Any predictions for Man U on Channel 5 this week, I'm going for 3 million?

End of April. The programme is being revamped to get the ratings back on track. Less episodes but of higher quality, a "more ambitious" editorial approach and also in HD at long last.

I do think we are in danger of exaggerating its underperformance last year slightly. I was looking back at old TGS ratings the other day and the ratings it was getting for the last run were very similar to what it was getting in Q4 2007. It wasn't until 2008 that it became a real force, and in 2009 it hit its highest ever rating of 1.96m on Monday 7th December.

I think the programme still has a great deal of potential and will come back stronger this year. Other channels like Sky1 and Channel 4 have tried their own shows in this genre recently ("Gadget Geeks", "Home of the Future") and they flopped. Viewers seem to like TGS best.

Liverpool win 6-1 , a big shame for ITV1 they didn't have this match. The 4 quarter finals are not big matches really. If Everton, Chelsea, Liverpool & Tottenham all use home advantage and make the semi-finals - ratings could be impressive.

Wow 1.96m, I think if it can return and pull in a stable 1.2m the revamp will be more than a success, like Top Gear, The Gadget Show will always have potential due to the focus of the show, the next big phone, camera or technology, the only way is up... baby, oh no the only way is essex is in my head now

I do like The Gadget Show but I think there were too many episodes, I hope they stick to 8-10 episodes like Top Gear as I think less episodes will improve the quality. Wonder if all the presenters are back.

I don't have ESPN and the pub's had it taken out, so grrrr, missed out. However, I do live in an area where Liverpool are the second biggest team so I think the pub ratings will be good.

Can you clarify this a little for me? Are you saying that the reason previous BBC imports have failed is because they haven't just made a carbon copy or that The Apprentice and Total Wipeout have been a success because they aren't carbon copies?

If its option one then I'd agree. The BBC has shot themselves in the foot with previous imports by needlessly playing around with the format. If however you're suggesting that The Apprentice and Total Wipeout aren't carbon copies then you're mad.


What on earth where Channel 4 thinking when they not only brought this back but brought it back so quickly and in completely slots? It really does feel as if they're just scheduling by the entire channel by random draw at this point.


I continue to be impressed by how relatively well this is doing. A surprisingly good commission that seemed a little bit crazy on paper.


Or not perhaps. Cowell's appearance on Ross should be a good indicator of how much of a draw he remains for UK audiences.

I'm pretty sure he remains a big draw. His appearance on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in 2010 gave that show a big boost and I don't think he personally is significantly less popular than he was then. BGT got a big boost the night he returned last year too.

Poor numbers there for an FA Cup all Premier League match, and worse if those figures aggregate it with the broadcast on the ITV1+1 channel.

Didn't even break the 7m mark, indeed considerably off it!

One Benidorm advert between Coronation Street and Wild at Heart and that was it, the latter started bang on 20:30 for once. Can't possibly think why...

BBC One had a very good night, though relatively speaking Casualty looks low; it used to manage a low 5m mark when it was up against The X Factor and now it's struggling to hit it against Take Me Out and Jonathan Ross.

BBC Two had quite a poor night and after a good start to the year a few more of these are creeping into the schedule. Obviously Lucian Freud isn't a pull for the British public as a whole but I'm sure members of the art community enjoyed the show.

You've Been Framed and TV Burp really struggled against Let's Dance with a football lead out. It'll be interesting to see if they improve next week. The football didn't do brilliantly but I'm sure demo wise it was another good showing from ITV1. Take Me Out recorded a decent figure and it seems to have settled around 5m; I'd be interested to see how a Britain's Got Talent/X Factor lead in/out would effect it. The Jonathan Ross Show saw a slight boost which will be welcomed by the broadcaster.

Channel 4 will be pleased with their night; The Bank Job managed to climb above the 1m mark maybe aided by the lead in from The Day The Earth Stood Still which did well in early primetime.

And again, Channel 5 will be delighted with their night, with a average rating above 1m for a number of hours as their crime drama and boxing approach paid dividends.


That explains why Dancing On Ice had a two hour show tonight - to make up for the adverts! Interestingly there appeared to be more people posting on DS than last week...so far it's dipped week on week as the ratings have. The show didn't seem that dragged out for a two hour programme either.

They are the same formats from the original but the BBC made tweaks for UK audiences.

When Wipeout was sold around the world. Nearly all the countries had the US graphics, title music and the set format with two hosts commentating and one course-side reporter. We went for a change of title (BBC had no choice), one host instead of two, different graphics and music (with the BBC using copyright music instead of sound effects).

With The Apprentice they added the element of the narrator and the early series were made uncensored for BBC2.

When they had So You Think You Can Dance it was practically the same as the US show and it didn't work. It's a fact that when Deal or No Deal was sold around the world, they all adapted the US version with the 26 models but it didn't captivate the audience in some audiences. The US version was commissioned the same time as the UK version, but rather than use their format. We adapted the French version and made certain tweaks.(giving The Banker a personality, theme weeks etc...). That version fo Deal or No Deal has produced more episodes than any other country (ahead of Australia) since the show was invented in the Netherlands in 2001.

Barely. It's still a flop. I don't think we're quite at the stage where anything over 1m for C4 will do, are we?

If this show was on Channel 5 even it would be a flop (for what it is).

I'd argue anything above the 1m mark for Channel 4 or Channel 5 (outside the big hitters) is performing ok if not brilliantly, simply because how split the audience is split nowadays.

Though I suppose The Bank Job was supposed to be Channel 4's 'next big thing' of sorts.

Channel 4 has lost it. They used to be so good and now they seem to churn out flop after flop and their few successes are hammered into the ground. The creative renewal after BB was cancelled has meant yet more cheap junk like Coach Trip and Noel Bloody Edmonds six days a week.

It was brought back too soon, it's like MPD, I think it needs just one or two series a year rather than almost all year. It's like CDWM, it did brilliantly in primetime but having both daytime and primetime versions has hurt its ratings.

Agreed, it's meant to be a flagship gameshow and it couldn't even beat a repeat of NCIS... :sleep::sleep:

lol, if you judge any US show by that standard, there would never be anything other than NCIS on TV.

A return that was timed to go alongside the hyped start of the live shows. I'm not entirely convinced that boost was all down to Cowell. Plus a lots happened over the course of the past year and I'm not entirely sure Cowell has come out of it entirely unscathed with UK audiences.


Different music choices and ever so slightly different graphics do not a changed (or even tweaked) format make.

The very simple truth for Wipeout is that every version of that show where ever you are in the world is a carbon copy of each other because there is absolutely nothing else you can do with the format. That for the record is also why all these attempts to cash-in on Wipeout's success have been so woeful because there's just no way to change or tweak that format without completely crippling it or making a complete carbon copy that nobody wants.


A narrator? That's the big substantial change that the BBC made which makes The Apprentice not a carbon copy of every other version of the show and completely different for UK audiences? The Apprentice is one of the very few times when the BBC has remembered why the brought in a foreign format in the first place (namely its good) and didn't tweak it, change it or try and 'fix' it.

I find the talk within the UK that surrounds the BBC version of The Apprentice. People seem to view it as some holy grail of the BBC taking a foreign format and making their own but they really haven't. For all intents and purposes its the exact same that's produced everywhere else in the world and that's why it works – the format is good. There seems to be some weird block in the UK that if its not a UK format we can't possibly accept that its good unless we claim we 'fixed' it by somehow making it different and better.


Certainly the basic structure was the same as the US version (although its a talent show there's very few format tweaks you can actually make there) but if you were to show the UK version to a US viewer I suspect they'd struggle to see the same show. The BBC somehow managed to suck all of the fun and production out of So You Think You Can Dance and I still can't figure out how they did it or why those involved allowed it to happen.


Deal or no Deal isn't a BBC show (and we were talking about the way the BBC treats imported formats) but worth pointing out here that with Deal or no Deal or Channel 4 did was copy the French version rather than the US version. All the tweaks you claim we made didn't come until the producers started to get a little desperate to keep people tuning in because the show has been so horrifically overexposed.

It just amazes me that people still buy into this notion that you spend x amount on buying in an internationally successful format and then its a great idea to start tweaking it and changing it. It is utterly insane. The way BBC in particular 'tweaks' formats is like buying a brand new Ferrari and then putting a 20 year old Skoda engine in it.

the BBC turned Dragons Den into a international power house, it is our format that is used when it sells globally not the original Japanese format.

Moving on the UK Deal or No Deal came before the US version, but yeah the US version is closer to the original version, with models opening briefcases.

I like Deal or No Deal but it drags at time, I've seen the Australian version and that is much tighter in terms of pacing and is half an hour shorter but yet it still enjoyable.

I imagine The Voice UK isn't going to differ much from the original Dutch format, all versions seem to the 'This is The Voice' theme song, wonder why they opted for The Voice UK rather than The Voice of Britain.

C4 has redeemed itself tonight with the premiere of Homeland.

It's been massively hyped, and I'm pleased to report it completely lived up to it. Brilliant first episode.

Ratings wise I think it should come in somewhere between 1.5m and 2m. Anything above that would be truly excellent. Below 1.5m disappointing.

It'll be interesting given the Killing dropped like a rock over 13 episodes, I have it on record so will watch it later. Only problem is Upstairs Downstairs which I imagine will have drawn casual viewers from Homeland.

They had bought an advert for it during Dancing On Ice, though obviously they couldn't say the start time.

I've seen the Aussie one and it is way better. Maybe one way of redeeming DOND would be to have it run for half an hour and maybe have the contestants answer questions to get the money. To me Channel 4 have made the whole programme one long bore.