On the day we find out that the BBC's own paid schedulers can't put together as strong a schedule as a bunch of internet nerds, this also puts lie to the suggestion that the BBC cares too much about ratings.

RVP will easily average 10m+ and probably very much more against that line up. What did BBC1 put up against it in 2009? I seem to think it was something better than that!

One of these programmes is more than enough.

Charley Boarman flopped then.

It was Waterloo Road and Spooks in 2009, although they were both crushed (both sub-4m in the overnights) so it didn't seem to dent the RVP much so I can kind of see why they aren't bothering against it this year.

According to a magazine interview with Christine Bleakley quoted in the Express today it sounds as if she'll be playing a pretty minimal role in Dancing on Ice.And her wedding to Frankie Lampard seems to be off until after Euro 2012.

Monday's ratings.


BBC1
Breakfast 1.5m 35.8%
BBC News at Six 5.1m 25.8%
Regional News and Weather 6.3m 28.5%
The One Show 5.1m 22.1%
Inside Out 3.6m 15.4%
EastEnders 8.6m 34.2%
Who's Getting Rich on your Money? - Panorama 3.1m 11.9%
Young Apprentice 3.5m 13.4%
BBC News at Ten 3.9m 18.5%
A Question of Sport 2.7m 17.8%
John Bishop's Britain 1.6m 16.4%

ITV (inc ITV+1)
Daybreak 0.8m 20.6%
Lorraine 1.2m 22.8%
The Jeremy Kyle Show 1.4m 27.2%
ITV News & Weather 3.9m 17.8%
Emmerdale 7.7m 33.6%
Coronation Street 9.6m 40.4%
Little England 3.5m 13.9%
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! 8.8m 33.8%
ITV News at Ten & Weather 3.2m 15.8%
Real Crime with Mark Austin: Manhunt 1.8m14.1%

BBC2
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 2.1m 12.7%
Eggheads 2.2m 11.0%
Strictly Come Dancing - It Takes Two 2.8m 12.5%
Heir Hunters 1.5m 6.4%
University Challenge 3.3m 13.2%
MasterChef: The Professionals 3.0m 11.5%
The Choir: Unsung Town Revisited 2.3m 8.7%
Never Mind the Buzzcocks 1.6m 7.6%
Newsnight 0.6m 4.4%

C4 (inc C4+1)
The Simpsons 2.2m 11.3%
Hollyoaks 1.2m 5.7%
Channel 4 News 0.8m 3.4%
The British Woman on Death Row 1.5m 6.0%
Digging the Great Escape 2.2m 9.1%

Five
5 News at 5 0.9m 5.9%
Neighbours 1.3m 7.4%
Home and Away 0.9m 4.5%
OK! TV 0.3m 1.5%
5 News at 7 0.1m 0.6%
Celebrity Wish List 0.2m 0.8%
The Gadget Show 0.8m 3.2%
Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers 0.8m 2.9%

Lorraine is doing well, Gadget Show back under 1 million, which is odd I could have watched a whole hour of Polly learning to play golf.

Decent for the One show, but EE continues to be "average"

I do not believe ITV1 are simply out to wreck BBC1's Christmas.

Could it be that they know over 12 million people watched the final episode, and therefore, are offering the follow-up at a time when most people are available over the Christmas period to watch it?

Good for ITV News at 10 last night.

It's not odd. Golf is of no interest to me whatsoever and it seems a lot of Gadget Show viewers. It was a massive comedown from last week's good episode. I fast-forwarded through most of it. And the bit with the in-ear headphones which I was interested in was ridiculous- £600+ for the winning pair? Who on earth do they think is watching? Awful.

Christmas episode next week. I wonder if they can get through the show without a silly challenge.

yes I was not shocked to learn that the £600 were the best.

Going out now

of course you could say fair play to ITV for not being bullied into moving it by the BBC. I seem to recall that was the line the BBCistas took over SCD scheduling on Saturday nights

EastEnders deserves better ratings.

I hope that it gets to 9million next week as it should be on those figures now.

Corrie is quite dull at the moment but it has the older audience to save it.

What happened in Corrie's 1st episode last night? Haven't seen it get over 40% non-tape checked in ages.

Only 1 Corrie episode last night. Fairly run of the mill episode.

I keep hearing of all these 'epic' Eastenders episodes but they rarely seem to reflect in the ratings.

I know Wikipedia is not 100% reliable but on Eastenders page the other day I read this -

"Based on market research by BBC commissioning in 2003, EastEnders is most watched by 60–74 year olds, closely followed by 45–59 year olds"

Is that still true? I know from reading this thread a lot rzt posts the age skews but that seems quite a old audience for EastEnders too. That was 8 years ago right enough. I know nowadays its can be a bit more Hollyoaks-esque at times with perhaps more teenage character focus than in 2003. I actually think from reading rzt's posts that Emmerdale has the oldest viewers?

Good rating for Coronation Street though despite it being very low key.

ITV exists to make money. It has an acclaimed drama capable of getting 10-12m viewers, and could have got even more for a xmas special on the Sunday before xmas, which BBC1 was prepared to put a Royle family repeat against, and which offered one last advertising bonanza of the year.

Now you could say they turned it down for altruistic reasons, offering the nation a DA special on Xmas Night. But that's not how ITV works. They sense an upset, and want to see if they can pull off a shock victory, even if it damages DA's reputation and costs them hundreds of thousands in lost revenue.

I don't think anyone wins from this rare bout of festive aggression by ITV.

Some of the ITV1 programmes likely to be shown in early 2012.

Above Suspicion: Silent Scream (series 4)
Dancing on Ice
Primeval (series 5)
Wild at Heart (series 7)
Take Me Out (series 3)
Eternal Law (new series)
Kidnap & Ransom (series 2)
Whitechapel (series 3)
Coronation Street
Emmerdale
The National Televison Awards 2012

Mark Austin's Real Crime programmes seem to do really well in the 10.35pm slot.

Can anyone tell me the figure for the BBC3 programme at 9.00 last night about the wedding of the girl with CF. It deserves a wider audience.

Or perhaps their doing exactly what BBC are doing - showcasing one of their most popular shows on what is seen as the most "special" tv day of the year? Yeah they might lose a few hundred thousand pounds now, but it's definately worth it in the long run i.e improving their reputation and perhaps introducing Downton to people who haven't seen it before. It's stupid that you see it just as "ITV aggressive scheduling" because ultimately competition is a good thing - it'll mean BBC don't get lazy and continue to provide a great Christmas schedule.

Perhaps this is ITV's Christmas present to Julian Fellowes to keep him sweet so he'll continue to write DAfor many years to come.

Could not agree with this post more...

Downton Abbey is just another soap on Xmas day, it's a perfect fit alongside all the other soaps.

I don't see what the fuss is about.

Another solid rating for IAC. It's been very stable for the evictions with a solid 8-9m audience watching. Does anyone have y-o-y comparisons by any chance?

Strong for Corrie for a very average episode, likewise for Emmerdale. EE lagging behind which is surprising considering the promotion right now. It should start to build with the big Christmas plots.

Just noticed how well Lorraine is doing aswell and I'm sure what's up on her normal performance.

Awful night for Ch5. I thought Charley Boorman would make 1m at least. They seem to have been too focused on Big Brother in the last few months that they've let other areas of the schedule slip, but I guess at least they've addressed OK:TV. I think Home & Away needs a looking at too considering the shares are reguarly below 5% now which isn't particuarly goood.