I think the criticism Steve Jones has received is quite unfair. He's only presented one live show so far this series so let's see if he can improve over the course of the remainder of the series. He barely featured in the auditions rounds but that was due to the editing - they had to scrap all the shots of him speaking when he was standing next to Nicole Sherzinger when she was originally the co-host. And generally, the presenter doesn't feature in TXF much anyway until the live shows come around. I barely noticed Dermot on our version during the pre-live show stages this year apart from the voiceover he does! I think Steve will get better as the weeks go on so I'm not sure they'll replace him next year. If they do, I don't think it'll be with Dermot- they'll probably want to go in a different direction and have a replacement who is American. I can definitely see one of the female judges being replaced next year though.

Steady night for BBC1 & BBC2 , poor for Imagine & Later Jools Holland though - ought programmes rating like these two be shown on BBC4 & BBC3 respectively. Neither show would rate much worse on a more minor channel - a 10.30 movie on BBC1 would be a nice way to end the evening - I just noticed there was a film on at 11:30 which seems very late for a weeknight movie. It does seem that 50% of viewers have switched off by 10.30, if only BBC2 could negotiate a Best of David Letterman (weekly highlights) to show once per week for an hour say from 11pm-12am.

Not surprising.


The signs where there during the second half of season two in particular that Glee would be down this year. I think a lot of people have been surprised by just how big the decline has been though. I doubt few people realistically expected it to be below a 3 at this point of the season. Like I said though with a decent run of originals to come it should be in a position to grow in the coming weeks (same for New Girl). The real issue will be what happens when it comes back from extended hiatus in the Spring. I wonder if they might try and manufacture an Idol lead-in or two for that.


Worth remembering those make goods would only have been for the first few shows. Ad rates would have been renegotiated after those came in under expectations. It still would have been quite an expensive few weeks for Fox though.


I don't quite know what ABC is going to do with their Tuesday comedy plans. Part of me still thinks that they'll want to give Apartment 23 the Modern Family lead-in but at the same time given how well that Wednesday block is working its a dangerous thing to try and mess with it. They've also got the awful Work It on the bench as well.

I suspect that Last Man Standing will get a back order and be paired with Work It at 8PM and then Cougar Town and one of Apartment 23 or Happy Endings will air in the 9PM hour. What they do when Dancing returns I don't know although I'd be tempted to have Dancing at 8PM leading into the 9PM comedies. NBC might be able to force their hand on that by announcing they'll air Voice Results shows Tuesday 9PM later in the season.


Fox get (very) overexcited by the season 1 success of The OC and made the rather odd decision to move it to Thursday night. Even now I can't quite work out why they did that (and they did the same thing with Fringe a couple of seasons ago). It backfired horribly although creatively the show did fall apart rather spectacularly which didn't help.

In my opinion, FOX was ultimately thinking that they can be the alternative to the two mega blockbuster shows. If they wanted that, why not put House there? They sure got much better ratings than The O.C. did. They messed up royally with Tru Calling and whatever was on after in 2003-04 season. Worst time to launch a new drama since Friends was on their final season. I guess they were also hoping The O.C. was like a rebound to rejuvenate Thursday.

That's been a long time coming - and frankly now with digital TV being the norm you'd think it would happen more often. BTW, what does TVR stand for on the C4 overnights page?


Yes - looks like the demos are back up amongst the big three despite the much smaller audience. The worrying thing though is I don't see anything building to keep the audience - I just hope they don't kill Silas off this week as there is ratings and storyline potential in keeping him alive for a trial in the New Year - and then as soap law dictates should a serial killer not be killed they'll at least escape prison and try to kill again, a bit of potential beyond that.

Surprised Tool Academy flopped as badly as it did last night - and don't think Sorority Girls will help it either next week.

Oh dear, it looks like running BB in the autumn has failed as ratings have rarely exceeded my prediction of 1.5 million. It could pick up again next summer when it has weaker opposition, but maybe only the more extreme fans are watching now as the casual audience has abandoned it and even the Daily Star has relegated it from the front page.

No, they shouldn't. The BBC is a public service broadcaster not a commercial TV channel and is not supposed to be as obsessed with ratings as we in this thread all are.

The BBC have a responsibility to show PSB programmes like Imagine on the main channel. If they didn't it would put the whole point of the licence fee into doubt.

The BBC is also celebrating 75 years of television today, though only marking it with a brief sting leading into some idents. A shame really they didn't do a season of shows to mark it, even if only on BBC4.

http://www.theidentgallery.com/playe...75HELICOPTER-1

The BBC PR lady being the genius that she is, thinks the BBC is 75 years old, forgetting that the radio service existed before tv.

A night of programmes (all repeats) is underway on BBC4 now, although for some reason the 7.30 and 8.00 offerings are a change from some listings (including Radio Times):

7.30 Time to Remember: Stage and Screen. 2/12. The story of a golden age of theatre, cinema and music hall during the 1920s and 30s. (R) [OK not really part of the theme]
8.00 Regional TV: Life Through a Local Lens.
Why did we fall in love with regional telly? And does it have a future? (R)
9.00 Imagine: And Then There Was Television
A look back at the early days of TV, from Picture Page to the Queen's coronation in 1953. (R)
10.00 The Fools on the Hill
Dramatisation of the events surrounding the BBC's opening night in August 1936. (R)
11.15 Demob Happy: How TV Conquered Britain
A chronicle of a formative era in British broadcasting following World War II. (R)

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes/schedules

By the way, BBC1 is dropping A Question of Sport on Friday at 8.30 in favour of a Jimmy Savile tribute. Sky Guide hasn't updated yet to reflect this.

Source: http://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questi...aville_tribute

Who said that?

Phil Vowels on BBC1 doing a good job with the links talking about BBC TV's 75th anniversary.

Exactly. I wonder though how Later... Live might fair in an hour-long slot on BBC1 after the news - it's current scheduling of a half-hour live edition and extended repeat is a bit odd really.

I'm guessing Hollyoaks is getting a boost on E4 partly due to The Big Bang Theory as well? It seems to be putting in massive numbers at 6.30pm.

As for X Factor USA being renewed, it's no surprise. And judging by the relative speed with which it happened, I doubt there were any major sticking points in the negotiations. Although I suspect Sony won't put up a $5m prize next year!

Numbers-wise, FOX are doing incredibly well so far. But with House down, Terra Nova now in flop territory and Glee stumbling badly, the security offered by X Factor (which has stayed extremely steady) for 3 hours a week must be a massive support to them. Some tweaks for next season, no doubt.

As for the whole CBS 2 hour Thursday comedy block, I don't think they should do it next season. Two and a Half Men is going to slide a bit more, IMO. Ashton's character is awful but the main issue is that they're focussing too much on him and Alan (Jon Cryer) and giving too little time to the support cast who always made the show for me. Plus, I don't think it was ever a long term fix. And nobody knows what's happening with How I Met Your Mother.

It's a difficult position because while I think they risk over extending themselves on one hand, they also have the issue of not having enough room. A Friday 9pm block with Rules of Engagement and Mike & Molly (very much the second tier comedies, IMO) might work. But politically, they probably don't want to pi*s off Chuck Lorre. So M&M might stay at 9.30pm for the time being.


If ITV were to put a female as lead host of X Factor, I imagine Holly Willoughby would be offered it first. Although I don't think Dermot will get the X Factor US job next year, even if Steve is fired (and that seems possible). I reckon it'll be an American, maybe even Nick Cannon if it helps to get Mariah Carey on board as a judge.


I think the problems set in in season 2. They got into the problem that these shows often find themselves in - they had a bunch of perfect couples that they couldn't really split up. So almost every episode it was just someone new arriving to cause trouble in existing relationships or some new form of misery for Marissa.

I actually thought season 4 had a lot going for it. Kaitlin was preferable to Marissa. Taylor was a nice addition as well. Unfortunately, they totally screwed up with Summer and the whole hippie thing. Moving to Thursday (for season 3, I think?)certainly didn't help. Although AFAIK, The OC remains the last show to launch in the summer and succeed (it started in August).

Serialised dramas seem to have trouble sustaining numbers in the long run. It might be the season lengths - which is perhaps an advantage for cable channels. The CW in particular need to have a big rethink of how they schedule their shows.

You'd think really the CW would follow Cables lead and schedule more agressively in the summer when the main networks are slightly less competitive. I'm not saying launch everything there, but I think some series might benefit from being tested in the summer rather than thrown into the mix in the fall.

BBC One at least are still reasonably interested in ratings as shown by their scheduling of Strictly Come Dancing this series, as well as their unwillingless to air just one show pratically the whole year round, especially over the weekend (Casualty, Countrywise, Antiques Roadshow). There's a certain balance BBC One has to take between not being obsessed and still being seen as a popular channel; after all what's the point of the license fee if no one watches what is produced. Maybe Imagine is not on the right night considering it's following on from a night of drama, though; at the moment Wednesday's would probably suit better with the documentary at 9pm.

The stand out ratings from last night for me are Death in Paradise , which had great retention from it's opening week, and Hollyoaks on E4 which managed to beat Big Brother. ITV1's flopzone continued as per normal while Channel 5 will bounce back on Tuesday nights once CSI gets some crime drama support around it.

That could have been perfect for them a few seasons back, when The CW still had the Sunday night schedule. I blame Dawn Ostroff and her shitty programming decisions. The CW started out as an ambitious merge between The WB and UPN. All the shows that you loved or have a guilty pleasure of was in that channel. After the first few years, some shows which should have been cancelled was still there and the new shows were not as highly promoted as Gossip Girl. After all, Gossip Girl was Ostroff's "baby". Not to mention, their reality "shows" were beyond laughable (Fly Girls, High Society).

Knowing Ostroff's love for Gossip Girl, cable channels similar to The CW's demo, made fun of The CW every time their shows perform better. MTV had The Hills in 2008, which TVbyTN analyzed throughly (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/200...ive-spin/3475/). ABC Family has Secret Life and Pretty Little Liars to rub in CW's face. Now, Switched at Birth is a new hit show for ABCF. With Ostroff's departure, it looks like The CW was ready to fight again. But as you see, The Vampire Diaries aside, no other shows hit above 3m or a full ratings point in A18-49.

The CW also announced their midseason schedule today (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...hedule/109422/). The final season of One Tree Hill is facing American Idol. Great Scheduling What a way for a show on their ninth season to have a victory lap.

Yet again on Facebook, status' are all about Frozen Planet. It will get another strong rating. It targets all types of audiences, they must be happy as it does pull in the younger demographic too.

Excellent for Hollyoaks. The murder storyline is really drawing in the viewers. It must be denting Emmerdale abit too with the first look episodes. Has the E4 showing ever beaten the C4 showing before? Seriously good numbers for a show that looked at deaths door 6 months ago (pun intended ). 71DN boosted slightly for finale, but I'm sure it must be curtains for this show now. Shame, its not a bad show at all IMO. Death In Paradise performed solidly. Will be interesting to see how it holds up against The Jury next week, then IAC - which will surely drag it down quite a lot and it may not recover the the remainder of its run.

I never understand why people would expect channels to put programmes that are on there last season in a great slot. It makes no commerical sense.

If they gave it a plum spot, against weaker opposition then what difference would it make? Very little. OTH is not going to pick up many new viewers, as it is in its 9th and final season. The only people watching OTH this season will be the loyal fans, and they would watch it against whatever it came up against, or just record to watch later.

Dawn Ostroff really should have gone long ago but the new person in charge does seem to be wanting to make The CW a broader network, it was always funny that the show that were hits were Smallville and Supernatural which were more male oriented. Hart of Dixie seems to be have become a surprise hit compared to the hyped Ringer and Secret Circle. I think they should look at developing more action and supernatural shows as well as comedy and phase out Gossip Girl and 90210. I would exploit the DC Comics connection, a Smallville style Wonder Woman series would have been interesting as would a Batman series although due to the films, Batman is out of bounds.

The bottom line is that OTH was going to be in a rough position, no matter what day scheduled. But putting the show, on its final season, against one of the strongest opposition such as Idol is like giving the show a slap in the face. It feels like they are promoting a burn-off, to quietly bow out, rather than a midseason show. It would have been less damaging to air on a Monday or Tuesday.

For the past two years ITV News at 10 has aired as normal on the normal weekdays between Christmas and New Year, which would only leave the 26th/27th holidays for extended 9pm programming if they did the same again


Agree it's not a flop zone. 1.4million (the CSI Miami rating) is not a flop for C5. A show thats capable of more, yes. Disappointing, yes. Flop, seems a bit strong. And the 6% share is I believe above C5's primetime average. As is BB's 6.9% share last night

C5's flop zone is 6.30pm-8pm every week night (with occassional exceptions)


Reasonably being the word. I doubt they are overly bothered at 10.35pm, and it's a ideal spot for niche PSB programming. Not too late, decent lead in from the news, but nothing afterwards that in turn needs a decent lead in

The more concering rating IMO is Later, which maybe harming Newsnight

LOL. Indeed so. Less popular in terms of audience share than Supercasino most nights. (!)

What is amazing is EE on BBC 3 is being beaten by Hollyoaks by over 600k. Also the last few weeks, HO has gained more viewers than EE, where EE just stays around 8 to 8.7 million. I know its a repeat of EE, but the audience is much bigger.

Hollyoaks was getting 700k for channel 4 episodes, just 6 months later, its getting 1.4 for its first look. F**cking brilliant!