That seems low considering how it's been rating recently. I would say it should be over 10m at least.

I watched last night for Miranda and out of curiosity, but it's certainly not my thing and I won't be bothering again - the return of TG sorts that one out anyway.

I see the Beeb's press blurb today claims the 9.8m for ep1 makes it "BBC One’s highest launch episode of a new drama on record".

That can't possibly be right.

Of all time? Ever?

Can it?

As a woman I love it.

I guess it is female friendly and very well done. It has some of our top older actresses in there, too, do not forget....including Vanessa Redgrave in every episode and yet never actually seen on screen.

She plays the real life young midwife Jenny (Lee in the show, Worth in real life) recounting her memoirs after retirement. The exact same thing that Larkrise did using Sarah Lancashire in that unseen role but heard every episode.

Indeed Call the Midwife is clearly a direct sequel in many respects.

Shame that the real Jenny has not lived to see the show (she died just as shooting started last summer after being involved quite closely in putting the series together).

Her memoirs (same title as the show) are number one in the bookselling charts as well this week BTW.

The skew will likely be quite heavily female as all the women I know are loving it.

Shall we open a book on what ITV's soon to be commisioned drama series featuring midwifes will be called?

They had a reasonable hit with William and Mary pre Doc Martin with Martin Clunes as an undertaker and Julie Graham as a midwife. Was presumably going to be called Hatches and Despatches but someone chickened out.

On Dancing on Ice they seem to have responded to the ratings slump by announcing a major twist that will shock the contestants.

It will be announced at midnight and they will film the contestants finding out!

There will be a feature on this on This Morning tomorrow.

Any ideas what gimmick (um great idea) they will be trying out?

On This Morning today Mark suggested it should be letting him back in....

My suggestion is that they thaw the ice out and try Dancing on Sludge for a week.

It is definitely not the best BBC1 launch on record. Shoestring launched in 1979 during the ITV strike and that got over 20m.

I keep saying this but the fact Call The Midwife has launched so well is incredible when you consider several factors.

It isn't your usual twee Sunday night comfortable "chocolate box" drama. It's quite gritty in places. It didn't launch after getting a huge lead-in from The X Factor (Downton Abbey) or Britain's Got Talent (Scott & Bailey). And it faces two big hits in Dancing On Ice/Wild At Heart.

It's what I call a true hit rather than a pseudo hit. Pseudo hits are programmes which get a nice leg up and face minimal competition to get ratings. Call The Midwife was thrown in at the deep end and it is swimming!

Wow. That's brilliant - could we conceivably see that breaching 10m with timeshift judging by its monster timeshift from 7.9m to 9.8m? Would be interested to see a breakdown for Call the Midwife and Birdsong.

On another note, Danny Cohen is having a superb start to the year on BBC1 and I'm very impressed with the new Sunday night dramas - they should make the Sunday 8pm slot their own, like ITV did with Heartbeat. Infact, I think BBC1 and 2 are having a pretty good start to the year.



Oooh....I put 9.4m down for the 7.30pm ep, and I think it'll get close to 10m to the 8.30pm ep. I think I underestimated as usual but even if it gets somewhere around 9.4m, I suspect the share will be around 41%.

If the ITV plan to strip Superstar over three weeks in July is true this has a major flaw.

This will be exactly when a large percentage of the ITV audience go on holiday. If you are away for even a week this is bound to deter you from ever bothering to watch as there is no way you can invest in a programme like this if you miss a large chunk of the densely packed episodes that depend upon rooting for and voting in/out contestants.

After all it will be all over the media who is kicked out (or page 37 of the Sun by day two at least) and so nobody will record these type of shows to watch on catch up.

So this kind of stripping would put off maybe half the (likely lowish) audience numbers before you start.

Astonishing rating for Call The Midwife. ITV has definitely lost its hold on Sundays now and will struggle to get it back. Admittedly not much else could get 7m across 2 1/2 hours on primetime ITV1, but if it falls any lower then considering how much it costs and the fact it doesn't attract as many younger viewers (?) than other shows it can't be making much of a profit. I can easily see why the viewers have deserted it. It's just so boring nowadays. The judging panel has been dire since they reduced to 3 judges. Christine is capable enough, but she's duller than the judges. If things carry on going the way they are I'll give it another year before it's axed. WAH is very expensive too and can't afford to fall out of that 6m bracket surely.

It was a shame CBB was quite low as it was a great episode. Not been watching Ch5 today, but I hope they're using the clip that was on BOTS last night to promote tonights episode. I can't wait!

whatever that is, its going to be something pretty major, otherwise its going to have been way over hyped, and a massive let down. TBH im not sure what it could be, that warrants the filming of contestants finding out, which does not destroy the basic format for the show.

I speak as someone who watched the 35 minute Doctor Who: Confidential reveal of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, over a year before he appeared on screen.


I am not for a moment questioning how good it is, or how well made it is (I suspect its both) however its not a show that is going to easily find favour with male viewers.

I had the very same thought earlier today.

ITV's drama commissioning team will almost certainly be panicking and trying to find something with babies in it somewhere. Because they have no original ideas. Whatsoever.

Bringing back former slaphead Jason Gardiner? It won't make any difference. The people that are watching will continue to. The ones that were floating viewers have gravitated to Call The Midwife. I think we're finding out many watched Dancing On Ice because it was there rather than because they love it. Doesn't seem much wrong with the show from the bits I've seen it's just there's a really strong alternative now.

Had a look on the DOI forum here to see if anyone has leaked the twist.

Various ideas from the mundane (double elimination) to suggestions of pairs, changing partners etc.

But Sam has tweeted that the twist is 'great' as the celebs have just been told it seems.

Sky claiming yesterday's match between Arsenal and Manchester United was the highest rated Super Sunday match ever.

Averaged 3.2m, peaked at 3.55m.

They're going to sack Christine Bleakley.

lol that would do it.

That said and being serious for a moment, that would be cruel. I can only assume its a change to the judging line up, or that they are going to film it at some world famous ice rink, I dont know about.

Theres a ice rink in Peterborough, yep thats my guess the twist is that they will film a show at Peterborough Ice Rink.

Any figures for Man City/Tottenham game? I thought that was a superior game to the Arsenal/Man Utd one, especially with that brilliant second half.

They could make the celebrities ski jump off a ramp over Christine, Philip, Louis and Jason and see what happens?

That might get a few viewers in.

From Here to Maternity

I'd agree although Dancing on Ice has always struck me as an incredibly flawed show. The basic format of 'Strictly on ice' is fine on paper but in reality it hits the very real stumbling block that dancing on ice is incredibly difficult and a very technical event that isn't always particularly exciting to watch especially not when your contestants are having to effectively move in slow motion because they don't have the experience or confidence to do it any other way. I think when you compare it to Strictly this flaw becomes magnified because whilst Strictly absolutely has terrible dancers they also have at least one or two contestants who genuinely excel and progress throughout the series something that Dancing on Ice has never had because its so bloody difficult. In essence the problem Dancing on Ice has always had is that it just isn't very visually exciting or engaging in the way Strictly is because its so hard.

It seems foolish to be talking of axing a show that's still pulling 7 million viewers but I honestly think ITV should consider it especially now the BBC has found some big guns to air against it in Q1. Obviously it leaves a giant hole in their schedule for 2013 though which presents something of a problem. I suppose if by some miracle Superstar finds an audience they could move to the Lloyd Webber musical shows to Q1 next year. Or I suppose they could be a little more adventurous and try and UK version of something like The Amazing Race.

Or they could melt the ice completely – Dancing in Water, a synchronised swimming contest.

No average for that match but according to The BBC's Kevin Bakhurst on Twitter it peaked at 2.85m, which I suspect is close to a record audience for a 1.30 kick off on Sky.

Adrian Chiles is replacing Schofield apparently

After which the show will be renamed Falling Through the Ice?