The problem with that is that The Voice is likely to air at 7pm, and ITV will have BGT at 8pm which would probably kill a new comedy.

Anyway like I said on November 13th TXF has One Direction and Lady Gaga on so I expect good ratings for that possibly even a 15 million peak or somethng

What about airing The Voice from January or February to mid-April to avoid BGT?


I would expect a slightly lower peak, maybe 13.5m to 14m peak, with an average of around 11.5 million.

Thats what its getting with less famous guests?

Meh - a lot of them already watching though.
There'll be a boost in the average more likely than the peak - as there will be stronger rating throughout the show.

I’ve made this point several times lately but I’ll make it again now.

The BBC1 Saturday night schedule is incredibly stale and rigid. It is basically exactly the same shows 52 weeks of the year and that makes it incredibly difficult to do anything with it. They desperately need to cut down the episode order for Casualty and spend the money they’d save on new Saturday night drama or comedy (which they can’t currently schedule anywhere because they have to work around the Lottery formats and Casualty). Honestly I think they should run Casualty from August – December at most. That would give them 20-something episodes a year and that’s more than enough. That would then free up that Saturday 9PM slot for something new.

At this stage I think when The Voice debuts we should see a schedule along these lines

6:30: Total Wipeout
7:30: The Voice
9PM: New Comedy or Drama

Then stick the Lottery Draws on after the new show and the news after that. The BBC need to use The Voice to inject some new life into their Saturday night schedule so that they’re in a position where they could conceivably air Doctor Who (or Merlin) in the first half of the year without worrying about the shows overnights dropping significantly because it exists in a Saturday night wasteland by itself.

Or if they’re going to insist on sticking with this bumper order for Casualty move it to Sunday for the first half of the year. I suspect it could do relatively well Sunday 9PM.

Lady Gaga is huge and is premiering a new single
One Direction are giving there first peformance of the song so all the teen girls who turned off will watch.

Let me be the first to say excellent rating for MOTD on Saturday, 4.6m is a very healthy figure. I know it does cost a lot for the tv rights, but pulls in great ratings.

The BBC need to stop worrying about what ITV is doing and giving them such a free ride. As we’ve seen with Merlin they can counterprogram against these ITV reality blocks rather nicely. I see no reason why they can’t launch a new 5 million show Saturday night after The Voice at the start of the year.

But Sundays haven't been down - so more likely the 'peak' audience will just watch throughout. Boosting the average not the peak.

it is more likely to be ITV.

Given the clash was only for 10 minutes, that 3 million does not mean alot, and TBH I am surprised people didnt turn over to ITV 1 during the recap, "Keep Dancing" cant be that bigger audience draw, but then I suspect the first 5 minutes of X-Factor is just as much padding.

...and the last one in SD. Next week MOTD and MOTD2 will be in HD for the first time.

Is Lady GaGa really that big a draw in the UK? Did she do much for Jonathan Ross' numbers? (I honestly don't remember). And didn't Paul O'Grady do a Lady GaGa special at some point? How did that do? I just feel like she's maybe not as big an attraction as people want her to be.

I guess but I still think it will do better than the last few shows..... especially for OD I can see a lot of Teen girls who stopped watching this year tune in

That is very good news SD can look poor on a large screen. HD MOTD has been a long time coming.

This assumes that lots of teen girls have stopped watching and I'm not sure that's a safe assumption.

Where is the evidence that the teen girls stopped watching in the first place? I suspect this is one area of the audience where we've seen next to no dropoff.

It's laughable seeing One Direction bigged up to this extent. So some very strange people on Twitter are completely obsessed with these rejects from last year- big deal. It matters not a jot for ratings because One Direction are not a big artist and never will be.

P.S. I would never dare write any of the above on Twitter, I can just imagine the abuse I would get.

Back in the US it seems that Fox might be preparing for the failure of Allen Gregory (and Napoleon Dynamite midseason) they've ordered 9 additional episodes of Bob's Burgers.

Five weeks running now that one or more shows on Sky1 have beaten every episode of C5's flagship programme, Big Brother.

thats a bit desperate isnt it?

talking of why is Broadcast claiming this?


what? is ITV trying to go into negative figures?

Thanks for that.

Have BARB gone home ? Do we get the Sunday figures tomorrow morning ?

Interesting stat!

I think Casualty should run from September to February then, clearing the whole of spring, summer and early autumn for some new shows. Moving it to Sunday at 9pm will mean it goes against Downton, which was getting 9/10 million with stiff competition in the form of Spooks. Or move it to Fridays at 9pm from Sept to December, then move it to Saturdays at 8 or 9pm from late December onwards.

I agree that the BBC1 Saturday schedule is rigid. Back in the day, you had a big-hitting winter schedule of Big Break, Noel's House Party, National Lottery Live and Casualty, whereas in the spring when most of those shows ended for their series, it cleared the way for some new blood on Saturdays like the drama series Bugs etc.

Well at least it keeps Chiles off Daybreak which is probably ITV's strategy (if indeed ITV has a strategy).