Surely Carrot went from retirement/non-employment to ITV1, and a daytime quiz show? Hardly what one of our most brilliant comics of the past 30 years is going to be remembered for I suspect. Well, I hope not!

Titchmarsh? A little watched daytime chat show for pensioners? A royal review trounced by a New Tricks repeat? A documentary about horses?

I agree; I think the BBC have made a mistake starting it in the middle of Dancing On Ice - they should've worked off the junctions like they did last week:

5.30 Antqiues Roadshow
6.30 Call The Midwife
7.30 Countryfile
8.30 Sherlock

Then again, it could be a big hit and sink Wild at Heart and Dancing On Ice into the low 6's...if it does then ITV1 will have a massive problem.

Or just held it back till after Sherlock and Birdsong and run it at 8.30 against Emmerdale With Giraffes.

Can't see that happening as it isn't as if DOI airs against low rating programmes in the first place. Countryfile and Antiques Roadshow usually get over 6m.

How many episodes long is Birdsong?

A new drama has never started at 18:30 before unless it's a spectacular flop, starting it at 18:30 gives people the impression it is crap.

Go back to how it used to be, you mean? I seem to remember that as the night my family were glued to C4 - Roseanne, Golden Girls, Friends, Cheers, Frasier... Was Who Dares Wins on late Fridays?

The only other option would be 8.30pm but that would mean Sherlock wouldn't start until 9.30pm. Then again, Lark Rise and Cranford did fine in the 8pm slot so it should be ok.

Just 2 x 90 minutes.

I don't think the 8pm slot is that big of a deal. Lark Rise was pulling 6m+ overnights in the exact same spot last year (its final official average was 7.15m).

Isn't it usually said that there isn't enough decent guests in the UK to justify a nightly talk show?

Plus you can kind of say that The One Show is already a type of nightly talk show, as they have one guest per night in prime time.

It'd be good if someone did try a late night chat show but if you want a good chance of success, with a low rating benchmark and the chance that the papers wouldn't rip it apart before it even airs, I don't think ITV and/or Jonathan Ross would be the best bet.

Channel 4 who seem to recomission everything that gets 1m and is mostly ignored by the media, would be the best hope.

Yes, Borgen did do well. Last week it had 654k (incl HD) and 629k (BBC4 only - not HD). This weeks 627k includes HD, so it's good to see that it has retained it's audience. The 22.00 ep has lost around 30% of it's audience probably as Borgen does not have a cliffhanger element, some viewers probably would rather view it at another time. TK lost around 20% of it's audience for the 22.00 ep.

I think it's very smart scheduling by the BBC. They know from their track record that there's plenty of people around who don't watch DOI on Sunday nights and dramas in the past couple of years have been capable of 6m+ against Dancing on Ice/Wild at Heart, such as: Lark Rise to Candleford, Sherlock, South Riding, Rock & Chips.

LRTC was comfortably getting 6m+ for all its series openers against DOI/WAH, South Riding last year launched to 6.6m. Both of those shows had a Countryfile or Antiques Roadshow lead-in like CTM and didn't start at the same junction as DOI/WAH. Also Call The Midwife is fortunate to have a Sherlock lead-out so there'll be some of the 8m Sherlock fans tuning in a bit early for that (around 8.50pm-9pm) which'll help boost CTM. I would expect something like 6.5m for tonight's opener, although I wouldn't be surprised if it rated either way in the low 6s or low 7s. I also think BBC1 will win primetime tonight as they're running new content until 10.30pm - it was pretty close last week with them only 1.2% behind ITV1 when finishing Sherlock at 10pm, so with the extra half hour of content and factoring in the DOI decline, BBC1 will be ahead tonight. Might be their only chance to be ahead for Q1 Sundays though as Birdsong next week won't be rating as well as Sherlock which will swing the shares back in ITV1's favour.

Channel 4 is a complete mess now and I seldom watch it. From being the commercial answer to BBC2 in the eighties to the mishmash of drivel like Shipwrecked and DOND now it's become unwatchable. The only decent things they do are CDWM and Alan Carr and the former is hammered into the ground now.

I hope that you are wrong. I read an article recently stating that DR values the fact that the BBC bought TK as "the BBC gives it a stamp of approval". ZDF (the distributor for TK ouside Scandinavia) says that the BBC buying has led to other nations buying it far easier than previously.

Hopefully DR will want to retain the prestige of having the BBC buy it rather than Sky. DR is a similar public service broadcaster.

http://www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/n...&sid=10&ptid=4

In the article its the interesting answer to the question - Wasn't it strange that the series really caught fire worldwide four years after it premiered on DR?

Series 1 to 3 of WDW were shown on Saturday evenings in the years that Saturday Night Live was on air, Series 4 was shown on Wednesday nights in 1988, this was the year we got Friday Night Live.

I'm not quite sure subtitled foreign language dramas are quite Sky's thing. That's why BBC4 are able to go for them.

Any non-BBC channels out there showing forign language dramas (either dubbed or subtitled)?

That's true - I guess they can't expect any more than 6-7m for a new drama wherever they schedule it.

A few consolidated ratings for dramas which aired last week:

Endeavour: 7.865m [inc +1: 8.212m]
Law & Order: UK: 5.142m [inc +1: 5.726m]
Eternal Law: 4.976m [inc +1: 5.434m]
Public Enemies: Ep1- 4.873m, Ep2- 4.929m, Ep3- 4.747m

Note: neither L&O or EL were shown on STV so their figures are about -8% lower than if they had been fully networked.

Antony Worrall Thompson has turned up on That Sunday Night Show. I hope they're not paying him (the Daily Mail can have that one off me for free).

Not watching it - Sherlock is the best telly of the year so far in my opinion.

I still think that's a bit under par for Endeavour, frankly, given the heritage.

Public Enemies held very steady, and timeshifted pretty well - up nearly a million for ep3.

Any official ratings for eps 2 MBB and TRB?


How do you know if you're not watching it? It might be a rubbish third episode.

(I've recorded it to watch tomorrow)

Am watching Sherlock, got a text about Worrall Thompson.

From memory, MBB episode 2 had a consolidated audience of about 6.6m.

I disagree, Shipwrecked is the only decent thing they do, as is Playing It Straight.

EDIT: Deleted, wrong thread.

That'll blow the news budget for the year then for a disaster which as tragic as it is, isn't quite as tragic as perhaps the news media would like.


Probably paying him in cheese and wine. Really though considering the man himself is putting it down to psychological issues it's a poor ethical decision by ITV to invite him onto such a show virtually immediately after the incident came to light.