Worst DigiGuide update ever. Practically all TBAs, not worth even bothering to look at it.

to be fair we say this every year.

however what I find most amusing is that Channel 5 is updated for Week 52 (X-Mas) but not for Week 51.

Its not all bad, I now know when Watchmen is on, assuming it does not change

That 1 hour EastEnders on Christmas Day says it all really given that we know its 2x40 minute episodes.

Also no info on the Merlin season finale, was hoping to get that.

Nothing at all for ITV1 either.

Watchmen is a repeat. Mind you, the last time it was on 4HD the sound was all glitchy on Freeview. Maybe they'll have fixed that for this coming showing.

yeah I think I missed it first time, so im going to watch it this time.

There are some things worth mentioning, thanks to Elgin for the following:

Saturday 17th
7:05 - Strictly Come Dancing
8:05 - Merlin
8:50 - National Lottery
9 - Strictly Come Dancing Results

- One of The Royle Family Christmas specials (presumably last year's) is repeated at 9 on Sunday 18th.
- Sports Personality Of The Year runs 8 - 10 on Thursday 22nd.
- Christmas specials of Have I Got News For You and The Graham Norton Show on Friday 23rd - the latter extended to one hour. The Two Ronnies Sketchbook and Live At The Apollo continue to air.
- Eastenders is down for 8:30 - 9:30 on Christmas Day and 9 - 9:30 on Boxing Day.
- Holby City airs as normal on Tuesday 20th and 27th.
- The One Show continues until Friday 23rd before its festive break.

The interesting thing there is The Royle Family repeat, now, I strongly expect that to change, but does that suggest that they may expect ITV1 to air Downton Abbey on Sunday 18th?

Obviously some stuff there is wrong, as I'm sure dan2008 may soon point out...

His presenting role has not been cut back. He confirmed on Twitter he will still be attending every Grand Prix and hosting the BBC's coverage.

F1 was not cut in order to acquire The Voice - two totally different, unrelated, budgets.

It's funny, every year everyone slates ITV at Christmas for 'not trying', 'they get rubbish ratings because they show rubbish' etc

Now the BBC fan boys are getting rattled at the posibility of ITV actually doing something special this year

It seems despite the annual complaining about ITV's lack of effort, they are actually secretly happy for it to continue this way!

ITV are making an effort? 1 episode of Downton Abbey counts as a effort?

On Christmas Day yes, of course there is a range of other programmes across the festive season that generally goes overlooked as usual.

DA is airing at 8.30 on Christmas Day, hence the double length EE airing in one block to try and mitigate the damage to BBC1.

Double EmFm, double Corrie, double Downton is special?

Blimey...

Well it hardly takes much more imagination to commission a Christmas special of Doctor Who, a Christmas special of Strictly, and a double EastEnders does it?

I dont 100% disagree with that, however there is more to the BBC over Christmas, than that.

I do sort of feel sorry for you Andy because you clearly are so bothered about so called "BBC fanboys" and every injustice that ITV suffer in this thread.


If ITV's schedule can compete with Great Expectations, The Borrowers, Lapland, Outnumbered, Ab Fab, The Royal Bodyguard amongst others then I will agree with your point, otherwise not.

They are damned if they do and damned if they don't in your book anyway, so why bother commentating?

It's not as if ITV has always died before the BBC on Christmas Day, their biggest coup came in 1987 when Coronation St took 27 million viewers on the strength of it being Hilda Ogden's last episode and in 1978 the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, their first on ITV, attracted 20 million( mind you it was a far poorer effort than their BBC shows, but the ratings were still excellent). However, it is just their worst Christmas Days, such as the notorious 1993 effort that featured three mediocre films and cheap daytime filler, tend to attract the most comment.

It goes without saying though, isn't it? Of course the BBC, as a non-commercial broadcaster, will air lots of big shows over Christmas. It's their "peak" time of the entire year when they get lots of their big guns out into the schedules. ITV (and the other commercial broadcasters) focus on getting their big shows out at other times of the year when advertising demand is higher. They won't air anywhere near as many hours of expensive scripted shows over the Christmas holidays compared to the BBC because it wouldn't make sense financially and wouldn't make them as much money as if they aired those same dramas at another time of the year such as September/October/November. They can get away with airing a few dramas over Christmas though, as it won't make them that big of a loss (as long as it's less than 5 dramas they show for example) and as BBC1's main rival channel they have to be seen to be making some kind of effort, even if it's little in comparison. If the BBC didn't exist, I bet ITV would make even less effort around Christmas - you just have to look at the schedules of commercial broadcasters around the world, to see how dire the situation really could be! It's all relative - by ITV's standards, if they air Downton Abbey on Christmas Day, it'll probably be the most effort they'd have put in to their Christmas Day schedule for the best part of a decade. There's really no reason why they should put DA on Xmas Day itself if they were acting like a proper commercial broadcaster and purely thinking about it from a financial-side, but I guess they feel they might as well try something a bit different this year on Christmas Day and shake things up, even if it doesn't totally make sense commercially. If it doesn't work out, they can always revert back to the low-rated Poirot episodes from next year onwards.

As you suggest The Royle Family does seem to be potential filler against Downton - guarantees it a good 10m, and it's fair to say from the discussion here and elsewhere the Downton Abbey special is one of the most eagerly anticipated shows this Christmas. The 18th then an afternoon repeat on Christmas Day following The Queen would be a good bet.

And I wonder if they'll dare let Sports Personality over run this year with it leading into the weekday news. It'll be interesting to see how the show feels considering it's downsizing from an arena to the Don't Scare the Hare studio.

Why don't ITV1 put the Downton Christmas special on on Saturday 17th at 6.30 to get revenge for BBC1 overlapping Strictly with the first 15 minutes of the X Factor final?

You can imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and say the BBC chose to schedule say a new Wallace & Gromit short against The X Factor final there'd be uproar from the commerical broadcaster.

Still I guess it serves the BBC right for a poor comissioning decision for Christmas day - the lack of a big comedy will be sorely missed.

I still can't beleive that the tabloid press have been talking of ITV complaining of the BBC scheduling a clash with the X Factor final depsite Strictly ending at 20:15 for the vast majority of it's run...

That's Britain might just be the worst thing currently happening on the planet. I hope it does badly.

Sure, that's a fair point. From a Ratings Thread perspective though, a W&G v TXF clash would be fascinating!


I agree. Also the BBC are actually doing ITV a favour on the Sunday by moving SCD back to 7pm, so ITV really have no reason to complain..

I'm more surprised that it's taken this long for the complaints to surface! I expected there to be headlines before the first clash.

Going by this years approach, the BBC would not move Strictly out of The X Factor's way unless it benefits them. They're not doing it for ITV's sake. I think they fear that a live show would hurt a pre-recorded programme.

Do we know how long Text Santa is on for on Christmas Eve ?