For practical Reasons I doubt the Football will be on at the same time as the RVP. heh.

Well here's the breakdown for The Royal Variety Performance:

6.9m 32.8%
7.0m 32.9%
7.0m 30.8%
6.6m 28.7%
7.0m 29.4%
7.0m 28.7%
7.4m 30.7%
7.7m 32.0%
7.0m 29.2%
6.5m 27.5%
4.9m 22.6%

700,000 for Daybreak yesterday, while BBC Breakfast got 1.7m.

All those mums with kids now watching a non-commercial channel in the final shopping weeks before Xmas.

The advertisers must be truly delighted with ITV.

well you cant blame Adrian Chiles anymore. Or Christine!

Adrian & Christine got a pay off didn't they? So some good business there from ITV!

Personally I would have changed the show and kept the presenters.

Daybreaks ratings since the ugly and the useless one's left (borrowed/stolen from Gallifrey Base)

5 Dec 818K AI 66
6 Dec 746k AI 69
7 Dec 797k AI 70
8 Dec 791k AI 69
9 Dec 760k AI 67
12 Dec 762k AI 73
13 Dec 726k
Ratings down since Dumb and Dumber departed.

"You know, Dougal, I don't think we can put it in the raffle in this state...."


I see it dipped sharply in the 8.15pm segment.

Was it people switching to BBC1 for "the wall"?

Otherwise, stubbornly mediocre throughout.

It is quite a long show. Perhaps they should have saved it for Christmas Eve, or perhaps next year save it for Christmas Eve. I can't see Text Santa getting anywhere near those numbers in just over a weeks time.

Last year The Royal Variety Performance was watched by 8.3m with a peak of 9.86m.

I must say Christine's agent did well - she got £283,000 from ITV not to present a programme she'd already been sacked from so couldn't present in any case ! ITV must have money to burn.

It was only 10 minutes longer than the last Royal Variety on ITV1 2 years ago in the same slot.

2009 Overnight: 8.8m (37%) [Wed December 16th 7.30-10pm, ITV1]



I was under the impression that they sulked off weeks before originally planned, as professional as ever!
Leaving the production team scrambling to find suitable substitutes, apparently even John Stapleton had to be called up this week.
Who Next? Roland Rat

Odd to see RVP so low - but then the line-up didn't really look all that good. A few old crooners and the sort of pop stars we've all seen flogging their gears on SCD and XF this autumn anyway. The rest of the talent (Penn & Teller, musical casts. etc.) might be better - but they ain't the crowd pullers. Can't have helped that there were so few people eager to see the BGT winner perform you could have bussed them to Manchester individually. A few years ago and the likes of Diversity of Paul Potts might have actually been responsible for some extra viewers.

For once we can't use the old "BBC One held up well" catchphrase - but that's not particularly surprising. Frozen Planet has been the only thing propping up Wednesdays over the past few weeks (another credit to it's performance) so it was always in trouble with an unremarkable Panorama special in there instead. Pre-watershed is a mess that needs sorting - I like Cohen's emphasis on more live formats, but if they can't come up with anything better than pointless One Show rip-offs then they might as well not bother. And if they throw another comedy down the 8.30 drain come next year then they'll need shooting.

Otherwise, the football was solid and Jamie Oliver did OK for Channel 4. Quite a drop for This is England, but that was inevitable I suppose. It's still looking more healthy than most 10pm dramas have for them this year.

And you think you're joking about the Rat.

I think A & C went because the new editor, David Kermode, didn't want them hanging around when he was auditioning new people. And to be honest their latter appearances had become something of a public humiliation.Alas, Christine didn't exactly enhance her image with Text Santa.And there's a bit more autocue reading coming up this weekend with the Westlife farewell (first of many). Oh how she must wish she had listened to her former agent who counselled her not to leave the BBC.

Oh well, only nine years left on the contract.

I think this is the key thing to remember. This rating is only really 'bad' imo if it trends over the next few years (before returning to BBC One to record ratings ofc )

They might just bother to advertise it next year and ya know...tell the press its on!

Interesting scenario in the Europa League where, as it stands, Manchester City will have to play their home match at 5pm on a Tuesday evening.


http://twitter.com/#!/martynziegler

Surprisingly low for The Royal Variety Performance, however the line-up just shouted ITV1 at you. Plus, it wasn't advertised, but that isn't really a valid excuse considering it is on every year, I think the low-ness is due to the line-up.

Dire for BBC1...


...and I think ITV1 is guaranteed for another good Wednesday next week, Downton in particular I think will draw a good audience even if it is just a 'Behind the Scenes' show.


Channel 5 would pick Man United anyway regardless I think irrespective of where Man City is scheduled.

Does the broadcaster even have much say on who appears in the RVP. I can't say I've noticed that in the years ITV show it it is full of (what I assume pople are suggesting) X Factor & Corrie stars whereas when it is on the BBC it is full of highbrow A listers.

The line up was poor but that is more likely to be because there is no must see act this year, no Lady Gaga etc. It was so poor a third devision royal turned up.

People are using this to fuel yet another boring ITV v BBC war, overlooking the fact that the ratings posted yesterday show there is no trend to say that what channel it airs on effects the ratings.

RVP flopped just as I hoped, honestly if the Royals dont care enough to send an actual Royal, they cant expect people to watch, this was not exactly, The Royal Wedding: Celebrity Reception.

A good point was made about people not watching ITV in the run up to Christmas, in all the discussion of Daybreak, I never once consider the advertisers, the show still has adverts right?

Digiguide update, is again confusing, Casualty was down for 2 episodes 1x50 and 1X60, now its down for 1x20, could they really have dropped 30 minutes? Those hour long Casualty's always come in short, but not THAT short.

RVP is lineup dependant and I thought it wasn't as good as previous years. Next year, they need a stronger lineup.

Can I just say my post was not a BBC vs ITV thing it was a me vs the Royal Family thing.

Not sure if it's permanent, but 5 News at 6:30 replaces OK! TV on Channel 5 for w/c 9th January. It will rate terribly so soon after the 5pm bulletin but the good news is the 7pm hour should rate a lot better with repeats of shows like Cowboy Builders and Celebrity Wedding Planner.

Also, another oddity of the C5 schedule that week: with the Australian soaps still off air, CSI repeats fill the void at 5:30. Celebrity Big Brother is at 9 every weeknight except Tuesday, where it airs after the series premiere of Body of Proof at 10. Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side is now on Channel 5 every single weeknight, and promoted to 10pm on Thursdays with It's All About Amy bumped to 11pm. A new spinoff show where Holy Moly's Jamie East meets the celebs airs after BOTS on Monday (at midnight).

New Channel 5 Weekday Schedule in full (w/c 9th January):

5:30pm: CSI (Repeat)
6:30pm: 5 News at 6:30
7pm: World's Toughest Trucker / Celebrity Wedding Planner / Cowboy Builders / Police Interceptors / World's Scariest Landings (Repeats)
8pm: The Gadget Show / Cowboy Builders / Benidorm ER / World's Scariest Landings / World's Toughest Trucker (All New Episodes)
9pm: Celebrity Big Brother (Mon, Thu) / Body of Proof (NEW Tue) / Celebrity Big Brother: Live Eviction (Wed, Fri)
10pm: When Paddy Met Sally / Celebrity Big Brother / Kym Marsh: Teen Mums and Me / Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side / Celebrity Wedding Planner
11pm: Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side (Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri) / It's All About Amy (Thu)
12am: Celebrity Big Brother: Jamie Meets the Celebs (Mon)

It's probably a temporary fix but TBH it'll probably rate the same as 7pm News. 7pm I imagine will just be repeats but it wouldn't surprise if we see new hour long commissions, wonder if the half an hour shows like Highland Emergency will be expanded to an hour or simply have two half an hour shows in that slot.

CBB will probably rate better although I think BoP should have aired at 10pm as I imagine it'll be pushed back an hour once CSI.

I think BOTS should just be Monday-Friday. Dont know why they keeping Saturdays as CBB and BB always rated terribly on that night.

They are actually extending Saturday episodes to 75 minutes. I suppose there's going to be bugger all on BBC One/ITV1 so they might as well go for it.