OK. Was thinking about whether Comedy Central would want to pick it up, I imagine they would, but yes if the production company don't want to do it anymore then I guess that will be it then. As one of my favorite shows I am hoping for some sort of solution. The production company can really rake it in from some more Simpsons movies though and the 2007 one was good. There will be well over 500 episodes soon, so whatever network gets the repeats would take over 2 years to show all the episodes at the rate of one every weekday! Also on the bright side, Channel 4 (my pace of watching) will still be airing new episodes 4 years after it has ended .

True it is a amzing result. How about a manchester united V Manchester City Champions league final now that would be great

Yes, I did not think such a score was even possible for Man U - and a home game too! MOTD should see a nice peak for the Man U/Man C highlights tonight.

Although the first 15 minutes of MOTD overlap with the last 15 minutes of Downton.

And with the last ever episode of Spooks on at 9pm, it's a tougher night than normal for Downton. I wonder if Spooks can get above 5m in the overnights.

The last time it really happened was in 2007. The auditions that year averaged 8.7m and the live shows averaged 8.8m, which was barely up from the pre-recorded shows. It seems like this year there won't be incremental increases for TXF every week as it has experienced the past two years. I suspect the increases it does experience will be when we get much closer to the final. The crop of contestants this year just haven't clicked with the public, due to a general lack of talent and talking points among the 12 acts. I think with a show like TXF, the most important thing to get right is the contestants. Things like the judges, production, controversy will aid a show and enhance it, but if the contestants aren't up to scratch, then some people won't waste their time tuning in for 12 consecutive weeks, even if the controversy is there.


Strictly was down slightly year-on-year when you take BBC1 HD viewers into account, who weren't automatically included last year. Last year's equivalent show averaged 9.61m (41.7%), so yesterday's was down 160k and 3 share points. Not an issue at all though due to last year's figures being so high for the show's standards, it's doing well being so close to last year's figures.


I'm sure the BBC will have a judge on the panel who appeals to older viewers (Tom Jones has been rumoured). It was in NBC's best interests to have a young coaching lineup to attract a young audience, but I'm sure the format can work well with older viewers too if it's more catered for that audience. In Holland, the show is a big hit among both 18-49s and Total Viewers.


Ideally, January is the best month to launch something like The Voice. If So You Think You Can Dance can average 5.7m for its first series in January and The Magicians consistently gott 5-6m at that time of the year, you can sure bet The Voice would rate better than those airing in January given the advertising/hype/cost (6m minimum). So I am surprised they're not going with an early 2012 launch. However, February/March isn't a bad time to launch either. It's still a time of the year when ITV1's schedule is weak - a declining TV Burp, Take Me Out and a mediocre game show for Ant & Dec - will not be tough competition for The Voice. So starting in Feb/March will still give the show a great chance to find a relatively big audience for the auditions stage. Once the live shows begin, BGT will be on the other side, but it can hold up fine if they leave the live shows between 7-8pm and results after BGT finishes or even on the Sunday, should they do what SCD/TXF does with scheduling. What I'm going to find interesting besides seeing how The Voice fares is how ITV are going to compete against it. If they just have the usual Take Me Out or run-of-the-mill Ant and Dec sub-5m show, they'd basically be effectively waving a white flag and giving The Voice a free run to get a big audience. They'll need something good in place to kill it at birth or at least keep its ratings in check. If they don't do anything, they're basically giving The Voice a great opportunity to become a staple of the BBC1 Saturday night schedules for years to come. They already struggle to compete against BBC1 in the Q1/pre-BGT Q2 period on Saturday nights against mediocre competition, they'll find it all the more harder to compete for primetime share at that time of the year if The Voice turns out to be a hit airing year after year. The most obvious solution would be splitting Dancing on Ice onto Saturday and Sundays for the first 3 months next year, which would at least keep The Voice's ratings in check by offering tough competition, however there is always the risk that it could harm DOI.

X FACTOR RATINGS UPDATE:

Overnight series average: 10.5m (inc. +1: 11.0m)
***The overnight ratings average is calculated from full-slot averages, i.e. not tape-checked

Official series average: 12.07m (inc. +1: 12.55m)
***The series average is up to w/e 9 October 2011

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

Overnight series average for the 2010 series: 11.8m
***This overnight average is Auditions to Live Show 3, and doesn't include the results show rating for week 3 as this years it yet to air until tonight

Official series average (to the same point): 13.09m

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

So TXF is down 1.3m or 0.8m in the overnights and down 1.02m or 0.54m in the officials depending how you look at it, i.e. if you do or don't inc. +1

That rules Thursdays out, then! Maybe they'd be better off starting it at Christmas or in the new year?

Nearly spat a mouthful of tea out when I read that.

I Expect TXF to get somthing like a 10.7m series average and 11.2m +1

Of course the danger with that is that it risks seriously damaging Dancing on Ice.

How exactly ITV handle going against The Voice is going to be interesting though. They clearly recognised that the format was enough of a problem to try and keep it away from BBC1 so it’s not as if they’ll be able to plead surprise if it takes off. But unless they’re sitting on something and have somehow managed to keep it completely secret it’s hard to know what they can schedule against The Voice that’s going to be able to dent it in any meaningful way.

What options do they really have? A new Ant & Dec show? That doesn’t feel like the ratings banker it once was and even a return of something like Saturday Night Takeaway feels like it would be a mistake against The Voice and potentially only damage the tarnished Ant & Dec image further.

My guess is that we’ll see some combination of TV Burp, Take Me Out, Primeval (ITV still have a series of that to air don’t they?) and maybe the revamped Stars in their Eyes and Play Your Cards Right. And if that's the schedule ITV go with then the BBC really have no excuses if The Voice doesn't take off.

The overnight average for the 2010 series was 13.0m and the 2009 average was 11.9m. This series looks set to be the third most watched series ever. 11.2m inc. +1 seems like a reasonable figure for the way things are going at the moment.

As I've said before, I'm not watching TXF this year. I'm mildly interested in a few of the singers but just watch their performances on YouTube. It lacks the gravitas of previous years; its "decline" is not unsurprising.

Maybe I'll give it a go later but for now, I'm one of the couple of million who have switched off.

Yeah, I edited my post to say what you said too. There is a risk of moving Dancing on Ice performances to Saturday, it might not necessarily hold up so well. Also then they would risk the Sunday night schedule rating worse, what with Wild at Heart no longer being in its cushy DOI sandwich slot and something else going at 7pm which could easily do a Holding Out for a Hero and struggle to get 3m. There's pros and cons of the potential move. But having said that, if they don't do anything as you say, it gives The Voice a great opportunity to become a hit. A revamped Stars in their Eyes or Play Your Cards Right are hardly going to pose much threat. Airing Primeval against it would be a terrible idea too.

David Walliams is a guest artist, not the star so he says "When's this going out?" and the BBC say "End of November" cos they don't want to say "It's starting on Xmas Day like Come Fly With Me did last year" and give away their scheduling plan.

Or, alternatively, how about Sundays?

6.00 Countryfile
7.00 Strictly
7.30 The Royal Bodyguard
8.00 Antiques Roadshow.

Or put TRB on before Strictly at 7pm to avoid ITV starting TXF early as a spoiler against TRB.

Maybe they’ll (delusionally) hope Primeval can ‘do a Merlin’ opposite The Voice…?

I do think given the success the BBC has had with the Merlin counter programming against The X Factor ITV could do worse than try some kind of family drama opposite The Voice. Obviously I don’t expect that to actually happen especially given how terribly ITV has fared with trying to launch that kind of drama. And of course whatever they put there wouldn’t have a 9 million+ lead-in from Strictly which would count against it.


Or alternatively (and perhaps much more likely) they said ‘end of November’ because they have absolutely no idea where and when they’re going to schedule it?

I do find myself wondering what exactly they’re going to pair The Royal Bodyguard with. Do they have any other comedy coming for the rest of the year that could conceivably air with it? It feels very odd to just have this random isolated half hour sitcom to try and slot on the schedule. If we could work out what, if anything, they’re likely to pair it with working out when and where they’re going to schedule it becomes a little easier.

When are the Absolutely Fabulous specials set to air? (I’m assuming perhaps incorrectly that they’ll be half hours)

I know some were wondering about this: on Friday, '8 Out of 10 Cats' averaged 763k (4.7%) and 128k on +1.

Good timeshifts for both, and that's not much of a gap. Brilliant for Strictly - and considering it started at 6.25pm, before it even went dark.

I often remember GeorgeS (remember him, he doesn't post on here on Sundays any more... ) telling us it was all about the percentages, the "share" was all that mattered.

Well George, that's a 41% share for SCD and a 40% share for TXF - down from the near 50% share it used to manage.

Is it still all about the percentages...?


I overhead a group of women this afternoon. All agreed that TXF is "rubbish this year", a couple said they only watch on Sundays now because they show all the performances from Saturday anyway and you can just watch it all in an hour, one of the others said it was just too much sitting through 2 hours on a Saturday when they've other stuff to do.


Quite. It was well over 3m iirc for the United/Chelsea clash a few weeks ago. One wonders who will be the recipient of the bigger thrashing today - Fergie or Chiles?

Good result for the Beeb anyway - might prompt many to go with Spooks then MOTD2 and tape Downton.


Launching TRB at 7pm on a Sunday seems a bit weak, but let's not forget that Fools & Horses aired in a 7.15pm Sunday night slot for most of its life as a series. It was a plum slot for sitcoms. Obviously, the TV landscape has changed but I do think a sandwich between a 6m+ and a 10m+ rated show is the best slot the BBC can possibly give it, short of holding it back for Christmas - but even then it depends how bullish ITV are with their festive line up.

If it airs in a 9pm slot on Thursday or Friday it is destined to be 5m or less. Post 9pm on Saturday or Sunday will just see it lost against ITV's offerings.

Thanks.

Very low rating for it as it's capable of double that if not more at 9pm. The dreadful lead in and tougher competition from Graham Norton really hurt it. C4 should swap it with Pete vs Life.

Last night I watched a show that had judges falling out with each other; contestants back chatting to the judges; an act so bad they should've never been let in the contest and contestants not sticking to the rules...what did I see? Clue: It wasn't The X Factor.

The X-Factorisation of Strictly Come Dancing continues apace, yet the public seem to be lapping it up which begs the question why The X Factor isn't following doing better. Maybe Strictly is luring those viewers in who are then tired of the pantomime so can't be bothered to watch The X Factor, with some possibly catching up on Sunday before the results show.

It's interesting that Moira Ross is to become the new producer of The Voice considering her approach to Strictly; the best way to attract viewers would be to be as different to The X Factor as possible - will she be able to do this or will it be as over produced as the ITV show? I know I won't be able to stand any more claims about the BBC needing to cut costs after throwing money at a genre that is being fulfilled by the commercial channels.

And how will ITV counter The Voice? Moving Dancing On Ice seems the obvious option to boost Saturday nights even if The Voice doesn't air until February/March time but will Dancing On Ice be hurt by this in the process? If the schedules from this year are anything to go by it shouldn't be devastated by the move, but BBC One may try to strangle the move. And how will they be able to fight The Voice after Dancing On Ice finishes? I have the feeling they may bring Britain's Got Talent forward on the basis that they may look to finish it earlier than normal because of The Queen's Jubilee.

As for The X Factor; relatively speaking last night's rating was a disaster - the fact that despite the Cowell hype it still managed a lower figure than last week. Tonight needs to at least match last night's rating (if it does, it can be argued that it would've been lower had it not been for bullygate). If it's beaten by last week's figure than the show really has a problem. Of course, on the face of it the figure is fine but the decline doesn't look good. There'll be a massive revamp next year, with possibly Cheryl and Danni returning, and I can see Robbie replacing Gary (at least the former has a personality) - The X Factor has become a bigger issue for ITV and Syco to sort out than Britain's Got Talent.

But maybe they should just forget this year and air repeats of last year's show...a repeat of last week's action seemed to work well for Big Brother.

Really? Utter rubbish, you're describing every series of strictly since 2004.


Going by that standard they should give up producing news

It's not been as obvious before IMO, and I've been watching since series 1. It's getting to the point where I'm wondering whether the whole things scripted, and while I've wondered that with The X Factor since the Brookstein diatribe in it's first series, I've never wondered that with Strictly before.

Too many 'wondered's in that sentence but you know what I mean.


True. But the news and a light eetertainment show like The Voice which is piggy backing on the sucess of commercial shows like Idol and The X Factor are two very different things.

Did you miss the week where Jo Wood and Brendan walked off during the comments and Bruce and Craig had a bust up?

Some elements of SCD have always been scripted

Yeah, 7pm would be safer in case X Factor has any early starts, but the BBC seem determined to keep Sunday primetime sitcom-free these days.

AlexiR was asking what they could pair it with on a weeknight, and I'm not aware of anything new in the can to go with it. I think those Ab Fab specials are thirty minutes, but I suspect they might be saved for Christmas. I hope Bodyguard doesn't go on Wednesdays at 8.30pm in December. Might, though, cos the seventh Impressions Show is a compilation, which could mean Bodyguard starting on December 7th. Or perhaps it could do Wednesdays at 8pm when Waterloo Road breaks?

Until last night I've never thought Strictly was overly scripted or staged like The X Factor - some of the contestants/judges have previously acted childishly or impulsively but it seemed to match the mood of the show.

Last night it took another step.

In fairness The Voice is supposed to be different from The X Factor and Idol in terms of tone and content and that's enabled it to find an audience elsewhere. I say supposed because it remains to be seen how the BBC handle it.

I think (perhaps more than ever) there's an audience for an 'anti-X Factor' but we'll see.