It's for BBC Three.


There is sport from 12-6pm like most Saturday's.

Good start for Benidorm, obviously a good chunk down on last year but back to 2010 levels it seems. Nothing else to say apart from awful for The Bank Job.

Worth noting though that although it launched at 7.6m (inc +1) the overall series average was 6.6m, so last night's 6.7m is in line with that. It probably won't dip as much this year either so it'll end up with a similar average. The series before last year (in late 2009) launched with 6.0m and averaged 5.9m so it's comfortably up on that.

Does a 24.9% to 20.5% share win in "ITV primetime" (when ITV's soap ratio was 3 to 1 BBC1's) constitute a "rampage" then....?

Why does it matter to you so much? You seem like a really sad person considering you spend all day on here and get angry over such little things.

I simply ask because someone said yesterday that with their awesome Friday night line up, ITV were truly "on the rampage", and I wondered if that particular poster remained of.that view.

And as a point of order, I am not angry and do not spend all day on here. I may well check in from time to time, but hardly "all day". What's your problem anyway?

You must be new here, there is an intense BBC1 v ITV1 rivalry. We do not take everything too seriously. Most of us want BBC1 to do well because it does not have commercial constraints. We applaud ITV1 when they occasionally have a hit such as Downton Abbey.

On a sidenote Benidorm suffered slightly last night against a repeat of New Tricks, had it been a Benidorm repeat v new New Tricks the gap would have been so much higher.

I want BBC1 to do well for shows I enjoy or look forward to, not because it doesnt have commercial constraints. Adverts dont bother me because I can skip through them so if theres shows on the commercial channels I like, I hope they rate well. Unless someones a big New Tricks fan, I dunno why anyone would want a repeat of it to rate well just because it has no commercials, because it just means therell be even more repeats of it in the future which reduces the chances of some new shows being shown in those slots.

Channel 4's Mad Bad Ad Show only appealed to 487k/2.7% at 10pm.

Dancc, how is The Mentalist rating compared to last series? I read Channel 5 want 1.5million for US dramas but Mentalist was a bit lower than that, will they stick with it next series. Castle lower than Mentalist, same as in America.

Didn't someone say on here recently that Channel 4 has signed Mickey Flanagan on a golden handcuff deal? Looks like the best signing since Channel 5 secured the exclusive services of Justin Lee Collins.

It is down about 300k currently. But the break and move to Fridays won't have helped. 1.44m is not massively below the 1.5m target and it will add a fair amount on timeshift.

Castle is a second run import so the 1.5m target won't apply here. They will be reasonably happy with how that rated, over double what C4 managed in the same slot and about the same as the figures it was getting last year (after the premiere) but in a tougher slot.

Personally I thought it was an excellent double bill and the perfect way to end the working week so hopefully they will grow through word of mouth etc.

This is the second of a three year contract so it won't go this year. I suspect at the end of next season though FOX will make a choice between The X Factor and Idol (that's probably always been the plan) - and at the moment Idol would still be favourite to win that battle.


So knowing C4 it'll probably be back for a 22 episode run about three weeks after this series ends.

In the past I have criticised C4 for caring a bit too much about being a "public service" and forgetting it also needs to fight on a commercial front when it comes to the content it puts on screen but that now also extends to how it is run - Jay Hunt and David Abrahams shouldn't be safe in their jobs considering the year C4 have had.

Forget losing Big Brother, Friends and some big US drama - arguably C4's biggest loss in recent years has been Kevin Lygo.

A value judgement and yes these sort of shows do far better in Workington than they would do in Westminster, but ITV have certainly hit all the right buttons for their core audience. However, I still think if I lived well south of Watford Gap, I would enjoy Emmerdale far more than Eastenders.
I would be more worried, though, if a reality show featuring Amy Childs did better.

I have never watched Benidorm so I cannot comment on the quality of it, but I would always champion the premium programme v the lesser one where possible - regardless of it being 1st or 2nd run. Also for a growing number of viewers adverts are a bug bear, I tend to watch 10 hours minimum per week on V+ catch up or V+ recorded programmes, the former is almost entirely ad free and the second is ads x 32 speed (many thanks Virgin Media.)

Consider for a moment a new Eternal Law against a Call The Midwife repeat, which deserves on moral grounds the highest rating? Of course it is all down to the individual, I just like the idea of quality drama maintaining a loyal audience.

Benidorm is a ratings hit and for all it might seem a bit naff to Southerners, does the business for ITV. I would much rather they had a big hit with drama than waste the money on entertainment shows that stiff regularly, or boring reality shows.

Well, with Casualty and presumably In It to Win It to be fitted in after Voice, ITV would have to start Talent pretty damn early to get a head start on Voice.

channel 5 should be more realistic, not every US drama will achieve that for them. They would be foolish to dump an on going show with an audience because of it.

I think The Voice will get the 7pm hour and Talent the 8pm hour. Makes most sense really. The Voice might spill into the 8pm hour a bit, but with those two shows to fit in it won't be any later than 8:30pm, so I think ITV might actually be better off shifting Talent slightly later (to 8:15/8:30pm) if The Voice spills over, as there's no point clashing with the final 15/30 mins of The Voice. BGT would probably benefit from a slightly later start even without The Voice though as the weather often hits it at 8pm, whereas that may be less of a problem in a slightly later slot.

BBC One's Golden Rule of Spring Saturdays applies here: "Get the most expensive programmes on as early as possible so they can benefit from the warm weather and light nights."

So true, they do it every year. With no Doctor Who this year though it'll probably just be Pointless at 6pm (or Total Wipeout once Pointless finishes its run) followed by The Voice at 7pm, In It To Win It at 8pm etc. The Voice will probably only need a results show for its last 4 or 5 weeks (if it follows the US template) so that may get squeezed in later on (unless they do the results on Sundays).

With Channel 5's love of crime dramas, have they considered approaching STV to show Taggart. This would probably pull in 2 million viewers and would show they were committed to home grown shows.
Also on my shopping list for the channel would be the FA Cup when the rights come up again, as a big match would pull in 7 million for them,

I'm sure BGT has started as late as 8.30pm quite often in the past too.

I think BGT has more to lose than The Voice if they go head to head - and creating a schedule clash and all the associated publicity would just give The Voice a bigger push. I also think Take Me Out is actually a much bigger weapon for ITV against The Voice - offering something quite different rather than competing like for like.

That said one thing I might have done if I was in charge of BGT was taken over ITV for the evening with a special live auditions show (perhaps the Youtube auditions).

interesting US pilot news


as in Darius Danesh. Not sure why he is now Darius Campbell.

So did not see this coming.

Friday 24th February 2012
BBC One
13:45 - Doctors: 1.54m (21.8%)
20:00 - EastEnders: 7.95m (34.5%)
20:30 - Room 101: 3.24m (13.7%)
21:00 - New Tricks: 3.96m (16.9%)
22:35 - The Graham Norton Show: 3.39m (23.6%)

BBC Two
20:00 - Mastermind: 1.83m (7.9%)
21:00 - Class and Culture: 1.32m (5.7%)
22:00 - QI: 2.03m (10.4%)

ITV1
19:00 - Emmerdale: 7.16m (34.4%)
19:30 - Coronation Street: 8.37m (37.5%)
* +1: 125k (0.5%)
20:30 - Coronation Street: 8.58m (36.0%)
* +1: 173k (0.7%)
21:00 - Benidorm: 6.24m (26.7%)
* +1: 406k (2.3%)

Channel 4
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 950k (4.8%)
20:30 - New Girl : 920k (3.9%)
* +1: 208k (0.9%)
21:00 - The Bank Job: 990k (4.2%)
* +1: 185k (1.0%)
22:00 - The Mad Bad Ad Show: 487k (2.7%)

Channel 5
13:45 - Neighbours: 730k (10.2%)
17:30 - Neighbours: 995k (6.1%)
18:00 - Home and Away: 741k (4.0%)
20:00 - World's Toughest Trucker: 1.11m (4.7%)
21:00 - The Mentalist: 1.31m (5.6%)
22:00 - Castle: 1.02m (5.6%)

Primetime Shares
ITV1 - 24.9% (+1: 0.8%)
BBC One - 20.4%
BBC Two - 6.0%
Channel 5 - 4.8%
Channel 4 - 3.8% (+1: 0.8%).

Multichannels
5*
18:30 - Home and Away: 512k (2.6%)

BBC Three
22:00 - EastEnders: 645k (3.3%)

E4
18:30 - The Big Bang Theory: 601k (3%)
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 423k (2.0%)

Sky1
21:00 - Stella: 570k (2.4%)

Source: DS. Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary.

Is 487k one of the lowest 10pm ratings ever for Channel 4?