SuBo is still ratings gold for ITV. If they had any sense they'd get her to record a Christmas special for Dec 25th instead of ASFF in the slot opposite EastEnders. It could seriously dent EE.

Yep, ITV have done three different shows focussing on Susan Boyle in the last 2 years, all of them have cleared 5m. A repeat of one of them managed almost 4m, which is pretty much as high as it gets for a repeat on ITV1 these days. And STV alone have shown yet another documentary about her which went head to head against EastEnders and beat it.

Hilariously poor for Pete Verses Life. Indeed that's funnier than the actual programme.

Screw Ant & Dec, ITV need to get Susan Boyle on a golden handcuffs deal! Her appearance on Life Stories last year was only 1m behind the Cheryl Cole episode. And this must be one of ITV's best Friday 9pm ratings of the year?


I think part of the problem is that Doc Martin or Downton Abbey would be ideal for Christmas... on BBC1. But on ITV1 there's probably no point! I guess if they've ever had a chance then it's with Downton Abbey. But I'm still not convinced.

Why? She didn't dent Have I Got News For You. And she wasn't that much higher than the last couple of episodes of DCI Banks.

No, she beat it! She has her own audience but equally a lot of the floating audience at Christmas would watch. Contrast her story of overcoming adversity with the misery of Christmas soaps. I know everyone here is very cynical but I think it would do very well on Christmas Day.

She was about a million higher than the last couple of episodes of DCI Banks. I agree that saying she could 'seriously dent EE' is a bit OTT but I do think she could do really well on Xmas Day. Remember that last night was just a fly on the wall special following her around for a few months - an actual music special with performances and an audience could rate highly for them.

Very good rating for her last night. She didn't dent HIGNFY much but that seems to be permanently dented these days. Pretty awful start for Live At The Apollo after it though, looks like that may have been dented by SuBo. Embarrassing once again for Pete vs Life.

I wonder how the Tamara Ecclestone dross did last night? Hopefully it was below 1m. I know C5 need more entertainment but tat like that isn't the way forward.

Over a million ahead of the last episode of DCI Banks, IIRC. And was that not one of its best ratings?

At least 2m ahead of what these kind of celeb/music specials usually do on a Friday night as well.

Not sure about denting EE or a Christmas special, but she does seem to be ratings gold.

Is Outnumbered even confirmed for a Christmas special? Mrs Brown I think should get either 10pm or 10.30pm

If Downton ends up at 9pm on Christmas Day, and cleaning up in the ratings whilst the Beeb has to play Old Mother Hubbard, then I think the first millionaire winner on WWTBAM just so coincidentally turning up (and being trailed) opposite the last ever episode of One Foot in the Grave will be easily surpassed in the list of dirty tricks conspiracy theories!

You can imagine the amusement at Granada as they string the Beeb along ("Yep, Royle Family coming along nicely, early drafts looking good, should be sending you the tape round the end of November if that's ok with you guys?") - only to make the call at the start of November - "Er, Auntie, we've a bit of a hitch with the Royle Family. Might be a bit late. Sorry about that. Will Christmas 2012 be ok? Hopefully the viewing nation will make do with that Downton Abbey thing this year instead - best we can do..."

Damn It was all going so well too. Thankfully the BBC management only read The Guardian so they are none the wiser yet

Typically for Robbie it's a quite deranged conspiracy. As if ITV Studios would commercially endanger it's multi-million pound international business for making and delivering programmes just so that Downton Abbey (a programme not even made by ITV Studios) possibly gets a better rating.

Tamara Ecclestone Bilion $$ Girl got less than 700k viewers on C5

Source: Liam Hamilton
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Poor start. They have been plugging this a lot on Channel 5 in the last week or two, it was advertised in most ad breaks during BB last night and last Friday, so I think C5 were definitely hoping for more than that.

Before today's news (yet to be confirmed officially i believe), I'd have liked the Beeb to have gone with:

6.00 DW
7.00 SCD
8.00 EE
8.30 The Royal Bodyguard ep1
9.00 Royles
10.00 EE
10.30 Mrs Browns Boys Xmas Special
11.10 News
11.20 late film

- using EE to launch the two comedy offerings to big new audiences. (Ab Fab and probably Outnumbered would have been the 9/9.30 offerings on Boxing Day)

And I think that might have deterred ITV from risking DA at 8.30/9pm, and given them a problem re where to put Corrie.

If we assume that the Royle Family isn't now happening, and DA is now more likely than not to be on at 9pm, then I think EE is virtually guaranteed to be on for an hour at 9pm as the biggest alternative offering to the Royles, and to do the most damage to DA. I guess we could see the following:

7.00 DW
8.00 SCD
9.00 EE
10.00 Ab Fab
10.30 Mrs Brown

Royal Bodyguard could launch on some other day with an EE lead-in - Boxing Day (if DA has aired on Christmas Day) or NYD alongside Sherlock?

However, if ITV do air DA on the 11th, 18th or 26th, then that will mean BBC1 has a bit more scope to fill the Royle sized gap - for example:

6.00 DW
7.00 SCD
8.00 EE
9.00 The Royal Bodyguard
9.30 Ab Fab
10.00 Outnumbered
10.30 Mrs Browns Boys

I suppose that runs the risk of a 9pm Corrie though to destroy the comedy hour.

Hm, bit of a mess this....

Maybe it will improve without the "support" of Big Brother?

The was obviously utterly lost on you...

ITV1 looked to have had quite a good night in comparision to most Fridays, BBC1 looking fairl mediocore-poor as is usual for Fridays it seems. When are soap ratings in?

I wonder if Miranda could be asked to get her ass into gear and trot out a Christmas episode in the next 3 weeks?

If the Beeb hadn't thought they had signed up to a new Royle Family earlier in the year, I suspect they might not have been so laid back about the rather lengthy gestation period for Miranda series 3...

It seems odd they've opted to see Downton Abbey on Boxing Day (if true) as you'd think the main activity would be on the day itself - although I doubt it's the last Christmas special we'll get, so by not setting the first on Christmas Day leaves that as an option in the future.


As for the BBC - now if only Doctor Who and Strictly can fail to meet the deadlines we might get a somewhat original schedule from BBC1 instead.

BBC should poach SuBo for 9 pm Christmas Day.

DCI Banks - 4.64m
Susan Boyle - 5.47m less than a million ahead

I'm not denying that Susan had a very good rating. And I predicted 5.1m in the Ratings Prediction Game so I'm not surprised it did so well. I'm just not convinced a SuBo Christmas Day special would dent EE. The reason Dr Who so convincingly beats Emmerdale on Christmas Day is because the kids decide what the family watch on Christmas Day and I'm not convinced the kids would want to watch a Susan Boyle concert.

I'm sure ITV1's potential line up of You've Been Framed, double length Em Fm, double length Corrie and double length Downton will offer such stunning originality we've not seen from them on any random day of the year...

It certainly is one heck of a conspiracy theory

I'm sure I won't be the only person on the planet to suggest it if this does come to pass.

Very good for SuBo last night, and ITV would be mad not have a Christmas themed programme focussed on her.

Channel 5 had an horrific start with Tamera Eccelstone aswell- perhaps it wasn't advertised enough?! It's just another flop for them again and it's showing us that they have really failed with there plan to become the next youth friendly channel.

Derren Brown doing alright, but Peter VS Life did horrifically.