What percentage of viewers actually waste their money voting? I always assumed it was a few who vote a lot.

Aw, bugger.

Nah, most of the IAC people need to get in the rehearsals for panto

Garrow's Law on BBC1 and Beyonce on ITV1. I don't see either of those rating particularly brilliantly, so maybe Inside Facebook will prove to be a decent performer for BBC2.

Really underwhelming for XF last night considering how it rated last year. Still a strong figure, but I really believe some of the judges are putting people off. Kelly & Gary are annoying me more and more each week & they need to go. However I think the final is quite possibly the best ever. The last girl standing is the one who was voted out first. Marcus was always the male underdog from the beginning & I'm amazed a girlband has got to the final of the XF. And it's wide open too-I genuinely can't call it.

Huge drop for IAC from last years final, but for a show that's 10 years old to still manage figures of ~10m for its final really is fantastic. It did well too considering it was the dullest final ever. Not only was the one hour set up and only 2 contestants in the final bad, but interviewing them before they won was awful, because the show had to end as soon as the winner was announced. Obviously designed to have 10m waiting till the end, but it didn't work.

I noticed that Black Mirror was advertised during The X Factor results show tonight - Channel 4 seems to have pushed it really hard. I gave it a look and I predict that it won't do that well.

I watched it over the hour and thought it was a pile of poop. I think the programme was commenting on modern society, but I think viewers will have found it too bizarre. I certainly found it a very weird viewing experience. Still with the promotion, I think it'll be good for 2.0 - 2.5m with the audience dropping off to around 1.5m towards the end.

I often wonder if the smart money is on BGT as the big one, as it is a newer show than TXF, attracts a bigger audience and makes older people remember the glory days of Op Knocks, which being a huge Op Knocks fan I am delighted with its descendant doing well. Don't get me wrong, I think TXF has been a huge success that started with mediocre ratings and went on to great things, but the overkill this year has seen its crown fall off a bit.

So TXF builds ever so slightly, but not a great rating at all and excluding +1, SCD beat it...just! I don't know how next weeks Final will rate. Doesn't sound like Cowell will be present, but we're probs looking at 11m for the Saturday show and possibly 13.5m for the Final Result on Sunday. At the moment its averaging 10.7m (inc. +1: 11.1m). Las year the series averaged 13.0m so if you include +1 we're looking at a loss of 2m viewers. The 2009 series averaged 11.9m.

IAC did OK. I wasn't expecting it to beat or even match last years 12.4m. That was always going to be impossible, but its been another good series and The Final will be over 10m in the officials. Does anyone know the overnight series average exc/inc. +1?

Agree about The Exit List. If they put it in that Sunday slot I think it'll really struggle as it won't even have young skewing programmes around it. They should put it on Saturdays at 7pm in the Spring leading into BGT. If Sing If You Can is returning that could go after it at 9pm where it could be ruder and Keith Lemon would have more free reign. Play Your Cards Right could do OK. Family Fortunes and Mr and Mrs both pulled in strong audiences for their revivals so I guess ITV are hoping PYCR will do the same. I notice (from Broadcast when the pilot was commissioned) that it'll only be a 30 minute show, which is probably for the best. Hopefully theyll use ordinary members of the public rather than celebrities too.

Vernon Kay is a decent gameshow host but it's a bit of a shame they couldn't get Ant and Dec to do a show like this, as with them hosting it I think it could get c6m on a weekly basis (compared with 4-5m for Vernon). Not everything they host has to be a big scale production, and they'd work well on a format like that. It wouldn't be much of a commitment for them either, as they could get 10-15 episodes filmed over a couple of weeks, which would do for the year. If Takeaway isn't coming back next year then for the first time in years they won't have a show in Q1, which seems a bit of a waste of money considering they're on a golden handcuffs deal, particularly as the schedule will probably end up being something like:

18:30- YBF, 19:00- TV Burp, 19:30- PYCR, 20:00- Take Me Out, 21:15- Ross

Which is a bit weak and means that Ross is on too early. I agree that they should give TMO a push to get it up to and even above that 5m mark every week rather than just towards the end of the series as has been the case for the last couple of years. A shame they didn't order a few more episodes of Celebrity Chase, as that's been doing well in the 6pm slot. I suspect we'll see more of The Chase on Saturday nights, possibly including some regular episodes (Saturdays at 7pm in the Summer replacing Odd One In?). They should do more episodes of All Star Family Fortunes this year too and start it earlier in the Summer as it's a reliable performer for them (again, they could start mixing in some episodes with ordinary members of the public rather than just celebrities).

The final of IAC is always a bit of a mess because it has to be full of so much admin as they either have to interview everyone who leaves in the final or alternatively end up with a situation of the runner up getting less of a send off than 3rd to 12th place contestants.

Previously they've announced the winner and then had to ignore them for 5 mins as they interview the runner up first which always seems a bit odd.

There is much less emphasis on the final compared to TXF, BGT etc. You'd get nothing from watching the final of IAC if you hadn't watched the rest of the series, all the good stuff has mostly already happened, where you can tune in to the final of the talent shows without watching the rest.

I would have thought Ant & Dec are contracted to do something in Winter/Spring as they generally do, so either Takeaway will appear, or Push the Button isn't yet quite axed or they will do something else.

Having said that they did Red or Black which is extra compared to their normal schedule, so maybe that will be it until they start doing BGT again.

Yeah, it would be interesting to see how SIYC would rate at 9pm after BGT. I reckon it'd do a similar c4m figure in that slot as to how it was doing before and that would give another show like the Exit List a chance to air in the pre-BGT slot.


As you've said, that'd be too early for Jonathan Ross. I read ITV has another show planned for Q1 Saturdays called The Talent Show Story, which seems like filler. I wonder where that'd go? They should be trying harder to commission proper programmes rather than clips shows like this, it's not going to rate particularly well.


I'm pretty sure they'll commission more episodes of Celebrity Chase as it's been doing well so far. It could do an alright job in the summer - its 19% share so far this series is higher than every entertainment series they aired in the summer. So it could at least improve their summer Saturday nights. As for ASFF, I agree with you there. It seems a bit strange that ITV don't commission more episodes of their most popular gameshow - in fact, haven't they reduced the episode order of ASFF recently?! The BBC with In It To Win It and Channel 4 with Million Pound Drop have extended their commissions in the last year I believe as those are those two broadcasters' most popular quiz shows, whilst on ITV they do the opposite!

There has been no suggestion really he would return for the final - certainly not during the series at least. I don't really think they'd be any advantage in having him back for the final either - his opinion is of little value now the public has chosen it's finalists.

One idea for next year though might be a "Hollywood week" to counter Strictly's Wembley week - so basically fly the contestants and judges off to the US set and have Simon guest judge that week.

And this is that show ...

http://www.shiver-productions.co.uk/...t01returnid=20

It's a 5 parter.

So my prediction for Saturdays in Jan is :

6.30pm Primeval
7.30pm TV Burp
8pm Take Me Out
9.15pm The Talent Show Story
10.15pm Jonathon Ross

I don't think he'll be back; why taint himself so openly with this series? At least with Britain's Got Talent the show was holding up against last year when he returned (or at least not collapsing 20+%). I reckon he'll swallow his pride; let the show limp to a conclusion and see how it can be fixed next year.


The BBC are stupid not to get The Voice ready for January IMO. ITV1 are always weak there post Christmas and it'd be a great chance for the show to grow. As it is they could be leaving it to be aired opposite Britain's Got Talent, which could be moved forward because of the jubilee.

The following indicates that BGT will have the same sort of scheduling as previous years, with the live shows running for a week from 28th May 2012 and the final on 2nd June, just before the Diamond Jubilee:

It'll most likely launch in mid-April like the last few years.

Thanks for that. ITV1 could still play havoc with it; especially if The Voice is struggling to gain a foothold.

Its strange. The X factor and SCD are now on the same ratings(nearly), but this is good for Strictly but bad for the X factor. Does this mean that the x factor is still the most popular, given that it has endured all the changes with judges etc this season. I watch both by the way. I thought they were both only ok this weekend

It was utterly preposterous, but brilliant at the same time. Like much of Brooker's work, you feel it was playing to a MediaGuardian/Media Studies audience, and hence it will probably rate poorly, but it was a thought provoking, dark, and very funny piece of work, putting into dramatised form themes which will be common to anyone who is a fan of Screenwipe, 10 O'Clock Live etc.

I noticed the trail for next week's, a satire on reality-talent TV by the look of it, advertised the time as "9.30pm next Sunday after the X Factor Final" - unusual to see one network referencing another broadcaster's show like that, although they have obviously scheduled it to attract that audience.

Hopefully millions of TXF obsessives will tune in for another equally cutting piece of satire from Brooker, as he metaphorically whacks the lot of them over the heads with slegehammers. Hopefully...

I think it'll do OK if it's scheduled reasonably but I agree that it's lazy commissioning and they should be trying harder.


It's just typical behaviour from them. They have indeed reduced the episode order in recent years. In 2009 they did 17 (although 2 were held back and aired in Q1 2010), which was reduced to 15 in 2010 and then cut again to 11 in 2011 (although the episodes were extended to an hour). Seems an odd thing to do, particularly when they seem to be increasing the episode order of less popular gameshows like The Cube (7 for 2009, 12 for 2010, 17 for 2011 and a fifth series already commissioned for 2012). They don't always schedule it well either, with some episodes running pretty much advert free at 6pm against Strictly. It does seem a bit of a shoddy way to treat their most popular gameshow. A 19% share would get them close to 4m on a Saturday night in the Summer so I agree that they should use The Chase there.


Yep, it doesn't look like he'll be back this year. A shame as they could do with the boost he'd probably provide. I like that idea of a Hollywood week. As you've said, it could be a nice mid-series boost like SCD's Wembley week.


Thanks for the link. It sounds alright, but it's hardly going to set the world alight. Amanda Holden presented a similar one off in January 2008 which aired on a Saturday night and averaged 4.8m against the launch of BBC1's talent show The One and Only which averaged 6.4m. If it can get similar numbers to that, or anything above 4m really then they'll probably be satisfied. Sounds like the sort of thing they'd put on in the Summer though.

That schedule seems OK but I don't think The Talent Show Story is 9pm material and TMO and Ross would be a decent pairing. How about:

18:00 - Primeval/The Talent Show Story
19:00 - You've Been Framed
19:30 - Play Your Cards Right
20:00 - TV Burp
20:30 - Take Me Out
21:45 - Jonathan Ross

Primeval would start in early January with The Talent Show Story taking over in mid February. With possibly no Ant and Dec that looks to be about their best option, and if it actually is TV Burp's last series then they can make a bit of a fuss of it.

One other idea - I wonder how Minute To Win It would do on ITV1? It did alright for ITV2 but was a decent little show that I think could rate reasonably well for them in a c6pm slot. They could keep Darren McMullen as host as he was pretty good and will be better known after his mainstream primetime break presenting The Magicians, whilst Caroline Flack could remain as one of the captains. Perhaps swap Joe Swash with Olly Murs as they work well together on Xtra Factor and he's a bigger name than Swash. Might be worth a try.

Looks like it yeah. I can see why, but I really hope they change the scheduling of the live shows next year. They could use it to dent The Voice if the latter doesn't entirely take off, or begins to dip in the battle rounds/live shows like the US version did. Also if last year is anything to go by the judges should be announced in the next couple of weeks, so that'll give us a better idea of what to expect from it.


I agree - thoroughly enjoyed it. Very clever scheduling next week, choosing that episode for that particular slot is genius too. I can't see it rating brilliantly but hopefully it will have down OK.

That would be a pretty boring series, given that the always varied and utterly riveting talent show concept, invented by Mr Simon Cowell, only started in about 2003 didn't it?

I wonder when the judges for BGT will be announced. They haven't even announced the audition dates yet

They announced them a few days after The X Factor final last year, so they'll probably do the same this year, as the auditions normally begin in early January and they won't want the announcement to get lost over Christmas.

He'll not do that. But he couldn't anyway. First of all, ITV have a 3 year contract for the show. Secondly, I think Sony and Talkback Thames would have some kind of say. While he will have complete creative and day-to-day control over his business, Sony would presumably be able to block something like that.

Plus, if he did it, then ITV would never commission another show from him and it would be exceptionally difficult to work with other broadcasters as well.


It would have been announced by now if he were coming back. I think there might be a "Simon Cowell's Choice" song for each of the finalists. But I doubt he'll be involved in the live show.