I like your idea as Coronation St is vacating Thursdays and ITV needs a strongish drama. WAH would do well on a Thursday, pulling in 6 million viewers.

It might not be possible to have a 6th episode the following week (usually the 6th ep is on the Wednesday) because it's a Champions League night the following Wednesday. I guess it depends on if they end up airing Basel v Bayern Munich (or whatever all-foreign tie it is) on ITV1 or ITV4. If it's ITV4, they'll be able to show Corrie at 7.30pm that following Wednesday.

Edit: I suppose too they could have an hour long episode on the following Thursday 8-9pm with Emmerdale 7-8pm.

I do think they were expecting more but its going a bit far to say they expected it to be one of their biggest drama launches, its stuck on a Tuesday and didn't get amazing ratings for the same reason Accused didn't and won't when it returns - these are nice looks at peoples different lives (I haven't watched it so no idea of the quality) but thats about it - we've seen it all before!

It was a drama stuck on Tuesday and with some advertising but hardly a 'big push' or effort on the half of the BBC. Personally I didn't bother watching it because it all looked a bit stereotypical, for ****sakes its called Prisoners Wives! Should have just been general spouses/partners etc. - Instead it seems a bit behind the time branding and advertising wise.

Basically - its a niche programme. I don't know why people keep expecting things like this to do 'brilliant' (6 million these days is pretty brilliant).

yes that ITV 2 share is depressing. EE did ok despite the overwhelming negativity towards the show at the moment, and the over whelming what the **** is going on here feel to the episode.

For someone who hasn't watched it, you've an awful lot to say about it. It's nothing like the Accused, it's not niche, and it's called Prisoners Wives, because they are all wives of prisoners. It was actually quite good.

I didn't say its not good. I'm talking about the marketing/advertising of a show before it airs.
I actually think it'll remain 4.5+ which is a decent overnight.

Its more people expecting it to get 6 million - which is just plain silly.

Some more ratings from yesterday (other ratings have already posted here):

BBC One
18:00- BBC News at Six: 4.78m (24.8%)
19:00- The One Show: 4.645m (21.5%)
22:00- BBC News at Ten: 4.62m (23.0%)
22:35- Match of the Day: 3.17m (26.2%)

ITV1 (inc +1)
18:30- ITV News & Weather: 3.89m (18.6%)

Channel 4
22:00- Shameless: 1.55m (6.8%) , +1: 353k (2%)

Channel 5
20:00- Cowboy Builders: 1.41m (5.9%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 23.7%
ITV1: 11.5% (+1: 0.6%)
Channel 4: 8.6% (+1: 1%)
BBC Two: 7.2%
Channel 5: 4.4%

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Multichannel
BBC Three
21:00- Junior Doctors: Your Life in their Hands: 1.00m (4.2%)

BBC Four
21:00- Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures: 818k (3.4%)

Dave
21:00- Suits: 362k (1.5%) , +1: 39k (0.2%) +1

E4 (inc +1)
18:00- The Big Bang Theory: 645k (3.3%)
18:30- The Big Bang Theory: 750k (3.6%)

ITV2 (inc +1)
14:35- The Jeremy Kyle Show: 700k (8.9%)

ITV3 (inc +1)
20:00- Poirot: 755k (3.2%)
21:00- Scott & Bailey: 649k (2.7%)

More4
22:00- Confessions of a Nurse: 450k (2.5%) , +1: 58k (0.6%)

MTV
22:00- Geordie Shore: 259k (1.4%) , +1: 19k (0.2%) +1
* series 1 premiere in 2011: 336k (1.8%)

Sky Sports 2
19:30- Live Ford Football Special: Everton v Man City: 1.02m (4.4%)

Sources: Broadcast, DS, ITV Media

Fair point

I don't think so. I think with Corrie there to anchor the schedule it stands a better chance.

I would agree with rzt that it's actually Thursday that may suffer with the vacation of Corrie from that 8.30pm slot. I have absolutely no idea what they intend to put there.

Or Thursday.

Same argument applies, there's going to be one night potentially as weak at 8 and 9 as Tuesday currently is.

Some people said moving Coronation St was a bad move on Sundays 4 years ago, but ITV1 have managed to build up a strong schedule without it and don't miss it. This could happen on a Thursday if they schedule shows like Benidorm and WAH in the vacated slot. Also IAC could be moved to 8.30.

Well yes, potentially. But the problem with the Tuesday night schedule is that ITV pretty much left it as it was once the football rights switched to Wednesdays - up until then it had always been a filler night as they could never really establish any returning shows as the football would often come along and interrupt it. So it gradually became a dumping ground for cheap factual and that's pretty much how it's remained. Instead of taking the opportunity to revamp Tuesday nights they decided to dismantle Thursday nights instead for no apparent reason.

It all depends on what ITV does with that night. Like I said I think Wednesdays will be fine. Thursday is a worry and I haven't denied that.

Channel4's latest obsession seems to be fly on the wall documentaries. Has anyone else noticed how many fly-on-the-wall documentaries there have been on the channel recently? It's as if they saw the ratings for One Born Every Minute and said "we'll do lots more of that in any workplace you can think of". So since then there's been shows about midwives [One Born Every Minute], doctors [24 Hours in A&E], hotel staff [The Hotel], policeman [Coppers], paramedics [Party Paramedics], models [The Model Agency], personal trainers [The Fat Fighters], teachers and students [Educating Essex] and tonight they're launching Bouncers. Its all too much, and only a couple of them rate well anyways!

well this is good news

Desperate Scouewives Axed, lets hope this is followed up by Shipwrecked (sorry Kitten), Sorority Girls, and Playing it Straight.

edit: ok its a rumour, but it would be nice.

US Ratings Tuesday January 31

In a night of mostly repeats and charged by the music of Michael Jackson Fox's Glee was up 16% vs. its last original episode two-weeks ago. This week also marks the first time this season that Glee has beaten lead out New Girl in the demo. New Girl itself was up a tenth vs. two-weeks ago with only Raising Hope of Fox's entirely original line-up dropping.

ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap finished out its season with a series low but sandwiched by repeats that can't be a huge surprise. Over on NBC The Biggest Loser was tied at a season low which is at least steady on last weeks hour long episode. The CW was the only other network airing original episodes last night with Ringer returning from an 8 week hiatus tied at a series low that matched its last original episode. 92010 was even vs. last week.

In repeats news NCIS was the most watched show of the night with total viewers and spin-off show NCIS: LA was the second most watched show of the night. CBS just missed out on a clean sweep of the top three because Glee was near a season high in total viewers.

ABC
8PM: Last Man Standing [r] – 1.5 [5.61]
8:30PM: Last Man Standing [r] – 1.7 [5.71]
9PM: Celebrity Wife Swap – 1.9 [5.56]
10PM: Body of Proof [r] – 1.1 [5.42]

CBS
8PM: NCIS [r] – 2.0 [12.90]
9PM: NCIS: LA [r] – 1.7 [11.09]
10PM: Unforgettable [r] – 1.4 [7.85]

Fox
8PM: Glee – 3.6 [9.02]
9PM: New Girl – 3.5 [7.24]
9:30PM: Raising Hope – 2.1 [4.69]

NBC
8PM: The Biggest Loser – 2.1 [6.06]
10PM: Parenthood [r] – 0.7 [2.38]

The CW
8PM: 90210 – 0.7 [1.43]
9PM: Ringer – 0.6 [1.38]

David Jason on The Royal Bodyguard:


Fair play to him, in confronting head on what is probably his first significant failure.

I suspect, deep down, he knew all along it hadn't really come off hence his pre-Christmas nervousness and downplaying of expectations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16842230

And don't forget Diamond Geezer. Oh you did! What I found interesting is that he is in talks to do a remake of Everybody Loves Raymond.

It's very odd, I always dislike tribute episodes, and a lot of Gleeks seem to, but they always to well in the ratings, guess there will be more now.

These shows are just not catching on despite the broadcasters' best efforts. MTV's Geordie Shore must be the show I've seen advertised the most this week across all channels and yet it launched 61k and 0.4 share points lower than last year.

TOWIE is a one-off and even that is down on the last series and increasingly coming under fire from critics for repetitive storylines and weak casting.

it does seem that way, thank god.

Yes, it should be hoped that all broadcasters stop this now, they're not good ads for the channels, area or the horrid people. It would be nice if 'papers stopped featuring these people as stars in their gossip columns too. Despite how easy they make stories (silly feuds, falling out of nightclubs, interchangable love-lifes), apart from TOWIE, the ratings don't justify it.

Maybe because there are too many of them and the fact a lot of them are garbage.

A reasonable night fpor BBC One though Prisoners' Wives didn't light up the ratings board despite a lack of opposition. EastEnders' share looks ok, as does Holby City's. Match of The Day did very well in the post news slot.

On BBC Two, Alex Polizzi picked up a very good figure - no doubt benefiting from ITV1 airing a very unpopular show at 8pm. Wonderland didn't exactly benefit from the lead in, losing 1m.

ITV1's Tuesday's are horrific but it's not longer a shock. I reckon Emmerdale will bounce back above 7m tonight, though the share itself isn't too bad. The Exit List should be pulled and The Biggest Loser would've done better on a Thursday (or a Monday, where the first primetime series aired). I don't get why ITV1 are persisting with this approach but there we go.

Terror At Sea performed fantastically for Channel 4 and 15 Kids and Counting continued the strong night for the channel. Hollyoaks is still keeping above the 1m mark - last spring seems a very long away right now.

Body Of Proof performed decently for Channel 5 in what is a relatively reliable slot for them du to a lack of opposition. Neighbours and Home and Away appear steady.

Probably a number of reasons why shows rate better on a Monday, most obviously because absolutely nobody goes out on a Monday, and there probably is tougher sporting competition on a Tuesday, there's normally football somewhere or other which could knock half a million or so off it. I know there's Monday Night Football but that's not very often and it's often not very interesting.

There actually is quite a lot of drama about at the moment, ITV have new drama at 9pm five nights out of seven this week (if you count Wild at Heart), which is quite good. In the mid-nineties ITV would sometimes do new drama seven nights a week but a few years back they had next to nothing. Even twenty years ago or so you probably wouldn't get that much drama, because that was when films and repeats could still justify primetime outings.


Yes, one of the few chances they'd ever get to do that during this contract given normally it would have to go up against a better match on Channel Five. Maybe we'll get that more in the next contract when they have first pick.


I've said this before but ITV are commissioning too many game shows and they're all the same, all complicated rules and moody lighting, and none of them have any USPs. The Exit List is like a million other shows except it's a maze. They should be commissioning more shows like Family Fortunes which have an easy format to grasp and play along with. Either that or it needs to be a spectacle like Total Wipeout, and they had The Whole Nineteen Yards and dropped it.


Well, Boyd Hilton's extracted himself from up Ricky Gervais' nether regions this week in Heat to say how they're all great and way more interesting than Big Brother. But Boyd Hilton is such a crap TV writer, he latches onto any passing fad and says anything his mates are involved with is brilliant.

Someone else has come round to my thinking that Shipwrecked is indeed a shipwreck, a relatively expensive reality show with about 300,000 viewers featuring the sort ofpond life even BB avoids now. With a bit of luck Channel 4 will bin it permanently as it has been axed before due to poor ratings.