Funny how overnights in the 4-5m mark for major new ITV dramas in the depths of winter are considered acceptable now, or even "good".

Lenny Henry got what it deserved. Pulled from Christmas and sent to die opposite Corrie.

They'll probably put Luther or spy drama series Nemesis against Downton Abbey to keep it in check, as they would probably get 4m+ in the overnights due to appealing to a different kind of audience (younger, more male-skewing, etc).

5 million is surely acceptable in this day and age for ANY returning drama series that is in its 3rd (or 6th) series (depends how you count them!)

If it falls to around 3 million that is different.

What is good or bad has changed over time as the multi channel digital age has expanded.

When we made Strange But True? we got cancelled when we were getting nearly 7 million in 1997 (earlier series were getting up to 12 million).

Those figures would dominate this thread if repeated these days.

Different world bringing different expectations.

CBB trending to expectations, 2.5 million is good for Channel 5 and this seems to be the average rating for the show now. Celebrity Wedding Planner looks like a pile of junk, with Jedward appearing, but BB has helped this to get a million viewers and will have pleased Des.
My main hope for Channel 5 is by all means show a bit of reality, but don't go down the ITV 2/Sky Living route of showing programmes based around reality show contestants that most people don't give a damn about.

No doubt the consolidated figures for L&O and Eternal Law will end up at 5m, possibly even for Public Enemies ep1 as well. But overnights of 4.1m, 4.3m and 4.8m do seem a bit anaemic in the first week of January for the 3 dramas on BBC1 and ITV1 since Wednesday. When you think Sherlock overnighted at 8.8m and Endeavour 6.5m (itself a bit below par frankly).

yes out for Lenny Henry, he wont be appearing on our TV screens anytime soon.

Luther might do ok although not as established as Spooks was and I think Hustle would have been a stronger challenger to Downton. I fear Luther would sink again, and I doubt the Beeb will want to risk it there after its success last year.

I do wonder if they will just wave the white flag. New Tricks repeats, George Gently repeats or burn off some of the higher end artier commissions they haven't otherwise found a home for during 2012.

Other than the extended repeat tomorrow night at 10.25pm...

Why are the BBC obsessed with extended repeats? Do they expect people to watch again to see the bits they cut from the main showing? Surely it will only encourage people not to watch the first look and wait for the repeat - like I usually do now with HIGNFY, sometimes do with QI, and did with John Bishop at Christmas.

An unusual request but it would be interesting to know if Challenge had more viewers for Blockbusters than usual last night following the death of Bob Holness.


Well C5 can't come up with any ideas of it's own so it might as well continue it's masterplan of becoming a dumping ground for shows other channels have axed.

I'm trying to avoid getting into petty arguments about Celebrity Big Brother this time around but although it was a low launch figure the retention figure for episode 2 is healthy enough - though proof C5 should be concentrating on serving loyal fans rather than the "casual" viewer. Bit on the Side had a healthy figure on Thursday too.

Lenny Henry has been dogged by rotten material for years, which is a shame as a stand up and in straight roles he is very good. I remember his sketch shows in the eighties being panned as they just weren't funny. Also the Brixton Broadcasting Company was a bit too niche for BBC1 at the time. However, his finest moments will always be Tiswas and Three of a Kind.

Fairly decent return for Law and Order, but will wait to next week to judge it's success against Hustle. Pretty limp finish for Public Enemies. C.M.W. said it had been delayed from October and it did rather seem like it had been pushed out this week with relatively little thought - won't live long in the memory.

Some good news for CBB on Channel 5 with a healthy second episode, so we'll have to see where it goes from here. I was expecting it to fall right down to the 2m marker quite quickly. Perhaps I was pessimistic, or perhaps there's just plenty of time yet. Time will tell.

And that's surely a disappointing rating for New Girl. The promotional push that went behind it (I saw adverts on busses over Christmas) must surely have had expectations higher than that? What a shame - I thought it was rather good. Channel 4 have no-one but themselves to blame for the awful scheduling though. 8.30 sandwiched between CDWM and a duff gameshow - who thought that was a good idea? They should be pushing other US comedy from E4 to the main channel, but I expect New Girl will go the other way quite quickly instead.

At least Lenny Henry had zero promotion. I never saw anything on the BBC channels. The only place I knew about his show was on this thread.

Where as The Bank Job had massive publicity on Channel 4 over a month before the show began. With constant adverts, promotions featuring George Lamb and plugs on The Million Pound Drop. Yet, it got their lowest rating last night and got beaten by all four major channels.

That'll teach them to alienate the viewers and select people who are good looking and under 35. Also from what I've read, they will be doing the Prisoners Dilemma/Golden Balls Split or Steal tonight to determine any winners.

Channel 4 is just a mess. They must still be reeling from the low ratings for Hacks, an expensive drama that only pulled in 700, 000 viewers. Their talk of a creative renewal after BB has seen them flog their few hits into the ground, bring back Shipwrecked( no more BB rip offs, really?) and launch flop shows.

Does anyone have the ratings for Top of the Pops - The Story of 1977 on BBC Four last night?

Public Enemies didn't lose too much for it's final airing but it would probably have done better over it's scheduled nights. The One Lenny Henry struggled as did Safari Vet School considering programming have hit 4m in those slots before. Law and Order: UK performed well, and the +1 figure could help the show out against the tougher opposition of Hustle next week. Mastermind recorded decent figures on BBC Two but Sicily Unpacked didn't make the most of a 2m lead in. The Bank Job has never taken off for Channel 4 with mediocre rating across it's run but New Girl didn't perform too badly considering it's somewhat stranded in the slot. Celebrity Big Brother performed well for Channel 5; I expected a bigger dip than that on the launch. Celebrity Wedding Planner did ok, possibly benefiting from the Big Brother sandwich as Bit On The Side held up ok considering it's late finish. Channel 5 will be pleased World's Toughest Trucker managed to record a rating above the 1m mark as well.

The One comedies... (Lenny Henry, Griff Rhys Jones, Jasper Carrott) have been trailed by the BBC. I'm not a fan of Lenny's (although I think his Michael Jackson's Thriller sketch is one of the funniest, cleverest sketches ever) but I will be watching the Griff and Jasper shows.

Lenny Henry shows, IIRC, have never rated particularly well. Not Chef, not Hope And Glory his school drama. I wonder if Jasper and Griff might rate better with their Monday night slots.

Incidentally, got a bit of a shock when I saw the trailer this afternoon for Monday's Royal Bodyguard. It made me laugh out loud, and for all the right reasons. What's more, it was a verbal joke, rather than a piece of slapstick.

A chart I did a few months ago, but now with a slight adjustment:

Most Watched Shows of 2011 [Top 20 - The 'Alternative' List]
01 - 8.80m - BIG FAT GYPSY WEDDINGS (08/02/11) - C4
02 - 7.72m - COMIC RELIEF (18/03/11) - BBC2/HD
03 - 7.38m - TOP GEAR (23/01/11) - BBC2/HD
04 - 6.65m - ERIC AND ERNIE (01/01/11) - BBC2
05 - 5.27m - CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER (17/08/11) - C5

06 - 5.06m - THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF (04/10/11) - BBC2
07 - 4.77m - DRAGONS' DEN (31/07/11) - BBC2/HD
08 - 4.59m - MORECAMBE AND WISE CHRISTMAS SHOW (01/01/11) - BBC2
09 - 4.58m - PAGE EIGHT (28/08/11) - BBC2/HD
10 - 4.45m - FILM: ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (13/11/11) - C4

11 - 4.42m - WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE (06/03/11) - BBC2/HD
12 - 4.35m - MATCH OF THE DAY (25/01/11) - BBC2/HD
13 - 4.32m - MADAGASCAR (15/02/11) - BBC2/HD
14 - 4.27m - CHILDREN IN NEED (18/11/11) - BBC2/HD
15 - 4.21m - THE APPRENTICE - YOU'RE FIRED! (13/07/11) - BBC2/HD

16 - 4.17m - EMBARRASSING BODIES (04/02/11) - C4
17 - 4.10m - ATTENBOROUGH AND THE GIANT EGG (02/03/11) - BBC2/HD
18 - 4.05m - SHAMELESS (10/01/11) - C4
19 - 3.98m - STARGAZING LIVE (03/01/11) - BBC2/HD
20 - 3.93m - WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP (02/05/11) - BBC2

Source: BARB. Excludes +1. BBC Two, Channel 4 and Channel 5 only. Anything that was bumped from BBC One to BBC Two for whatever reason is not included to make this an actual 'alternative' list and not a 'displaced BBC One' list. Programmes under duplicate strands/title removed.

Around thanksgiving in the US I noted the habit of broadcast news coding shows as specials to exclude them from average ratings. Here's an article on what seems to be some 'extreme' coding by ABC of 'Good Morning America' as a special between Christmas and New Year
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/...ophole_b105571

However ABC's coding hasn't stopped the ratings being released. The following are the ratings for all 3 broadcast morning news shows for Tuesday 27th to Friday 30th. (As stated above all 3 shows did still broadcast on Monday)

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/...ber-26_b105517

It had less to lose though considering episode 1 was down by 1.7m versus the previous series.

Fair point, although for the last series of BB which had the least watched launch by far, its second night % drop of -47% was similar (if not more) compared to previous years which had much bigger audiences.

Well besides advertising Premier Inn!


The 10:35pm slot is fast going the way of ITV's 10:30pm slot i.e hardly any new content. It's plain to see that this slot is where the cuts are being made.

wasnt he replaced with teddies?

GMA has been making slow but gradual progress against Today and is a full 2% up in audience terms on 2010,the only morning show to record any year-on-year increase. The CBS show was being relaunched last week but I haven't seen any reports of that yet.

Launch night always has the curiosity value and if the general public don't like the celebs they switch off. My nightmare was Katie Price appearing, but Des is smart enough to realise that Jordan is a big turn off now.

Okay I averaged BBC Two's weekly audience share over last year and I got 6.6%. That down from 6.9% last year. Obviously we are missing the last week of 2011 so its not final. But a week is not going to change much. Adding in BBC HD it is 6.8. But because in some cases BBC HD is different it BBC Two I'd leave it out. A drop of 0.3% is not to bad.

I think overall Multi channel TV is growing more slowly now. Which is good news for terrestrial TV. I wonder if we will ever see a terrestrial channel increase its viewing share. Or do you reckon it will continue the way its been going for the last 10-15 years?