@MichaelRosser: ITV1's Dancing on Ice sipped to 7.1m (222k +1) and 5.9m (192k +1) for the results - its lowest of the current series.

Out of interest are DOI ratings the highest figures that Bleakley has regularly got?

Sam Hodges @Sam_Hodges 34m Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
BBC1's #CalltheMidwife was yesterday's highest rating programme, averaging 8.6m, peaking at 9.2m.

Sam Hodges @Sam_Hodges 31m Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
#BBC1's adaptation of #Birdsong opens with an average of 6.0m viewers, the highest rating programe between 9 -10.30pm (exc +1 channels)

Michael Rosser
ITV1's Wild at Heart drew 6.37m (286k +1) - 840k down on the series debut two weeks ago.

Michael Rosser
C5's Celebrity Big Brother continued with 1.77m (91k +1) - 140k up on last Sunday's highlights.

Michael Rosser
C4's The Hotel booked in 1.18m (254k +1) at 8pm - but film 127 Hours managed a solid 2.32m (288k +1) at 9pm.

Amazing rating for Call the Midwife, well deserved but it's shame Birdsong didn't get more, 6m is still ok, but it deserved a lot more. DS were mixed to negative about it, but people on here are rarely positive, especially when it comes to the BBC. My twitter feed adored it (mainly journalists and authors), and so did I.

I would think so.

Did she ever do Children In Need? that might have seen her get hgih ratings.

I'm not surprised by birdsongs rating, I predicted 6.3. Yes it deserves better, but it's not a chocolate box type drama in the vein of Call the Midwife or Downton, alot slower and at times upsetting. I really liked it and loved the book, but I'd guess it will be about 5 next week. Just the nature of the subject IMO.

I'm surprised Birdsong rated as well as that. It was slow and felt more like BBC2 than BBC One. I don't know the book, but it would appear that reading it favourably influences opini

Agreed, I think it is more a BBC2 show. I was actually surprised when I saw it was for BBC1.

I'm surprised Birdsong rated as well as that. It was slow and felt more like BBC2 than BBC One. I don't know the book, but it would appear that reading it favourably influences opinion ...

And I certainly wouldn't brand Call The Midwife a 'chocolate box drama'. DA, sure, but I don't see that ever tackling teenage prostitution or poverty.

Great to see ITV1's tired Sunday evening line-up getting a much deserved beating!

I suppose you're right, 6m is still great for it. I agree it's certainly not like Downton, if it was the lead would be popping back home from the war every week, without even a scratch, for a sing song or dinner party.

8.6 million for Ctm is incredible, just look at downtons overnights, some are very close. So the question is, how are they gonna screw it up???

Excellent for Call The Midwife. Very good also for 127 Hours which is a decent movie but not one I thought would draw in the big audiences like that due to the very nature of it.

I wouldn't say "Call The Midwife" was a chocolate box drama, that's what I assumed it would be based on the trailers but I would say it's legitmately gripping after last night and deserves it's ratings. I also like Downton a lot but I wouldn't say they were the same thing at all. I loved "Birdsong" as a book but was disappointed by the episode last night, I think there's a lot of emotion that just can't translate easily to screen. 6 million + is still a good number for it though.

We are only two episodes in so far and it's important to remember that. But I guess the comparisons to Downton are inevitable as that was the last British drama I can recall launching this well.

That's an outstanding rating for Call the Midwife. I had a feeling it would grow its audience on last week.

Not too surprised for the figures for Dancing on Ice. They aren't disastrous figures, but it really is a dull programme compared to the other reality shows on TV. I watched part of it last night and must say Christine Bleakley is doing a grand job though.

Helped by being one of the few titles that bypassed Sky Movies, and only had a PPV window.

Incredible numbers for Call the Midwife. It is really hurting Dancing On Ice as well, 7.1m for DOI must be one of its lowest ever ratings for performances, certainly the last 2 series lowest was around 7.6m.

If Call the Midwife can hold above or around 8m then it will have a very similar series average to what Downton Abbey had in its first series. Although we don't know whether it has similar timeshfts to Downton yet (I suspect not).

By sticking Top Gear up against it from next week.

Mr Spence seems to be a major turnoff for DOI viewers.
also Missing Holly seemed to be a big twitter subject last night also.

Sorry for asking again Was there any word on the 30 mins of livefeed on 5* for Friday please?

I don't think Louie is a turn off - the new judging panel is actually much better - especially Katarina Witt.

DOI's problem is it's too long and too many ad breaks.

How about Time Team?

Yes the Ad breaks seemed to be hacking a lot of people off also.katarina is a good addition love her Blunt but not rude views.

This afternoon hopefully around lunchtime.


Once again we underestimated Midwife!


Amazing ratings performance I said that the rating would go up for episode 2. People were talking about it like crazy on Twitter. Telling people to watch and some watching on iPlayer during the week curious about it. We could be witnessing the birth of a ratings phenomenon.

I agree about Call The Midwife. It's definitely not "chocolate box" Sunday night drama. When you consider that alongside it launching against two established hits on ITV in Dancing On Ice and Wild At Heart, that its ratings performance is exceptional.

I don't buy this adbreak rubbish. Downton wasn't affected by the complaints and frankly people can record these days.

More likely its because twitter just allows people to complain at once, I remember watching 24 on Sky and always sighing when an ad popped in, same with Million Pound Drop.

Do you know what? It didn't affect them.

So no I don't buy the advert thing is forcing people to turn off, makes little sense as we know recordings is up so in the end they'd be added into the overnights or finals anyway.


So no - its rubbish and a wee meme for people to moan about. ITV's version of 'This is what they waste my license fee on!?'

DOI is just facing much much competition than it has ever faced; is the tackier looking of the reality shows; has never been the word of mouth like Strictly, or as liked by its fans; it only did well on Sundays for the same reason X Factor Results do - people put it on in the background, and there are just more people in on a Sunday.

The BBC is countering this very very well. Expect DOI to be down next week as well, its losing viewers because its never been very good, but in the past theres not been much else on.

Well Call The Midwife did more than just "hold up" then! Brilliant ratings - straight into the big league of TV dramas. The BBC execs must be ecstatic to finally land a big 6 parter hit. A shame that following on Birdsong couldn't manage to hold more of the viewers at 9pm - though to be fair a 6m overnight versus WAH/DOI would be considered very impressive by any other measure.

The Dancing On Ice ratings are looking distinctly ordinary. Having been right up there with the biggest talent shows a few years ago, its lagging pretty severely now. Not sure what ITV can do to help revive it, really - they've already tried shuffling the panel. To be fair, though, Wild at Heart is actually still doing very well considering it's sandwich is made of limper stuff this year and it's got big-hitting opposition.

Sensational numbers for CTM - up nearly 700k on the week.

I'm sure rzt will be able to tell us the last new drama series that went up by 700k between eps 1 and 2, but I bet he'll have to trawl back a long way in the data banks.

I can't wait to see the official ratings for ep1 this afternoon, and can't imagine what the series would be getting if it wasn't up against two of ITV's biggest shows (sorry, what used to be two of ITV's biggest shows... ).

Shame that it has to contend with one of the BBC's biggest shows, TG, next week - both are going to get squeezed there, although I imagine a fairly complementary rather than competitive demographic in the main.

And in the age of mass timeshifting, does it really matter anyway - those who want to watch CTM and TG will do so...

I'm disappointed with Birdsong, as I feared it did get squeezed although 127 Hours didn't rate as high as I thought. It'll timeshift ok though I expect, you can probably add a million to that overnight figure.