Seven
18:00 Seven News: 1.30m
18:30 Sunday Night: 988k
19:30 Border Security: 970k
20:00 The Force: 944k
20:30 Bones: 1.13m
21:30 Castle: 982k

Nine
14:00 One Day Series Cricket - Australia v India: 675k
18:00 Nine News Sunday: 1.35m
18:30 One Day Series Cricket - Australia v India: 1.34m

Ten
18:30 Young Talent Time: 1.00m
19:30 Modern Family: 1.19m
20:00 New Girl: 1.24m
20:30 Homeland: 1.11m
21:35 NCIS (R): 449k

Shares
Nine: 25.3%
Seven: 21.6%
Ten: 18.5%

I think it'll depend on exactly where it is scheduled but I'd expect it to be the biggest entertainment series launch for quite a while.

Red or Black had hype but it was in a tough genre just now - gameshows generally aren't doing great in primetime. The Voice has all that hype (and more!) months in advance and it's a talent show. There have been few easier sells for a marketing department in recent years.

I don't think there's any question now that it's going to start big. The question is whether or not it can stay steady or even build on its premiere audience and beat X Factor or whether it loses viewers through the series.

There are two arguments about starting it in January. One is that, as you say, it would have a higher potential audience and maybe X Factor and Strictly viewers looking for something on Saturday nights. The other is that those viewers have just finished a 3 month marathon with those shows and might not have wanted to jump straight into another talent show (look at FOX's problems with American Idol). So some kind of gap might be a good thing.

Man, wasn't Border Security at the top of the ratings game at one point? It has now fallen under 1m, compared to 1.5m around a few years ago. Bones and Castle did decent and still a good showing for TEN's Super Sunday. New Girl is doing especially well. In New Zealand, New Girl is airing on FOUR, which is equivalent to Eleven or The CW in the US.

If Carlsberg did TV channels...

Love them all, great to see that they're doing well in Australia too.

Did Ten get other shows as part of a package from FOX? I know Channel 4 got a couple of animated comedies (Allen Gregory, Napoleon Dynamite) along with New Girl, Apartment 23 and Homeland.

Channel 4 plugging Homeland so it's good to see them make an effort. Still not convinced it will work for them.

To be fair, the cricket probably put a dent in last night. But yes I've noticed Border Security is not The Force it used to be!


I think so. Agree on Homeland's potential UK fortunes. It's the first show I've actively looked forward to on Channel 4 for some time but I can't see it being much of a hit, especially if they put it on Saturdays as rumoured.

Just stumbled across this document by chance on their website, and it provides an overview of their programming plans for the year. Not much we didn't know in it already, but some bits I haven't seen reported:

* The programme budget will be increased for the second year in a row, leading to less movies and repeats in peak.
* The Gadget Show will be relaunched in a new format, with fewer but bigger shows and a more ambitious editorial approach.
* The Bachelor is confirmed to be returning for a second series.
* Beat the Ancestors, an innovative history/engineering crossover, will enlist a team of gifted amateurs to construct past inventions using only the materials and technology available at the time – including a Roman catapult, Elizabethan gunpowder and an eighteen century fire engine.
* New series Hero in my Family sees celebrities trace what their grandparents and other family members did in the Second World War, demonstrating contemporary connections to the past.

Source and more: http://about.channel5.com/files/down...olicy_2012.pdf

I think the problem faced by acts from The Voice is the general lack of support they've had from The Voice because its not been on air. It was easy in the opening seasons of Idol for the winners to release material months after their victory and months before the new season starts because they were still a novelty but with so many of these talent show acts flooding the market they just don't stand out (Idol has the same poor sales records recently for anyone who isn't a country artist). As things stand I don't know why Universal didn't opt to launch Javier's new album when The Voice returned to NBC with a performance on The Voice. The X Factor route does now seem to be the best route to take launching these talent show acts - when the show they were launched on is either back on the air or gearing up to start again and the show is in the front of everyone's mind.

Of course Javier wasn't helped by the perplexing choice of lead singles for the album. Why when there's a duet with Adam Levine on the album that wasn't the first single from it I have no idea.

Having said that the other major issue that talent shows face is that television audiences are awful at picking winners. With one or two exceptions (and all but one of those was an obvious hand picked winner by the producers/record company) audiences have always gotten it spectacularly wrong when it comes to picking winners on these shows. They tend to go for the broad dull middle ground that rarely reflects anything you'd actually hear within modern music and as a result doesn't sell. It may very well be time to find a new way of picking winners for these shows and actually I suspect that might be the next big 'innovation' for the format.

That bit about The Gadget Show caught my eye. It works well now why change it? Are they going to make it more like Top Gear?

certainlly intersting news about The Gadget Show, wonder if this is to do with Jason doing the US version (which to be fair is only a pilot at this stage)

A "Who do you think you are?" type show, not original, but it may work and its better than "Its All About Amy"

Beat the Ancestors sounds like fun.

The ratings have declined these past couple of years. It absolutely makes sense to respond to that and I would be disappointed if they didn't. Currently it's not achieving its full potential.

It'll be interesting to see how they evolve the show. Fewer but 'bigger' episodes works for me, they had been churning out too many recently.

Jason is doing the US pilot? Is he going to America to film it? Is he leaving the UK version? A relaunch might hurt the ratings.

you will have to brake the Paywall, but that isnt hard

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/i...037335.article

sorry forget that, that detail was Pay Walled.

I wonder what they mean by "fewer" do they mean "specials" or do they mean shorter series?

I think The X Factor is missing a trick in this country, actually. The turnaround for winners albums is far too slow and they should really look to be ready to release a single at the very least by the time Britain's Got Talent comes around. That way they have a Syco audience ready to remember the X Factor winner and possibly by the new single. They could then release another single/album when The X Factor returns.

As for The Voice; another problem they have is NBC are lacking in other shows where the winner can appear. Here, the winner could be spoilt for choice - Children in Need, Comic/Sports Relief, Lets Dance, the Lottery, Strictly Come Dancing, Graham Norton. Even ITV1 have Britain's Got Talent, Dancing On Ice, Red or Black (), Jonathan Ross. But in the US, the opportunity of a crossover is simply not there unless the act becomes established first. Even though FIX have an opportunity with Idol/X Factor I really can't see the two shows being willing to help each other out.

The latter I think. 37 episodes was a little excessive last year. It's an important show for 5 but has tended to underachieve recently. Better to have fewer, higher quality shows I feel.

Cee Lo Green has just appeared during the half time show at the Superbowl. Nice promotion for The Voice which follows.

EDIT: And cue a trailer for The Voice straight after the halftime show.

Certainly The X Factor acts could make better use of the Britain's Got Talent launching pad for new material. In general though I don't have a massive problem with the slow turn around (and just under a year to put together an album isn't that slow) or at least I wouldn't if it meant they were releasing better material. You can take that year if you launch with a great lead single and a good album but at this stage it seems like an album that was put together in a couple of months and then sat on for the rest of the year.


When you're looking at prime time that's generally true of every network. There are very few shows on American prime time television that allow someone to come in a promote a new project. In theory NBC have America's Got Talent over the summer and had The Sing-Off in the Fall (although admittedly nobody watched that).

Having said that NBC do have a massive advantage in this area when it comes to the morning shows and particularly late night where they're still incredibly strong. If the winner of The Voice can't get a guest spot on Leno and/or Fallon someone, somewhere is dropping the ball. You'd also think they might try and get them on SNL as well. Plus NBC has access to a huge cable platform that they can (and maybe should) push future winners on.

I forgot about morning and evening plus SNL. Actually, NBC probably have the best base to work from because of that so why they're not using it is anyone's guess. I can't see America's Got Talent being option because Simon won't allow it, and AGT is very important to the network. Who's the producer of The Sing Off?

The show has suffered from too many episodes a year, when they were reverted to the hour long format it was only 8-9 episodes. I think at a push, 10-13 episodes would be fine but I would prefer 6-8.

Wonder if Channel 5 has finally noticed that the celebrity shows weren't working, Still think they should commision an original drama or comedy and then preview it after the Big Brother final in the same way FOX did with Glee and HBO and Showtime sometime after the season finale of their hit shows,

All I can remember about The Sing-Off off the top of my head is that its a Sony television production.

In regards to AGT I'm not sure how much control Cowell and SyCo actually have on the acts that do and don't get booked for it. Having said that from what I remember Lorne Michaels (or the production team through Michaels) holds a lot of sway over who does and doesn't get booked for Saturday Night Live. Lorne Michaels is probably a lot more important to NBC than Cowell is though and does it under the guise of protecting the image of SNL rather than his own business interests.

On the subject of America's Got Talent I do wonder how SyCo would feel if NBC opted to move that into the regular season this year. If they moved into the Monday night slot for the Fall it would be in indirect competition with The X Factor after all...

I doubt Simon would be too fussed unless America's Got Talent started to beat The X Factor USA in the demo. Simply for that reason I reckon he'll try and convince NBC to keep America's Got Talent in the summer season until The X Factor USA establishes itself and manages to improve demographically.

Do NBC have any creative control over Leno/Fallon? I guess the presenters have a big say and they might not like being used to promote an unestablished reality TV winner.

The Superbowl finished in normal time but the final play could've swung the result so it should've had a very strong audience. The Voice is now starting.

It'll be interesting what show CBS picks for their post Superbowl slot, as I mentioned before, they have the AFC Championships in primetime and they usually put a drama in the post game slot so I reckon it'll be a comedy, I would prefer 2 Broke Girls to get it but it could easily go to The Big Bang Theory which I think could easily do over 30m.

My money is on The Big Bang Theory as well. As much CBS might want to put 2 Broke Girls there, I think TBBT has more of an advantage in ratings and how they will tackle the Superbowl episode. It will be interesting to see how they will perform. Seems a lightyear away since over 50m was achieved for a Superbowl lead-out, and that was with Friends on their sophomore season back in 1996. Looking at the past lead-out programmes, it is interesting to see CSI and Desperate Housewives were not chosen as a lead-out when they were at their first (2000-2001, Superbowl '01 on CBS) and second season (2005-06, Superbowl '06 on ABC - ABC's final Superbowl, as ABC no longer hosts Superbowl), respectively. Survivor 2 was chosen on the 2001 post-Superbowl which had 45.369m and Grey's Anatomy was chosen for 2006 post-Superbowl, attracting 37.881m.

Simon Mayo to host the new Blockbusters being made for Sky

- The Sun

They start recording the 40 shows at Sky's new studios on Thursday. All done and dusted Sunday week.