The mistake ITV made with Titanic was in creating a four week series. Do we know why they chose this option and not a two hour one off which the drama only really sustains without the padding and repetition we thereby get?

It has resulted in spinning out the saga to the point that it drains any tension - especially given that the natural high point drama is hopelessly fractured by the structure imposed by needing to make it last four weeks without having the first three about as exciting as queuing for a cross channel ferry.

The same themes could have made a pretty decent one off. And that would have not risked any drop off in viewers like this frankly bizarre plan to see the ship sail and then sink over and over in every episode which simply begs viewers to turn off as they might even think they are watching a repeat of last week's.

And to include Winston Churchill last night as a bit part - blink and you miss him - character for no apparent reason seemed curious. Especially whilst missing out the potential of at least referencing the stories allegedly implicating him (admittedly a tad unfairly) in the loss of life from the Titanic itself.

But at least that could have gotten some much needed media controversy.

Agreed - and so the argument comes full circle - ITV were right to start the series earlier, but wrong to try and displace The Voice for the sake of 20 minutes!

Radio Times article:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-...es-in-week-two

TBH I didn't even bother watching the first episode....

I'm waiting for the big budget 12-part series "Titanic: Blood and Steel" with Kevin Zegers and Neve Campbell

It certainly is!

Ronnie Corbett's 80th show got 9m, Brucie got 7m iirc for his, Parky's last show in a prime Sunday slot got 8m. I'd have thought one of ITV's biggest stars of the past 35 years could have managed something close to 6m for this star studded line-up which was decently promoted and had only the supposedly stale BBC1 line up as mainstream competition.

At least the saving grace for ITV is that it has sold well all around the world. And IMO ITV should have aired it over 2 Sundays - 9-11pm each night. It was promoted as a big budget drama therefore it should have gone out with a big impact over 2 weekends - I still think it would have got 6m + each week.

Awful rating for Titanic, although I had a feeling it would do badly beyond its first episode.

Like Birdsong which was shown over 2 weeks. Lost viewers in week 2 but still had over 6m in the officials .

Happy Birthday Brucie was shown on Sunday 24th February 2008 at 6.35pm opposite Dancing On Ice and Wild At Heart (in the days when they were popular) and was watched by 6.79m viewers, BBC1's fourth highest rated programme of the week (behind 3 episodes of Eastenders)

It was also a proper birthday programme. Des's show last night was the equivalent of having a kids' party where you spend 5 minutes to open the presents and then tell the kids to sit in the corner and make their own entertainment.

"To celebrate your 80th birthday, Des, you can help Matt Lucas plug his crappy new BBC1 panel game."

Average down 500k on last year's 2.88m (2,599m SD + 282k HD)

Yes, though to be fair you would expect this year to rate lower given the McIlroy factor last year.

Will be interesting to see how Sky compares to last year.

wow this Titanic thing has well and truly blown up in ITVs face, I never thought it would go THIS badly. As for international sales, ok so Titanic made some, but where Titanic may have opened up US networks to more UK shows, it certainly wont know. ITV have a lesson to learn here.

Absolutely awful for Titanic. 3.5m (inc. +1) is just dire, but as someone's already mentioned today - its been totally left alone in the schedules and is just expected to perform which won't happen because its so bad. The official rating of 9.1m (inc. +1) is a really good figure and I think if they'd have gone for the stripped schedule, the drop-off would have been much less. But to leave the last 3 episodes literally in the middle of nowhere without any sort of decent lead-in, and the fact its just not good at all - what else did ITV expect. Or well, that's £11million down the drain. I wonder if the ratings will sink further (sorry, I couldn't resist) next week for the final episode?!

Yes. Sky averaged 532k, which was the highest of the four days, even though no competition from the BBC on Thu/Fri.

Shame 3D isn't reported. Even though small, the number of Sky homes who have signed up for it has more than tripled from last year's 70k to over 250k.

Roscoe Barnes, as your a massive soap fan, would you like to see the soaps back on Sundays at 7 to 8 oclock? Apart from Dancing on Ice, Itv rate really badly 7 to 8 o'clock on Sundays. They just cant cope with Countryfile.

I think Corrie always worked well on a Sunday. Not sure about Emmerdale tbh. It would provide better stability to the Sunday night schedule and offer better lead-in's but overall, I'm not too bothered about them been on a Sunday night. The Corrie schedule is awful at the moment, but for Corrie it will be better when it returns to Wednesday night, even though its found its feet more in the Thursday slot now. The gap from Monday to Thursday is just too long and totally loses all momentum.

Easter Sunday 8th April Overnights
BBC One
19:00- Countryfile: 5.19m (23.4%)
20:00- Antiques Roadshow: 5.40m (22.2%)
21:00- Silent Witness: 5.88m (23.8%)

BBC Two
19:00- Golf: the Masters: 2.38m (12.42%) inc HD
* peak: 2.88m (24.61%) at 23.45

ITV1
18:30- All Star Family Fortunes: 3.37m (16.3%) , +1: 102k (0.4%)
19:30- Des O'Connor Tonight: 3.46m (14.5%) , +1: 172k (0.7%)
21:00- Titanic: 3.16m (12.8%) , +1: 365k (1.85%)

Channel 4
20:00- Celebrity Deal or No Deal: 1.77m (7.3%) , +1: 253k (1%)
21:00- Homeland: 1.82m (7.37%) , +1: 336k (1.71%)

Channel 5
19:00- William and Kate: One Year On: 1.69m (7.6%)
20:00- Once Upon a Time: 1.67m (6.9%) , +1: 103k/0.4%
21:00- FILM: Blade II: 910k (4.1%) , +1: 81k (0.5%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 22.6%
ITV1: 12.5% (+1: 0.8%)
BBC Two: 9.2%
Channel 4: 6.6% (+1: 1.3%)
Channel 5: 5.6% (+1: 0.4%)

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Multichannel
BBC Three
19:00- The Voice UK: 727k (3.2%)
20:25- Shrek the Third: 1.23m (5%)

ITV2
16:15- Britain's Got Talent: 751k (4.9%) , +1: 179k (1%)

Sky 1
21:00- Hawaii 5-O: 415k

Sources: Broadcast, DS

Incidentally, ITV ran a trailer for Vera earlier today. So it could be Vera v The Voice on Sunday April 22nd. That sounds like good complimentary scheduling.

Vera retained 6.5m in the officials for her first series. I wonder if ITV will stick in a Corrie to give it a leg up. Maybe that's why there was no Corrie on Easter Day this year (although that would have to have been a decision ITV made before they would have known about a Sunday night edition of The Voice.).

Abysmal for ITV. All Star Family Fortunes was also wasted there, should have been put up against The Voice - would have done higher than YBF and TV Burp did against it in my opinion.

Because of missing Saturday's showing of BGT due to the golf, we caught the 12.35pm ITV1 showing. How did that do?

Very bad for ITV, but abysmal for Titanic. With a budget of what it has, I'm sure ITV wanted at least 6.5m a week for it. Being half of what it should be getting is pretty embarrassing.

BBC1 and ITV1 both steady all night but at different levels.

Great rating for Shrek and The Voice seems to be taking off on BBC3 as well as BBC1.

But a strong rating for the BGT repeat on ITV2, especially considering its timeslot.

Ouch for ITV, they really will be kicking themselves today...

Decent night for Channel 5, had they let Toy Story started an hour later, it would have been the perfect lead in for OUAT, I feel the Will and Kate programme may have lost potential viewers..

BBC3 did well, and that Voice repeat it definitely the highest so far (the first didn't even make it to the top 10 lists)..Followed by a decent rating, for what must be the 101st showing of a Shrek film on the BBC in the past year!

You'll be able to see if you're right next weekend when ASFF moves to 7pm on Saturday.

Indeed. But the royal documentary did perform very well, far exceeding my expectations. It certainly wouldn't have got that at 8pm on a weekday.

Next week's scheduling is nothing short of a joke though with Toy Story 2 far too early at 4pm, and Practical Magic getting the better slot leading in to OUAT. It should be the other way round to maximise ratings.