Pretty weak start for The Apprentice by its own high standards. The football is probably a better excuse - I can't imagine there's a huge amount of crossover between The Apprentice and Midsomer Murders although it did particularly poorly as well. Disappointing night for both the big 2, I think.

off topic, but has anybody seen the 999 pilot (iCount Panel) at Wimbledon Studios (The Bill0, might even be on ITV 1?

I have. I noticed it was the old "The Bill" studios.

The pilot looked "interesting" to say the least!

I didnt mind the show, its not unlike they fictional versions of COPS that some US shows do (My Name Is Earl being one such example), I just couldn't get past the fact it was a cop drama being filmed on the set of The Bill.

Obviously its a good place to film a cop show pilot (saving a ton of money on sets) but a ITV 1 daytime cop show, trying to pass off Sun Hill station as another station, isnt going to work.

also not sure if the mike in shot, was a mistake, or to give it that docu/drama feel.

I'm hoping for EastEnders to get it's highest rating of the week tonight.

I would love it to be something like 9.5million.

I wasn't expecting TA to be at 6.4m for its first show despite the competition. It's OK, but not great. If it dips next week, expect to see "The Apprentice in ratings crisis". Midsomer did badly too. Strong for EE on a random Wednesday night whilst Emmerdale put in an average performance. And it is very average at moment, so not that surprising really.

Also H&A is doing very badly at the moment. Only 682k on a Wednesday evening in March is poor. Imagine how long it could go in Summer? Below 500k? As someone said the other day, its not really strong enough anymore to spread its audience over the two showings. Maybe its time to ditch the first look episodes.......

I'm sure I predicted more for both Apprentice and Midsomer Murders in the RPG.

Thank you for answering, C14E.


Bit of a random slot!

The BBC have confirmed today that regional news programmes will be extended on a region by region basis during the Olympic Torch relay, displacing The One Show.

22 May Olympic Torch Live: West, Bristol
24 May Olympic Torch Live: West Midlands, Worcester
25 May Olympic Torch Live: Wales, Cardiff
1 June Olympic Torch Live: North West, Liverpool
6 June Olympic Torch Live: Northern Ireland, Belfast
13 June Olympic Torch Live: Scotland, Edinburgh
15 June Olympic Torch Live: North East, Newcastle
18 June Olympic Torch Live: East Yorks and Lincs, Hull
25 June Olympic Torch Live: Look North (Yorks), Sheffield
29 June Olympic Torch Live: East Midlands, Derby
3 July Olympic Torch Live: East, Peterborough
12 July Olympic Torch Live: South West, Weymouth
13 July Olympic Torch Live: South, Bournemouth
18 July Olympic Torch Live: South East, Dover

A bit poor for BBC and ITV last night to be honest, Midsomer and The Apprentice underpar. Presumably dented by the Football.


http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=2706

Euro 2012 means that either extended shows won't happen on these days, or something else will be displaced.

If kick-offs aren't until 19:45, I dont see why the extended shows cant be just an extra 15 minutes until 19:15. Might not be ideal for the England game but 30 minutes pre-match is still enough and helps boost the average a little too.

Smash joins Grimm in getting an early pick up renewed for a second season by NBC,

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/nbcs...medium=twitter

Tom Jones and Danny O'Donoghue from The Voice are on The One Show at the moment.

The England game will probably be a 7pm start for BBC1 - Ireland v Italy might be, but I'd expect coverage of most games to begin at 7.30pm. Always possible too that the regions opt-out of the first half hour of the football build up.

He is right though. If The Apprentice was an ITV show the benchmark of success would have been beating last year's figure, anything less than that would be a failure, a flop, a show past it's best, tired, heading for the axe etc!

DS's Reality TV editor says the BGT first episode was just "alright", he wasnt that impressed. This is a bad sign, the BGT launch this year had to not just be good, but amazing. But its turned out to be only okay.


Apprentice was down because the tv shows it was against was much harder than last year. X Factor had same competition in 2011 as in 2010 but was much less popular because the judges sucked and contestants were terrible. Theres a difference in the two situations.

He's taking the mick because of all the embargoes (he later says that he's considering re-watching it at the expense of The Voice). But even if that is his real opinion, he's the only one who thinks that. Literally everyone else at the launch has said how good it is and how great the judges are together, with many saying its the best ever launch episode. I know you're desperate for The Voice to be massive and BGT to die but it's pretty clear that the consensus of those who were there is that it is a very good episode indeed. Search '#bgt' on Twitter if you don't believe me.

He also says that because BGT launched at 5.2m The Voice should be looking to launch around there, which I really disagree with as after all the hype anything lower than 7m will be a disappointment.

Anything less than 12m for The Voice launch will be a disaster!

It looks like Weakest Link will be going out on a whimper. BBC One has scheduled the last ever show (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...s-special.html) for next Saturday at 3.45pm. They're airing three other specials next week but in their BBC Two early afternoon slot.

Abit of a ridiculous comparison really. BGT launched to no press or hype and built momentum throughout its run, and became an unexpected hit. The Voice on the other hand is launching on the back of lots of promotion and the much hyped ratings battle with BGT. Totally different circumstances. It will obviously beat 5.2m. Probably somewhere around 7m I'd imagine.

That's so strange as it was such an amazing epsiode. One of the best in years!

I know it rates terribly for BBC2 these days, but I'm sure if it was advertised as the last one it would do okay for BBC1 in a half decent slot.

It certainly makes no sense to me that a repeat of Question of Sport gets priority on that Saturday. Really bad scheduling again from the BBC.

The ratings Dancc posted last week suggest it's only getting 100-200,000 in it's afternoon slot on BBC2. As much as it was right to axe it I do think they could have given the last series an outing in the 5.15pm slot on BBC1 as I think resting Pointless for a few weeks would in the long term benefit it.

I doubt The Voice will reach 12 million can't see it somehow. I think it might rate the same as the first X Factor series did.

Not entirely true. Before the Red or Black fiasco Simon Cowell was seen as someone who couldn't put a foot wrong in TV so of course there was a lot of interest surrounding his new show. And much like The Voice it was seen as the next big thing based on how well received the format had been in America.

If anything BGT had a slight advantage launching back in 2007. Terrestrial audiences (generally) are smaller now than they were then.

Simon Cowell has had flops well before Red or Black turned up. Grease Is The Word was a massive flop, American Inventor, Celebrity Duets and Rock Rivals also bombed according to Wikipedia. The guy has had more flop formats than hits but people often forget this. Agree with the rest of your post.

19m for The Voice!, anything less and Danny Cohen will commit ritual suicide, using an NTA award!