They should give The Royle Family slot to Miranda, Ab Fab is long past its sell by date, and I say that as a one time Massive fan of the show.

Miranda Hart is only writing the third series at the moment so its unlikely we'll get a special this year, might see one next year.

Oh I'm really disappointed about The Royle Family it's my only show on Christmas day, I don't watch soaps, or Dr Who
I know, I know, I can watch a DVD etc, but it's nice to have one show the whole family watches together, even if it's a bit hit and miss sometimes.

I think no Royal Family will freshen up the Christmas Day line up a little .... and it will do the show good to have a break.

It will also now make it much more exciting waiting for this years line up! .... Is the second series of Mrs Brown Boys being shown before or after the Christmas special?

Rubbish, the last special was the worst but was still better then most of the comedys on TV now


Second series will be on after the Christmas Special

I wonder if there is a penalty ITV Studios has to pay for this kind of situation.

I suppose it is no different than something turning out to be dire and therefore scheduled elsewhere like what was thought to have happened with the Victoria Wood special the other year. If they can bump something out of Xmas Day they can bump something into Xmas Day.

Talking of shows being the same every time...


I'm sure you're not the only one to think that as there is no obvious replacement - unless Outnumbered has a Christmas special this year. I don't think Ab Fab is suitable for 9pm on Christmas Day (or any time on any day actually!), and Mrs Brown certainly isn't - though could be a shout for a late slot. The BBC would probably be better rejigging the earlier schedule and pushing Doctor Who, Strictly and EE all back an hour to run from 7pm-10pm.

All this discussion makes it seem like the UK equivalent of the post Superbowl slot, then again if Christmas Day can give Come Fly With Me 12.5 million viewers, I guess in a way it is.

As for Children In Need, maybe Pudsey is less hands on these days, and Blush is in charge of the live show now.

The missing Glee rating: it had 375k on Thursday at 9pm.

Am I the only one to be thinking it's a bit late in the day to discover one of your main Christmas shows isn't going to happen - what has the commissioning editor been doing and why didn't alarm bells sound earlier ?

Last year's Xmas Day ratings for anyone whom has forgotten:


If I was to predict the Christmas Day schedule...

Sunday 25th December 2011 - Christmas Day
BBC One
18:30 - EastEnders
19:00 - Doctor Who
20:00 - Strictly Come Dancing
21:00 - EastEnders
21:30 - Outnumbered
22:00 - The Royal Bodyguard
22:30 - Mrs Brown's Boys
23:00 - BBC News

ITV1
18:00 - All Star Family Fortunes
19:00 - Emmerdale
20:00 - Coronation Street
21:00 - Downton Abbey
23:00 - ITV News

If ITV 'block' out 7pm to 11pm then that leaves BBC in a bit of a predicament - and if Downton Abbey is on Christmas Day, do not give it a crap Family Fortunes Christmas Special, it would need a Corrie lead-in I think.

Last year the BBC Christmas Press Pack was released on Monday 22nd November so we'll know in a few weeks what is scheduled.

Ouch. So many factors though - what did the last show before the hiatus get as personally I think the three week break is probably the most damaging and it's a mistake to fast track things to air the same week when you know it's going to happen. They should have held back the first three episodes a few weeks so they could air the first part of the season uninterrupted.

I'm actually gutted if there isnt going to be new Royle Family this Christmas.

I'm surprised the BBC havent organised this better, its the biggest night of the TV year bar New Years Day so you would of thought the BBC would of had this sorted months ago to make sure that it was ready for a Christmas Day slot.

This will leave BBC One with a massive gap as nothing else will have the same pulling power. Ab Fab despite a successful long running comedy isnt going to pull in Royle Family numbers and the likes of Mrs Brown Boys and Outnumbered arent considered big enough for the big Christmas day slot. I can probably see now Eastenders being moved later to possibly 9pm and then Ab Fab or the Royal Bodyguard following it at 10pm but without doubt its going to leave them weaker. Infact I cant remember the last time BBC One didnt have a big comedy for Christmas night 9pm, very bad news if this is actually true.

With the Royle Family gone, as you've said, I think we'll see EastEnders split into 2 episodes so they have a reliable anchor early in the evening and once again later in the evening. I don't think Outnumbered should get the EE lead-in though. It was getting less than 5m in the overnights for the most recent series - of course, it'd automatically rate better on Xmas Day, but there's probably other things which deserve the EE lead-in more such as Ab Fab or The Royal Bodyguard which could start big (I don't think it'll be as big as CFWM though).

Maybe BBC fear being beaten by Downton Abbey on Christmas Day so much that they are pretending that The Royle Family isn't ready to save humiliation
I think Downton will be the top progra me of the day for sure, it's PERFECT for Christmas day.

I'm sure people said the same about Doc Martin in 2006 but it didn't quite work out that way.

Because The Royle Family is always a last minute job - by the time Aherne missed the script deadline (or it became obvious that she would) it would be way too late to commission anything else. For all we know, they might have known about this for the last month - but they haven't said anything because there's nothing to be done.

I doubt anyone at BBC One is too fazed. They can bump the usual mainstays a bit later by extending the afternoon movie schedule and can draft in a half hour comedy from another day (Outnumbered, Ab Fab. etc) to fill the gap. Those might not overnight at 10m, but given the slot and lead-in, I see no reason they wouldn't go at least 7-8m, possibly more.

Low for Sky 1 not even number 1 multi-channel show in that slot I'd imagine.

But ratings have dropped across the 3 showings so far on Sky 1 so I don't think that can be the only reason why ratings are down. Looks like people are also going off it.

Don't forget for Christmas, these two things have already been penned in:

Thursday 22nd December - Sports Personality of the Year 2011 [BBC1]
Saturday 24th December - Text Santa with Ant and Dec [ITV1]

This Text Santa thing sounds bloody awful. Anyone remember "Text Night" or some such in the early 2000s? One of the most tedious evenings of TV I've ever seen and this sounds similar. I really hope it's not as bad as it sounds.

The Royle Family Christmas Special has always been a last minute thing and I always suspected they'd miss a deadline one year, and it so happened to be this year.

Normally I'd say I wouldn't miss it but last year's was unusually good compared to the dross they've normally subjected us to so it is a shame. But oh well, we'll survive and so will BBC1.

I was anticipating your "ITV Studios conspiracy to derail Aunties Christmas" post

Friday 4th November Overnights
BBC One
20:30- A Question of Sport: 2.78m (11.5%)
21:00- Have I Got News For You: 4.52m (18.3%)
21:30- Live at the Apollo: 3.02m (12.6%)
22:35- The Graham Norton Show: 3.6m (23.1%)

BBC Two
20:00- Mastermind: 2m (8.4%)
20:30- Autumnwatch Live: 1.88m (7.7%)
21:30- Autumnwatch Unsprung: 1.71m (7.1%)

ITV1
20:00- Wild Britain With Ray Mears: 3.32m (13.9%)
21:00- Susan Boyle: An Unlikely Superstar: 5.47m (22.5%) , +1: 346k (1.8%)

Channel 4
20:00- Come Dine With Me: 1.23m (5.1%) , +1: 205k (0.8%)
21:00- Derren Brown: The Experiments: 1.5m (6.1%) , +1: 372k (1.9%)
22:00- Pete Versus Life: 490k (2.4%)

Channel 5
20:00- Ice Road Truckers: 1.38m (5.8%)
21:00- Big Brother: Live Eviction: 1.48m (6.4%)
23:30- Big Brother's Bit On The Side: 501k (5.6%)

Sky 1
21:00- An Idiot Abroad: 1.15m (4.7%)

Primetime Shares
ITV1: 23.6%
BBC One: 18.2%
BBC Two: 8.3%
Channel 5: 4.7%
Channel 4: 4.5%

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Source: DS