Heroes imploded quicker than Glee has. The problem with Glee of course is there is no progression. It's the same show every week.

thought I would post this, its the line up (with times) for Children In Need, from the Radio Times


Wihlst I will watch some of the first half, I think ill iPlay, Russell Howard Good Fundraising News.

The Sun is reporting there will be no Royle Family Christmas special this year because the scripts will not be ready for the scheduled filming.

Haha, that's not stopped them before lol.

Best news in a long time.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...Christmas.html
Ouch, that's a big hole to fill...

The Sun readers are out in force. Not much ITV can do if the scripts aren't ready. I'd suggest another ITV show can fill that 9pm hole quite nicely and I'm not thinking a Christmas night University Challenge special........

Errr...it's a BBC show George

I really question that article purely because how long exactly does it take to film and edit The Royal Family? A few days?

1.1m viewers watched yesterday's installment of BBC1 daytime drama 'The Case'.

Source: Railway Arms

This is the ITV made Royle Family, not the ten minute Royal Famly Christmas message (which would only take a few days)

It is the BBC Royle family written (or rather not written) by Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash which last Christmas attracted 9.9 million viewers.A BBC spokesman confirmed ''We will all miss the Royle Family this Christmas.'' A special is now promised for Christmas 2012. Is there also an ITV show called ''The Royal Family'' - there used to be a hospital drama called ''The Royal'' but it was axed.

Probably 2 weeks of filming for an hour long episode and a couple of weeks of editing. But if the script isn't ready then it won't go ahead.

This leaves a gaping hole in BBC1's Christmas schedule. Their usual line-up can't go ahead and their comedy centrepiece has gone. The question is now what can they fill the slot with? I suspect the previous plan was Lapland on Xmas Eve, Royle Family, Royal Bodyguard and McIntyre on Xmas Day with Ab Fab and Outnumbered perhaps on Boxing Day. However, they could go with this:

17:30 - The Borrowers
19:00 - Doctor Who
20:00 - Strictly Come Dancing
21:00 - EastEnders
22:00 - Royal Bodyguard
22:30 - McIntyre

Or if they dont want The Borrowers there they could put Lapland on at 9pm (with everything else earlier) if it's any good, or even start Great Expectations on Xmas Fay if they've got that much faith in it. If they're feeling particularly brave they could go with Sherlock even, but they might just want to stick with comedy, and if so I think their best bet would be:

18:00 - Doctor Who
19:00 - Outnumbered
19:30 - Strictly Come Dancing
20:30 - EastEnders
21:30 - Royal Bodyguard
22:00 - Ab Fab
22:30 - Comedy Roadshow

That way Outnumbered gets a great sandwich earlier in the evening whilst Royal Bodyguard gets propped up by EE and Ab Fab could do nicely at 10pm.

There's no denying that losing The Royle Family does make BBC1 look a bit weaker than usual, and ITV may be tempted to capitalise on that with Downton Abbey. I'd be interested to see the results of a Downton/EE clash as I don't think there's actually much of a crossover audience there with EE skewing much younger and Downton having a much heavier ABC1 skew. Both could do well in that situation.

Surely a lot of older people be with their younger relatives on Chiristmas night? I can see most of them being forced to watch Eastenders. I don't think ITV should waste DA on Christmas day.

a Christmas special of Don't Scare The Hare to replace it?

It's made by ITV Studios for the BBC. Used to be Granada.

All of Caroline Aherne shows on the BBC were made by Granada. (her chat show and Mrs Merton and Malcolm and the Royle Family).

hmm whatever happened to that?

An Idiot Abroad got 1.1m viewers, peaking at 1.3m last night, up from the previous week.

Source: ClaireW

If the Royles story is true then that is a massive blow for BBC1. And for the nation!

At this late stage, anything that takes the slot is mere filler. I'm sure this gives ITV an ideal opportunity to subject us to the Downton special. Indeed, with ITV presumably taking charge of ensuring Aherene delivered the Royles on time, one might suspect dirty tricks....

Still, lets await official confirmation and not a Sun exclusive with comments attributed to "a BBC source".....

One wonders if the apparent failure of The Royal Bodyguard to appear in late November as hinted is because they had caught wind of problems with the Royles?

I wondered how long it would take for someone to come out with that viewpoint, I knew we'd be able to rely on you.

It's hardly a 'massive' blow, when The Royle Family started doing Christmas specials it was never confirmed that this would take place every single year, a gap every now and then will freshen up the schedules. The TV schedules are already very predictable all year round as it is.

2 weeks? That seems extremely long for what is a comedy based in one living room. I could understand 2 weeks if they were out on location somewhere, but 2 weeks for a show which is based mainly in a house seems too long.

Perhaps they're doing a location one this year, like The Golden Egg Cup.

I suppose there is also the problem of getting all the regular cast together on a certain date as they no doubt have other commitments. I saw Martin Clunes quoted recently as saying it takes an episode of Doc Martin two years to get from the commissioning stage to transmission - I appreciate the Royles are a different kind of programme but it gives some idea of the time scale.(I don't think Doc Martin has been recommissioned yet either)

It's a massive blow for the Beeb to learn in early November that the mainstay of their Christmas schedules had been canned weeks before transmission with no time left to commission something else instead! Surely you can see that?

I suspect Ab Fab will take the slot, there have two episodes at Christmas IIRC. Mrs Browns Boys has a Christmas special although that may air on Christmas Eve or in the week running up to Christmas.