Make your mind up. One minute the schedule is too American, now you want them to consider fast-tracking Dallas?

At least be consistent.

It'll be interesting to see how the commercial channels view the Olympics - will they hold back shows they could air in summer to avoid a clash or use them as their weapon against what will probably be the flagship finals in swimming and athletics each night.

I think if C5 could fast track Dallas to air the next night or the next week at the latest it has enough of a head start on the Olympics not to be affected by it. Shows starting though during the Olympics or the week or two before will probably be hit harder - if indeed they're hit at all.

When did I say the schedule was too American?

As you keep saying, yet you provide no evidence

It's not the kind of show they need to fast-track though (IMO) so why take the risk?

A lot of the target audience for Dallas will be an older more sophisticated viewer that won't be faffing about with illegal downloading or any of that nonsense.

When is Mr Selfridge due, early next year, or later? We know it will be aired before BBC's similar series (which was announced first) as that's the ITV way. Speaking of which, given the circumstances around Love Life, I can't say I'd be sad to see it flop.

ITV1 could stockpile soap episodes moved by Euro 2012 and throw them at the Olympics to try and keep a share up; if EastEnders is moved to BBC Two I doubt they'll be as scared of running hour long episodes against it. I think they should look as possibly stripping the last series of Downton in the 9pm slot - the only problem with that would be repeat fees. They may just broadcast cheap programming against it instead.

I think Channel 4 and Channel 5 will try and make the most of the films in their vaults to see off the fortnight. Obviously series that have been running pre-Olympics would continue but there's no point launching anything new against it.

The ITV drama had been in development for nearly a year before it was officially announced.

There's a definite pro-ITV feel to things. See this article for an example, that I point to now only because I'm using it to make my DSRPG predictions for next week. The no daytime sports ratings rule is suddenly broken because ITV1 had one hell of a day that everyone must read about in great detail.

Oh, and a few weeks ago you claimed Celebrity Juice was a record high for ITV2 in the overnights and it wasn't. You were very quick to declare this without checking for some reason. Within a few minutes I had found a higher example from Xtra Factor using Digital Spy's own archive!

Out of interest on what are you basing the assertion that the audience for Dallas will be the 'older more sophisticated viewer'?

I would however argue that there's two obvious advantages to a fast track for Dallas

1 – Summer is set to be a wasteland of original drama on BBC1 and ITV1 because of the Olympics and Euro Championships. There's going to be floating viewers who aren't interested in sport and the cheap disposable filler put up against sport on the major channels and Five should make a play for them with new drama.

2 – The relaunch in the US is unlikely to go unnoticed by the UK media because of the iconic nature of the original show. Surely its in Five's best interests if the stories about the return of Dallas to US television can also include a line about it starting on Five the following day or week rather than months away when everybody has already forgotten about it and it'll be competing with a full slate of shows on BBC1 and ITV1 (as well as Channel 4 and BBC2).

Just a hunch I have based on the buzz around this show so far, with a lot of it originating from former fans curious to see if it can recapture its original magic. Of course TNT have done well too to lure some notable young names like Jesse Metcalfe in the hope that a new generation of Dallas viewers can be born, which will be a crucial factor in terms of whether or not it's a success.

To address your key points:
1 - Fair point in terms of the procedurals and more established shows but I wouldn't launch a major new import a few weeks before a sporting event of major national significance. Some nights there won't be many viewers left to chase anyway.
2 - I am reasonably optimistic that it will get a fair amount of coverage whenever it launches. I'm not sure it going out on US cable for the first time will raise that much interest in the UK media, but the launch over here should.

If it does skew old running it during the summer might make even more sense. I think like 90210 though the new Dallas has to rely on a new generation of fans, not fans of the original.

Also of course remains to be seen what happens with BB - whether C5 schedule it to end before the Olympics or let it run through. Considering the suggestion they'll air another Celeb BB in the summer I think they'll run BB13 to finish the week before the Olympics then have Celeb BB in August after the Olympics.

P.S. Was confirmed today that Holly Willougby will host Surprise Surprise when it returns for a one-off special later this year. I'd guess it'll probably air around Christmas.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukp...1331835727233A

is this an attempt by ITV to extend the Tuesday night flop zone, by raping peoples childhood.

Whatever next Blind Date with Christine Bleakley?

also mentioning no names, since when did ratings become a personal thing? honestly its like rival football fans around here sometimes.

Was airing at 4.45pm and ran into primetime so I used it for that reason - also peaked at 9.6m!

As for pro-ITV bias in general, have you read this? I always try my best to remain impartial while giving credit where credit's due, and I've never had anybody else accuse me of bias...

In that 2010 article, I do mention that BGT was down on the 2010 and 2009 launches - if I was in any way bias, I might've skipped over that fact

I wonder if they could get away with a series where they all return to the UK and stick it on a Safari park or something.

As for moving it to Wednesday - Stephen Tomkinson has expeirence of the BBC doing that with Ballykissangel. It proved to be the last series. The BBC did it with Born and Bred too and killed that off as well.

If they do want to move Wild at Heart out of the Dancing on Ice sandwich it's best bet is being moved to the Spring and staying on Sundays. Indeed it should guarantee ITV a show that gets 6m+ on Sundays throughout April and May - and frankly that is what they need.

Dallas I think will launch after The Olympics in August but June would be fine as well given NCIS will have finished in June so a week or so after airdate would work.

I reckon Big Brother will be May-July, the football won't affect it but the Olympics will, may have to 10pm due to CSI, NCIS and OUAT airing at 9pm.

A cosy 7 hour costume drama by Andrew Davies after the success of Downton, Midwife and Lark Rise is a RISK?

I hope they dont go too wild and commission a Maverick Cop drama with an ex soapstar in the lead...

Flopped before its even finished, did you get express ratings?

Cant say it looked very appealing, even the title is terribly dull.


I wouldnt have thought it was cheap. All drama is expensive and its got a decent cast too.


IIRC The Prisoner got 0.7m for its last episode which was in primetime too. It was not far above 1m even with a BGT lead-in.

It's 10 hours actually so on that basis I'd say it's a risk, yes. It's certainly an ambitious commission in any case for a new show. No drama is a guaranteed success and it's an expensive drama. I'm sure they'll promote it extensively but considering some people are already writing Titanic off as a flop before it's even aired these things don't always work out that way.

I'm not sure I agree with the older more sophisticated viewer theory and indeed Five can't rely on that to carry the show through. They need to be pushing it toward younger female viewers as a sexy new US soap/drama. In part I think that's another reason to fast track it so they can launch in the midst of Big Brother hype when they have more younger viewers paying attention to them.

In terms of drama over the summer I think its worth the gamble of pushing a new drama. If there's going to be an audience out there looking for new drama output to watch over the summer being able to promote a major new drama to them is a pretty big boost. And I think a bigger boost than another season of NCIS or CSI or whatever other procedural Five has on tap.

And in many respects I think its going to be easier for Dallas to get traction in the summer against a reduced BBC and ITV schedule than in the Autumn which is going to have major content on all channels. If you're promoting a new drama do you want to be promoting when BBC1 is all about sport and ITV1 is all about sport and cheap reality filler or when both BBC1 and ITV1 are pushing new dramas of their own?

Of course I don't know what Five are paying for Dallas. If they feel the price tag is too high to run it over the summer and want to hold off until Autumn so be it. I do however think they'd be mad not to try a new drama over the summer with a decent promotional push. The same is true for C4. There's a big group of viewers who are going to be looking for something to watch.

On the subject of media coverage I imagine the debut in the US will get some play in the press over here. It'll get even more if its coupled up with the debut on Five.

In fairness everyone seems to be suggesting Titanic is (or will be) a flop because the general consensus is its not very good or engaging rather than the promotional campaign. In fact the campaign seems to have earned more positive reviews than the show itself...

Shows like Downton and Call The Midwife all say that if you make a good show, position it right and promote it heavily then people will watch it. The key though is that you have to make a good show. Its going to be interesting to see where they opt to put Mr Selfridge. Conventional wisdom says it lands on a Sunday (that tends to be where these shows land) but outside of a weakened Dancing on Ice and an already taken X Factor lead-in what does ITV have to help launch Mr Selfridge on a Sunday. Could they put it on a Saturday paired with Britain's Got Talent?

No one in US tv gives a damn about anyone over 49, I think it highly unlikely Dallas will be aimed 'older' (depends on what you mean by older though I guess.)

Dallas will be aimed at 18-49 year olds, like everything else.

Just to be an atrocious pedant, Ballykissangel stayed on Sundays throughout, which was probably its downfall as it ended up dying opposite Heartbeat. However for the last series they showed episode one on a Thursday after the episode of 'stEnders where Phil got shot to give it a bit of a boost, which wasn't a bad idea, before the rest of the run was on Sundays as usual, where it didn't do much so got axed.

I doubt very much that OUAT will be airing at 9pm now. Apart from the fact it looks better suited to a pre-watershed slot anyway, soon there will be big dramas on BBC One, ITV1 and C4 in that slot. I am expecting an 8pm start for OUAT with strong family films as a lead-in.

MasterChef: 5.6m
Love Life: 3.9m

Spanking and a half. It could have been worse for ITV though, having seen the reviews for LL.