ITV don't seem to have learnt with BGT after what's happened in the last few weeks. If it stays like that when the schedules are confirmed tomorrow, the first half an hour of BGT will probably only rate around 6.5m against The Voice (like the last few weeks). That means for BGT to even average a relatively low (by its standards) 9m for the full hour, they would need 11.5m in the 2nd half an hour - which would be unlikely to happen. Why they don't shift BGT to 8.15pm or 8.30pm, I can't quite work out.

Well as has been mentioned, it is aimed at one demo, and if it's ratings in that demo are reasonable I guess it's less of a problem.

Given the huge amount of product placement it's reasonable to assume the shows are cheaper than their counterparts on other networks- I did laugh on the last US episode of Vampire Diaries at the scene when a character was playing about with his mobile directly in front of the camera for no storyline reason. Subtle.

The EastEnders omnibus has moved to Friday nights permanently:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2...ay-nights.html


The problem ITV have is moving Britain's Got Talent will be a sign of weakness and the press will have a field day with it. What's worse for the broadcaster - the 'running scared' headlines or the dip in ratings? Financially, probably the later but when something as supposedly as big as Britain's Got Talent is being chased around the schedules it's not good for ITV1.

I think moving BGT to 8.15pm wouldn't necessarily mean the press will have a field day. ITV could just say that the clash is still 15-minutes or so like the previous 3 weeks and make up a reason. It's more likely the press would have a field day if ITV stick with that above schedule and get a sub-9m average for BGT in comparison to The Voice's c9.5m+.

Generally there's less product placement in US television than people think. Not watching The CW content makes it difficult for me to make a judgement on that though. The CW is a bit of an odd network though and their demo numbers with young women aren't that impressive and the general chatter coming out of the network now is that they're planning to broaden their audience (their development slate half suggests that) and do an almost complete reset of the network.

The really weird thing though remains their financial structure. The network itself is losing money but CBS and Warner Bros. (who own the network) are making money from the shows that air on the network and enough to offset their loses from the network thus it stays in place. Who knows how long that situation can be sustained though.

Precisely. I think they should go the whole hog and shift it to 8:30pm (even if it's 75 mins again) as whilst the press might look at it as backing out like you say the headlines won't be as bad as they would be if BGT's average was much lower than The Voice's. An 8:15pm start would be an improvement on what they have at the moment but I don't see the point in them clashing at all. I think their best bet would be:

18:15 - Lemonaid, 19:00 - YBF, 19:30 - All Star Family Fortunes, 20:30 - BGT.

With The Cube either after BGT, or if that's seen as too late then Sunday at 7pm as I think ASFF would hold up better than The Cube in the Saturday 7:30pm slot. They could then put Mad Mad World on Saturday at 9:45pm after BGT as I think that's meant to be starting soon.

True, though I can see some pretty harsh headlines being directed at Britain's Got Talent and ITV if they move it at all. Once the public think a show is weak it takes a lot to convince them otherwise, even if it's in a stronger position then The X Factor was in the autumn.

I honestly think ITV are on a hiding to nothing. Whatever they do will hurt Britain's Got Talent - either in terms of image or ratings. And a weakened image may hurt the ratings anyway.

As it's the battle stage of The Voice I'd be tempted to pull Britain's Got Talent back to 7.30pm actually. The battle rounds are the weakest point of the show so a bigger clash may hurt The Voice more than Britain's Got Talent. It would be a very big risk, though.

I guess sooner or later it'll be quietly dropped completely then (and then hopefully the entire show itself! ).

Also times have changed since the so called glory days of Saturday night television in the seventies and eighties. Although some shows survive from this era like MOTD and Doctor Who, and the entertainment is still very much of the light variety( not meant in a derogatory way), comedy, period drama, action series and imports have largely disappeared on the two main channels on Saturdays.

What are ITV playing at? A half an hour overlap seems way too much. TV has proven to be a much bigger hit than everyone else antcipated (and ITV probably) so this decision seems utter madness. They just need to move it completely now and just accept some negative press. Are people gonna stop watching because The Sun has abused BGT for moving? Surely not. But to move it to 20.30 would move The Cube to 21.30 which seems too late. And why they've put TC there in the first place is just odd IMO. Are they expecting BGT lead-in to boost it? Cos I can't see it. It didn't work for TMO so why would it with TC?! Some very bad scheduling decisions from ITV would ultimately make BGT lose its momemtum ahead of the live shows.



As for SW vs S&B last night, with +1 factored in, S&B was very close to SW. Only 0.2m between the two. The soaps did OK, but the share are very low.

The X Factor saw week on week decreases off the back of negative press last year and TBH I don't think the standard of the live shows were that bad - no worse than 2009 (albeit 2009 had Jedward).

I know common sense states that Britain's Got Talent should be moved but I'll just say I can understand why ITV will be loathed to do it. Dancing On Ice weakened, Titanic sunk, The X Factor floundering and now Britain's Got Talent running scared?

Britain's Got Talent was originally Paul O Grady's Got talent. The pilot [filmed before America's Got Talent] saw him as Host and Piers, Simon and Fern Britton on the panel.
The show was commissioned to series but was delayed when Paul defected to Channel 4 after ITV refused to let his production company [OLGA tv] take over production of his chatshow.
http://www.digitalspy.ie/tv/news/a23...lent-show.html
BGT finally got to air nearly 2 years later after the Pilot in June 2007.


He got injured in a big stunt iirc and he fell out big time with Lorraine Heggessy then the controller of BBC ONE.
But then again he falls out with every employer He has fallen out with the BBC, ITV and C4 at various points in his career. I can't help but think that all this has given him a reputation as being a bit difficult.

I think I read in Broadcast that he is doing some kind of animal hospital thing for ITV1 [4 x 30] soon.


Will you be ''factoring in'' BBC'3 s EE repeat now too?
With nearly a 6m advantage in lead in, I would be expecing a lot better from S&B.

3 hours of The Voice over one weekend? Blimey.

But surely its more important to try and protect BGT especially with DoI way down, and TXF down quite alot last year. I think the reason TXF was down last year is because the live shows just weren't very good. I don't think the press played much of a part in it. Everyone I know who watches XF, pretty much said, last year was a bad series mainly because the judges were bad at the live shows and they chose all the wrong contestants. As rzt say, if the first half averages 6.5m and the second half gets 11.5m, the average would be 9m and very probably would mean TV is ahead overall. What do you think their best idea is Fudd? Should they just ride it out and accept it? But if they do that, it will end up been down on last year and with all the changes they've done (for the better), it will be looked as, as a failure!

And in 5 weeks time ITV will be airing 14 hours of BGT in one week. Blimey.

Smash is proving to be impressively stable in the US when you consider that its lead-in has now dropped 2.3 points (or nearly 40% of its 18-49 rating) in the past 5 weeks. I think every episode of Smash has been 2.0-2.2 in that period.

Two and a Half Men held up OK at first but it does seem to have slid rapidly - since around November, I think? HIMYM and 2 Broke Girls right on its tail now and even Mike & Molly not far off.


I think ITV cracked in a different sense a few weeks ago when they first went with this ridiculous plan. Had they gone with 8.15pm (as The Voice was originally scheduled for) then now they'd have a strong case that the BBC should be moving back to 6.45pm to avoid a clash... plus they'd have had a huge PR win and big y-o-y gains in the first 3 weeks. But then again, I'm not paid to come up with these genius schedules so what do I know!


The problem is that they're not that reasonable in W18-34 and that's becoming the case more and more. I don't think targeting young women is an awful plan, they're just not doing a very good job of it. ABC Family and MTV have shows which seem to be hitting bigger in those demos.

They're trying again with reality series in the summer but I don't hold out much hope, tbh. So then it's back to scripted in the fall - but I kind of think they need to be looking to schedule a bit differently (and to be fair, the new boss is trying to change how they do things).

The lack of comedy is a bit disappointing. The early "buzz" on a few of their new pilots is quite positive but that can all change so quickly:

via Nellie Andreeva (Deadline TV)

I've always said +1 can't be disregarded, as its obvious viewers have actively seeked out S&B, as a 600k +1 figure is very large. And with regards to the EE thing, well I guess it depends on how I want to spin things that day....

I know, it's not an easy one. I think they'll move it to 8.15pm which they can explain as a compromise as it'll be the same gap as before (15 minutes). It was only the ridiculously placed ad breaks that harmed Britain's Got Talent last week so it should hold up in the ratings as long as they're not as stupid again. Maybe they could add 15 minutes to the show to make sure.

The funniest thing for me is, in my mind, that ITV's defensiveness over the launch episode has actually cost them in the long run. I think if they had started Britain's Got Talent at 7.30pm that night they may have weakened The Voice as the first half hour of the new show was very dull. People may have given up and switched over at that point.

Of course, ITV weren't to know the first half hour was going to be so weak.

O/T: I wonder why Simon's trying to stick to the same panel on The X Factor if they're to blame for the show's dip?

I think this rating is hiliarious.



The words "salt", "rubbing" and "wounds" spring too mind.

As has been said a million times, there was nothing to say that The Voice wouldn't then be pushed back 15 mins as well, especially since MOTD is airing at 10:20pm at the moment which is earlier than it often is.

BBC1 actually airing something other than Countryfile/Antiques Roadshow?

I hope First Aid is on standby at the nation's nursing homes, as many heart attacks may occur when BBC1's sunday pensioner audience see Jessie J on screen rather than John Craven.

Of course if this was ITV's scheduling, we'd have lots of posts complaining how 3 hours of the show is overkill.


Silent Witness does seem very low considering it is supposed to be one of the biggest dramas on BBC1. It should be much higher considering it is only up against Titanic on the previous night.

If ITV had moved Britain's Got Talent later, BBC One would've followed suit with The Voice. IMO they were aiming for a clash to create headlines. If not, they would've had The Voice finishing at 8pm as that has been Britain's Got Talent's start time for the past couple of series (as well as The X Factor's for the most part); it wouldn't have taken Sherlock Holmes to take a guess at ITV's preferred start time.

ITV have trapped themselves. Their stuck.

Move later? Ah, well that allows The Voice to go out later..
Stay? Ah well...then your ****ed...

Personally I think they need to move later. BBC can't move The Voice any further as BGT might jump in from behind - so it leads to The Voice and overlaps at its end, but The Voices start.

With their generally weak schedule all around...their ****ed.
I mean The Voice is going to really find trouble against AN HOUR of You've been framed (AN HOUR!?)

The fact this puts BGT in the shit shows its gone from must see to...meh its alright...TV which people will chose to watch but not go out of there way to see.

ITV just need to bite down hard and move. The rest of their schedule is dreadful. Utterly awful.
Do ITV even plan ahead when commissioning stuff? Look at it! Its dreadful!

Yeah I think that would be their best way of maximizing ratings (assuming TVUK remains 7-8.30pm). ITV1's current schedule for the 21st would probably make them get an average of c5.4m between 7-10pm with ratings of about: YBF (3.3m), BGT (8.8m), Cube (4.0m), including that low headline figure for BGT which the newspapers would pick up on.

Your way though, they would probably average a higher c5.7m between 7-10pm with ratings of about: YBF (3.3m), ASFF (3.5m), BGT (10.0-10.5m), 9.30-10pm filler/news (3.5m). And that would be a with a big day-winning headline figure for BGT. Of course this is with the assumption that TVUK would remain at 7-8.30pm, which I know isn't a guarantee, but given that Sam Hodges has already tweeted it, I think BBC One will stick with it otherwise they'd be criticized by some newspapers for being 'aggressive' if they were to move it 15-mins later following ITV moving BGT later which would create bad PR for BBC1/TVUK

They might have - but it would have been such blatantly aggressive scheduling that ITV could have rightly kicked up an almighty fuss about it. In the end, ITV ended up looking like the ones who were creating the clash.

On every front, their strategy has failed. It's damaging BGT significantly, it's fuelling hype for The Voice, it's a PR disaster and Take Me Out is down from where it was before it got the lead-in!