Sam Hodges head of BBC Communications and he later retweeted the following story with his quote.

Cracking start for series 2 of Downton Abbey on PBS,

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...s-ratings.html

Any bets on how Liverpool//Man City will do tomorrow on BBC One? Bit of a rarity now, live top flight football on BBC One, but I will go for 6 million for this.

Great ratings. Not quite as big as Sherlock's first series But very good.
18% up as well is a result for any show, not least a UK one!

So Merlin and Downton and Doctor Who seem to be growing a lot this/last year (season). US seems to be a growing market for UK shows.
And Sherlock could do amazing again on PBS as well.

What odds BBC2 winning primetime tonight?

K

Not very high I'm afraid, because I think BBC One will win the 9pm hour even with DIY SOS - probably 4.5m to 5.0m.

Cheers, Jake.

A chance I think. I slightly downgraded my expectations for Edwin Drood. But with the lead in (which will defoes do well) I think it'll at least be + 3 million, but I think it could post much much higher than this (especially with ITV's line up)

But I think BBC One will still win. Be incredible if they manage it though. Certainly second place seems achievable.

I made this point this morning. I did think AS could pull in something closer to 7m given the opposition, Corrie lead in and one hour slot (compare to Endeavour's 11pm finish last week). That it essentially flatlined was surprising.

And the lucky Americans get it ad free!!

Agree with many of the comments on E4. Their only success in the unscripted field seems to have been Made In Chelsea. If they're looking for something else, I'd say maybe a panel show but it just seems to be a tough genre for them so that probably wouldn't work either. Playing It Straight did seem like the kind of thing that might have worked for them, but apparently not! Tool Academy bombed without a big lead-in and Shipwrecked failed as well.

I'm not averse to reality TV, but a few years ago E4 were really going strong on scripted content. Skins had a successful cast change, The Inbetweeners grew and grew, Dead Set was an ambitious stripped project, Misfits came through and they restarted the Hollyoaks Later strand. It seems to have been put aside in favour of UK reality. They need some new scripted hits to come through.

They desperately need to get back into the US drama import business as well. The Vampire Diaries is capable of 1m in officials for ITV2. On the less watched Sky Living, The Secret Circle I've seen around 700,000 or 800,000 in officials.

Dead Set was excellent no question.

I think the problem with shows like Tool Academy, Shipwrecked, Playing it Straight, Sonority Girls, is simply that they are shit shows that should never have been commissioned, recommissioned, or invited back for a further series, in the first place.

Sunday:
9.00pm - Desperate Housewives (NEW)
10.00pm - Revenge (NEW)

Monday:
8.00pm - The Big Bang Theory (R)
8.30pm - Happy Endings (NEW)
9.00pm - 90210 (NEW)
10.00pm - Made In Chelsea (NEW)

Tuesday:
8.00pm - The Big Bang Theory (R)
8.30pm - 2 Broke Girls (NEW)
9.00pm - The Secret Circle (NEW)
10.00pm - UK Drama (NEW)

Wednesday:
8.00pm - The Big Bang Theory (R)
8.30pm - New Girl (NEW)
9.00pm - Pretty Little Liars (NEW)
10.00pm - FILM

Thursday:
8.00pm - The Big Bang Theory (R)
8.30pm - How I Met Your Mother (NEW)
9.00pm - The Big Bang Theory (NEW)
9.30pm - UK Sitcom (NEW)
10.00pm - Skins (NEW)

The Secret Circle was a safe bet among US buys this season because it was on a weak network with the only decent lead-in that network has to offer. Hasn't done great in the US but it'll get another season easily. Amazed ITV2 never bought it. I can only assume Sky Living priced them out?

The second episode of Pretty Little Liars season 2 (part 2) had a 1.3 rating last night with A18-49 and 3m viewers. Last week it was the #1 TV show of the night with females 12-34 - a night that included original runs of CBS sitcoms and The Bachelor premiere. The CW would kill for those numbers and it's only on MTV here.

Revenge might have been a risky buy in September. But it has a 22 episode order and has had for a while now.

The big stretch is maybe the extra hour of UK drama on Tuesday at 10pm. I suppose that could be anything instead - US drama, a repeat or UK reality.

It cuts back a bit on The Big Bang Theory - hopefully keeping the numbers up over a longer period. Moving new episodes to 9pm means they can get more out of it and viewers can identify the new ones more easily! Should be a good lead-in for new sitcoms during the week,

Ah, trust me to mix the titles up! I quite enjoyed his shows in the Noughties. I thought his 1995 series was dreadful, though.

Decent rating that for the 5pm news. I always assumed it only did well because Neighbours followed on from it but getting 809k when Neighbours is off air is impressive for Channel 5 daytime standards.

Looks like Skins is airing in a Monday night slot this year if Wikipedia is correct. First episode down as 23rd January. The series will be 10 episodes long. Top Gear is expected to start 29th Jan (not confirmed), no return date yet for Being Human though.

Come Fly With Me was a massive hit for BBC One. The series averaged 7m+ (excluding the Xmas Day ep) and topped the iPlayer lists with 1m+ requests for every episode!! Unlike TRB, it had a certain charm about it, a few likeable/intriguing characters and all the cheesiness that makes you kinda wanna carry on watching.

The Royal Bodyguard, however, should be pulled, sent back to BBC Enterprises in the 70's and the tapes wiped for the good of all mankind!

The US version of Shameless would fit E4 better than it did More4, BTW the second season debuted on Showtime with 1.56m which is an increase on the 0.982m it did for its first episode, House of Lies did 1.03m and Californication did 0.7m

Showtime is on a roll with another two 1m shows, think Californication is on thin ice in terms of renewal especially if Showtime need space for new shows, same with Episodes.

I always thought The Cleveland Show was a stupid thing to buy as well, it just smacks of "we haven't got Family Guy so we've bought something that's virtually the same but not as good", and it just reminds people they haven't got Family Guy. And unlike American Dad on BBC3, which benefits from umpteen Family Guy lead-ins and inherits its slot between series, it seems completely isolated in the schedules.

A couple of overnights from yesterday:

The Exit List: 2.3m
Celebrity Big Brother: 2.0m

So one rating that even makes The Royal Bodyguard look more respectable.

Emmers - 6736 + 376
EE - 8745
Holby - 5345

TEL 2273 + 102
DIY SOS 4677
TBL - 2544 + 134

Shameless 1548

I see the gallows humour at the ITV programme naming department continues....

Thanks Mike Teevee. How did BBC2 rate last night between 8-10pm?

Decent for BBC1, dismal for ITV1