I agree; ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all had good reasons to try and buy The Voice.

I guess outside dancing and singing there appears to be a lack of Light Entertainment formats; I think it shows when ITV1 have tried a load of new formats out and all of them have failed. TBH I would've preferred it if the BBC had gone with another Andrew Lloyd Webber show (IIRC Over The Rainbow did pretty well, even if it didn't hit Strictly levels) rather than The Voice...at least the musical shows had a bit of originality to them.

In relation to ITV's scheduling against the Voice, I bet they were hoping Red or Black? would take off; then they would have simply pitched that against The Voice to scupper it.

Pretty sure it has been cancelled.

So as usual they've shown no regard for viewer feedback. For what use it is Points of VIew might as well join other shows on the scrapheap.


I'm sure Simon Cowell would quite like the BBC to put hour-long editions of Panorama out on a Saturday night.

The Voice is really their biggest studio based commission since Strictly - and in the seven years between the two the number of "big" shows they've attempted to launch can pretty much be counted on one hand - I'm thinking So you think you can Dance, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Shows and Lets Dance. Perhaps the timing isn't great for The Voice to launch on the BBC, but it's a gamble worth playing IMO - although I don't think it'll come anywhere near close to the sort of ratings The X Factor and Strictly can get.

I'm not saying they should put Panorama on Saturday nights. I do think the money could be used more to provide a service to an audience which tends to be forgotten by the commercial sector, though. An audience who likes reality TV are well served by the commercial sector.

If BGT is going to compete with The Voice, they will need to find really good judges. Perhaps Cheryl will be invited back

It rests in peace.

It's an ex-show !!!

Looking at last night's ratings, 4m for Family Fortunes up against SCD with a 6.30pm start time and no XF lead-out, is a pretty good performance. This show could definitely do solid numbers in that Sunday 7pm slot they have a problem with for a large part of the year. They might as well extend the commission next year from 10 episodes to 18, meaning they don't have to play new untested game show formats like Holding Out For a Hero to sub-3m figures in that slot. I don't see the point of wasting episodes of it against SCD, especially with there being no adverts, when it can probably do a solid job in actual post 7pm prime-time and bring some stability which they need.

It's a different show. Why would they compete with each other. Yes maybe The Voice and X Factor will try but i can't see any reason my BGT needs to do that it is a different show.

A lot of love for Toy Story 2 on Twitter. Channel 5 must be pretty close to ITV1 in terms of audience right about now, if not ahead.

I Hope it does well. It's a great film. Could maybe dent Strictly a bit maybe? and the start of X Factor as it finishes at 8:05

The official Facebook page is closed to new posts and in June it said that there was no news on the future of the series, and nothing since, so it's not looking good for it.

trending on Twitter - Tess Daly dress.
BBC1 will tell you why.

The BBC are always damned if they do and damned if they don't but frankly if they were to stop producing shows which appealed to the masses they might as well close every channel other than BBC4.

nothing that I can see

It is a difficult balance to judge but I will say this – the license fee is a universal thing and unless you opt not to own a television there’s really no opt out of it. With that in mind I think the BBC’s content should also ultimately be universal and that means that alongside investment in sport, drama, comedy and factual should be these big light entertainment formats. I’m not sure I like this idea that the BBC should essentially exist to supplement commercial television. If we go along with that idea then the BBC is making content for ever smaller numbers of people and it becomes impossible to understand why the nation as a whole is paying for it.

I feel it should also be stressed (again) that the BBC didn’t buy The Voice instead of investing in sport or factual content. If they hadn’t spent this money on The Voice it wouldn’t have gone to F1 nor would it have gone to Panorama but another light entertainment format. You can argue that they’ve spent money on the wrong entertainment format but not that they shouldn’t have spent the money at all.

In addition to all this I’d take exception to your argument that terrestrial television doesn’t cover these other genres. They do it’s just that for the most part the British public only ever seem to watch factual output for example that is on the BBC and that ultimately makes the terrestrials less inclined to continue making it. I’d also suggest that if the BBC weren’t there buying up certain sports rights the other terrestrials would be very interested in them.


But (outside of ITV) I don’t believe they did bid.

Where, out of interest, do you stand on the current football highlights contracts? Presumably if the BBC didn’t bid for the Premier League highlights when the deal is up for renewal one of ITV, Channel 4 or Five (or any combination of them) would step into the breach and take them on instead? Is it therefore safe to assume that you feel the BBC should let the deal expire and let another terrestrial channel pick them up? Or are they considered more important because they’re sport rather than ‘just light entertainment’?

Should the BBC also cancel EastEnders? There is after all no shortage of soaps on the commercial broadcasters (thus that audience is served elsewhere) so that’s money that could be spent elsewhere.

Danny Cohen confirmed a while back now that So You Think You Can Dance wouldn't be back.

I think The Voice is at the most extreme end of being damned if they do. Using licence fee money to buy a format that is practically the same as something done on commercial TV and was also wanted by commercial TV is the sort of thing that sets the Broadcasting forum on fire.

Add in the fact that it will air at the same time as cuts are made to BBC Local Radio etc which nobody else currently does properly and won't do once the BBC stop doing, and I can see the Daily Mail writers shapening their pencils.

It's finishing now so won't affect TXF at all. Looks like they are showing the long version of the credits complete with "outtakes."

Brilliant family film I agree, perfect for a Sunday.

The great thing is with Channel 5 they do have some great family sunday films i hope they continue doing this

Can anyone tell me where I can find a comparison between the Merlin overnights of 2010 and 2011?

Thanks.

Because The X Factor and Strictly are so basically the same show...?

Two big shows on at the same time will always end up competing with one another.

It should perhaps be noted that whilst commercial TV might have wanted The Voice it apparently didn't want commercial TV (at least not the one that actually bid for it). Lets not forget that ITV would have been a much more profitable home for The Voice (assuming its successful) and not just from a bigger license fee.

I thought the SCD Halloween special was next weekend?

Doubt she'll be wearing it again, it looked horrific. And to think she looked so hot in the number she had on in the main show yesterday.

Bit of a travesty of a result tonight - not that I particularly watch the show.

Other than for perving...

Merlin's overnights (including HD):

2010
Episode 1: 5.8m
Episode 2: 5.0m
Episode 3: 5.2m
Episode 4: 5.5m
Episode 5: 5.4m
Episode 6: 5.5m
Episode 7: 5.8m
Episode 8: 5.8m
Episode 9: 5.6m
Episode 10: 6.3m
Episode 11: 6.3m
Episode 12: 5.9m
Episode 13: 6.6m

Average: 5.8m

2011
Episode 1: 5.2m
Episode 2: 5.5m
Episode 3: 5.7m
Episode 4: 5.5m

Average (so far): 5.5m

far be it for me, to remind everyone that this is a ratings thread, not a fashion thread, but what has a dress got to do with the shows ratings? unless it fell off or something like that, then naturally I would expect higher viewers.