The BBC plan to have 2 episodes so if it is forced into one then the big cliffhanger moment would be at 9:00pm so could stop people turning over to ITV


I guess we will have to see in that case.I still don't think it's going to be that much of a threat to BBC1 with 3 of their Hit shows airing one after the other

If (as they should) ITV put Corrie at 8PM it may very well be somewhat unavoidable particularly if the BBC opt to use EastEnders as some kind of counter to Downton. It probably won't be a full 30 minute clash but one of 5-10 minutes might not be a disaster especially if they go the split episode route this year.

On a related note does Corrie have a big Christmas storyline this year? I can't remember reading or hearing about it anywhere...

I think either Mrs Brown's Boys or Outnumbered will be paired with the second Ab Fab episode depending on when it's scheduled, Lapland I would assume would be Christmas Eve and HIGNFY got a Christmas special on the 23rd but I assume they'll pair it with John Bishop's Britain with Graham Norton after the news.

Oh I'm sure loads will do this, but if they watch before 2am Boxing Day they will still count in the overnights.

That's a good point. If the BBC ran one of the EE episodes from say 8:30pm to 9:10pm, then that might encourage people to Sky plus* Downton Abbey and watch Downton at 9:10pm missing 10mins of adverts.


*other pluses are available

it is a little outdated and based on the old view that pre-Christmas was the peak shopping time. It still is in terms of profits because goods are sold at much higher mark ups pre Christmas - stuff that is £100 on Dec 1st might be discounted to £60 on Dec 26th so the incentive is for retailers to drive sales pre- Christmas.

But with internet sales, pre-Christmas discounting, the growth on vouchers as gifts, the model is a little less clear cut now and if sales in late Nov/ early Dec are disappointing, discounting will start pre-Christmas which in turn will drive late advertising spend.

Weather is another factor. Last year Christmas spending was affected by the snow in late Nov/ early Dec which basically pushed a lot of spending into the last week before Christmas. This year its the opposite with a very mild November - does this mean people will shop early or perhaps are not in the mood for Christmas yet?

All this is probably why ITV would show Downton on Christmas Day, if advertising is higher on that day than it used to be, it would surely also encourage more advertising since if there is a hit show it would probably attract the moneymen to spend more and make ITV very happy.

The problem is that this is somewhat untested ground. If this Downton Christmas special is part of a long term plan to turn Christmas Day into a viable commercial success then its all well and good but if its another one of ITV's 'we'll try on Christmas Day once every decade' then its incredibly pointless.

Advertisers aren't going to pay top drawer for Downton this year. Partly that's down to the general pre-Christmas advertising focus (ITV will be heavily pushing big spends on The X Factor and I'm A Celebrity for example) and partly that's down to the general untested nature of it. No one's really sure if it is realistic to expect Downton (or any other ITV drama) to pull 9+ million on Christmas Day at this point and so its going to be hard to convince advertisers to pay at that level. If ITV stick with actually trying on Christmas Day it should pay off for them a couple of years down the line but even then it may very well be limited purely to the Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Downton combo and would likely be subject to what the BBC have in store.

The whole thing requires not just a change in focus from advertisers but from ITV and sustained effort on ITV's part when it comes to the Christmas schedule. Plus they need to hope the BBC don't luck into any big new shows they can use on Christmas Day (Miranda looks like the most obvious contender for 2012 at this point).

This in The Telegraph leads me to believe that BBC One will use Strictly & Eastenders against Downton :

2011 has a been a big year for Strictly, with viewing figures even trumping those of The X Factor on more than one occasion. It's hoped the Christmas special will maintain these high figures on what is one of the key dates in the calender even though, in a marked turn, the BBC have chosen to air the show just before but still overlapping Downton Abbey, which will air at 9pm on ITV.

Yes, but people slag off the Beeb for not showing any live football, but they've got MOTD forty weeks of the year pulling in massive audiences. Whereas ITV don't have any live rugby, and their highlights shows don't get massive audiences, and the show itself is presumably extremely cheap to make.


Hard to say, because back in 2008 they actually did a proper new episode on Christmas Eve (which was the first time they'd done a specific Christmas show since 1991, although in the nineties it would normally finish the week before Christmas anyway) whereas last year on Christmas Eve it was just a clip show. So who knows?


And the newspapers are of course repeating this exact same story for the ten trillionth year, presumably Don Foster'll be jabbering on in a bit. Of course in the seventies and eighties, those hundred hours would have been the test card. And there's no point in counting up cartoons at 5am, unless you're a complete moron.

And of course you only have to look at some of the threads here to see people complaining about not enough repeats.


Yes, although I must point out the seventies and eighties logs, which I didn't write, are just as good. I actually wrote the nineties logs in 2000, and the 2000 log before the day itself (hence why I overestimate the appeal of Titanic). Of course, the Logs continue on OTT's sister site TV Cream, and there'll be a new one for 2011.


Yeah, though it's perhaps a little odd as Strictly beat Corrie last year and in 2008, but didn't in 2009 despite the schedule being the same. I know it was a weak series that year but it seems to be very fine margins in that clash.

Anyway, a bloody big episode of 'stEnders is just as much of a draw as Downton on Christmas Day, and more people will have to watch that live to avoid getting a massive backlog of episodes, while they could watch Downton any time.

DigiGuide has updated with some ITV1 data for week 51:

* The Boat That Rocked premieres on ITV1 / HD at 10pm (time TBC) on Saturday 17th December.

* Millionaire: Christmas Special now starts at 9pm on Monday 19th December with Corrie as normal at 8:30pm.

* The Millies 2011 will air from 9pm-10:30pm on Wednesday 21st December.

* You've Been Framed! At Christmas will air on Friday 23rd December at 8pm.

Revised BBC1 (RSI version - Robbie Scheduling Idiots...):

3.10 Ratatouille
4.50 News
5.00 Jim'll Fix It
5.30 Gruffalo's Child
6.00 EE
6.30 DW [gets jump on EmFm]
7.30 Royal Bodyguard [inherits DW audience, no clash with DA or Corrie]
8.00 SCD [now extended, inherits DW/TRB audience, takes on Corrie, overruns start of DA]
9.20 EE [viewers return following 6pm cliffhanger]
10.00 The One Jasper Carrott [sacrificable, should inherit whoever watched EE]
10.50 News
11.00 Michael Macintyre

Downton will do decently enough - but I suspect timeshift will be the main place they get viewers - which kind of makes the Christmas schedule completly pointless.

If ITV advertises it as having limited adverts (5 minutes every 30 minutes or something) then they might be okay, but I can't see many bothering on Christmas Day for a 2 hour drama stuffed with ads.

They might as well run it without ads completely as they are clearly not interested in making any money out of it.

The run time once confirmed will tell us if they are doing.

A decent evening for BBC1, poor rating for the Chelsea match, Emmerdale seems a little low also. That is a great rating for The One Show, EE did fine in a new slot, That's Britain was never going to rate in the 5-6m rating range, nice figure for Frozen Planet - viewers don't need to see every episode but the majority are loyal to it.

Here's what I reckon, probably going to be way out:

15:00 The Queen
15:10 Monsters vs Aliens
16:50 The Gruffalo's Child
17:20 BBC News
17:30 My Family / Miranda (R)
18:00 Shane'll Fix It
18:30 Strictly Come Dancing
19:30 The Royal Bodyguard
20:00 Doctor Who
21:00 EastEnders
22:00 Absolutely Fabulous
22:30 Mrs. Brown's Boys
23:00 Michael McIntyre
23:45 Movie: Serendipity

Are we expecting a Christmas TV Burp of any kind of this?

Well, seeing as any Abbey episode on Xmas Night will have two hours of ITV soaps as its lead-in, EastEnders will have to start at the same time as Abbey, because the BBC avoid soap clashes on Xmas Day.

Of course, ITV might yet change their plans and show a different drama on Xmas Night.

Those fantasy listings are not endearing me to BBC1 on Xmas Day, Dr Who may be worth a watch, the Xmas SCD contestants aren't really appealing (Lord Sugar turned them down flat despite the 5 figure fee), The Gruffalo spin-off could suffer in the ratings - Wallace & Gromit come back soon. The Royal Bodyguard ought follow Eastenders, much needed comic relief after Xmas sorrow. I would go for this running order..

The Queen
The Gruffalo's Child
Monsters v Aliens
BBC News
Alfie Moon Will Fix It (or Phil Mitchell will sort it)
My Family
Strictly Come Dancing
Doctor Who
EastEnders
The Royal Bodyguard
Michael McIntyre
Absolutely Fabulous
Mrs. Brown's Boys

I share your pain, grim, grim schedules all round,
Eastenders @ 9pm on Christmas night?
A new David Jason comedy :yawn: The Royal Bodyguard And possibly even those hideous brats in Outnumbered
I'll be hoping for a few good boxsets in my stocking.

Don't forget that because Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year both Monday and Tuesday are public holidays so most people won't get to the shops until Wednesday if they've seen something advertised on the Sunday.

So, Eastenders becomes the centre piece of BBC One's Christmas night entertainment ?

Bit of a comedown.

Just imagine if Eastendes does air at 8:30pm Christmas Day and clashes with both Corrie and Downton, the upraor would be unbelievable. Danny Cohen would be hounded out of TV Centre worse than Gaddafi out of Libya.

Well the Next sale starts Boxing Day, I imagine Debenhams follow suit, Comet, Currys, Ikea etc.... also shopping online is going to be huger than ever, I envisage a lot of .co.uk mentions on Xmas ads, no need to leave the house - just have the credit card to hand.

Do you think they'd be wise to isolate Abbey from their soaps? The only reason I can see for doing it would be to try and tempt EastEnders into the 8pm slot. What's worse: Abbey v EastEnders at 9pm with Abbey getting an 8 or 9m lead-in from Coronation St, or Abbey v sitcom at 9pm, but with a 4m or 5m lead-in from a quiz show?

Then again, their press site had Benidorm down for 9pm last year.