TRB will be getting 8.8 thousand by the end of the series if the first 15 minutes are anything to go by.

It deserves that but the BBC failed to mention the 9:00pm start

Brilliant episode and just what we needed. The explosion opened up a new can of worms tonight and of course we are unsure if 10:30pm BBC3 might do well

But viewers expect EE to be on on a Monday night so would have looked out for it anyway. I hope it did well it was better than last night's ep, best one for ages in fact.

ITV drama in for bumper ratings for the next few Mondays against The Royal Bodyguard. Congratulations to the BBC presentation department which made this look not too bad in the trailer but it was one of the worst sitcoms I've ever sen in my entire life - and I've seen Big Top.

So disappointed and actually quite a bit angry.

If anyone ever invents a breakdown graph of how many viewers desert The Royal Bodyguard by the second, I would fear the worst.

My TV Hell for 2011 - Outcasts (the space thing, easily the worst hour I spent in front of the telly, last episode banished to late Sunday night), Sing If You Can, Don't Scare The Hare, The Royal Bodyguard, Show Me The Funny.

You may be surprised in 12 hours time, the Eastenders lead-in plus nothing on the other side (unless people switch to Poirot on +1) will help, also viewers waiting on Mrs Brown's Boys tuning in early. I actually upped my prediction from 8.0m to 8.5m for TRB - so one of us will be eating our words tomorrow.

Ironically I clicked on the thread to preempt regular posters who are likely to say "8m for TRB what is going on??" or "I fear for the sanity of the nation!!" hehe....

I take it you weren't impressed then?

I haven't watched it yet but looking at the reaction here I'm wondering whether to bother with it - I don't think I've seen a single positive comment yet. It'll obviously rate well tonight but it looks like Endeavour might not have too much to worry about next week.

The Royal Bodyguard episode 1 9.30pm 8.0
The Royal Bodyguard episode 6 4pm Sunday 1.1

I haven't seen TRB yet, but wasn't there a similarly negative reception for Come Fly With Me after episode one and look how that ended up rating, even with the rest of the series holding up alright after the initial drop. Okay, I don't expect TRB to rate as well as that, but I wouldn't write it off just yet. DS users are notoriously hard to please when it comes to new mainstream BBC1/ITV1 sitcoms/comedies.

EastEnders started and finished late did it not?

It was not that bad, it was Johnny English starring David Jason, ie silly humour with a glamorous femme fatale. If you aren't a fan of silly humour it wasn't for you. Up against Poirot, with an EE lead-in it ought rate well.

I wonder if The Royal Bodyguard will make it to the end of the series in its Monday 9pm slot. I can see this crashing and burning and the BBC forced to move Sunday afternoon or drop it altogether out of pure embarrassment.



edit: just to say I typed this comment before I saw garyessex's comment #1483 above.

2102-2131

They are, I'll agree with you there, but the reaction on Twitter, which is generally easier to get a decent overall reaction from, is also massively negative. Still, it should have plenty of room to drop, as it should start at c8m tonight, so it could lose almost half of those viewers and still settle at a solid level. Come Fly With Me lost 42% of episode 1's viewers by episode 6, but because it had such a high launch, it still settled at a really good level even though it lost loads of viewers. If TRB launches at 8.0m, a 42% drop would still leave it with a 4.7m overnight, which would be decent enough, and surely it won't lose much more than 42% of the audience over the run even if the reaction has been negative tonight, as I'm sure it'll find some viewers who like it.

The reaction on Twitter has also been less than complimentary.

I did suspect there was a reason why it didn't get a plum Xmas Day slot...

Let us see the ratings first, the whole thread said the same about Come Fly With Me. Can lightning really strike twice?

This is only a quick post from me as I'm using my parents' rickety old PC, but I had to come on to read the million pages this thread has produced in the last three days. For Christmas Eve, Lapland's rating perhaps wasn't that surprising as it was in exactly the same slot as Gavin and Stacey in 2008, and it only finished about five minutes earlier. Wasn't very good, though, it was a bit working class comedy-by-numbers. If anyone's interested, the M&W clip show on BBC2 was actually made in 1991, making it older than any of the clips were when they made it. (By the way, the M&W repeat on Christmas Day was twenty minutes shorter than the original episode, they cut it down for some repeat a few years ago and never put it back in.)

I'm perhaps most surprised on Christmas Day with Emmerdale as I thought that would do very poorly early in the evening. Strictly's decline was I'm sure down to the line-up, even my Strictly fan of a sister wasn't that bothered (though we did watch it) because there's nothing special about Simon from Blue. They'd have been better off going back to the Champion of Champions format, because I think on Christmas Day you want to see your favourites and everyone being good and everyone saying they're great.

I was at my sisters' yesterday and decided I didn't want to watch Who there because everyone would have talked over it, so we opted for Family Fortunes instead. That's probably done better than last year because 7pm is a time when you're likely to be getting out the sandwiches and not concentrating, whereas at 8pm you're ready for something a bit more substantial.

Ab Fab did surprisingly well, I didn't think anyone had much affection for that series. I thought McIntyre was good, not because I like him much, but it was a good line-up and seemed just right for the slot. I liked the BBC comedy family all dancing on stage at the end, it felt like a proper special, and my parents enjoyed it too.

Bless Brekkie for trying the argument about the BBC1 schedule being repetitive for the ten trillionth time this year, and he may have had a point if ITV weren't showing exactly the same programmes from 6pm to 9pm as they did last year, and the same combination of two soaps and a game show as they have for the past decade. There's way more repetition on an ITV Christmas Day than BBC1 (at least we didn't get The Grinch again, though we got Happy Feet in the same slot for the second time in three years) and they have even less excuse as it normally rates far worse.

Also, Jim'll Fix It tonight was awful, and I'm going to predict it will never come back. Merry Christmas,

If ratings for TRB drop they will probably switch it with Mrs Brown Boys starting at 9pm and then TRB starting at 9.30, I highly doubt they will move a David Jason comedy to a graveyard slot no matter how badly it performs.

Dear Jim'll Fix It

Please can you fix it to write, produce and direct a primetime BBC1 sitcom starring David Jason

yours
Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni, aged 6 (apparantly)


And The Worst Week Of My Life was so good. What went wrong, guys?

Thanks. Hmmm, it doesn't seem to have gone down well anywhere, then! I do agree with you that if it can manage a high rated initial audience tonight, which I'm sure it will given all the promotion it's had and peach of a slot, it'll have plenty of room to drop and still end up at a respectable level. It will be interesting to see that if Mrs Brown's Boys takes off this series, if in a few weeks time, it's outrating its lead-in. As I said a few months ago, I have high hopes for MBB to become a staple of BBC1's comedy output over the next 5 years and I'm sure it's destined for a Christmas Day slot in the next few years.

The Royal Bodyguard will get one good rating for episode 1 and then will drop like a stone. It was terrible. Made by the people that did The Worst Week Of My Life. That was very good, David Jason is very good.

So what the hell went wrong tonight!?!

Meowwwwww ten times, but a cracking post.

Er.... it did.

Well, not very poorly, but half a million down on last year even including +1, despite having weaker competition this year. Not very impressive (although it didn't make much of an effort so it has an excuse.)

Significantly up on what it got in the years before that though, it's been known to sink to 5m.

that goes without saying, it should never even have been commissioned in the first place, yet alone given to an ego manic like Shane Richie.

Having just finished the Christmas turkey I would like to move to The Royal Bodyguard. I understand its been a bit of a flop, well I believe I said that months ago.