Source for that?

Firstly all the Big markets like America, Canada and Germany and smaller ones like Ireland have contributed to the budget and so have to pay no transmission fees. TV3 [Ireland]even gets an end credit on the show for a paying a whooping 25k per episode to the budget!

Then your left with small markets in Eastern Europe,Asia and Africa where they'd be lucky to get 5 figures sums for the transmission rights rights. In France it will air on a small digital Channel, they certainly won't be breaking the bank. They only broadcaster who probably paid a decent fee for the rights is Seven In Australia. I suspect Julian Fellowes has more pocket change than the San Marino state broadcaster has for its tv accquisition budget.

Secondly while ITV Global are processing sales they only have a stake in the actual international sales. It isn't an 100% ITV studios production which some on here seem to think it is.
It is a deep Indigo/Sienna/ Mid Atlantic Co production in association with ITV studios and Lookout point.

If you think they've made 3.8m from international sales you should keep on dreaming especially when the vast majority of the big markets have funded its production.

Britain's most fickle TV viewer right here. You've previously praised C5 for their efforts with BB, then you come out with this!

It might not be for you but it's not crap. Much fun was had back in January hearing some of C5's less than biggest fans having to admit through gritted teeth that the last series of Celebrity Big Brother was very watchable. It was supposed to be dead, but ratings this year were basically stable on the year before with +1 and at a healthy enough level for the network to secure its future for another two years at least.

Please enlighten me as to what C4 shows have launched since Big Brother with high repeat value? The endless Million Pound Drop episodes they are putting out for example have absolutely none. The upcoming launch of 4Seven suggests they are looking for shows that are highly repeatable in the short-term, beyond that 7 day window I'm not sure they are too interested and in some cases the rights won't allow. Father Ted is probably the only constant that has maintained some kind of presence across the network over the years, but you're more likely to see a property show in its place now. They don't have an archive channel to fill like ITV and More4 is now strictly lifestyle.

One Born Every Minute (that launched after Big Brother, right?). I'd be willing to lay a decent sum of money on that ending up in repeat rotation years down the line. Particularly on a digital channel like Discovery Home & Health (or whatever its called). In general though I struggle to name more than a couple of shows that Channel 4 have launched since Big Brother regardless of their repeat value which is a much bigger issue.

In fairness though I don't think Glenn was suggesting that Channel 4 have launched any thing with high repeat value. You (once again) saw even a small criticism related to Channel 5 and went on the attack.

I wouldn't be surprised if One Born Every Minute already repeats on Really, however I C4 doesn't make any money from the US version,

Sorry for being a bit late with all this, I was away this weekend (I am amazed nobody has tried to suggest The Voice's win was because everyone was stuck with their parents and grandparents who have BBC1 on all day). Anyway, I was a bit surprised when Barnsley vs West Ham ended up on BBC1, when they first announced they were showing it earlier this season I assumed it would be on BBC2 as the Saturday teatime matches usually are.

They have shown Championship football on BBC1 at teatime before, but in the last two seasons that's been on the opening day of the season in August when there's virtually no competition. Two years ago they had a teatime match on Easter Monday on BBC2. I know West Ham are a decent draw but Barnsley aren't. What was the rating anyway, does anyone know? I suppose it was probably easier to show it than the One Show, mind, given how badly that did last Good Friday.


As has already been mentioned, they have shown it on Sunday teatimes and it didn't do very well. And it's overrated anyway, there are umpteen kids shows that do just as well, I've just been enjoying The Ministry of Curious Stuff.


Well, of course, in the early days of TV Burp he did The All New Harry Hill Show but that didn't do very well at all, but it's remarkable as to how little they've tried to do with him since TV Burp actually took off, I dunno if it's ITV just looking at the ratings for that and saying we tried him and it didn't work, but he was still a very niche entertainer in those days.

But the same is true for Keith Lemon, the vast majority of the ITV audience simply don't know who he is or what his act it, I certainly don't know what it is. I might have said this before but the first time I ever saw Leigh Francis was in 1998 when he did the teen magazine Buzz on C4, shown as part of the early days of T4 (roving reporter- Dermot O'Leary), as himself, and I thought he was brilliant, he would have made an absolutely fantastic kids presenter, suitably manic but quite witty and likeable ("Welcome to Buzz, if it were in t'charts, it's be number one!"). And obviously, he never did anything as himself ever again.


I will still say, despite all suggestions to the contrary, that The Marraige Ref could have worked, but not as a primetime Saturday night show, it should have been half an hour post-watershed on a weeknight to allow the panellists to be suitably rude and bawdy, with a comedian as a host (Keith Lemon?) and no pointless bookings like Eamonn Holmes and Geri Halliwell. But the problem is ITV seem unwilling to commission stuff like that. Be interesting to see how Mad Mad World works out as that appears to be post-watershed. But Odd One In, and The Marriage Ref, seem to prove they simply won't work in the middle of Saturday night.


I remember Muriel Gray talking at great length in the Radio Times about how much she enjoyed Noel's House Party, and famously Alan Yentob said it was the most important show on BBC1. Chris Evans too used to keep on saying how brilliant it was during his Big Breakfast days, when he was the coolest man in Britain. You could certainly stand up in the early nineties and saw it was brilliant and nobody would laugh. And the ratings came despite the fact it was shoved around the schedules to a ridiculous extent, it would never be at the same time two weeks running in its imperial phase (in fact, when it got a fixed slot before the Lottery, that was when it started going rubbish).

Noel did say at the time that one of the things the House Party did first was trail itself during the show, plugging Gotchas that were weeks away, which of course was later taken up by every light entertainment show ever,


House Party just self-destructed, you simply could not have turned it round after Noel was all over the papers saying it was rubbish. It wasn't like Cowell coming over as a perfectionist either, it was just like he was at war with the Beeb. For my money House Party jumped the shark when it started getting too big, like how the mechanics of NTV became more important than NTV itself, so instead of the brilliant click of the fingers and you were on, there would be ten minutes of explaining how they set it up and how complicated it all was, and the victim themselves barely appeared.


I used to love Des O'Connor Tonight and this reminded me of what also ended up happening with Surprise Surprise, in that they stopped doing it as a regular series but ran umpteen specials for years on end, so this didn't seem so strange because Tonight still seems as if it's a regular show. It was very long, though, and had loads of ad breaks. I still like Des, though, and he's still better at disguising the feedlines than Jonathan Ross is.

Baffles me why they got rid of Des and Mel when they were happy to commission a million and one other daytime chat shows. What's do Alan Titchmarsh do that Des and Mel didn't? My gran would be spinning in her grave if she knew what ITV had become.

One thing I did wonder was why nobody's giving Paul O'Grady any more vehicles. I know everyone's waiting for Brucie to die so he can do Strictly but surely he's got a bigger and wider fanbase than Keith Lemon?

Cheers rzt.

I guess Titanic was a fairly easy sell to networks around the world, simply by its name alone. They literally could have bundled four episodes of Downton together, labelled it as Titanic, and broadcasters would have bought it. Networks would have probably have felt less cheated by the end product.

To give you an idea. The 1.77m rating last night was better than.

- Every single episode of The Bank Job that has aired so far.
- Ten out of sixteen episodes of Million Pound Drop that aired this year.

Both The Bank Job and Million Pound Drop uses a bigger budget due to their prizes and the cost of producing a live show. The Bank Job is fully produced inside the old Midland Bank building and not on an OB truck. Celebrity Deal or No Deal is dirt cheap since they can schedule the recordings in between the regular recordings. Also both shows have to hire out Applause Store to get the studio audience. Deal or No Deal's studio audience is done in house by the production team.

Didn't Paul O'Grady kind of ruin the success of Des and Mel. Paul stood in for a bit while Des was off and then on the back of that got his own show. Paul's more upbeat show made Des & Mel seem boring so eventually it was axed. Alan Titchmarsh is the same now but that is on air without Paul O'Grady appearing a few hours later, plus back then CITV was still on ITV1 in the afternoons so there wasn't the same mid-afternoon slot available.

I wonder if Paul is actually being offered stuff or turning them down or what, remember when he moved to Channel 4, besides his chat show he did pretty much nothing else at all whereas when he was with ITV first time round he'd make other appearances.

Dancc, it's not the celebrity one I have a problem with, it's the general public one, which has been dead on its feet for the last 5 years and should have been axed.
Yet I do stand by your comments on Channel 4, this station has become even more dependent on a few hits that aren't such big hits now, like DOND, and reviving such cod as Shipwrecked, all of which are even more disposable an unmemorable than BB( general public version). While Channel 5 has at least found a focus and has become the home of cricket highlights, Aussie soaps, BB/CBB, classic films and American quality imports, what's Channel 4 known for now, a teen soap that is well past its prime and has actors who can't act, reality shows even MTV would run a mile from, lifestyle tat on a loop and Noel Bloody Edmonds freak show.

Not to mention milking the come dine with me cow until its dryer than the uk water supply and should certainly have something like the hosepipe ban slapped on it

Yes More 4 should be called More CDWM, as this is all they show, and don't forget E4 played Friends to death and probably would now if they had the rights. Channel 4 still thinks it's The Guardian and it's news bulletins give it the right amount of airs and graces, but really it's like The Guardian with the editorial policy of The Sun.

GlennA- may I ask why you think it is so important that shows have repeat value? Surely for entertainment shows it shouldnt matter if theyll repeat in 10, 20, 30 years time. Also do you enjoy any reality shows? Not all of them are bad, they can be good and entertaining.

Totally agree - couldn't say it better myself!

Des and Mel was too costly.

They were paying for the format from the US and paying Des's wage which wasn't cheap according to reports (millions).

They tried moving it to 5pm where they could afford to spend a bit more money but it didn't work.

Samuel
I know certain shows like the news, daytime talk shows, Saturday night entertainment and most reality can't be repeated, but I do think a roster of good comedy and drama shows that can be repeated for years to come on ITV3 and UK Gold, not to mention the DVD spin offs, are more profitable in the long term.
For reality shows I enjoy I suppose you could call SCD and DOI reality, can put up with CDWM and Don't Tell the Bride and The Apprentice, but can't abide shows based on the life of people like Katie Price, contrived nonsense involving obnoxious people on desert islands and the MTV/E4 variety. I suppose I'm more of the generation that grew up before reality and never got it.

Paul O'Grady would be perfect for that Wednesday 8pm slot (which Des O'Conner had many years ago) as ITV are not going to have enough two hour shows to air on Sundays and Wednesdays once the football moves.

Fantastic post as always Steve. I've been thinking exactly the same about Paul O'Grady. Danny Cohen has said one of the slots he wants to improve is Saturday 6pm. Well Total Wipeout's been axed, Epic Win and Don't Scare the Hare were rubbish flops. If he's got any sense he'd ask O'Grady to do something there - a House Party style show would be wonderful. He'd also be a great Generation Game host.

Pair his new show with The Voice next winter and they'll be onto a big winner.

That Thomas special was a success!

And a very good evening for C5 pre-9pm

If I'd said late last year that the much-hyped, "biggest new ITV show of 2012" Titanic would attract only a few hundred thousand more viewers than the US Masters golf airing on BBC2 at the same time, I would have been ridiculed on here beyond belief - and would probably have had myself sectioned!

But it happened.

O'Grady hosted a pilot for the Generation Game a few years ago and he said he hated doing it. I dont think he ever wants to do that sort of show ever again.

I think a BGT special for Christmas could work. And I'd like to see them do a kind of launch show for X Factor this year (the Saturday before) - wheel out some old contestants for duets and maybe the performing judges as well. Some chat with the judges (introducing a new one perhaps), previews of the auditions.

I've always been quite amazed that ITV, who have nothing of note in the weeks leading up to X Factor, fail to put out some "promotional" programming. A Piers/Wossy Meets Barlow special couldn't do any worse than whatever else they put out at 9pm most nights. They could even take it onto other channels - I'm sure Channel 4 would be open to the idea of an X Factor Judges version of Come Dine With Me.


One of the sources Rzt posted noted that nobody will lose out financially from this because it has been covered from so many different angles.

The Hollywood Reporter put the number at 95 different territories before it even premiered. Even if ITV only get one third of that, they don't need to be paying much on average for it to leave ITV in a strong position (and that average will be heavily skewed by the likes of ABC).

Even if it drops a full 1m next week the series as a whole will still average 4.5m in overnights. Lets say that they haven't covered all the costs. Even then, all they'd need to do is make enough sales to bring the cost down to an acceptable level for a 4.5m drama (5m + in officials).

The whole reason that this was done (even without a script) was because ITVS (and later other partners) spotted the potential for a quick cash in.

Series 2 of Call the Midwife to start filming in June the BBC confirms.

Easter Monday

06:00 Milkshake!: 165k (4.2%)
09:15 The Wright Stuff: 415k (4.6%)
11:10 Live with... Myleene Klass: 197k (2.1%)
12:40 Home & Away: 304k (2.6%)
13:10 Neighbours: 810k (6.8%)
13:40 The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall: 599k (4.4%)
17:00 5 News with Emma Crosby: 734k (4.2%)
17:30 Neighbours: 927k (4.9%)
18:00 Home & Away: 786k (3.7%)
18:25 Inside Hollywood: 439k (2.1%)
18:35 Monkey Life: Goodbye Charlie: 401k (1.9%)
19:00 Cowboy Traders: 699k (3.0%)
20:00 Ultimate Police Interceptors: 983k (3.8%)
21:00 New Series: Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge: 1.41m (5.4%)
22:00 Outlaw: 683k (5.0%)

Merry Christmas....

Silent Witness - 5.5m
Scott & Bailey - 4.7m
Corrie plus repeat - 8.6m/8.6m