My mum's currently watching The Exit List on ITV1+1

Matt Allwright - Nick Knowles lite.

That's three new game shows in the last five months where ITV1 haven't helped themselves with their choice of hosts - Gethin Jones in Holding Out For A Hero, Jeremy Kyle in High Stakes, Matt Allwright in The Exit List. They've obviously looked at Knowles and thought "Well, if he can be turned into the new Bob Monkhouse....."

Knowles is having a good 2012 so far - top of the Saturday ratings with Who Dares Wins, 5m+ for DIY SOS, Perfection neck-and-neck with Deal Or No Deal in the daytime ratings.....

God - he's on 7 times a week at the moment - making Schofield look like a slacker there. I wonder how many of the aforementioned ITV shows would have got 5m+ on Saturday nights had they been BBC1 lottery shows.


Interesting question. Would also be interesting to see a 2011 list for the top shows watched by men and the top by women.

Football semi-final goes to extra-time on BBC2. I'm guessing Rhod Gilbert will be postponed.

Sorry, but what do Gethin Jones, Jeremy Kyle and Matt Allwright have in common with Nick Knowles apart from being male? Are you saying that any new gameshow with a male host is just because a broadcaster has looked at Nick Knowles' success?


BBC1 could have the awful Bank Job with the 'National Lottery' name stuck before it and it would probably start with 5million+ , lol ! Secret Fortune is also quite a poor quiz-show but rates well because it is very middle of the road and has the National Lottery name stuck before it. Holding Out for a Hero was just like Secret Fortune but because it wasn't on BBC1, it didn't have the National Lottery name before it, it got a few million fewer viewers. Paul Brassey, who works for the BBC light entertainment department, said as much a few days ago. He said new game-shows these days have almost no chance of succeeding unless they're outside of peak time or are formatted under the National Lottery branding. I do like In It To Win It though which is good fun.

Anyone know the last time a new peak time gameshow became a 5+ series ratings hit which didn't have the 'National Lottery' name?

Shock! BBC Natural History unit making programmes about animals


Going by that logic then Benidorm ER is a rip off of ITV's Benidorm. They certainly have more similarities.

Super Fluffy animals was a doc looking at the growing popularity of Micro pigs and Handbag dog's.

Super Smart animals has been in production at the BBC natural History Unit for nearly 3 years and has filmed experiments around to the world. To determine the IQ and EQ of various animals.

Er what about Guestimation and This Time Tomorrow??
Both flopped with the lottery branding in recent years.


Lol ITV will be poaching him any day now. DIY EMERGENCY will be airing on ITV1 in 12 months time .... wishful thinking on my part

Guestimation launched with over 5 million viewers during the summer according to its Wiki page. So, at least initially, the 'National Lottery' default audience tuned in. It had 4 million on average for most of its other episodes which aint bad. It was only when episodes went up against X Factor, its ratings dropped to low summer ratings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guessti...28game_show%29

This Time Tomorrow also launched with the default 'National Lottery' audience of over 5 million and had 5 million for episode 6. Again, it was only when it went up against The X Factor that its ratings dropped low: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Time_Tomorrow

Holding out for a Hero definally. It had all the hallmarks of a lottery quiz, particularly the 'lets discuss the answer for 10 mins per question'

I really don't believe that the National Lottery branding provides a significant boost nor do I think that branding is needed to launch a successful game show format. My read on the situation isn't that the lottery brand helps but the relatively consistent scheduling does. Broadly speaking those lottery branded game shows all air in the same time period on a Saturday night almost every week of the year and so the audience knows where to find them and what to expect. By contrast things like Holding Out For A Hero or The Exit List are thrown into pretty poor timeslots where there's no recent history of successful game shows and very little to attract the audience to them.

And generally I just struggle with this notion that 5+ million people sit through an hour of In It To Win It or Secret Fortune for five minutes worth of lottery draws particularly in an age where the national lottery isn't as big as it once was and the numbers are so readily accessible from so many other sources. Do you honestly believe if anyone at the BBC thought the lottery draws could lock in a 5 million audience we wouldn't see them attached to something like The Magicians on Saturday nights instead?

If ITV are serious about wanting a new prime time game show they need to find a good format and then they need to schedule it well (and perhaps find a host audiences might want to watch to hold it all together). I don't for one second believe that ITV scheduled The Exit List or High Stakes on Tuesday night expecting a hit. They did it because it was relatively cheap filler and audiences ignored it as a result.

Why arent more Sherlock episodes in the top 20. Episodes 2 and 3 should be higher than Above suspicion.

For instance the consolidated for Episode 3 - 9.78

They're all "serious presenters" from serious programmes who don't seem suited to light entertainment. They can't do light, fluffy banter however hard they try. Nick Knowles somehow gets away with it. The other three haven't. Whether their quizzes would have worked with someone like Bradley Walsh as host is debatable. And would The Chase have been as well received if Jeremy Kyle was the host?



Plenty of National Lottery formats have flopped over the years. The National Lottery name is no guarantee of success.

That's partly the point I was making. Viewers know what to expect from 'National Lottery' game-shows in terms of style so different quiz-show formats under that branding have a higher chance of starting well in the ratings than other game-shows which are either in a different timeslot or same kind of timeslot but without the 'National Lottery' branding. These shows are not immune from flopping, I know that if a programme is terrible, it will end up flopping eventually. But as a starting point, programmes with that 'National Lottery' banner have a good advantage of rating higher out of the starting blocks.


I'm not saying that the 5 minute draws are what gets people watching these quiz shows. There might be a few people who do that but it's mainly the familiarity of the brand which means that lots of different game show formats can be launched under the 'National Lottery' banner and start off really well whereas if they didn't have that 'National Lottery' banner, they'd have started off lower.


The National Lottery shows do lock in 5 million+ for their first episodes, that's been proven by the ratings on the Wikipedia pages I've seen of all the new Lottery shows to have launched recently. If a show is bad, ratings will drop off after that but when a show is starting at 5m+ they're automatically in a good starting position. If The Magicians was branded under The National Lottery, not that it would as it isn't a game-show, it would also have started with 5 million+ for its first ever episode. It did get 5 million+ anyway but it would've been even higher than what it actually got with the NL branding.


It's not a guarantee of success but it provides a better chance of success.

The chart features the highest rated episode per show/series.

Fair points. I do wonder if they could have called it something else though to avoid that similarity.

I know Derek is annoying but I think you're exaggerating a bit there.


EastEnders on 27th December had over 10m in the overnights and timeshifted to 11.28.

Yet the Xmas Day 2007 episode attracted 13.9m overnights and a 14m+ official figure. Maybe it's not the quality of the trailer but how often they are shown and how early they start the promotion? The duff duff adverts for the 25th anniversary weren't all that great either.

The promos they showed between 2007-2009 were produced by a different company but I can't remember which one. They were produced on film and it used to take them a full day to make them.

The lack of promotion around the show is very odd indeed. The New Year's Day trailer should have run for a good couple of weeks but instead it appeared literally a couple of days before.


Schedules aren't final but Waterloo Road should be back in week 8 w/c 20th February.

So they have the words "Super" and "Animals" in them.

Do you seriously think a new BBC Natural History series is going to be in the same league as the daytime filler about celebrity toy pets ITV promoted into primetime?


Farewell [X]... - another idea nicked off EastEnders....


I'm sure many a channel controller has summoned Attenborough into his office over the years and banged his desk in frustration, asking the same question....


Or BBC1 astutely using one of the few remaining soap free pre watershed slots in the week to launch the series before it goes into its regular Thursday soap-competing slot?


Better to have performers who have shown a real talent for entertaining the public than z-list chavs discovered on the latest ITV/C4/C5 reality contest....


Both popular and good quality shows.

You're really on an anti-BBC1 roll tonight aren't you?


And so it continues...

I'm no fan of SM. But at least if she had her own show, it might keep her from appearing on everyone elses!


Very good...


...until rzt, the Official Ratings Thread Spoilsport , comes along and debunks another one. Damn you, rzt...

Speaking of BBC and ITV programmes with similar names, has one of them given in over the 'Love Life' thing yet? Personally I think ITV should change the title of theirs, as BBC did announce theirs first. Does anyone know when they are set to air, as it may come down to which one is aired first?

I know Upstairs Downstairs isn't meant to start until March, but given how well Call the Midwife is rating they should think about bringing it forward to the 18th, giving it the best lead in possible.

Of course, there is only one way to find out....









..... FIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHHT!!!!!!!!!!

Biggest flop for 10 months. Outcasts faired worse.

Corrie should hold up well for the rest of the week 10.5m on Thursday maybe? EE normally wins the night on Thursday but I can see Corrie coming out on top comfortably tomorrow.

Take EastEnders out of the equation and BBC One would have their own flopzone on Monday's between 7.30 and 9.30. Mrs. Brown's Boys did brilliantly last night - what superb climb in figures considering the lead in! The Royal Bodyguard was scuppered by hype and presentation; if it had been promoted as a children's show and aired in an early evening BBC One it probably would've got away with similar ratings and less criticism.

A reasonable if not fabulous night for BBC Two; University Challenge is a very consistent perfomer and I'm desperate for them to team it up with Only Connect (though I say that every Tuesday! ). The 6pm hour also did very well, as always; attracting those who aren't bothered with soaps or the news.

It's going to be a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous for ITV1 but what brilliant ratings and, more importantly, share for Coronation Street last night. Cornwall also benefited from the sandwich but Above Suspicion didn't climb that much despite the higher lead in. it's still pulling in decent figures but if the BBC placed tougher opposition against it it could dip.

Coppers performed well once again for Channel 4 though Party Paramedics couldn't take advantage of the lead in. SuperScrimpers recorded a decent figure considering the opposition and Hollyoaks is holding on to a plus 1m+ audience.

A very nice rating for Celebrity Big Brother and Bit On The Side - Celebrity Wedding Planner possibly could've done better with a near 3m lead in. World's Toughest trucker struggled in the 7pm slot, and the 6.30pm news is a bit of a waste but isn't rating any worse than OK! TV.Police Interceptors performed ok from 8pm. Reasonable figures for the soaps as well; it's good to see that they haven't been particularly effected by the winter break.

What did Mrs Brown get on Boxing Day. Could it beat it with the Casualty lead in and all new Saturday flop zone competition for it's series finale?

Simon Cowell has confirmed that Steve Jones has been axed as host of The X Factor USA.