I think that mix is what we need, I hope they don't overcompensate and fill it with old people. Whats making this series interesting is that the older contestants are acting more like children and we are seeing the younger ones (some at least) become parental over the situation. It's those kinds of peculiar dynamics that were missing from last years run and something I hope they reinstate for the summer.

I agree. It makes for better house dynamics.

That mix is what has made this series of CBB so enjoyable. I hope they learn from that for the next series of Big Brother.

I'm not convinced that better casting and/or tweaking the format will provide a massive uplift for the regular version. It might very well produce a small pick-up on where it was last year but I don't think it'll get much more than that. I think perhaps Five have to accept that we're living in a different age to a decade ago and that audiences as a whole don't really have the time or desire to commit to a nightly show that runs for a couple of months. You can still pull decent enough figures for a celebrity version which runs for 3 weeks and has the advantage of coming with (some) housemates the audience already knows and has pre-formed opinions on but I think that might just be the limit.

Forget Celeb Wedding Planner, this is the show that people are going to remember from Channel 5 this month:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa0Qa3cErZU

Their output is more diverse than people give them credit for and documentaries like this are one example of why I continue to rate C5 very highly.

Strong Coronation Street ratings, that is the highest rating for the 2nd episode I've seen in a long time.

It might be the show that you remember Five for this month but nobody else will just as nobody remembers all the quality factual shows that BBC3 produces every year. Its the bad stuff that sticks in the mind.

But this does highlight my continuing problem with Five – there is absolutely no coherent identity for the channel. Its like its being run by three or four different people who never communicate with one another and all have completely contradictory ideas about what the channel should be and what it should be airing. Its all very well peddling out the 'diverse content' tag but I can't help but feel if they were a little less diverse (read all over the map with their commissions) and a little more focused they might actually be able to build a consistently healthy audience for the channel.

Any info on what the CBB LF got on 5* last night?

https://twitter.com/#!/JohnWilliams0...96097902678016

Think he's getting it mixed up with the second eviction show.

1.7m has to be for the second eviction show.

No way is 5* going to be pulling in those numbers.

seems very unlikely.

Agreed

The thing is though increasingly the perception of channels is defined by one or two shows - hence why signing up Katie Price is suicide for anyone and hence why C5 snapping up Big Brother detracts from anything else they have to offer.

It does seem to lurch from one direction to another: in the early days it was a weird mixture of old films, porn and repeats of Aussie soaps, then it went strongly into reality as the trend was taking off and then after the scandal with the Farm dropped reality altogether. In recent years Five has had such diverse offerings as The Royal Society Lectures in the same schedule as Neighbours. I'm not knocking them, it's just they need a consistent game plan and they really need a big hit if Des wants to take on ITV1. However, the way Channel 4 is going, I can see Channel 5 overtaking them soon.

Here's how the soaps averaged share-wise by region for the episodes on Monday 9th January (adults aged 16+ viewers). I'd say it's quite typical of their regional distribution normally:
Corrie had its highest regional share in the North East region and joint smallest regional share in the East of England and London areas. Not sure why it's more popular in the North East than North West? EE's highest regional share was in the Ulster region and lowest in the South West. Emmerdale's best region was the North East and worst was the East of England. Emmerdale had a better share than EastEnders in 7 out of 13 regions. Share-wise, Emmerdale managed to tie Corrie in Border and beat its fellow ITV1 soap in the South, South East and Channel Islands areas.

Interesting stuff.

If you take UTV out of the equation, it is interesting, yet somewhat predictable that London & the East are the regions where Corrie and Emmerdale are the least popular but EastEnders is the most popular. The north/south split obviously does exsist.

The East seems odd until you remember that the East region doesn't just include Norfolk/Suffolk but also includes the likes of Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire etc that have London as their main focus.

Also interesting that as far as the North/South divide is concerned, the South West behaves like the North.

Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, we know that obviously Corrie and Emmerdale would be more popular in the north etc, but it's interesting seeing the stats themselves. EE actually does better than Scotland than I expected, it seems to be almost as popular as Corrie there share-wise.

It's interesting seeing the regional breakdowns in general. Here's a Take Me Out episode for example:

Network 19%, East 14%, London 17%, Midlands E 18%, Midlands W 20%, North E & Cumbria 25%, North West 22%, Scotland 15%, South East 19%, South 18%, South West 16%, Ulster 22%, Wales 18%, West 20%, Yorks and Lincs 18%

It does much better in the North East than East of England for example, and not that popular in Scotland for some reason.

Doesnt Take Me Out have a northern as its host?

Yes he is from Farnworth in Bolton - Peter Kay country. He does have a workmanlike appeal similar to Vernon Kay - also Bolton, it must be something in the water there. I hope the rating stands up well tonight (not a fan, just gone high in the RPG) - I can see who Dares Wins winning the night tonight up against very weak opposition in The Talent Show Story, closely followed by Casualty.

cant speak for Paddy, but "workman like appeal" is not a word I would use to describe Vernon Kay.

Shambles last night.
Stella ran for a couple of minutes, then the sound broke down and it carried on in silence.
The commercials in the middle worked fine
Then the show broke down again for part 2 and so Sky1 pulled it for an episode of The Simpsons, and the tape they should have put on screen offering apologies didn't work either!

To be fair, the Sky1 controller seems mortified at last night's events and has been apologising on a regular basis since. Hopefully people have caught up through their Sky Anytime red button service and they've changed their schedules to include extra chances to see it again.
It would be a shame if the show suffered because of this.

http://twitter.com/stuartmurphy100

Well I meant working class Northern charm, seems the ladies go for it.

I can see 'Stella' taking 2 slots in the Sky One Top 10 on BARB officials a week on Monday.

again, is that something you think Vernon Kay has?

Am I seeing a different Vernon Kay to everybody else?

Perhaps Sky have been inspired by the success of the film The Artist.

Is this related the slight picture interference I suffered during Hustles opening titles on Friday?