They still have the Rob Scheidner comedy which I think is 8 episodes, if that does well then CBS will be able to expand, unsure whether they should renew Rules for another season other than to get more episodes for syndication.

Some interesting ratings so far this year - but some of the bottom 6 or 7 are in danger of dropping off this list come 31/12/11. Could EE overtake CS? Will New Tricks be replaced by Text Santa? SCD ought be nailed on for a top 5 finish for the final, the show that must not be discussed taking the heralded #1 slot. It would be nice and tidy if the whole top 20 consisted of 10m+ rated shows, proving that even now Channels 1 & 3 are still dominating the schedules some 50/75 years after their inception and with the advent of 100s more channels. The most impressive for me personally are The Apprentice & New Tricks scoring ~10m in Summer.


Very good rating Monday night for TAAHM - doesn't seem to translate too well here but doing nicely in the US. Ashton Kutcher is more popular than Charlie Sheen it appears.

CBS tends to be quite difficult to call at the best of the times so trying to predict what they’re going to do next year this far in advance is tricky to say the least. For now I think there are far too many variables in play for any serious discussion of expanding the Thursday block to take place. Just a few things still floating around:

1 - Two and a Half Men hasn’t settled yet. Potentially they could be in a position where they’ll need a new flagship for the Monday block and at this point their only options for that would be The Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls. And having to use either of those shows (particularly Big Bang) Monday 9PM would kill a 2 hour Thursday block and if they have to use Bang it would potentially kill the Thursday block period. (In general I think 2 Broke Girls is being groomed to replace Men rather than How I Met Your Mother BTW).

2 – 2 Broke Girls may not hold up. It has been incredibly steady and I think it’s supremely unlikely but there’s at least a slim chance that 2 Broke Girls will collapse before the end of the season. If that happens it makes sustaining two 2 hour blocks much more difficult.

3 – There’s the forever uncertain future of How I Met Your Mother which may or may not be on the verge of wrapping depending on who you listen to. If the creators decide that next year will be the final season as some have suggested then it could make sustaining two 2 hour blocks over the long term very difficult.

4 – NBC. As unlikely as it might seem whether or not CBS opt to extend their Thursday block will depend on what happens at NBC. In the wildly unlikely situation that NBC somehow lucks into a breakout comedy hit midseason I suspect CBS might have second thoughts about expanding on Thursdays. I don’t think they’d have any interest in potentially denting Big Bang Theory (which presumably would anchor 9PM) by putting it against another comedy that might hold its own. There’s also The Voice on Monday’s to take into consideration. That could make maintaining the Monday block more work than it is now.

5 – CBS’ own midseason. The perceived wisdom at this point is that Person of Interest won’t stay at Thursday 9PM for the entire season in that event the question arises of what replaces it and how it does. I think if they can get a solid 3+ at 9PM on Thursday then CBS will be reluctant to mess with that especially since Big Bang Theory is doing fantastically at 8PM.

Having said all that I wouldn’t be hugely surprised to see CBS add another hour of comedy to their schedule next season but I wonder if they might do it Friday at 8PM. That slot has been really horrible for them lately and if they were willing to at least consider airing Rules of Engagement on Saturday why not renew it for Friday night and pick-up another (cheap) multi-cam to pair with it? Production companies are basically prepared to give comedy away for very little at this point so they may as well take advantage of that.

So maybe you’d have…

Monday
8PM: How I Met Your Mother
8:30PM: 2 Broke Girls
9PM: Two and a Half Men
9:30PM: New Comedy

Thursday
8PM: Big Bang Theory
8:30PM: New Comedy or Mike & Molly

Friday
8PM: Rules of Engagement
8:30PM: Rob Schneider or New Comedy or Mike & Molly

A top 20 of over 10m would probably be a a bit too much to ask.

However, its interesting to note that in 2008 we had 14 shows over 10m, in 2009 we had 19, in 2010 we had 13. In 2011 we already have 12 with two more months worth of high rating shows left. There definately hasnt been the huge drop in terrestrial ratings that many predicted around 5 years ago, it seems big rating shows are increasing slightly.

Thanks to Andy Parish for the earlier yearly figures.

Isn't The Gadget Show doing what it used to do in that slot? It's doing better than Fifth Gear did there. Usually gets over 1m in the finals.

it used to do over a million

As expected BARB website unresponsive when needing to check ratings in the early hours. It even manages to slow google search to a crawl. Will check again tomorrow.....

I agree about Boxing Day being their best bet. BBC1 could cause chaos for them on Xmas Day and the 18th is too isolated. As for NYD, a Sherlock/Downton clash could be really interesting but it would seem a bit odd to hold the Xmas special back to NYD. Plus I think ITV may be planning to air their Morse prequel Endeavour on NYD, which could put up a figh against Sherlock. Boxing Day just seems a good fit for Downton, particularly as BBC1 probably won't have anything massive against it. I suspect ITV will stick with Poirot and Family Fortunes on Xmas Day as they did OK last year.

Don't want to be too pedantic here but surely Christmas ends on Boxing Day doesn't it ? Christmas Day is a Sunday this year however, Monday is Boxing Day and Tuesday is an additional public holiday in lieu of the Sunday.

ITV did put on a one off two hour Doc Martin on Christmas Day in 2006.

It got just under 6m in the officials. The previous regular episode in Jan 2006 got 8.6m and the next one in September 2007 got 8.1m. Not as popular as it is now, but it took a big hit on the Christmas airing.

Can't imagine they'd put Downton on, unless they're actively trying to promote timeshifting!! Boxing day or Bank Holiday Tuesday would be my bet.

I'm going to predict that Text Santa won't do very well at all, it sounds a very flimsy concept indeed and BBC1 will be strong on Christmas Eve. It reminds me a bit of that massive three and a half hour Prince's Trust thing they did opposite Eurovision with loads of bands and celebrity guests and that interview with William and Harry, which didn't do much.


I think the nearest comparison to Downton on Christmas Day would be A Touch of Frost in 1999 because that was a huge show at the time and it had a Millionaire lead-in, but it still only managed to draw with BBC1.

Christmas themed shows always are screened before Christmas or on the day at the very latest. By the 26th nobody wants to hear the word christmas for a very long time.

I agree about Text Santa, I can't see people sitting down to watch a Telethon on Christmas Eve, mostly people tend to watch movies and/or Christmas specials.

Just like they don't want to hear the word ''turkey'' for a long time

if they use the NORAD Santa tracker it could work well. I've been following it on the web for a few years on Christmas Eve and its a bit addictive.

ITV will show the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant in May next year.

Not sure if they'll show it live or later. They showed the Queen Mother's birthday pageant 11 years ago which had 6.1m between 5-7pm, which was their highest audience in that slot apparently since 1993. So this one might do relatively well for them.


Apparently the DA "Christmas special" is set on Boxing Day so it would make sense airing it on Boxing Day too.

at the rate they are flying through the years, they will be watching Eric & Ernie on the tv probably in this episode.

Tool Academy: 179k (1.0%)

Well below series 1 average which was above 600k. Really missed that Glee lead-in.

April 1954 was their first series for the BBC although their first TV appearance was actually in 1951. But haven't we seen TV aerials already in Downton so you could be right

When I talked about a full month of speculation over the Downton scheduling, that wasn't an instruction, btw.....

A few more ratings from yesterday:

Imagine… (BBC1): 939,390 (8.5%)
The Most Courageous Raid of World War II (BBC2): 2.0m (8.1%)
The Food Hospital (C4): 2.1m (9.1%) , +1: 192k (0.8%)
Him and Her (BBC3): 621k (4.1%)

Source: Attentional

ITV Celeb reality show 71 Degrees North ends on 2.6m, behind 9pm winner BBC drama Death in Paradise 5.4m.

Source: Liam Hamilton

Very good 94% retention for Death in Paradise. Hopefully it doesn't get knocked down too much in the next few weeks. I think it's the sort of show which could run year after year and it basically follows the same recipe which led to other crime dramas becoming successful.

Not much on again really last night.

Ayone know how Top Boy did last night?

Promising start for The Food Hospital on C4. It got 2.1m, just 100k behind ITV1's High Stakes. When taking both +1 channels into account, it actually beat it (2.3m v 2.2m).

1.1m for Top Boy (1.3m inc +1)

1.2m for BB.