Even with that competition, DSRPG players thought it would clear 6m. In the end it barely cleared 4m.


Given the high profile nature of the concert it was quite poor.

It wasn't much above the 3.7 that watched the Motorway Cops repeat/DIY SOS across the same two hour period the previous week.

6.00 SCD
7.00 Merlin
7.50 SCD
8.50 Young James Herriot
9.50 Lottery Draws
10.10 News

would've worked better IMO. The James Herriot crossover audience would've given it a great boost going into tonight, though they would've had to find another programme to fill the Monday and Tuesday slots. Then again, would the 6pm average be worse than the 9pm average? Something tells me possibly not.

Saying that, in 2010 the 9pm show rated higher than the 7pm show...probably those who were stuck indoors last year were out this year so the audience skewed more towards families with young children this time round, hence bedtime affecting the 9pm show.

It was a dire night for ITV1; Harry Potter held up ok but Westlife collapsed appallingly. I do agree with those who say it would've done better in a different slot, as the +1 slot indicates.

what was the comparison on the X-Factor ratings for Strictly?

2.2m-2.5m is not rating highly - even for C5. You're only inflating how successful Celebrity BB was by using the very poor figures for Big Brother itself. And if C5 were even considering Big Brother beyond it's current contract I doubt Brian Dowling would be returning in January.

IMHO SCD rated around where i thought it would.

- The share this year is one of its highest (though not overall audience numbers due to the snow in last year).
- X-Factor runs its (true) final on Sunday, a higher rated day generally.
-The X-factor final is more of a must see event. It is a big thing for the audience to see it live, as it is seen as actually mattering (even though in reality the runner ups usually do better). The SCD final is never going to be seen as such an event as it doesn't really matter eg life changing to who wins it.
-The last full weekend Saturday before Christmas is always going to be effected by Christmas parties. This is one of the reasons why i think the results didn't do as well as the earlier show (that and who actually won not really being that important).

Oh dear, mind you last summer will go down as the summer of ITV flops. A pity they didn't act on a rumour I heard earlier this year and revive Love Island, well at least 2.6 million viewers would be a relative success.

I heard some news reports last night along the lines of "McFly have won the double", I had not realised McFly were a football team who had won both the League and the FA Cup. I know reality shows are starting to catch up to sport, but is winning SCD and Im a Celeb..., really worthy of note?

Does he not realise it's finished? All this press guff will probably mean more people will watch the Christmas compilation than would otherwise have done so.

However, next year the people's channel might have a bit more luck in summer. Bagging the rights to two England games in the Euros will gain them at least 10 million viewers and 6 million should prefer ITV's coverage of the Diamond Jubilee over BBC One. I'd imagine a few docus about the Queen being shown which could pull in 5 million.

I'm really not. Celebrity Big Brother was two or three times as popular as the programmes that aired in the 10pm slot before, and more like four or five times as popular in the key demo. For Channel 5 to be getting those ratings night after night was very special indeed and led them to a string of victories over Channel 4.

I don't know why I'm even having this debate with you: it clearly rated well. Pretty much every media publication going praised its performance. To say it rated appallingly just makes you look very silly, I'm sorry to say. And quite why you are bringing this up today for no apparent reason is beyond me. Is there your attempt to try and make the show sound insignificant ahead of its big return in Jan?

Brian's back because he did a good job. Nothing special maybe but then neither is Dermot O'Leary or numerous other presenters doing high profile programmes on UK TV that I could mention. Short of getting Davina back I don't really see who else would do a better job, and that kind of action would make them look desperate. Davina's made her choice anyway and wants to do other projects with less viewers which is fair enough really.

sounds dreadful if you ask me.


Can the Royals not just sell out to Sky, and spare us both the tedium of these events, and the cost of them.

So a solid if unspectular finish to SCD. Surprised to see it lose viewers for the Final Result. Maybe it should have been run tonight and surely would have done better. I don't think it'll overtake TXF in the officials now, as its a fairly wide to narrow, but anythings possible so will be interesting to see. Does anyone have the series averages of SCD to compare to previous series? I think this may have been its second most watched series ever.

As for the ITV1 line-up. Just dire really. Harry Potter did OK, but that Westlife rating is much worse than I was expecting, however it did record a stronng +1 rating of almost 500k.

Erm, no, the Royals still have a large following and I think word has got out that ITV for once did a better job of covering a royal event this year and maybe ITV could grab 8 million for the Royal Wedding. Also should ITV1 get England's last group game in the Euros and it is a vital must win match, then 16 million will be watching. I shall also be watching with interest how the people's channel cover the French open tennis as tennis was last shown on ITV when we had old money.

That would have performed much worse. 'Normal Saturday night shows' would have got about 2m, Do you really think there is no crossover between the audiences of SCD & Downton Abbey?

I doubt even ITV are analysing last night as much as people in this thread. If both channels aired normal line ups and ITV fared like they did last night then there would be a problem, against the SCD final it's understandable.

There always seems to be so much focus on low ratings in this thread. It will be interesting to see what gets the most comments during the Olympics!

They also thought R/B was going to be a hit didn't they?
Using what are 'best guesses' is silly.


Bet you it had a higher reach across the two hours though. Which is its entire point.


Not sure the peak (14.1???) but the average was 12.9 million for the Sunday final.
Saturday show only had 10.6 million.

Basically: Strictly is THE Saturday show, whilst X Factor is THE Sunday show.

Not much else to take from it except both are down but one more than the other.

Strictly Come Dancing overnight series averages since 2005:

2005- 8.1m (35%)
2006- 8.3m (37%)
2007- 8.7m (38%)
2008- 9.2m (37%)
2009- 8.5m (35%)
2010- 10.5m (41%)
2011- 10.1m (40%)

And just to add, your initial point was illogical anyway - do you REALLY think they will no longer be bothered about how much of their output is in HD now they've missed out on a Freeview HD slot again for that very reason? They've already gone on record since saying that they still want to be a part of Freeview HD in the future. That would suggest that if anything they will be working harder towards achieving the necessary minimum HD quota, not just giving up, which would make no sense at all. If anything this could strengthen Big Brother's renewal chances IMO (although I think 'Celeb BB' will probably be renewed anyway regardless) as it does provide many hours in HD, along with the spinoffs, etc, and if it were to no longer be a part of the schedule from 2013 it would inevitably be replaced with many non HD programmes that would to a degree undo any progress made in this area.

The peak was 15.3m (inc. +1: 15.5m).

So yeah second most watched series ever. 10.1m is another good series average for it and down only 0.4m on last year.

Its just the usual stuff repeated endlessly. If ITV had agressively scheduled, people would have complained.

Since they didnt, people are trying to imply that ITV have collapsed.

12m for Strictly is awesome, 12m for X Factor last week was a disaster.

Throw in posts about 20 years ago and Celebrity Love Island and you have a complete deja vu Sunday evening.

I think the best solution if BB rates badly in the summer is to pull it and keep CBB, which has always rated better. I remember having this discussion when Channel 4 were considering ditching the show. 2.5 million is a good figure and something ITV1 failed to achieve for the bulk of their entertainment/ reality shows in the summer.
However, I do think Channel 5, which does a good job on a budget the fifth of ITV1's, should drop these reality spin off shows as the ratings suggest not many viewers are interested in Amy Childs.

Actually last week it got 10 million

Actually it got 10.6m (inc. +1: 10.9m).

No one is suggesting ITV1 is on the verge of collapse and next month another big hitter, DOI, is returning. However, the amount of entertainment flops they've had this year is worrying for a channel that always was very strong at entertainment. All I am suggesting is 20 years ago they were strong every Saturday and now they seem to falter when the Cowell shows are away. However, going further back to the so called golden era of Saturday night television( circa 1977), the BBC regularly hammered ITV and LWT was the only region where the BBC had a large ratings lead.

They did collapse (as did Channel 5, albeit with reruns). Under 2m in primetime on a cold Saturday night before Christmas is a disaster, no doubt about it, even opposite Strictly's last dance.

They might not have aggressively scheduled, or spent big, but it was still a new programme featuring a very popular music group. It should have done better. What's wrong with pointing that fact out in a Ratings Thread?

I'm just wondering what would constitute an ITV ratings disaster for you if shares of under 7% for primetime programmes is apparently okay. Bizarre.