Next week perhaps, but Bonfire Night should prevent any big increase tonight, I suspect they'll just be happy to be level week on week tonight. It was certainly a more entertaining show tonight which might have increased the Twitter conversation. The lack of a clash with SCD should help a bit.

Life Stories should do nicely tonight though. Rolf Harris is well loved and it's up against the ratings black hole that is the Lottery Awards.

I see the National Lottery Awards are up to the BBC Light Entertainment department's usual standard. And when I say "up" I of course mean "down". The poor man's Pride Of Britain Awards. No wonder it always does terrible in the ratings.

They always make two episodes for Christmas Day, but they sometimes cobble them together when the final schedules are announced. Maybe they won't join them together this year.

I wonder if there'll be one for New Year's Day, too.

Brekkie will be loving this.

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Jonwo was asking earlier if the Outnumbered special was confirmed. It was mentioned in the press release for the recent series.

But that doesnt mean the BBC should put any old show on. When you have the most people watching TV for the whole year you should put your most popular shows on, Doctor Who, Strictly, Eastenders etc are the BBC's top shows. Criticising the Beeb for putting the same shows on Christmas Day because they continue to be hugely popular is just pretty weak frankly.

I'm recording them, so I can fast forward through them to get the numbers to check my tickets.

I wonder if the money saved from Europa League and the cheaper news contract will be used elsewhere, I think the cricket highlights and boxing will be kept and I think they'll bid for live cricket and PL highlights.

Think they should invest in homegrown comedy and drama, Sky, Channel 4 and BBC Two are way ahead, panel shows or a standup show would be a good and cheap option. Even like having exclusive coverage of the various comedy festival, BBC Three do an Edinburgh live show so it would be good for C5 to poach the rights to it.

Or you could just go here....

http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/home.ftl

....and avoid the risk of accidentally catching a bit of the awards.

In fact, I've just been sent a copy of the leaked BBC1 and ITV1 Christmas Day schedules for this year, and they do make for interesting reading:

BBC One
17:15 - Celebrity Masterchef
18:00 - Don't Scare the Hare
18:30 - So You Think You Could Dance?
19:30 - Epic Win
20:30 - Planet Dinosaur
21:00 - Outcasts
22:00 - Sugartown

ITV1
17:30 - Penn and Teller: Fool Us
18:30 - Grimefighters
19:00 - Mayday Mayday
20:00 - Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford
21:00 - Primeval
22:00 - High Stakes

Although I was struggling to come up with actual BBC One flops this year... and two of them are questionable.

No Born to Shine or Show Me the Funny?

I think they should try promoting new shows on Christmas Day more to give them a headstart (Come Fly With Me was a great move last year) - if they have a new family drama try it in the Doctor Who slot, for example. It's a shame they haven't started filming The Voice as it could've aired instead of Strictly. Obviously keep EastEnders to cement the schedule. For example:

5.00 *Family film*
6.30 EastEnders
7.00 *New family drama*
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 The Voice
9.30 The Royal Bodyguard
10.00 Absolutely Fabulous

It's Christmas Day, not a Jason Manford marathon!

I've just heard that ITV have responded to this BBC1 schedule and aim to create their biggest ever Christmas Day, holding back top programmes especially:

5.15 X Factor Final
6.30 Coronation Street
7.30 X Factor Final Results
8.00 I'm A Celebrity Final
9.00 Downton Abbey

And a wormhole has just engulfed my house and transported me to December 26th so I can exclusively reveal the news that BBC1 took 9 of the top 10 places in the Christmas Day chart with Coronation Street ITV1's only entry at number 8.

Don't Scare The Hare tops the ratings with 16m viewers but only because BBC1 paid Aardmann Animations to make the trailer so everybody thought they were getting a new Wallace & Grommitt episode.

Basically for ITV its the famous Tuesday flopzone but on Christmas night.

Don't forget the BBC special next April,

Don't Scare the Easter Bunny.

I'll get my coat.

Four hours of exactly the same schedule for four years running though isn't showing the BBC off at it's best. People throw Emmerdale and Corrie back at people who complain, but at least ITV usually change the rest of the line up, even if it is because nothing sticks.

That said I don't like the idea of the BBC putting new shows on Christmas Day to give them a false lift either - really it should be a reward to the big hitters of the year or a special which really deserves the slot, although lets be honest, there aren't exactly a huge list of contenders this year. With The Royle Family gone though I'd like to see Strictly moved to Christmas Even and then the schedule rejigged so one "new" show gets its chance on Christmas Day.

There was a time when Easter TV could be as notable as the Christmas schedules - now you barely notice the difference. Indeed even Christmas TV isn't the event it once was - the excitement of getting that two weeks of listings (plus the "TBA" guide in the papers beforehand) has long gone.

Bah humbug!

The policy on Christmas Day for BBC1 seems to be the same policy as many digital channels have all year round

Show a small number of big hitters every year as they rate well, job done. Hence you get Dave showing Top Gear constantly, E4 previously showing Friends all the time etc.

The difference being that this is the BBC we are talking about, not a tin pot commercial channel that is cobbled together from a small budget, they should use their gifted position to offer a varied schedule which differs from one year to the next. They are guaranteed large ratings whatever so I don't see why they are so risk adverse.

BBC1 likely to have a familiar opening 3 hours this year - Dr Who, Strictly Come Dancing and Eastenders. Then 90 minutes to fill, no Royle Family expected or indeed Come Fly With Me. Michael McIntyre Comedy Roadshow will do well I think - but it would need the right acts on the show. Is there an Outnumbered Special or Miranda available? Just thinking about The Royle Family - if MM Comedy Roadshow was promised a Christmas Day slot post 9pm - where would The Royle Family have slotted in?

Are we to expect a similar schedule from ITV1 this Christmas Day? I know they and their advertisers don't expect massive ratings (although the soaps do rate well). Likely that there will be Emmerdale, Coronation Street & Family Fortunes again, will Downton Abbey take the Xmas 9pm slot as it is a Sunday evening?

Sorry, I don't know whether or not Channel 5 did bid.

I've not seen it reported that they didn't, but then I've not seen it reported that they did either.

Here are the Xmas Day BBC1 schedules for the last 6 years since Doctor Who came back on the scene.

Besides how similar the last 3 years look, notice the dodgy SCD 'Preview' in 2006 and something that wouldn't happen today, two prime time news bulletins in the 2005 schedule!

2010

18:00 Doctor Who
19:00 Strictly Come Dancing
20:00 EastEnders
21:00 The Royle Family

2009

18:00 Doctor Who
19:00 Strictly Come Dancing
20:00 EastEnders
21:00 The Royle Family

2008

18:00 Doctor Who
19:00 Strictly Come Dancing
20:00 EastEnders
20:30 Wallace and Gromit
21:00 EastEnders
21:30 The Royle Family

2007

18:05 BBC News
18:20 EastEnders
18:50 Doctor Who
20:00 EastEnders
20:30 Strictly Come Dancing
21:30 To The Manor Born

2006

18:10 BBC News
18:20 Strictly Come Dancing Preview
18:30 EastEnders
19:00 Doctor Who
20:00 Strictly Come Dancing
21:00 EastEnders
21:30 Vicar of Dibley

2005

18:00 My Family
18:50 BBC News
19:00 Doctor Who
20:00 Green Green Grass
20:50 BBC News
21:00 EastEnders

The N&S statutory accounts are published (as posted a few weeks ago). They contain a certain amount of disclosure re Five.

Five's results for the period post acquisition by N&S, ie 23 July 2010 to 31 December 2010, were as follows:

Turnover - £129.8m

Gross Profit - £16m

Operating LOSS - £10.9m

Under RTL's ownership, from 1 January 2010 to 22 July 2010 Five made an Operating LOSS of £38.2m (excluding loan waiver from Parent company).

http://www.northernandshell.co.uk/do...Shell_2010.pdf

How on earth did the awful Green Green Grass get a primetime Christmas day slot? The BBC must of been short on comedy that year if thats all they could manage.

So with no Royle Family could we maybe see Sherlock moved to Christmas Day? perhaps following on from the first episode of The Royal Bodyguard. I've never seen Sherlock but its a big ratings puller

Perhaps it could be something like

6.00 Doctor Who
7.00 Strictly Come Dancing
8.00 Eastenders
9.00 The Royal Bodyguard
9.30 Sherlock
Or maybe Sherlock at 9.00 and RB following at 10.30 though that may be a bit late and they will probably want to give that the best possible slot so following Eastenders would be the best option.

Christmas was always better when you were a kid. That's nothing to do with TV - it's just a sad fact of life. And the fact that these days we come onto these threads, informed about commissioning choices, knowing full well how each show rates, flicking through all the press packs and debating scheduling choices in early November certainly ruins the seasonal surprise!

In fact, TV in general has lost an awful lot of it's mystique since I started following this thread a few years back!


I know where you're coming from, but that's a slightly misleading list, if you don't mind me saying, because you exclude stuff out of normal primetime (which is, because of viewing patterns on Christmas Day, de-facto primetime). It just means you don't really give the credit for Gavin and Stacey, Catherine Tate, Come Fly With Me, The Gruffalo and The One Ronnie which have also aired on the big day just within the past 3 years.

Not that I think there's much wrong with having the same 3/4 programmes at the heart of things since 2007. Like it or not, the BBC wouldn't half get some stick from various quarters if EE or Who were moved from their much-loved traditional perches. And I don't think there's anything wrong with a comfortable, familiar appeal on the one day of the year when it's probably desired most. Especially when that appeal is as diverse as one soap, one family drama, one shiny floor show, and one comedy.

It's all about moderation. And the good thing about the Royle Family news is that it's looking like this year you'll find a schedule with 3 varied returning hours, alongside 2 or 3 hours of brand new or new to Christmas Day content. Which strikes me as a nice balance of familiarity and variety. Personally, I'd like to see the big adaptation of The Borrowers on Christmas Day - perhaps a nice early evening slot after the afternoon film and leading into Doctor Who.

For anyone getting sick of the Christmas Day TV talk...it'll all be put aside if Strictly beats The X Factor when tonight's ratings come out; especially if The X Factor drops again.