 6pm-10.30pm
BBC1 63k- 10%
UTV 262k - 40%

Shocking figures. I hope they don't realise the UTV schedule is just the same as the ITV1 London schedule. or they'll stop watching that too!

The demographics of Northern Ireland are such that UTV always does better than BBC One. If you have any figures for the South of England for that night the story would be rather different.