Its for Sky Living, was announced a couple of weeks ago. It sounds pretty awful.

http://skyliving.sky.com/coming-soon/the-love-machine

Stacey Solomon is supposed to be co-presenting but I don't know whether she still is now that she is pregnant.

Well, the 2010 one was in readiness for schedule disruption from the impending Football World Cup, so I suppose it depends on whether ITV and the BBC share the rights to next year's European Football Championship, or ITV go it alone.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15519051

References to a "peak audience share" of so-many million... Tut-tut, BBC News.

You'd think the reporters would check with someone in the press office or the TV dept to find out how to express ratings.

Maybe she's had enough love machines for the time being?

Yeah, the show really did take off as Series 3 progressed. I'm sure a stronger performance from it's Strictly lead-in helped (Merlin S1 and 2 were bumped before and after Strictly like a yo-yo, so the new consistency was welcome) but I think the show hit it's stride too. Managed to shake off some of the really formulaic traits and up the stakes by moving on with the legends.

I've said before that the show is under appreciated. Last year's series was up 13% on 2009 and out-rated Hustle, Spooks and Ashes to Ashes among other big BBC drama names - despite airing right up against the biggest show on TV. A phenomenal performance, and this year has a good shot at matching that. If Doctor Who shows up in Autumn next year, I hope it doesn't mean Merlin gets bumped around for it's fifth (and perhaps final) series. It wouldn't deserve it.

So The X Factor's peak was the same as it's average? Well, you've got to hand it to them, it held onto it's audience! It's also gained 0.2m from somewhere; I thought it got 9.9m?

I'm starting to worry now; I've heard of budget cuts but are the BBC sharing their entertainment reporters with The Daily Star?

It is worth remembering that the Halloween special isn't reflective of regular episodes. The Simpsons was up more than 30% vs. its last original episode. That's a huge jump. Also it should be noted that its ratings aren't the principle reason Fox want to end it. It has now entered the very unique position of being more valuable to them by not producing original episodes.

I don't have the numbers off hand but since its last uncancelling Family Guy has had a bigger demo average than The Simpsons. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if The Simpsons has more total viewers though. The gap will be much smaller this year though demo wise at least.

On the subject of The Flintstones its still not entirely clear to me when that's launching. 2013 is the very vague date being thrown around for it but I'm not sure if that's Fall 2013 or midseason replacement for 2013.

Not sure, don't forget Euro 2012 starts on that Friday, so England playing on Friday or Saturday evening would cause huge problems with BGT.

rzt (I think it was rzt ) was proposing that the BBC could move Strictly into a more competitive slot next year, so could they have:

6.05 Doctor Who
6.55 Strictly Come Dancing
8.25 Merlin
9.10 Casualty
10.00 National Lottery Draws
10.10 BBC News
10.30 Match of the Day

Get around that one, ITV.

Thats Strictly's rating

Oh and in peak audience the BBC won the night anyway The fools are downplaying it!

This is ITV we're talking about here - they're starting I'm A Celebrity on a Sunday only to ditch it after one highlights show for the football.

Seriously, I think they'll probably air it the week before but I reckon EastEnders will have at least one hour long in Jubilee week; especially if the BBC retain the Euro 2012 rights.

Oh right.

What were the 11.5/11.0 peaks reported on here on Sunday - 5 minute or 15 minute peaks? And a 10.1 peak looks very low for The X Factor considering it rated 9.9.

Is there anything actually factually correct in that article?

Easy peasy....

Saturday
19:25 - You've Been Framed!
19:55 - TV Burp
20:25 - The X Factor
21:25 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories

Sunday
18:30 - The X Factor
19:30 - The Cube
20:30 - The X Factor Results
- one person from Saturday vs one person from Sunday to avoid 'voting irregularly'
21:30 - Downton Abbey

Simples. (PS, would never happen before anyone says that, this is simply in response to Fudd about how ITV could - but never really would - get round it... )

BARB top 10 programmes w/e 23/10/11 inc HD where possible - no duplicates

1 THE X FACTOR RESULTS (SUN 1959) 11.89m
2 DOWNTON ABBEY (SUN 2103) 10.83m
3 DOC MARTIN (MON 2100) 10.49m
4 STRICTLY COME DANCING (SAT 1827) 10.35m
5 CORONATION STREET (MON 2029) 9.83m
6 EASTENDERS (TUE 1930) 8.98m
7 EMMERDALE (MON 1902) 7.58m + HD (300k-400k)
8 COUNTRYFILE (SUN 1825) 7.37m
9 MERLIN (SAT 2016) 6.96m
10 ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (SUN 2000) 6.17m

BBC1 & ITV1 both score 5 each, but ITV1 dominate the top half.

The X Factor may as well just move onto Sunday completely a la Dancing On Ice.

I wonder (purely hypothetically) whether ITV would move The X Factor right back into the early evening if BBC One moved Strictly later? The only problem would be there would be less of an audience around at that time and it would be conceding primetime to BBC One as well. Another day lost.

I guess they could always move The X Factor to Tuesday's - main show 7-9; results 9.30-10 with Emmerdale jammed in between. The night's share would sky rocket.

Their giving a 15 minute I think. Surprisingly low your right. Shame we never had a breakdown.

But there also not including +1 - those pesky BBC entertainment reporters.
BBC are useless just as much as everyone else, they did the same when Strictly was getting beat and the same with Who this year.

Good lord that does sound awful. But maybe they can get Jordon to replace Stacey Solomon since she's been such ratings dynamite for them!


I think the BBC probably have enough on in 2012 with or without the European Championships to plan for schedule disruptions. I'm really not convinced by this plan to air EastEnders pretty much as normal during the Olympics for example.


I'd be surprised if the fifth series is the final one. I think the fact that its found some level of success in the US on SyFy will make it too valuable to end. I'm still not sure why the fifth series would need to be the final one anyway.

God knows how the BBC are going to schedule Doctor Who, Merlin and Strictly on a weekly basis if that's the position they've managed to find themselves in. Although its a bloody nice position to be in I suppose - How do we schedule these three hit shows on the same night...

Calling all statisicians (I can't spell the ruddy word, but calling them anyway ) - does anyone have a breakdown for Saturday night please?

You're right, the BBC were cutting into Who this year...no one would think that they broadcast the show!

ITV2 will be pleased as it means they can run Vampire Diaries as normal that Tuesday. The other nights ITV2 has been weakened beyond belief in order to not compete with IAC with obscure programmes like Sleepwalkers: Secrets of the Night and Can't Stop Eating getting 9pm outings. They missed a trick in not airing High Stakes there instead, that would have been a bigger turnoff.

They should just air the ITV1 Tuesday schedule there (minus Emmerdale), though it may lead to accusations of ITV2 dumbing down.

I thought GeorgeS was the only fan of +1 ratings for ITV1, maybe BBC3 can occasionally repeat programmes shown earlier on BBC1 (like Eastenders) just to have a level playing field when it comes to same evening repeat showings.

I don't get why Channel 4 and E4 had +1 without as much as a whimper for a while and then the sniping started once ITV1 got it?

Does anyone have the Top 20 of the year ratings wise?

No FX in the officials. I was expecting The Walking Dead in the 'others' top 30.

I take it Sundays ratings have been delayed until tomorrow then?