An amazing result for The Voice, really. Putting aside the minutae of the BGT comparison, the simple fact that BBC One have a brand new show thats grown for three consecutive weeks and is now pushing 10 million viewers, is remarkable. To be honest, I don't see anything revolutionary in the show itself - though it's clearly very well made, with lots of money behind it, and has benefitted from an incredible PR job. I figured the hype of launch couldn't possibly be carried through (and it hasn't, really) but clearly the show itself has locked in the viewers and is ticking plenty of boxes for them. The next phase might be difficult, and I suspect BGT's usual growth for the finals stage will overwhelm it in the "war", but BBC One couldn't have wished for anything better from a first series.

Danny Cohen must be an incredibly happy man just at the moment. Whether you like the idea of another singing show or not, it is to his credit that he invested so decisively and resisted any temptation to half-cook the show in the same way I suspect many of his predecessors might. His channel still has problems that I was talking about just a few days ago, but having turned out two mega hits (The Voice and Call the Midwife) in the space of three months, he's certainly making his impact now his own commissioned shows are getting to air.

I'm surprised Voice beat Talent. I expected both shows to drop after the disappointing soap ratings on Friday night.

Wasn't So You Think You Can Dance? under 4m by week three of its series last year? I know it was under 3m by the end! The BBC will be delighted with Voice. Their entertainment department must have been at a very low ebb after Dance series two, and I expected them to balls Voice up, too.

Excellent points there. I'd go along with pretty much all of that.

For what it's worth, BGT still remains a firm favourite amongst other members of my family. They rate Walliams in particular very highly. Not so keen on the return of Cowell interestingly. But both have helped, as I don't believe last year's panel was anywhere near strong enough to cope with The Voice.

Through the panel changes, BGT isn't looking as tired as it might have done opposite The Voice. And from what I've read the arrival of the new kid on the block has encouraged them to step it up from a production P-O-V too, proving that competition really is healthy.

Happy and relieved. I wonder how that spoof TV Controller account on Twitter is coping with the first three weeks of Voice ratings.

That's true, but I think they're trying to get middle hitters on the cheap which simply isn't going to work. I think ITV1 has a bigger Light Entertainment base than BBC One does, but BBC One has a couple of extra soaps and The One Show plus their documentaries tend to hold up much better. Look at Land of the Lost Wolves - many people called the rating for BBC One 'poor' but if it had been on ITV it would've been deemed a stable if unspectacular figure.

George S is an unapologetic ITV mark through and through. He will NEVER give the BBC credit for anything. If he does his veins will pop. The Voice is doing very well and that is undeniable to George but it is unsayable to George!



Lemonaid is a show Harry Hill would be perfect for. I'm not sure Keith Lemon is going to become a big primetime draw. Not with this show anyway. This Lemonaid had no fizz.

It gives him a lot of backng now to look closer at BBC One's other problems as well.

I'm still a firm believer that Casualty could be doing 6 million if it were a controlled run across the Summer (or anywhere quite frankly, just make it 'a series').

One of the things thats gone a bit unnoticed is a few not so great ratings for dramas on BBC One. But generally hes not had any FLOPS - just things that could do better if handled a bit more with care; and along side some big hits.

Hes certainly ballsy. The Voice was his big bet.
I do think BGT moving earlier works in his favour though
As others have mentioned both shows are helping one another (same reason Strictly/X Factor do well together then less well together, no matter who wins overall).

And then ofc hes got a run of later months with NO BGT!
Hes a happy bunny atm. Very happy.

Danny Cohen has cuts to plaster over; the channel is in a decent shape though I agree with you that it could be in an even better one (eg. Casualty being confined to series). But all in all it had a good Quarter One and Quarter Two is following that pattern. With the Euros and the Olympics coming up and the return of Strictly, Merlin and Doctor Who later in the year this should be a fantastic year for BBC One.

I feel bad because some of their shows are actually half decent. Certainly they TRY with them, its just it feels like they are commisioning pilots...but for entire runs!

Even R/B is working more as a pilot for series 2.




Tbf to ITV this is part of a narrative thats built on them since last summers shocking performance.
If they'd done those figures against a Benidorm on BBC One, I'd probably say 'fair enough' no matter their situation.

In fact I thought it did alright for BBC considering.

But I do take your point. ITV just seem to either be big figures or very poor. There only middle ground show atm is Take Me Out.

They really could do with an Ant and Dec vehicle, but their appeasing Cowell with R/B atm (I think!) (oh I do think the BBC are being coy with Who, for the sole reason that whilst they are thinking about a run straight into Christmas, they'll put it against R/B if they see the oppurtunity!) - and personally I like their shows. They just need to stop looking for a 'format'.

Have a different quiz/competition every week. It'll still get viewers and they can identify what people like, as oppose to getting stuck with dud formats!


And I thought all the bad jokes were kept for Gallifreybase
Where we have facepalms

The Voice is doing far better at this point than many hoped even those in the BBC. To do as well as it is with a 7pm start and clashing with the established Britain's Got Talent is great. People keep saying that people might switch off for live shows.I'm not so sure. Why can't it build during the live shows as it approaches a final as most other shows do?


I think Danny Cohen could become one of the all time great BBC1 Controllers. His shows are starting to come through and many have worked also he shown some canny scheduling.

He has Michael Grade's scheduling gene, he put Mrs Brown's Boys in primetime and that just exploded into a big hit. And he has Lorraine Heggessey's commissioning gene. Call The Midwife is his Doctor Who moment and The Voice is his Strictly Come Dancing moment. He commissioned The Inbetweeners and Skins at E4 & Being Human at BBC3. So he has form for greenlighting good shows.

BBC1s demographics are terrible though.

The BBC cannot be about ratings if it wants to survive.

Trollolololol?? I certainly hope so!

BBC does well in demographics.
The Apprentice/Doctor Who (especially DW!)/The Voice (we'll need to see where it is growing though)/Merlin - I mentioned shows growing, this is increasingly doing better in the younger demos

Shows like New Tricks are big raters cause they skew old. But the key word there is SKEW. It still does well across the board.

Demographics only matter to the Beeb in terms of reaching everyone! They generally manage that.

No idea what it is your talking about
As if the BBC would become a commercial organisation and NOT change accordingly!

BBC One is very much ratings driven now but it doesn't have to worry about the right kind of demos as it's not funded by advertising.

Does anyone have the ratings for yesterday's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on ITV1?

Lemon's greatest strength is that he is risque and will say and do things people wouldn't normally do, so putting him in a timeslot that means he cant be risque at all is pretty strange to me. Parents know he's rude so might not let their kids watch and the Celeb Juice audience may be put off by how toned down he is. I just dont get it.

I read that last night was the first time in several years that Britain's Got Talent wasn't the top show of the night excluding +1.

Yeah the production is much better. They've done away with the tedious narration, so no more 'it's been a bad start, but can X turn it around?' The panel is really good, although Amanda Holden clearly isn't needed any more so they can just stick with the other 3 next year. Walliams is the star of the show, him winding Cowell up last night was brilliant. He has overshadowed Cowell's return to an extent but I still think him returning has helped and that it's a better show with him there.

Just caught up with The Voice and I'm getting into it. Surprisingly Jessie J is probably my least favourite of the 4 coaches, I find her slightly irritating. Will.i.am is great though and much better than I expected him to be. Tom Jones is a legend and is working surprisingly well with the others, whilst Danny is very good too. BBC1 have got this show very, very right. Let's hope they don't fumble it with the later stages.

And The Voice is a pretty sizeable breakthrough in that department. 16-34's made up easily the largest chunk of it's audience last week (23% - the same number as The Apprentice, as it happens).

I don't think much of ITV's entertainment department nor their schedulers but I'm pretty sure that they have grasped onto this concept. They'd love to have loads of different hit formats but they simply don't exist.

This is the first time in 8 years that the BBC have found a format that, were it on ITV, would be a rival to BGT. And they've had to buy it from a Dutch company after it has been run all over the world. Strictly is big but for ITV, it wouldn't make the same kind of money as XF/SCD.

So the fact for ITV is that there is a seriously limited pool of big formats they could put on a Saturday night. It just so happens that two of them are produced by one company.


This morning...

"8.7 million/ 36% share for Britain's Got Talent #beating ITV #crushingCowell #fu*king Fincham #becomingthenextDG"

Oh dear. At least the wrong ratings prove it isn't anyone from this thread.

It's fair to say Simon Cowell won't be seen sporting any Adidas kit then, after their 20:12 ad break helped The Voice to victory last night.

Any chavs turning up for TXF auditions in Adidas trainers - forget it! :lol:

Didn't want to disappoint....


That 3.7m gap during the clash is huge and obviously dented BGT somewhat. I'm not sure why they are continuing to clash the two shows. ITV should just move it back 20mins. I didn't expect TV to beat BGT even it was just by 100k. The officials will make interesting reading, although including +1, BGT is ahead with almost 10m. The success of TV is astonishing really. I've watched the first 3 episodes, and I do like it - it's just too long IMO. ITV will be pleased as its still up on last year, but if I was them, I'd move it completely now as TV's audience is growing week-by-week and the plan to crush it has failed, so they may as well move it and then it will get higher ratings anyway. TMO ended low. It's had a decent run though. Between 4-5m each week over 14 weeks is good enough for another series. Does anyone know the series averages for all the series please?

cylon is a bit unfair saying George never gives BBC1 credit for anything; when they air Panorama or fine art documentaries against ITV dramas he is positively effusive....

When Cowell was asked how he was going to make the American version of The X Factor better he said he was going to make it more controversial! And there we have the difference between the shows. His default view for the shows is to have controversy and having some terrible acts. He won't change and neither will his shows. They work well but The Voice has shown there is a market for something different.

Noel's House Party was outstanding at its peak. It had ABC1 demo scores ITV would have killed for on Saturday nights back then. Several advertisers back then were saying how Noel's House Party was more ad friendly than Blind Date. Still the only Saurday night BBC1 show to win a BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Show in the last 20 years! Nominated for a Writer's Guild Of Great Britain Award too.

Noel's House Party was the dog's danglies. I will not standby and let the House Party be mocked!