Do we really need such dramatics every week for a 'Provisional' schedule

Indeed they did. I remember the first episode was billed three times in the Radio Times, it was supposed to start on September 6th, but was cancelled for Diana's funeral, so was billed again the following week but instead they showed The Wrong Trousers which had been billed to follow the funeral but was dropped as it overran, and presumably loads of people complained. Then it finally started the following week. Anyway, it did pretty well in the ratings at half five, about five million or so, and they kept the run going well into the New Year.

Not much original material. The junior doctors did some reflections on their experiences but quite a lot of the show was highlights. A brief mention at the end of what direction the junior doctors are taking their careers in.

Probably a very cheap show for BBC3, and useful filler - they couldn't start a new 9pm series last night as they have a stripped 9pm programme about jobs next week


Not a disaster, but isn't Extraordinary People capable of more - and it didn't have any big name opposition last night

Kneejerk reactions are the name of the game for this thread. Yesterday we had loads of posts saying Waterloo Road was on it's last legs, this is after months of people saying how well the show has been doing and how well the move to 7:30 is paying off.

Yeah, I was quite disappointed with that. Although Extraordinary People fluctuates a lot. Some episodes have done fewer than a million, whilst others have done nearer to 3. I would say it's probably the most unpredictable show on Channel 5 in terms of ratings.

Last night's episode featured Hayley Okines who has also appeared in two previous Extraordinary People documentaries in 2008 and 2010. Perhaps some thought it was a repeat. It was actually a new episode catching up with how her story has progressed in the past year or so. It was once again an extremely moving hour of TV.

People on Twitter went a bit mad when ITV aired a scene in Coronation Street with a character calling another a bastard tonight around 8.40pm. This has happened just once or twice before and people were as scandalised then.

Does the 9pm watershed need loosening? It's not even that bad a word!

According to the rules:
Wonder if ITV had to authorise.

Not struggle but there seems to be a limited amount of people that are interested in them. The excellent Exile earlier in the year averaged 5.3m for it's run. Even one of the most acclaimed TV series ever, State of Play, only got 4.5m-5.5m and that was back in 2003.

The early evening Saturday repeat run of Are You Being Served followed in the footsteps of Dad's Army which was rerun pretty much continuously in the same slot in the early 90s. Surely there'd be some mileage in repeats of shows like Allo Allo and Hi De Hi at 5/5.30ish on a Saturday, a nice bit of nostalgia to hook in Strictly's *ahem* older-skewing audience before kick-off.

It occurs about once a year and is seemingly allowed because it is in context of the scene.

So your opinion is they're out of line? Plenty of intense scenes could justify a "bastard" to slip out, surely?

no they are in line. Back in the day Ken used to call Mike a bastard occasionally and that would have been at 7:30

Charlie's Angels has been cancelled by ABC after 4 episodes. There are still 4 episodes remaining but production has been shut down immediately. No word on what will take the timeslot.

On the CBS scheduling thing, I'm not sure that they're ready to do another 2 hour block. For that to happen, IMO, they need to be 100% confident in the Monday line-up for the next couple of years and also get another hit on Thursdays to anchor the 8pm hour (assuming TBBT goes to 9pm). I think the best option would be to air a procedural at 8pm on Thursdays (The Mentalist, perhaps) and move the existing comedy hour to 9pm.

Thursday didn't really bring any good news for the networks. The second highest rated show on TV was Jersey Shore (3.8) and in third was a repeat of The Big Bang Theory. Awful night for NBC (historically bad). And while FOX won the night, X Factor taking its first real dip isn't the best news as the scheduling disruption is only going to get worse. Sunday could be way off the pace and that's not ideal for what is quite an important stage of the competition. I think they need to look at how they deal with the baseball interuptions next year.

I'm open for it. It only makes these shows more realistic. We rarely even hear "bloody" before 9pm. Shows like Holby City, EastEnders, Corrie, Emmerdale, could all benefit from a bit of increased realism!

I think a lot will depend on how the Rob Schneider comedy does midseason. If that gets traction then really CBS will have no choice but to open up another hour of comedy (or simply not pick up any new comedies next season). You'd be looking at schedules like this I'd assume:

Monday - How I Met Your Mother / 2 Broke Girls / Two and a Half Men / New Comedy
Thursday - Mike & Molly / Rob Schneider / The Big Bang Theory / New Comedy

But of course if Schneider's comedy doesn't work out and Men doesn't stablise pretty soon then we could see Big Bang Theory moving back to Monday's and one of the Monday block moving to Thursday 8PM (probably Mike & Molly or How I Met Your Mother). There's still a lot of variables in play with the CBS comedies.

ITV held their 2012 Upfronts this week and the 'showreels' can be found here, some of which show some stuff coming up over the next year. Some of the new dramas look or sound promising, but whilst it could be good, I can see Eternal Law tanking because of the concept. I notice that Michael Buble, Beyonce, Westlife and Justin Bieber all have music specials airing this Christmas on ITV1. I think the first 2 will do well but I can see Bieber in particular flopping.

Also, looking at the Upfronts and what we already know, I think they're going to make a big deal about Text Santa and there might be quite a bit of hype about it. Looks like Ant and Dec will be heavily involved. It's going to be live so it obviously won't be on Xmas Eve or Day, and I can't see them wanting it against the SCD Final, so Friday 16th, Sunday 18th or Friday 23rd seem the most likely dates for it (I think they'll want it at the weekend).

As for Alright on The Night, I'm quite glad it's coming back as it's a decent little show that could do OK over Christmas. I think they might air it on 17th December against the SCD Final though which would dent it.

I'm surprised they're only doing 1 live Millionaire for Xmas again, as after it did well last year I thought they might strip it over 3 or 4 nights or so in the week running up to Xmas (say Monday 19th to Wednesday 21st or Thursday 22nd). Could have worked for them.

It wouldn't surprise me if Rules of Engagement is brought back for one more season for syndication purposes. It will have 94-96 episodes by the end of this season and I think if Sony cuts the license fee in order to get another 14-16 more episodes to hit 110 episodes, they'll do it plus CBS needs a backup just in case.

It's easy to forget just how big a TV event a new Alright on the Night... was in the 1980s.

It was one of those shows that would always be talked about at school the next day, and no doubt in workplaces across the land. Even if some of the clips were a bit duff, particularly the older ones or the US ones from shows you didn't know, you could always bank on 3 or 4 corkers each show. Unlike today, where outtakes shows are ten a penny, I guess back then it was unheard of for outtakes to be aired. I think you needed the artist in question's permission to air them for a start, and most probably got put into TV company showreels for the Christmas party and never got publicly aired. Hence Denis Norden would make a big deal about how they had been working hard to unearth anything new - and you see they aired only 8 new compilations in 17 years or something like that.

Probably not helped by the Beeb keeping hold of all their outtakes, it's a surprise really that it took the Beeb until the 90s to launch Auntie's Bloomers - no surprise that it debuted to 18-19m for its first two outings.

Anyway, I'll always look back fondly on Alright... - some happy memories, and responsible for one of the funniest things ever seen on TV, namely:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCu9esuW-Oo

I remember being in pain I was laughing so hard at that when I first saw it. It still cracks me up 20 years later.

Talking of 1980s Saturday night TV drama - forget Bergerac, what about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfIUi...eature=related

Classic theme tune, if nothing else.

(the clip is self evidently a summer repeat - I'm guessing a Thursday at 9.30pm, as that was when Entertainment USA aired on BBC2, I think - but the first run eps were always on Saturdays..)

Some more consolidated figures for ITV1 (w/e 02/10/11)

01 - 12.92m - The X Factor - SUN (+1.22m time-shift)
02 - 11.23m - The X Factor - SAT (+1.57m time-shift)
03 - 10.80m - Downton Abbey - SUN (+2.07m time-shift)
04 - 10.05m - Doc Martin - Mon (+1.50m time-shift)

Includes HD

Some Huge time-shifts there, especially for Downton Abbey!

In comparison for The X Factor (official figures):

2010
Judges House Saturday: 12.68m
Judges House Sunday: 14.51m

The X Factor didn't beat the Sunday figure in the officials until the sixth results show, where it recorded a figure of 14.69m.

2009
Judges House Saturday: 11.46m
Judges House Sunday: 13.35m

So down slightly on the 2009 figure, which I think ITV'll be watching more than 2010's to be honest - but again nothing to seriously worry about.

That'll be a good idea. It's been proven on BBC2 that something like Dad's Army does consistently well on Saturdays. Maybe something like that in the teatime slot will really do well - maybe 3-4 million strong audience.

Oh god, no, not Bieber!


Wow, some super figures there.

Great timeshift for Downton Abbey and Doc Martin.

I wonder how well the Wales/France RWC semi-final on ITV will rate? 4-5 million peak?

ITV must be getting worried that their excessive ad break policy is turning so many 'live' viewers away from their dramas.

The extra few minutes of content along with the extended slot and extra break, is seriously eroding Downton's value.

And no doubt the bulk of timeshifters are the demo that ITV want/need to reach.