I suspect the deal for additional episodes has been in the works for a while but I doubt the timing of the announcement is entirely coincidental. Bob's Burgers is the closest they've come to a new hit in Animation Domination for a while.

If the BBC Do that the voice would be killed straight away as it will most probally be airing in the spring when BGT Is on

Yeah excellent stuff for MOTD. It may look stale to some, but it is still an iconic highlights programme for the BBC and it still pulls great ratings. Just a quick question, but seeing as MOTD2 does reasonably well on BBC2, could F1 grand prix highlights work in a BBC2 slot after MOTD?

At least they are still commissioning new programmes for the 10:15pm Sunday slot, unlike certain other channels.

The first series did decently. What is your expectation for the 10:15pm slot?

I honestly think BG "No" T will do quite badly next year.

Oh I agree, but I'm just not sure if it's an ideal place to launch a brand new comedy. Plus, we don't know how big The Voice is going to be yet, it may only end up as a 5-6m show itself, meaning that it wouldn't be a great launch pad for a new comedy against 9-10m BGT. The comedy would find it very tough indeed. I'm not sure just how well The Voice will do, as remember in the US it wasn't all that huge in total viewers, and it isn't as innovative here as it was in the US. I think it'll still do well, but I wonder if it'd be better off starting in January as opposed to March when it's apparently launching.

The difference of course is, Big Brother is achieving its ratings night after night, whereas An Idiot Abroad's single hour of TV is getting watched mostly at some point in the 7 days after broadcast, where people can be bothered. It's like comparing the daily reach of a show to the weekly reach of another show- a random comparison certainly but not a particularly interesting or credible one.

Still, at least Sky is delivering a couple of programmes of serious value to its loyal subscribers at last.

Why do you think that?

When we get the odd one in the public domain they're stunning.

Doctor Who, April 23.

Overnights 6.5m of which 4.8m were live and 1.7m were same day timeshift.

A further 2.36m in the next seven days and then 300,000 more Sky+ views after that.

And being on BBC there's no need to timeshift to avoid the ads.

It depends on the panel; I think Simon will be far more careful with Britain's Got Talent after the slip up with The X Factor. I think the rumoured Walliams choice will be a good one if it's true; especially if Louis Walsh joins the panel as well...though they may not be harsh enough; or they'll need a tough female judge to balance it out.

But Britain's Got Talent did ok this year in terms of 'bearing up' - though Simon's return could be credited with that. I don't think the show will slip as far as The X Factor has (though it has a lower starting point). If they treat it right I think it'll outlast The X Factor.

Difference is- Sky is actually getting ratings which are good for what was expected. Channel 5 will be disappointed with how Big Brother has turned out so far this series.

BGT only didn't slip that far this year because the previous year didn't do too well either compared too series 3.

X Factor is coming off its most watched year

I mean BGT really need to sort out the Live shows/Results

Semi-final 3 Results 1 June 7.9m
A lot of people don't bother with them.

TXF is holding up better despite what people are saying but X Factor also needs to make a few format changes next year, getting rid of the audition audience and showing more auditions could help.

no way BGT will outlast TXF
TXF always has different levels of talent each year
BGT is consitently dropping in talent.

That BGT Rating was lower because it clashed with the apprentice. it was only 1% down from 2010 so it did well

I don't think its going to run as late as a lot of people here do. I think we should be on for a mid-late February debut which should allow it to finish by the end of April or very early May assuming they don't overload it with contestants. And for the first run I doubt they will. That would mean they have to schedule around BGT for a week or two at most. And that assumes ITV don't move BGT back a little and I think if the BBC throw enough behind The Voice and can launch it big enough they might be able to force ITV's hand on that. ITV won't want to run the risk of losing another head-to-head battle with a BBC talent show.


I just really want the BBC to be more adventurous.

If they wind up in a position at the start of next year where The Voice is pulling 7+ million and it’s leading into Casualty or a Lottery format it’s going to feel like such a wasted opportunity to breathe some real life into the Saturday night schedule. Even if The Voice is only pulling 5 million I think it would still be a wasted opportunity to not try something new after it. At this point everyone seems to agree that the BBC is going to be chasing a younger audience with The Voice so it seems to me that if you’re going to chase that audience you should build an entire Saturday night schedule that will appeal to them. It’s really very irritating that 2012 is going to be the year when there’s no Doctor Who in the first half of the year because a Voice/Doctor Who pairing would, I suspect, have worked well.

It doesn’t even need to be comedy they put there I just went with comedy because they’re talking up wanting more comedy and that’s got the quickest turn around on it but they could put a drama of some kind in there. Maybe they should nick Being Human from BBC3 although I’m not sure how well that would go down on primetime Saturday night BBC1. That would however mean they’d need to run The Voice ‘til 9PM at least.

Maybe so. But will they be disappointed with Celeb BB? Bit on the Side? Demand 5 views? Hits to the Big Brother website? Voting revenue? The various product placement deals?

The main show ratings for this series are only one part of the puzzle. You can continue to write off the brand as much as you like, but it doesn't change the fact that a near-record audience for Channel 5 tuned into the live launch show of Celebrity Big Brother in August.

They got some things wrong this year, but I'm bored of the constant exaggeration about the state of the ratings now. It's a bit of a disappointment, certainly not a disaster. And the incredible consistency it has shown over the course of the run is testament to how enjoyable the show has been and is an encouraging sign for any future series.

Still no sunday??

Worth remembering that Talent has (so far) had a much easier ride from the BBC. I suspect if it were clashing with a Strictly sized BBC1 show on Saturday nights its drops would be bigger. Or even just a semi-appealing BBC1 schedule at this point. As we saw when it clashed with a decent BBC1 schedule during finals week it got dented pretty hard.

Levels of talent is subjective - I think people are widely split on how talented the final 12 were on The X Factor this year, for example, compared to last year.

You only need a hook to keep a show going. I'm sure Britain's Got Talent will learn from that.

To quote Bono - Sunday Bloody Sunday, how long, how long till the ratings come.

That's true. For me, ITV1's scheduling is damaging the show more than anything - the 8.30-10 slot was perfect for it as it allowed it to miss EastEnders and get a jump on the 9pm slot instead of starting halfway through it.

Saying that, I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one hour long EastEnders against the next Britain's Got Talent final week (I'd guess at the Thursday) as the BBC are being more aggressive with their scheduling.

I just checked with Attentional and the data still hasn't gone live yet.

The tension in the thread is tangible as we wait for news of TXF's inevitable recovery.

The more the show is built up, the more it's shot down. The X Factor is not near crisis levels yet apparently it's a disaster. It's the same with Big Brother; both have made mistakes and that's resulted in slightly lower than expected average figure for this series but both shows are recoverable.

The X Factor bunch are really talented this year... I'd argue that they are the best bunch since the 2008 series. The problem is none of them are big characters. They are talented and can perform but there are no big characters or personalities. No one is standing out - they are all really good and that's about it.

In 2008, they were all really talented but you had the personalities to go with it. You had Daniel and his personal story, you had the marmite character in Diana, we had the shock of Laura leaving early, Ruth had a journey. She started off as an underdog and was in the background but then broke through as a serious contender to win. Rachel was opinionated and feisty, the Owen boy was likeable and cute to all the mums and teenage girls... in other series, we've had Jedward and Wagner, the big characters, the cheeky chappie Olly Murs and Stacey Solomon who is a funny, larger than life character. Last year, we had similar marmite characters in Cher Lloyd and Katie Waissel. This year, we don't have any of those kind of characters and I think that's why the ratings aren't as big as past years. The contestants just aren't connecting with the public in a big way, despite them all being likeable and talented.

I Think BGT Will be up next year by about 5% if it's in the right timeslot, better talent and the judges are right.