Homeland has done very well to retain its viewer unlike Dexter and Boardwalk Empire. I'm surprised it hasn't been renewed yet. This will be an awards contender for Showtime especially for the actors like Claire Danes. They now have three 1m+ dramas, now they need to find a comedy to replace Weeds.

The Flintstones will likely replace The Simpsons but that'll mean the entire Animation Domination will be Seth MacFarlane, FOX maybe through no fault of their own haven't really nutured animated shows that could eventually replaced Family Guy and The Simpsons, I was happy Bob's Burgers got renewed but I don't have high hopes fpr Allen Gregory or Napoleon Dynamite.

House I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last season, for FOX there is no incentive to keep it as it's own by Universal and I imagine Hugh Laurie wants to move on either to films or return to the UK but I could see Universal reducing the license fee in order to get it to 200 episodes and advertising it as the final season would bring back old viewers.

By Crown Jewels they were referring to the A Listed Events. The Open and Six Nations are not on the A list but the other 4 events you mention are. The BBC also shows the Grand National, the Derby and the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final on the A List.

By value, the BBC's 3 biggest contracts by far have been MOTD, F1 and Six Nations (allowing for the fact that World Cup / Olympics / Euros are not annual so have a much lower annual cost if their cost is "spread" per year).

Roger Mosey has said that the one contract that kept him awake at night was MOTD so I think they would fight harder than anything to keep that - it is the single most fundamental foundation of BBC Sport.

I don't think Sky want athletics - it's the one major sport they don't really show any interest in. They used to have Diamond League but it always performed badly for them so they dropped it. Reason is it is mainly a casual viewing audience - it has almost no hardcore fans so will not drive subs (in contrast to F1).

I would rate MOTD and Wimbledon as right at the top of the list for most likely to remain on BBC (with World Cup and Olympics).

BBC's contract for The Open runs to and including 2015 so that is not really in play.

They have The Big C which is performing well for them and bringing in critical love and awards recognition. Plus House of Lies with Don Cheadle and Kristin Bell debuts in January and they look like they're going to throw a lot behind that.


I see one of two things happening

1 - American Dad and The Cleveland Show won't both survive. If I remember rightly both were picked up for another two seasons last year and my guess is at least one of them won't be renewed. MacFarlane will accept this because its part of the trade-off for getting to make The Flintstones.

2 - They're going to move toward having original Animation Domination year round. So they'd have four MacFarlane animations that would air at different points in the year. And they'd get to keep the likes of Bob's Burgers as well as trying new shows out as well.

What's interesting about Animation Domination is that whilst only two of the shows within the current block really hold their own as a whole the block is a license to print money for Fox. Syndication (particularly for late night repeats) is proving to be surprisingly lucrative for these shows and they lend themselves to merchandising quite well.


If negotiations for this season are anything to go by Universal will not be willing to cut the license fee. I imagine that would be increasingly true after throwing more money at Laurie to do another season.

I still think Showtime should have submited Shameless for the comedy Emmys rather than dramas, it would have had a shot of winning awards.

I do agree that one of the MacFarlane will probably end, my money's on American Dad! even though it's well written and very funny. Due to production problems, Family Guy hasn't been able to produce full seasons but luckily it repeats well. Having 13-16 episodes per season would help reduce repeats, Futurama produces 26 episodes a year but Comedy Central airs them as two 13 episode seasons.

FOX and to a extent Comedy Central are the only places where animated shows work. NBC tried Father of the Bride which flopped as did ABC with The Goode Family. Surprised FOX hasn't tried to commision a CGI animated show but I imagine it would too costly.

Link: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...lineup/107770/

CBS must have Saturday expectations too. After performing to a 0.7 in A18-49 (2.397m total viewers), CBS has decided to take the sitcom off the schedule altogether. Saturday has been a haven for newly axed shows to bow out quietly. Now, HTBAG will no longer get the burn-off luxury that they wanted. Saturday is a no-mans land in US broadcast TV. So, I am quite shocked that a program can not rate "good enough" for a Saturday. I guess getting beaten by Nickelodeon kid shows and college football won't make CBS happy.

There have been bigger disasters for BBC Sport like losing F1 for the 1997 season and beyond, losing cricket in 1999 and temporarily losing Premiership highlights from 2001 to 2004.

The late 90's and early 00's was really a dire period for BBC Sport. The era we're in at the moment isn't bad actually.

It's tougher in pay homes where generally only one TV has the content.

If it was on ITV2, kids could watch in their bedrooms, whilst their parents were watching Doc Martin on the main TV.

Last week my daughter and her boyfriend stayed with us. All their tosh, BB, Towie, MiC, top model etc. etc. was recorded and they watched them when we went to bed or during the day.

It would be interesting to see KP/PA figures on secondary sets when it was on ITV2.

It wasn't exactly the end of the world when the BBC lost the FA Cup Final but as the national broadcaster I can see it has to keep the national sport in some form or other. MOTD is getting a good audience on Saturday nights.

Usual Tuesday night horror show for ITV

Emmerdale – 6.8 (6.9)
Mayday Mayday – 2.4 (2.5)
High Stakes – 2.1 (2.1.)
71 DN – 2.2 (2.4)


Kyle's High Stakes had a 9% share

383k (2.6%) for Alphas. 5*'s second highest rated drama series launch ever!

So pleased. I loved it.

In other news....

1.3m for BB

And 5m for The One Show....first time that's happened for a while.

What's it about Dancc? Is it repeated?

What did The Body Farm get last night, Bushmills ?

4.6m (19.7%)

Cheers. It's been steady throughout the series with 4.6/4.7m figures so I suspect it'll be getting another series. It'll end up with a consolidated series average of about c5.6m. The one thing though is that considering the main competition has been in the low 2's every week, perhaps it ought to have done a little better than that. If it faces some tougher competition next series (3-4m), its ratings next time could fall as a result. I can see Death in Paradise in that slot from next week rating better.

It is being repeated Friday nights at 7.30.

For more info and to watch now on Demand 5: www.channel5.com/shows/alphas

Part of me thinks that The Cleveland Show might be in more danger than American Dad. Ratings wise American Dad isn't doing particularly well but it has landed well in syndication and is bringing in a tidy sum from that and I'm not sure The Cleveland Show is doing the same. I do think they're regretting The Cleveland Show a little. Why exactly anyone though that Cleveland was the Family Guy character who should lead a spin-off I have no idea. I can't help but feel the Quagmire spin-off would have done better and probably paired with Family Guy much better than Cleveland did.

Adult Swim does well for Cartoon Network and FX are putting some more weight into their animation line-up now they've picked up an animated comedy from the creators of Always Sunny... to pair with Archer next year. Animation is a pretty tricky thing to get right though and Fox only has Animation Domination because they lucked into The Simpsons which is pretty much a once in a generation show. And if we're being honest there's really only been two proper hits from Animation Domination over the years (and one of those got cancelled three times).


The bigger issue is that they can air comedy repeats in the same slot and get better results and ultimately make more money. The previous week a 2 Broke Girls repeat pulled a 1.1 in the same slot as How To Be A Gentleman.


Another one of Five's US imports that I can't understand why it isn't on the main channel. They should at least line-up a late night repeat during the week after Big Brother on Five.

Format for The X Factor US is now much clearer after last nights US show. 17 'finalists' picked from judges houses and they will perform next Tuesday for the chance to make it through to the live shows proper the following week. So basically it looks like its the twist from the UK version only its actually been built a bit more cohesively into the US format. I guess this also confirms that the UK version is being used as a bit of a testing ground for the US version.

Daybeak back down to 700k, with BBC Breakfast on 1.6m.

So much for all the set and graphic changes. The gap seems to be actually widening.

Anything for Hollyoaks?

And when Breakfast moves to Salford and Susanna Reid presents 5 days a week, rather than Fridays only, it will widen still further!

I don't think all the talk of a downturn in 2012 has anything to do with the financial crisis or the deficit - it's the expected drop in productivity as the male working age population find it impossible to leave the house in a morning.

I already believe it's the reason why Fridays are the quietest day of the working week on the roads...

TBH ITV should count themselves lucky none of them are under 2 million, Emmerdale not included in that.

If the story in The Sun about Tom Jones being in talks for The Voice are true then it hasn't taken the BBC long to get this show wrong has it...

I love the self-deprecating names for the flopzone programming. After High Stakes, Mayday Mayday and Missing Millions, what's next?

A gameshow called Advertisers' Backlash?

A documentary series called Financial Meltdown?

A show about UFOs and aliens called Is There Anybody Out There?

Wouldn't it just be easier to write "i hate ITV" in every post you do now?