That's an interesting decision if true and points toward them taking the current Sunday night problems seriously for next year. Of course the issue isn't so much ditching Wild at Heart and more what on earth they replace it with. It would seem like a foolish move to try and launch a new drama opposite Call the Midwife next year particularly if the weakened Dancing on Ice is to be the lead-in. I suppose they could try Sunday night comedy sandwiched inbetween Dancing on Ice shows.

The producers of The Brits aren't the only ones who have trouble with their stop-watches. A frequent feature of TOS is a guest who sits there mute for half the programme, is brought into the conversation and almost immediately told ''Sorry, we're out of time'' when viewers have probably sat through two extremely dull film packages. Why bother ?

The Walking Dead ratings news

It was down 14% on last weeks season two b opener but still easily beat everything on broadcast in the demo.

The Walking Dead – 3.6 [6.89]

I can't access it at the moment but CBS have put out a press release claiming that CBS Evening News beat ABC's World News in the A25-54 last week, the first time they have achieved that since September 2006.

Scott Pelley certainly seems to be steering the programme in the right direction with a focus on hard news stories.

The BARB website goes back far enough to see the ratings for the last series of Birds in November/December 1998. Four of the six episodes had over 11m viewers and episode 2 had 10.98, so it was still a ratings hit. The very last episode on Xmas Eve only had 8.7m viewers but it was on against Heartbeat which, in turn, was 4m down on the 14.8m it was attracted a couple of weeks earlier.

The BBC did revive To The Manor Born in 2007 which took over 10m and that was considerably older than Birds. However it wasn't very well received and, of course, back in 2007 BBC1 comedy was a very low ebb whereas, as you point out, there's a healthy-looking portfolio for this Christmas.

I do reckon, though, that Birds will be revived by some channel - Watch? Sky1? Gold (which is planning to move into scripted comedy)? Maybe ITV1?

Why not simply cut costs by relocating the cast to England and get them to set up a wildlife theme park as in Disney.

Big investors funding the UKs first adventure park like you find in Florida which will include animals, of course.

That way you get a whole new story with cheaper filming costs but can keep many of the favourite characters facing new situations.

Seems the obvious solution to me.

From Wild at Heart to Wild at Home....

Came across some STV Q4 2010 ratings info in a presentation on the ITV Media site earlier (ITV must do STV's ad-sales?)
http://www.itvmedia.co.uk/advertisin...v1-regions/stv (it's under nickable stuff)

The top 350 programmes in Scotland were all on ITV/STV

The 6 top rated programmes were:
X Factor Results - 1.397 million
Coronation Street - 1.211 million
I'm a Celebrity - 1.084 million
Taggart - 884,000
STV News Special - 856,000
Emmerdale - 814,000

Notable that the Taggart rating would have been for the last series which replaced episodes 2-7 of Downton Abbey Series 1 in Scotland. It is clearly very popular in Scotland, and wouldn't have dented the overnights for Downton Abbey S1 ep2-7 much, if at all


Solid night for C5 last night

Will Prisoners Wives get cancelled rating so low? I thought it was gonna be quite a popular show but ratings have dropped from 5m to 3.7m in two weeks. Better hope it goes up next week, it deserves to!

You have to wonder what the BBC think of the programmes they put on Tuesdays at 9pm, it's probably the easiest slot of the week, so do they only put dramas there that wouldn't stand up in any other slot?

I'd imagine it will, it had tough competition last night with BFGW and Brits, all three appealing to the same demos more or less. It's a great little series IMO, not sure how it's time shifting?

Last night Prisoners' Wives beat BFGW in the 9pm hour, which it didn't do last week.

I've never understood anyone who says they don't like something before it's even been broadcast!

The BBC aim to get 6 - 7m viewers for the Voice. Their purpose is to reduce the dominance of BGT. If BGT gets 7-8 million because of The Voice instead of 9-11 million like it usually does then The Voice will be a success indeed.

US Ratings Tuesday February 21

Despite being down across the night CBS' NCIS powered Tuesday night was still enough to claim the demo victory for the night. NCIS however was down a tenth vs. last week whilst spin-off NCIS: LA dropped three tenths and dipped below a 3. At 10PM Unforgettable continued CBS' downward night dropping four tenths and below a 2.

Fox had something of a mixed night. Glee and Raising Hope both gained a tenth on last week but New Girl dropped a tenth. With weaker lead-ins and potentially a weaker lead-out on the horizon things could be about to get tricky for New Girl. Over on NBC it was a rare night of upward movement. The Biggest Loser's two hour average was up two tenths on last week and Parenthood rose a tenth.

ABC's woeful Tuesday's continued though. Last Man Standing was at least steady as the anchor of the night but Cougar Town dropped a tenth for its second episode back. At this level syndication may not be enough of a motivator to stick with it. At 9PM The River was also stable but at stable at cancelled levels is something of a mixed blessing. At 10PM Body of Proof was actually up two tenths on last week but still pulled a dismally low rating.

ABC
8PM: Last Man Standing – 2.2 [7.46]
8:30PM: Cougar Town – 1.7 [4.45]
9PM: The River – 1.7 [4.78]
10PM: Body of Proof – 1.4 [6.54]

CBS
8PM: NCIS – 3.8 [19.55]
9PM: NCIS: LA – 2.9 [15.89]
10PM: Unforgettable – 1.9 [10.56]

Fox
8PM: Glee – 2.9 [7.40]
9PM: New Girl – 3.0 [6.25]
9:30PM: Raising Hope – 2.2 [4.85]

NBC
8PM: The Biggest Loser – 2.2 [6.37]
9PM: The Biggest Loser – 2.4 [6.95]
10PM: Parenthood – 1.7 [4.91]

The CW
8PM: Hart of Dixie [r] – 0.4 [1.06]
9PM: Ringer – 0.5 [1.41]

Why would that be the purpose? Why should the publicly funded BBC be concerned with reducing BGT's dominance? That is not what the BBC is for.

If the purpose is to launch a new, big Saturday night entertainment hit then that's fair enough. BGT's 'dominance' shouldn't really come into it.

Because BGT's dominance affects the placing of some BBC shows that would normally be regarded as hits but are largely undetected on the ratings radar due to BGT. If The Voice can just dent that power by giving positive recognition to other shows than that is good thing.

A narrow margin of victory but a victory none the less.

CBS Evening News – 1.8
ABC World News – 1.7

What's more interesting for CBS is the year-on-year and season to date gains for the broadcast. Indeed the momentum seems to be with the CBS broadcast for the time being. Compared to the same week last year they're up 10% in households, 12% in total viewers and 20% in adults 25-54. And season to date they're up 5% in households and with viewers and 7% with 25-54.

Of course those comparisons are a little skewed given that America is in the midst of an election this year/season and wasn't last year and you'd expect that to produce some uplift in and of itself and I suspect given that the release states that they're the only broadcast up with households both NBC and ABC have seen gains in total viewers and demos as well.

None the less positive signs for CBS and perhaps yet more concerns for ABC.

The only problem with The Brits was the bizarre desire from someone up top to finish the show as close to 10pm as possible; they should've let it over run and stuff the consequence on the news. It's not as though the latter rates that well anyway. Otherwise, it did really well and if The Brits can survive the dubious presenting skills of Mick Fleetwood and Samantha Fox I'm sure it can survive this.

Everything else was hit by the award ceremony, and the other channels must be delighted that ITV1's flop zopne will return next week. It should have an impact on Emmerdale and River Monsters as well, which performed better than usual - the latter possibly denting EastEnders slightly. The gap between the two soaps is usually greater than 0.5m on a Tuesday, even when including +1 for Emmerdale.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings did ok including +1 and obviously quite a few viewers watched The Brits then switched. Shameless, therefore, didn't see much of a boost.

The Fixer still picked up a decent figure on BBC Two while Channel Five had a steady night though I question the wisdom of airing a show based on the death of a music icon against a music awards show.

I do wonder NCIS Los Angeles will ever be moved from the post NCIS, it rates well but I think it would lose viewers if it were to move to another night or Tuesdays at 10pm. Unforgettable is looking likely to be cancelled.

Every channel should be looking to schedule to benefit themselves, not to deliberately hurt others. What's the point of cutting off your nose to spite your face? Surely The Voice's role this spring is to establish itself; not provide immediate competition to Britain's Got Talent?

Besides, what will the BBC gain from destroying a key opponent? The BBC have said on many occassions that they prefer a strong ITV because it makes them compete more and think outside the box. Due to the decline of ITV in recent years the BBC have had it too easy, and the signs are starting to show - on BBC One at least.

So don't Americans have DVRs which record the programme rather than the time?


I wonder though if the BBC2 schedule is correct. MOTD2 is usually an hour, and it is only three games on Sunday. Three Men in a Boat was surely an hour too, not 45 minutes, although the BBC have an annoying habit of producing 30, 45 and 60 minute versions of some shows - though usually daytime fodder.


Probably the right decision, especially now Call the Midwife has reignited the Sunday night drama battle.


If they finally went for splitting Dancing on Ice over the weekend I'd go for the results show at 7pm then two-hour dramas at 8pm - IMO that's the best way to take on Call the Midwife, rather than a pre-watershed drama head to head. They can save them for the Spring.

However sending Dancing on Ice back to Saturdays completely might be the best option for them, with them relaunching Sundays completely. Relocating Take Me Out is the biggest issue from that, but it could be held back to run with either later (shorter) episodes of Dancing on Ice then paired with Britain's Got Talent.


What rubbish - BGT hits the BBC for an hour a week for 8 weeks on Saturdays, usually head to head with a lottery show which holds up nicely. Yes, the live shows are stripped across the week and EastEnders might be dented, but so what. It's a good thing to have soaps challenged in the week - and also it's a week the BBC know they can put out a fairly cheap primetime schedule.

So because a show is not 'regarded as a hit' (by whom? the press? the ratings thread? and which shows do you refer to for that matter?) simply because it airs at the same time as BGT, the BBC should then aggressively try and reduce its dominance? And what to they gain from that exactly? 'Giving positive recognition' to other shows seems like pitiful reason to buy expensive rights to a talent show.

Surely it's in the BBC's best interests to ensure The Voice is a hit on its own terms, and base its success on that basis, not by how many viewers Britain's Got Talent loses and by how much 'positive recognition' Casualty receives...

Deliberately denting BGT is good because it means that the ITV1 shows airing around BGT will get less viewers cos the lead-out and lead-in from BGT will be smaller. Then that means BBC1 will rate better in those hours too, so its not just the one hour against BGT that BBC1 would rate better but 3 hours. We seen recently the Beeb like competing strongly against ITV1s big shows and have been rewarded. If the BBC can show The Voice and have 30 minutes overlap into BGT, The Voice has advantage of being shown first and will keep the majority of its viewers in that half hour and dent BGT in the process!

Channel 5 controller Jeff Ford: 'We nearly bought Glee': http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s57/g...ught-glee.html

Good you didnt buy clapped out Glee, Jeff. Can you buy Persons of Interest soon!

I very much doubt Wild At Heart will be axed. They might move it (I think they should) but to axe it completely would be ludicrous. It's been getting c6.5m overnights against Call The Midwife and c7.5m in the officials. No way are they going to axe a hit show like that. It is doing much worse than previous series really.

It's probably worth them moving it to Wednesday/Thursday, and not bothering with drama against CTM. I'd put All Star Family Fortunes on inbetween the two DOI shows (likely to hold 4-5m DOI viewers) and have it start at 8pm. DOI would be a little earlier and a little shorter (so say 6:30-8pm) with the Skate Off at 9pm so it starts at the junction. They could then put a sitcom at 9:30pm to capitalise on the (still strong) DOI Skate Off lead-in.