I guarantee it has NOTHING to do with golfers commitments - there are very often boxers with fights in America that time of year (fights that, if they are successful in, could swing the vote in their favour) Think Hatton and Calzaghe a few years back. Invariably the England cricket team is on tour as well. Not sure why they would change their entire schedule just because 2 of the likely winners are abroad.

I'm the opposite; I thought Children In Need was pretty poor last night; it needs more variety. Though the figure it raised is great.

I must've been muddling up this week's schedules with next week - I knew I got the clash from somewhere!

Good news re The Gruffolo, if true, as that should be an 8-9m banker and potential Top 20 of 2011 entry.

Can't believe the debate about SPOTY. Are people seriously saying that the Beeb, in the summer, thought "DA will be such a smash for s2 that they are bound to put the xmas special on opposite SPOTY, so we'd best move our flagship sports review to a weekday slot so they don't clash"?

The golf line is.perfectly credible and was the reason stated. That.said, I do think the Beeb may have thought their pre Christmas week has been a bit bland for the past few years, and this undeniably bulks it up.

Personally, I'd have kept it on Sunday as robust opposition to DA, if it airs there, as Mark Cavendish will win. It will be a travesty if he doesn't.

For anyone trying to come up with the Christmas fantasy schedules, here's a list of what I can think of is being shown over the Festive season (from Sunday 18th to Sunday 1st) - I should note some of the below has been taken from the Christmas TV thread on here and may not be necessarily true...:

BBC One
- Absolutely Fabulous
- Casualty
- Celebrity Mastermind
- Doctor Who
- EastEnders
- Great Expectations
- Holby City
- Jim'll Fix It
- Lapland
- Merlin
- Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
- Mrs Brown's Boys
- Outnumbered
- Sherlock
- Sports Personality of the Year
- Strictly Come Dancing
- The Borrowers
- The Gruffalo's Child
- The One...
- The Royal Bodyguard
- Upstairs Downstairs
- Young Herriot

ITV1
- A Night of Heroes: The Military Awards
- All Star Family Fortunes
- Benidorm
- Coronation Street
- Downton Abbey
- Emmerdale
- Fast Freddie: The Widow and Me
- It'll Be Alright On The Night
- Just Henry
- Michael Bublé: Home for Christmas
- Penn and Teller: Fool Us
- Poirot/Marple
- The Cube
- Text Santa
- Westlife: For The Last Time

Anyone have any additions to that list?

Cavendish is now favourite:

Cavendish 2.32 = 43%
Clarke 2.96 = 34%
McIlroy 10 = 10%
Farah 12 = 8%
Donald 32 = 3%
Bar 75

And Bleakley signed a three year contract with ITV, now whether that also covered three years fronting Daybreak is open to debate.

....take it elsewhere.

do we know what is going on with Sherlock, seeing as its on the list

I think the rumour is a New Years Day airing for it.

Half of 3 years is 1 and a half years, maybe there's a clause to get out half way through. Who knows.


Well, we need to move this thread along somehow, don't we?

She has not been released from her ITV contract though, just the Daybreak gig.

It seems to be true, this company is making the spin off products.
http://paul-lamond.com/news/view/?id=53

I take it we won't know till Monday now?

Oh yeah, I know that, but I assume there may have been some clause where she could have got out of the Daybreak part of her contract if both parties agreed that it wasn't working.


We'll probably know in the morning.

Their final attempt to directly replace Housewives is GCB (previously known as Good Christian Bitches) which airs post-DH from March. I'm sure ABC went in to this season hoping either it or Pan Am took off enough to inherit the central Sundays @ 9 slot that Housewives has held for so many years.

That said, if GCB does fail, it wouldn't be the complete disaster you might have thought at the start of the season. Now they have the surprise success of Once Upon A Time stationed at 8pm, they can probably slot a new show into 9pm next season if the need to, confident that it at least has a stable launchpad.

Well, it would be nice to have some ratings to talk about...

Assuming a largeish audience watched the main CIN show last night, I wonder if the CIN highlights right now might be a bit of a turn off? People are hardly going to sit through this shite twice.

I think it could dent SCD. Possible own goal?

Also looks like a late start to SCD...

Yesterday's overnights have now been released by Attentional.

On the Saturday that Strictly beat X Factor in the overnights, it was preceded by The Impressions Show so I think its lead-in makes little difference.

SCD Wembley looks spectacular, should do very well tonight,

It certainly does! Should piss all over TXF, regardless of the ratings. I can see the show running late with all the ad libs...

Sam_Hodges
Last night's Children in Need averaged an amazing 10 million viewers between 7.30 and 10pm, peaking with 12.3m/49.2% share. #BBC1 #CIN

http://twitter.com/#!/Sam_Hodges/sta...70314750603264

What a stonker that was of an opening - the best I've seen on a LE show from the BBC in the last decade at least. Just proves what Strictly could do if it had an X Factor budget every week...

In terms of last night, CiN had 10.02m (39.0%) from 19:30 - 22:00 and The One Show had 6.74m (30.3%)

That looks an impressive peak!

Get in! I was spot on for the main show and 100k out for The One Show.

Fantastic rating for CIN- its highest average audience since 2003.

Any idea how ITV1 held up last night ? With that kind of competition, IAC may well have been around 5-6m? Also, TOS might've beaten Emmerdale.