Well Moriarty is in it and trying to destroy Holmes, at the end of Series 1 - Holmes & Watson had laser sights trained upon them. I am hoping for an 8.5m rating, I think a lot of people will record BBC1/ITV1 and watch the other before 2am.

Edited version for those who don't want to plough through my essay (got carried away there...!)

Hit of the year: Strictly Come Dancing
Runner up: Downton Abbey.
Honourable mentions: Frozen Planet, Great British Bake Off, Luther.

Flop of the year: Red or Black.
Runner up: Don't Scare the Hare
Dishonourable mentions: High Stakes, Show Me The Funny, The Marriage Ref

New hit of the year: Mrs Brown's Boys
Runners up: Great British Bake Off, Scott & Bailey

Jaw-dropping rating of the year: Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
Runners up: Eric and Ernie, Frozen Planet, The X Factor ratings decline, The Royal Wedding

Mystifying rating of the year: Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
A mention also for the continued Tuesday Night Flopzone

“So glad that flopped” of the year:The Cowell triumvirate of disaster - Red or Black, TXF and BGT.
Runner up: Piers Morgan

“Such a shame that flopped” of the year:The Shadow Line failed to get anything like the ratings it deserved.
Runner up: Outcasts wasn't as bad as everyone made out.

Best Channel: BBC2

Dishonourable mentions:Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne
Runner up: Danny Cohen

How about worst scheduling? An award that would most definally go to Celebrity Masterchef.

Round-up in case anyone has missed anything so far:

New Year's Eve 2011
BBC One
18:25 - Winter Wipeout: 3.8m (19.4%)
19:25 - FILM: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: 5.0m (25.4%)
22:20 - Match of the Day: 4.3m (23.9%)
23:50 - New Year Live: 10.92m (55.63%)
* peak: 12.82m (64.39%) at 00:05
* 2010 average: 10.25m (52.5%)
* 2010 peak: 11.18m (55.3%)

BBC Two
23:15 - Jools’ Annual Hootenanny: 2.82m (19.84%) inc HD
* 2010: 3.27m (21.1%) inc HD

ITV1
18:30 - Harry Hill's Best of Christmas TV Burp: 3.2m (16.4%)
19:00 - Westlife: For the Last Time: 2.4m (11.9%)
20:00 - The Cube: 2.8m (14.3%)
21:00 - It'll be Alright on the Night: 3.7m (19.3%)
22:15 - The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song: 1.6m (8.9%)
23:45 - ITV News and Weather: 1.66m (8.66%)
* +1: 38.5k (0.36%)

Channel 4
21:00 - Alan Carr's New Year Specstacular: 2.0m (10.8%)
23:35 - Rude Tube: 674k (3.95%)
* +1: 103k (1.1%)

Channel 5 (inc +1 where specified)
12:00 - Ice Road Truckers: 440k (4.4%)
12:55 - Ben-Hur: 540k (4.3%)
16:35 - FILM: 21: 774k (4.1%)
19:00 - World's Strongest Man 2011 - 5/6: 1.04m (5.2%)
20:00 - TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks: 1.02m (5.3%)
* peak: 1.39m (7.5%) at 22:35
22:40 - Up the Front: 263k (1.5%)
* +1: 5k (0.04%)

Source: Broadcast, dubsj and Dancc on Digital Spy. Ratings include HD. Unsure if ITV1/C4 ratings include +1.

Has BBC1 actually trailed tonight's EastEnders? I've not seen anything for it, do people even know it's on today (Sunday) and in an early slot?

I think it managed to avoid being a flop. We didn't get any <3m ratings and the show may well continue. It just failed to meet expectations and that was more obvious because of its higher profile.

I missed High Stakes and Outcasts (probably the only major drama flop this year?) off the list of flops.

Alan Carr did well for C4 although I don't see the logic of having a New Year's Eve special finish 25 minutes before midnight.

C4 figures almost certainly include +1. At least, they normally do when dubsj reports them.

Quick question...

How much was Strictly down in 2011?

And how much was BGT down in 2011?

Interesting that for Robbie, one is a flop and one is "hit of the year" as I don't think there's really much difference.

EastEnders fans know its on.

I just dont hope that EE viewers dont turn off after the show at the end to have a good cry, causing them to miss Sherlock.

I guess Potter will do well for ITV, but it seems odd that it does, considering the book came out in 2005 and the movie in 2009, are there really people who are interested in Harry Potter who have not seen this movie already?

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian could have had a later slot, maybe switch it with Bolt.

Worth noting that The Great British Bake Off wasn't new as it started in 2010, with the first series officially averaging 2.8m.


- Strictly Come Dancing 2011 officially averaged 10.98m, down -2.2% from last year's 11.24m average.
- Britain's Got Talent 2011 officially averaged 10.92m/10.53m (inc/exc +1), down -1.2%/-4.7% from last year's 11.05m average.

Edit: Here's an update of this post from a couple months ago. The major reality show official averages of 2011 (year-on-year changes in brackets):

BBC One
1 - 10.98m - Strictly Come Dancing... (-2%)
2 - 8.80m - The Apprentice... (+10%)
3 - 5.43m - MasterChef... (+19%)

ITV1 (inc +1)
1 - 12.43m - The X Factor... (-12%)
2 - 10.92m - Britain's Got Talent... (-1%)
3 - 10.09m - I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!... (-3%)
4 - 8.53m - Dancing on Ice... (+3%)

Probably not. Plus a load of people will have got the last few films or maybe even the complete collection for Christmas, so this premiere couldn't be worse timed in that respect. Not sure really what ITV's thinking on this was but it won't do anywhere near as well as it could have done in a few months time.

It won't put much of a dent in but in a rare scheduling quirk I noticed also that the first hour clashes with the last hour of Deathly Hallows part 1 on Sky Movies Premiere.

You're right, I shouldn't have put it there. It was certainly a disappointment but it wasn't a flop (similar to Red or Black I suppose) and shouldn't have been in the top 10. I've just realised I forgot about High Stakes too, which should have been up there. Can't edit it now though.

Very good for BBC1 last night, I didn't expect Pirates to do so well. That was indeed the first repeat of it since it premiered 2 years ago, and it looks like waiting a while paid off for them. Terrific for New Year Live obviously too. Alright on The Night did decently for ITV but poor for The Cube and the Westlife repeat. TV Burp did alright I guess as it was a repeat of a best of and was only 600k off Wipeout. Strong rating for Alan Carr on C4, they should make it a regular thing (and start it a bit later so it can run past midnight).

For a BBC fanboy, you don't seem to watch much BBC.

Yes, BBC has trailed tonight's Eastenders and they've trailed Sherlock and they've trailed Ab Fab AND they've done a New Year's Day trailer, trailing all 3 programmes in one go, complete with times.

This morning, before the MOTD repeat, they showed the New Year's Day trailer followed immediately by the Sherlock trailer (and preceeded by the jazzy trailer they've produced for next Saturday's Casualty).

Ouch for ITV1, rather a dismal end to a year that has seen some mighty flops for the former people's channel. However, what do you expect by showing a TV Burp that features clips of Bad Girls, a show which is half forgotten now. Yet to be fair ITV1 has made some massive improvements in its non soap drama and factual content and its hits have been big during the year. However, it's just its entertainment, soaps, breakfast and morning output is so dire.
Channel 5 will be rubbing their hands this week as CBB is back in its correct slot and I am going for 6 million for the launch night.

This

Moment of the year Red or Black being beaten by Watchdog not just in Total viewers but also in 16-34's
Those consumer news loving kids

What are the ITV1 reality show averages excluding +1?

That would be amazing! I'm not as optimistic as you, but you never know.

The legendary Marcus Bentley says it's the best lineup ever: "In my opinion the best Celeb line up was 2 years ago - it's better than that! It's not going to be Robert DeNiro or Meryl Streep but there are some British household names, current media headliners and US stars."

Challenge currently repeating the Celebrity Millionaire featuring Jon Snow. He seems such a nice, down-to-earth chap but it took him five years to answer the £300 question.... That's the £300 easy question that a moron could answer without hearing the question. It doesn't require a lot of discussion.

Celebrities love the sound of their own voice, don't they?


I've slated the new-look Millionaire with its time limit on the questions, saying it rushes and spoils the programme, but maybe I should be supporting the change, cos now it means that the celebrities have to shut the **** up and just answer the ****ing question.

I see that ITV1 have scheduled the new pre-recorded New Year edition of Millionaire in its old Tuesday 8pm slot. Perhaps ITV are testing the water to see if they should bring back the weekly series, seeing as how, however poorly it was doing, it was still doing better than most of the other programmes they stucj in that slot.


(Nah, the time limit has has ruined the programme. And I doesn't look like Chris Tarrant enjoys hurrying. Stand up for yourself, Tarrant, you wimp. Speak out.)

CBB is generally more popular than the normal BB, which I think is completely shot now, and a good group of celebs will get people watching. I think a line up that would include someone like Abi Titmuss and Martin Sheen would be stellar.
Also my hopes for DOI, the best ITV reality show, are high as SCD success could rub off on this show and I'm going for 9 million a show. Remember, this does well and funds ITV's factual revival.
Looking ahead into the future, I predict BGT will hold steady at 11 million, but TXF should dip below 10 million as the last series posted a 12 pc decline. Perhaps Cowell will maybe announce a successor called UK Idol.

Tarrant spoke out about the ITV changes on the Richard Bacon radio show last year. He wants the non-celeb version back. Good luck with that one Chris!

Brilliant rating for New Year Live! Seems to be growing each year at the moment - I suppose as testament to the increasing notoriety of the great big firework displays in London. I've noticed at the parties I've attended that people seem to make more of an effort to ring in the New Year with the TV so they can keep one eye on the celebrations these days - whereas a few years ago you might have just stuck to the radio to hear the chimes.

Not much else of note from last night. Though the Pirates repeat did well and MOTD was just fine. Alan Carr put in a pleasing rating for Channel 4 too - I was berating them for the need for more fun, lively, unpredictable entertainment so I suppose I should offer credit for delivering that where it's due!

---

A great night of TV to kick off 2012 with too - ought to be very competitive. BBC One will obviously be the victor, but we'll have to wait and see what sort of impact the slightly unusual slot will have on EastEnders. Not sure really why they felt the need to push it back to match Harry Potter's start time. It'll probably grow over the course of the episode as viewers find it. Sherlock couldn't have hoped for a better slot to prove it's worth, though - I'm hoping it can push past 8m overnight, and I'm sure it'll time shift like a boss too.

Not sure what to expect from Harry Potter. I can't remember the premiere of the last HP film - what did that manage against what sort of opposition? Clearly this film has it's work cut out but I'm sure it'll make a good fist of things and find an audience with no intention of watching EE (and hence time shifting Sherlock if they wish).

Other channels might find themselves squashed (though I hope a decent alternative audience finds a home with BBC2's good looking offerings). Ordinarily, I'd be predicting huge things for Treasure Island on Sky1 - a big name story, a big name cast, a lavish production and a shedload of promotion - which would surely have been good for massive overnights by their usual standards. But they were probably banking on soap opposition - and not Sherlock and HP chasing the fantasy/adventure crowd as well! Still, Sky1 aren't really ones to worry about scheduling - they'll be happy to worship at the alter of Sky+, Anytime and the rest and will still manage 1m+ in tomorrow's figures. The more annoying thing for them will be the slight overshadowing of a flagship project in terms of press coverage, thanks to Sherlock's return.

there is no way 6 million people will be watching CBB, it will be 1.8 million, 2 million at the most.

Christmas Eve 2011 Officials
1...EastEnders - 9.21m (32.7%)
2...Outnumbered - 8.47m (31.0%)
3...Merlin - 8.18m (28.9%)
4...Lapland - 6.89m (30.4%)
5...The Cube - 5.25m (22.3%) [+1: 273k]

Impressive +1.8m and +1.5m timeshifts for Merlin and Outnumbered. Perhaps an indicator that the following night's timeshifts will be high too?

That 8.18m was Merlin's second best ever rating and means it had a consolidated series average of 7.17m, up +6% vs. 2010. It's BBC1's fifth most watched drama series of 2011 (excluding Great Expectations):

1 - 9.24m - New Tricks
2 - 7.97m - Silent Witness
3 - 7.52m - Doctor Who (will rise with Xmas Day ep)
4 - 7.30m - South Riding
5 - 7.17m - Merlin


Excluding +1: TXF: 12.05m, BGT: 10.53m, IAC: 9.66m, DOI: 8.33m.

Not as such.
They shown it part of the 'New Years Day On BBC1' Trailer but that's all.
At the end of Friday's episode they didn't even mention tonight's which is very odd.

It's such a big episode,End of a legend and has been praised very highly with TV critics.(a return to 80's Enders)

There's also a special theme at the end and the opening credits will feature the Olympic Park...