Merry Christmas everyone.

It was probably just to make the schedules neater. Clean 8pm and 10pm starts for Merlin and Lapland are much nicer than five to or five past the hour.

In terms of the shows themselves, Lapland was better than I expected it to be given the slot it was given. I expected it to be a stinker but it was rather enjoyable. On the flipside, Outnumbered aired its worst ever episode tonight, just dreadful. Not sure why it was so bad, but it really was a stinker with no real laughs in it. I didn't see all of it but Text Santa was quite good from what I saw. It may just do better than I predicted it would (even if only because people were switching over from BBC1 after seeing how poor Outnumbered was).

The first BBC One over-run of Christmas Day is upon us - Midnight Mass from St. George's Cathedral Southwark has gone past it's alloted time.

What is it they say? Start as you mean to go on.

I blame Jesus for that one.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Thanks to all the old regulars for keeping the thread going and those who post all the ratings and provide the huge amount of information available here. And also to the several new posters we seem to have acquired this year! This thread seems to move quicker and quicker - I'll likely not get the chance to check until the wee hours of the 27th so God knows what I'll have to read through!

Given my expectations for Downton, I have a feeling Robbie might manage about 3 pages worth of posts himself.

Merry Christmas to all the Ratings Thread regulars.

Looking forward to tomorrow's numbers - reaction in here seems quite positive towards Text Santa. I wonder if Ant & Dec and the family-friendly time slot might have helped it recover slightly from a shaky debut? I haven't seen any of tonight's show, but it did strike me that it could be well suited to the dip-in, dip-out nature of Christmas Eve viewing.

Could depend on how the BBC One line-up performed, I suppose. I hope Merlin does well for it's finale, even though it's short of it's usual SCD partner. And I've no idea what to expect from Lapland with it's thoroughly bizarre slot!

Not too good from Eastenders, share is still really quite low at 34%. I'm not expecting a high rating for it on Christmas Day to be honest, I would suggest maybe mid 9 millions. Boxing Day and New Years Day could hit 10m though. Staying with the soaps Corrie and Emmerdale were also quite low and this is pointing towards a Strictly win over Corrie I think on Christmas Day. In fact Corrie was very low last night but it's less significant as it doesn't normally get a festive bounce in the ratings like EE does. Later, the news quiz and Miranda did decently and then the late night showing of Graham Norton did brilliant numbers especially considering it finished 15 mins later than normal. Poor for Jonathan Ross, he had some strong guests so his rating is lower than I would have expected. Great night for Channel 5 with their old time classics.

Tonight (Christmas Eve) I thought the Outnumbered episode was quite weak. It had its best ever slot going straight after Eastenders and was not a good showcase for its usual level of comedy. I still enjoyed it as a non-offensive family comedy but it could of used more laughs. As for Lapland, well I made a comment a few weeks back about the 10pm slot being a joke but it ended up there anyway it seems. Having watched it tonight, I enjoyed it; a very festive seasonal drama and even kind of heart-warming as the original description had stated. I can see why they went post watershed for it as some of the content/language was just slightly (and only very slightly) on the wrong side of borderline for a pre 9pm slot.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and I look forward to some festive ratings over the next couple of days.

The 1st draft schedule said 8.30 for EE, 9.00 for Outnumbered, 9.40 Lapland. When they realised Lapland was only going to run for 75 mins not 90 mins (in fact, nearer 70), and therefore they needed to fill the gap between the end of Lapland and the 11.45 start for Midnight Mass, they had to move everything back - presumably it was done so Lapland had a cleaner 10pm billing rather than 9.55?

Didn't think Lapland was that bad, but probably had the right slot. Certainly needed to be post watershed I think.

Outnumbered wasn't that bad for me - it lacked laughs, but it always does; it was a very enjoyable "real world Christmas" episode I thought even if it wasn't laugh a minute.

I'll stick by what I said earlier - I think Text Santa will surprise a few people, and BBC1's schedule probably won't get the total walkover everyone expects.

Anyway, Merry Christmas all - hopefully we will get some overnights posted tomorrow, and I will find a moment to check in online, probably whilst I'm being force-fed Emmerdale Farm...

I enjoyed tonights programming. Taxt Santa was especially good, which I was suprised at. Though for the ratings I would be very suprised if it topped 4m as an average over the 2.5 hours.

On the BBC I thought they built up Eastenders very well for tommorow and enjoyed Outnumbered, though i'd agree with many that it wasnt as good as it has been.

Tommorow's big unknown battle of Downton and Enders will be intresting to see and fyi my family will be watching EE 'live' and recording Downton and watching one hour later.

Have a Merry Christmas which if like mine will proabably have 1 or 2 arguments along the way ;P

[quote=Andy23;55487828]I think that was just your reason not the general consensus!

Never said it was...hence the box around the text to says its my post


Oh and Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!

MerryChristmas

TextSanta averaged 4.2m peaked at 4.9m

So Text Santa did a bit better than I thought it would before I watched it, but probably a million less than it deserved. I suspect if they'd advertised it better as being a charity Saturday Night Takeaway they'd have got that extra million.

If it peaked at 4.9m then it seems to have been reasonably steady across the two and a half hours, so they'll probably be reasonably happy with it, particularly after the low rating launch show.

A few ratings from last night:

EastEnders - 7.84m (30.1%)
Outnumbered - 7.02m (28.1%)
Merlin - 6.38m (25.0%)
Lapland - 5.90m (28.5%)
The Cube - 4.99m (22.0%) [+1: 252k]
Text Santa - 4.02m (16.1%) [+1: 137k]
Piers Morgan's Life Stories - 1.86m (8.7%) [+1: 147k]

Merry Christmas everyone .

The Cube did better than I thought, very good rating for it. Text Santa did alright, but a very merry Christmas to Piers Morgan!

Great Outnumbered number last night highest ever I think for it. 5.9m is great for Lapland considering the 23:15 finish.

Text Santa did annoyingly well. But Ant/Dec are always a pull.

Merlin more than I thought, Outnumbered EXCELLENT, and Lapland did amazing as well (stand out of the night I'd say)

Ouch at Life Stories though!
Eastenders was very very low...doesn't bode to well for tonight.

Thanks rzt.

I think pretty much everyone except Piers will be happy with that. Merlin rated as well as ever despite losing the SCD lead-in, whilst Outnumbered benefited from the slot and Lapland did well later on. A bit low for EE but it'll bounce back tonight.

The big surprises for me are The Cube and Life Stories, but for very different reasons. The Cube rated really well compared to how it has been doing recently. Not sure why it did but 5.2m is much higher than it has been getting even with an XF lead-out. Text Santa did alright but dreadful for Piers. I knew it wouldn't rate well but I didn't think it would be that low! The scheduling of it was really poor though, they should have had Ross on in that slot instead and Life Stories elsewhere.

Merry Christmas! Just opened my presents

Outnumbered did brilliantly!

A mini ouch for EastEnders. The odd starting time really did it for them - it should have started at either 7.30pm or 8.30pm but not at quarter to the hour. And 35 minute run time messed the schedule up a bit as well.

Bit of a poor night bar Outnumbered

Merry Xmas everyone, pretty low for Text Santa (as was the amount raised) but good for as expected for Outnumbered. Lapland rated well considering the timeslot, poor for Piers Morgan though. I expected a CS themed The Cube to rate better also.


Nice to see BBC1 being so stable throughout the evening.

Surprised we got them today.

EE shouldn't have really been on on a Saturday and start then. I just don't think there is the interest in the Masood fire as there was for Stax reveal or Archie's murder. I still think it will beat Downton tonight but only get around 9million.

They really should have had Pats exit as the main Xmas day plot.

Some decent ratings there. Eastenders quite low again but even a low rating Eastenders was enough to boost Outnumbered and Lapland to very good ratings. The Cube did well on ITV and Text Santa kept to a reasonable rating after the poor launch show last week. Piers Morgan let the side down though.