Upstairs Downstairs will be launching on February 19th at 9pm after the last in the series of Call The Midwife.

Good night all round it seems. Particularly for Channel 4, I'd assume Bouncers will become a series based on those numbers. 15.5% share is excellent for them at 10pm.

Solid number from Midsomer Murders as well and it's doing well on ITV3 which no doubt helps (because it won't come cheap these days). But the fact that BBC1 can air a repeat of DIY SOS and get 4.4m is the big difference between the big 2 these days. Showed in the "battle of the filler" as well - 5.1m for Rip Off Britain?!

Rip Off Britain performed very well in the 7.30pm slot and DIY SOS and MasterChef recorded adequate figures. ITV1 had a strong night, and even Rod Hull didn't fold to an unrecognisible figure despite Rip Off Britain doing so well. Natural World performed particularly well for BBC Two who had a steady night overall. One Born Every Minute and Bouncers both recorded stunning figures for Channel 4 and How To Cook Like Heston and The Fabulous Baker Boys didn't disgrace the broadcaster in the 8pm hour. Channel 5 lost out slightly in the melee with Cowboy Builder struggling and Exit Wounds not hitting 1m; though Benidorm ER did ok.


The X Factor saw a decent increase in audience for series 2 both in the UK and Down Under so FOX will be hoping the same thing happens this time round. It should have a fresher feel about it with only Simon remaining from Idol and a new host who hopefully won't present with all the personality of a cucumber.

I posted this in Broadcasting


BBC picked up quite a few awards, Sky One winning Channel of the Year - well stranger things have happened before.

Sky1 channel of the year? For commisioning half a dozen British comedies?

Given the amount of revenue Sky make from their subscribers, the output of their main entertainment channel is still pretty poor, although a lot better than it was. You only have to look at their ratings on Barb to see how few hit shows they have.

With the news of Letitia Dean returning to EE, is 13m realistic for her return?

It's all relative. Sky1 are making clear progress. They could spend their money on other things to get subscribers so if UK producers think they might get more of that cash, they're going to encourage it.

So far this year, they're doing pretty well. Treasure Island with 2m on New Years Day and 1.7m the next night. Stella doing great numbers for them - I think their most successful comedy commission so far? Got To Dance and A League of Their Own performing well on the entertainment side. Mad Dogs first official came out at 1.7m. And a few good ratings from their US imports, particularly Hawaii Five-O which had a 1.3m official for its last episode.

For the first 4 weeks of 2012 vs the first 4 weeks of 2011, Sky1 is up 31% in audience share (0.90% to 1.18%). Weekly reach is up 13% (20.1% to 22.8%) and daily reach is up 17% (5.35% to 6.25%). After years of messing around, they've finally got it together and it looks like it's paying off for them. I wasn't buying into Stuart Murphy at first but he may well prove me wrong. Still work to do - they could maybe use a couple more drama series. But the signs are good and I can see why it has been recognised. It's not as if any of the bigger broadcasters are doing brilliantly at the moment even if some are doing better than others.

US Network News Ratings
Week of January 23, 2012

Although still in third place, CBS Evening News continues to increase its audience, up 6% on the same week last year. NBC was down 6% and ABC down 7%

Average nightly audiences (ABC over only four nights,the others over five)

1. NBC Nightly News w/Brian Williams 9.259 million
2. ABC World News w/Diane Sawyer 8.228 m
3. CBS Evening News w/Scott Pelley 6.689 m

c Neilsen

New BBC1 drama Inside Men launched with 4.54m (19.85%)

BBC2's Putin and the West drew 801k / 47k HD

3m (inc +1) watched Eternal Law

Corrie takes top ratings spot again with 9.2m (8.9m excl +1) last night

Mad Dogs averages 660k - peaks at over 800k on Sky1

Sources: John Williams, Michael Rosser, Railway Arms

9pm

BBC1 - Inside men - 4.5m
ITV1 - Eternal Law - 2.8m (3m inc +1)
BBC2 - Putin/Russia - 800,000
C4 - Restoration Man - 2.1m (2.3 inc +1)
C5 - Winter Road Rescue - 1.7m

Again, not a fantastic start for Inside Men, a bit like Prisoners' Wives on Tuesday.

Thursday 2nd February Overnights
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.68m (22.5%)
19:30- EastEnders: 8.82m (38.7%)
20:00- Motorway Cops: 3.78m (15.5%)
21:00- Inside Men: 4.54m (19.9%)

BBC Two
20:00- Raymond Blanc: The Very Hungry Frenchman: 1.66m (6.8%)
21:00- Putin, Russia and the West: 848k (3.6%) inc HD

ITV1
19:00- Emmerdale: 7.77m (35.0%)
20:00- Emmerdale: 7.96m (33.8%) , +1: 196k (0.8%)
20:30- Coronation Street: 8.94m (35.5%) , +1: 261k (1.2%)
21:00- Eternal Law: 2.72m (11.9%) , +1: 211k (1.2%

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 967k (4.6%)
20:00- Location, Location, Location: 2.06m (8.4%) , +1: 393k (1.7%)
21:00- Restoration Man: 2.06m (9%) , +1: 274k (1.6%)

Channel 5
13:45- Neighbours: 686k (9.1%)
17:30- Neighbours: 1.06m (6.4%)
18:00- Home and Away: 664k (3.4%)
19:00- Holiday: Heaven on Earth: 437k (2%) , +1: 7k
20:00- World's Scariest Near Misses: 1.15m (4.7%)
21:00- Winter Road Rescue: 1.56m (6.9%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 21.7%
ITV1: 21.2% (+1: 0.7%)
Channel 4: 6.9% (+1: 1.1%)
BBC Two: 5.4%
Channel 5: 4.4%

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Multichannel
5*
18:30- Home and Away: 554k (2.6%)

BBC Three
22:00- EastEnders: 824k (4.3%)

BBC Four
22:00- The Singing Detective: 304k (1.8%)

E4
19:00- Hollyoaks: 638k (2.9%), +1: 146k (0.6%)
20:00- The Big Bang Theory: 657k (2.8%) , +1: 176k (0.8%)

Sky 1
21:00- Mad Dogs: 660k (2.9%)

Sources: DS (1) (2)

Thursday scheduling hurting Corrie again, it deserved more than that.

I find it bizarre that ratings are always down on a Thursday. It's not like it's a new thing, it's been in that slot for well over a year. Jane Danson deserved more for her performance last night.

As discussed a few days ago about Channel5, though I didn't agree with the sentiments, it's a brand problem which is resulting in these average ratings for new BBC1 contemporary dramas. A number of drama series on BBC1 of recent times have either been poor or ended unsatisfactorily- Candy Cabs, Body Farm, Outcast and Bonekickers are just a few. Having watched dramas like those, viewers are now less inclined to sample new contemporary dramas, even if theyre actually rather good like Inside Men. BBC1 has done excellent period dramas over the years so viewers are still sampling the new period shows like Birdsong and Call The Midwife but many of the previous contemporary series have been well short of the standards you'd expect from BBC1. Inside Men wasn't a worthy niche series like The Accused where low ratings would've been expected, its a programme which had action in it right from the start and ought to have started higher than 4.5m against Eternal Bore. As for Prisoners Wives, making the title sound like Footballers Wives was a big mistake. It was much better than the Footballers Wives trash but people wouldnt have known that until actually watching. By then though, its too late.

Not too good a start for Inside Men. If it maintains above 4m that will be fine though as it seems like a one-off mini-series sort of show, (well based on having seen the first episode anyway). The new episode of Motorway cops was a tad low but I believe Coronation Street was a big episode last night so that may have pulled more of the younger viewers away. Eastenders had a respectable share in what has been quite a poor few weeks for it ratings wise recently.


Some good ratings from ITV1. Emmerdale at 8m and Coronation St beating EE on a Thursday is good for it, although I believe Corrie was a big episode last night (I don't watch Corrie). Eternal Law firmly into flop territory and I think it would be down in the low 2's if it wasn't for the Corrie lead-in.


Channel 5 did reasonably and seem to have launched another solid rating Trucker show.


Big Bang Theory on repeats at the moment but still doing good business. One of these 6:30pm ratings topped 950k earlier this week.

Very good for the Street last night, but EE seems to be closing the gap. I think when CS moves to Wednesdays, why not have Emmerdale sandwiched around it at 7.00 and 8.00, guaranteeing ITV1 7-9 million viewers until 8.30 when they can show something like Lewis. Thursdays can then be used to develop new shows or show film premieres.
However, worrying for Home and Away, 664,000 is probably worse than Channel 5's TV movies get in the afternoons. Neighbours seems to be holding steady at 1.8 million for both showings, but Home and Away has dropped 400,000 viewers.

What on earth happened to Home and Away? That has to be its worst ever rating in that 6pm slot.

With the 2011 finale episodes to air next week, they need to ramp up promotion ASAP.

People aren't watching, simple as. I don't think I've heard anyone mention it in a conversation among the other soaps since the nineties. While Neighbours seems to be holding its own, Home and Away is falling away, although it must be remembered this was always less popular than Neighbours and was seen more as a kids show.

That's all quite interesting - never really thought of the boost syndication might bring and it kind of shows how holding syndicated rights back rather than repeating hits immediately and frequently as often happens here has an effect on ratings.

I shouldn't be too surprised though really - I used exactly the same argument with the Big Brother live feed that a small number of viewers sampling for short periods during the day boosts the figures for the main shows at night.


The X Factor has shown here and in Aus it's a grower, not a shower, and it could still really take off in the US - but not while Idol is still around IMO. I think though with Idol losing viewers regardless of what Fox do with that as long as X Factor matches it's season one figures it's a good bet for a third season - but it will need to take off spectacularly this autumn to nab the Idol slot from the next season as Fox will have to make the decision practically a year in advance.



Over simplifying things massively here but Home and Away doesn't seem to have been helped at all by Neighbours joining it on Five - in fact the opposite seems to be the case. Of course though there is also the factor of the First Look episodes and now H&A premieres on Five in the afternoon rather than the evening as it did originally. Even taking that into account though it's still way below where it should be - but then again Hollyoaks seems to have lost about a third of it's regular audience at 6.30pm over the last 2-3 years too.

I think the question for Five is whether they need the 500,000 or so H&A viewers on Five more at 6pm than 5* needs them at 6.30pm. I suspect if Home and Away moved to premiere on C5 that 5* would repeat episodes at 7.30pm, so they wouldn't lose the audience completely.

Shows people talk about in your social circle isn't always the best barometer of opinion. For example, nobody I know is raving about Call the Midwife and yet it is a huge hit.

It is a worrying rating for sure but it should be a reversible trend if stories improve and promotion is increased. You can't just give up the first sign of trouble as you appear to be suggesting. Not everyone wants to watch news or gameshows at 6pm so there is a market for H&A.

With regard to Home and Away, a lot of viewers gave up on it in the nineties and the 13 month break when it left ITV probably convinced a lot of people it had been cancelled. Ironically it is now performing worse than Channel 5's homegrown soap Family Affairs. Even when it does well in its evening slot, H& A struggles to get more than a million viewers.

The 90s is the 90s though as people gave up on it both for the break and ITV shunting it around the schedule. Home and Away found an audience of it's own when it turned up on C5 - smaller of course than ITV, but it was around the 2m mark until around 2007 (not sure when the First Look episodes launched) and it has steadily fallen ever since.

Home and Away's struggles of late are nothing to do with the 1990s - it's more that it just hasn't been as good for the last year or two since they moved away from the stunts and psychos to mainly relationship based storylines. They've basically turned it into a soap, when previously it was actually more of a drama, especially for it's big storylines which often put the UK soaps to shame.

I do remember Home and Away being a regional variation, Border showed it at 5.10 and Central showed it at 6.00. In its early days it kind of reminded me of Grange Hill with Fisher being a Bronson like figure. Actually I thought it was better than Neighbours as it wasn't as sickly sweet.
At its peak in 1990 H& A had 15.5 million viewers, falling to 7.5 million by 1996 as the Aussie soaps fad declined and then to about 4 million when ITV cancelled it. Also might it have been a victim of ITV's move away from showing imports to fill the schedule.

That's a very disappointing number for Inside Men, indeed something of a travesty.

It deserved far better, but as I posted last night, I did wonder if the subject matter and the violent opening 10 minutes, would have put viewers off.

That said, it did of course win its slot and convincingly so. Perhaps it was just a low viewing night generally?