Others...

World's Toughest Trucker: 1.25m/5.1% (finished early, not tapechecked)
Celeb Wedding Planner: 1.02m/5.2%
Celeb BB's Bit on the Side: 668k/5.2%

New Sky 1 comedy Stella launches with 725k, peaking at 825k.

Source: John Williams

Final part of Public Enemies watched by 3.8 million.

Source: Railway Arms

Yeah. Still early days, but that is excellent retention for episode 2 compared to previous series. I think it helped that Hustle was delayed.

Brilliant retention from CBB. But tonight being a Saturday and slot change or 8:30pm, it will obviously drop.

With CBB included that is a really good night for Channel 5 is it not?

Its retention is high because its launch night audience was relatively low. Considerably less casual viewers tuning in on Thursday.

Until you posted that, I had forgotten about Keith Chegwin's naughty bits..... :/

Sky1 really seem to have hit their stride with UK comedy, the fifth strong start for a pay-tv channel since August. They've recommissioned Trollied, Mount Pleasant and Spy for extended runs later this year already.

Their fourth show - The Cafe - didn't seem to have as much buzz but I don't think the viewing figures were terrible - there hasn't been any word on that one as far as recommission I think.

Well Channel 5 has been doing better under Richard Desmond.....

A couple more overnights:

Law & Order UK: 4.8m (inc +1: 5.3m)
New Girl: 1.4m (inc +1)

Source: Liam Hamilton, John Williams

I think its good to see Sky doing well with these shows, as for too long their domestic output was generally cheap and crap. Now they seem to be properly investing in British content, and its doing the Sky One brand the world of good.

Not an absolute disaster then for BBC1. The fear was L&O launching to >5m, possibly well over, and causing Hustle big problems next week. It should easily beat L&O if it could only manage 4.8m.

I wonder if they should have held Hustle back to the autumn to run against Downton as they did with Spooks successfully last year? I do wonder what they are going to use this year to keep it in check. I fear they might write the slot off and air repeats or arty farty nonsense, helping DA build further.

Pretty good start for Law and Order considering it traditionally doesn't do well on Friday's.

And I imagine Channel 4 will be really pleased with New Girl in a difficult slot.

Thanks.

I shall bookmark that for next time.

I think things like zeebox are fantastic innovations and just going to prove that online and television are complimentary. It also flies in the face that new media junkies think the future of tv viewing behaviours will be non-live, catch up, on demand. I don't buy it, the rise in social media around television means people will still want to watch as live, if they physically can. I'm only just getting into the social networking thing but the sheer volumes of chatter is very interesting.

5 million for Law and Order UK is very good. It was one of the best episodes of the British version with more emphasis on Bradley Walsh and the 'Law' side of the equation and less tedium from the 'Order' part - so should hold better than expected.

It also has a late night Monday repeat on ITV 1 and HD so that is a new feature that will help those faced with the Hustle clash next week. Smart move by ITV as I guess the decision on a further run of L & O is in the balance.

But a regularly returning 13 part series getting 4.5 - 5 million after several years is not going to be seen as that bad by ITV, surely?

As for Eternal Law, surprised to see so many calling it brave and original.

Anyone who has seen the long running and still repeated popular drama Touched by an Angel will know it shares more than a few similarities - rookie angel mystified by life on Earth, trained up by a worldly wise one and even the jokes about the choir. TBAA even did an episode where they were lawyers - though defending a more interesting case (Star Trek's Q suing God for not making it rain and destroying a town's livelihood as I recall).

The reason why TBAA ran for years and is well loved and why Eternal Law won't and isn;t is because the former was quirky and fun with likeable characters and a good heart whereas Eternal Law seems to have stopped when they checked off quirky.

Some more overnights from last night:

BBC One
20:30- The One Lenny Henry: 2.88m (11.7%)
21:00- Public Enemies: 3.83m (15.5%)

BBC Two
20:00- Mastermind: 2.11m (8.5%)
20:30- Mastermind: 2.03m (8.2%)
21:00- Sicily Unpacked: 1.58m (6.4%)

ITV1
20:00- Safari Vet School: 2.94m (11.9%) , +1:103k (0.4%)
21:00- Law & Order: UK: 4.8m (18.4%) , +1: 426k (2.2%)

Channel 4
20:30- New Girl: 1.22m (4.9%) , +1: 217k (0.9%)
21:00- The Bank Job: 1.11m (4.5%) , +1: 184k (0.9%)

Channel 5
20:00- World's Toughest Trucker: 1.18m (4.8%)
21:00- Celebrity Big Brother: 2.44m (9.9%) , +1: 170k
22:00- Celebrity Wedding Planner: 936k (4.8%) , +1: 84k
23:00- Celebrity Big Brother's Bit On The Side: 619k (4.8%) , +1: 49k

Primetime Shares
ITV1: 22.6%
BBC One: 19.2%
BBC Two: 7.8%
Channel 5: 5.4%
Channel 4: 4.7%

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Source: DS

According to Live+7, Doctor Who won the BBC ratings Christmas Day ratings battle with 12.88m.

High +1 audience as well for Law and Order - presuming Hustle knocks more off Law and Order next week, the +1 audience could end up being ~0.6/0.7m.

A very poor rating for Lenny Henry. His shows haven't drawn ratings in quite a few years. It's less than what The Two Ronnies Sketchbook was getting! And that's been repeated several times!

Yes there's been quite the discussion about that on previous pages.

Both ITV's/BBC's pre-9 offerings were pretty dire. Look at those shares!

New Girl did poorly I think - but hopefully it does well on record.

CBB - great rating. The average will be up on last year I think (although I think Frankie is a big mistake) - on tonights slot change etc. - Ch5 should think about making the Monday show longer and cutting weekends altogether - would create a big pull for people to watch I think and boost the whole week.

L&O did okay-ish - don't see it as amazing tbh and think it'll be rather soft - e.g. losing viewers to Hustle next week - which should be good for 5 million.
Public Enemies held up well across 3 days - a good success but I can't see finals rising much and iplayer seems rather quiet for a drama.


Zeebox looks like a great idea to me - especially if internet TV takes off (Project Canvas) - its a fantastic way to create a living room between your friends over the internet. Really looks good! Problem with these things is in getting groups of people to start using it (so many of these 'experiments' fail - but it certainly looks good!)

It is not however a tool for ratings, only for categorising yourself and your friends, connecting with them and others.

Good rating for the return of Law & Order UK considering it is now in a Friday slot which traditionally rates lower than other days of the week and is often a problem slot for ITV.

BBC1's striped drama looks to have been a bit of a flop, as does 'The One...'

ITV have done quite well at 9pm this week.

New Girl never even stood a chance in that timeslot so I suppose that it rated above 1m is a respectable start. Good start for Law And Order UK and Channel 5 retaking the lead in prime time shares over C4 now that CBB is back on air.