BGT really wasn't hyped much at all. It came straight off the back of Grease Is The Word (a flop for Cowell) launching on the same night as the GITW finale in a horrid slot head to head with the final of Any Dream Will Do. Hopes were not high for it at all, with most expecting a flop (especially on here IIRC - back in my days as a lurker!). It really was quite the surprise hit.

The Voice however has had a huge amount of hype and expectations are very high for it. It is launching in very different circumstances to those in which BGT launched in back in 2007.

The entire weight of the BBC is being thrown behind it - Radio 1 & 2, all BBC1 output, the entire PR dept are working on placement in non- BBC media.

This has been one of the most extensive campaigns since Napoleon decided that he would like to see Moscow in the wintertime.

I think that over-hyping of the Voice may be its downfall. People are expecting something completely different, but will see that it is just another karaoke show. Also the judges chemistry will be important, but don't know if it will work. Holly presenting it will make it feel like the X factor too, as she used to present the X-tra factor

Just been to the TV Burp recording. Definitely the last one, as confirmed by the producers and Harry himself, who said not to take note of The Sun rumours. The final scene is closure for the show too. Best episode in years. Harry's really put effort into it.

I'm surprised, and disappointed that ITV haven't given the last ever episode more promotion. Do most people even know it won't be back after this weekend? It could have been a bit of a weapon against The Voice but it looks like it's going to slip away fairly unnoticed against The Voice and end on a bit of a whimper (ratings-wise) which is a real shame for the show and it deserved better treatment from ITV for its finale.

Re. The Weakest Link

Because it's buried at 2.15pm - often when BBC1 has new Escape to the Country or drama. If it was scheduled sometime when CBBC was on BBC1 I'm sure it would rate much more acceptably. 3pm on BBC2 is almost always repeats for example so it could have gone there. It's an absolute waste of license fee payers money that new content is being burned off in a death slot just because no further new episiodes will be comissioned - the BBC did this with To Buy or Not to Buy as well

At least DQF should prevent this from hapenning as BBC2 daytime won't be airing 'daytime' shows like The Weakest Link anymore

Harry made a slight joke on the BBC's part too. He was recording promos which will go out on Saturday night, and said 'well this is pointless considering everyone will be watching The Voice'

But in all seriousness it is a shame it will probably go out fairly low key Hopefully the lead out of BGT will boost it a bit and hopefully a decent repeat audience before DOI final. I am surprised it hasn't been promoted more, especially considering it's a show which hasn't been axed by ITV, but for creativity reasons by Harry.

Well initially after Pointless moved they put it at 4.30pm to make it more of a direct swap and from memory it did pretty badly there too, but those were repeats not new episodes.

Dan Wootton claims a BBC source said they want >10million for The Voice's launch:

No, I dont think that will be happening. Not 10m average, peak rating maybe. 7m or 8m averages possible but 10m is too high.

"Creativity reasons"? He's leaving because both C4 and Sky are waving huge cheques in his face.

ITV have turned this one-time niche comedian into a mainstream star, and now he's walking out on them so he can earn more elsewhere. Just like O'Grady did a few years ago.

Why should ITV they waste their money, and valuable promotional airtime, on someone who has no future worth to them?

He's pulled that entire story out his ass.

I think ITV's strategy is just to push BGT as much as possible and sadly TV Burp has been the casualty of the need to promote BGT as much as possible.

Not that I agree with the policy totally, TV Burp has been a big show for ITV for many years and deserves a good send-off, plus more promotion for TV Burp means less people watching The Voice and a better lead-in for BGT but there you go.

Well thats one way of putting it.

I expect The Voice to launch with 8.5m viewers, give or take 100,000

It would bloody Deserve it. This week has been EastEnders at it's very best and i've not really seen a bad word said about it this week.All week i've seen Random sites on the Net full of Enders chat and people bigging the storyline up.
Even some of the critcs praised it on twitter

Brilliant rating for a 'one off' Wednesday night episode and i really hope Thursdays episode's rating remains consistent at least ( i Know it will be fine )

That guy's a joke...But never mind

I will be tuning into the Voice. It looks different and actually has a good range of Judges (at least ones that know what they are talking about) i think they will get a good enough rating

Agree. It feels fresh, and the judges have real credibility when it comes to assessing singing talent.(Tom Jones v Amanda Holden, anyone?)

I think it's going to flatten BGT.

Cowell wasn't really that big a deal in 2007 - it was a long time before Red or Black as well! At that point, he was far bigger in the US than in the UK. X Factor was consistently losing out to Strictly in 2006. It also followed the disasterous summer of 2006 when ITV had taken a battering with their efforts to derail Big Brother.

BGT was a replacement for the previous years "X Factor: Battle of the Stars" (one of ITV's "anti-Big Brother attempts) which was pretty average (5-6m most nights) and followed Grease is the Word which was quite a high profile flop. Talent shows were doing well but nowhere near as popular as they are now.

I remember posting mainly in the BB Ratings Thread in 2006/2007 and the concensus was that BGT might be successful, but that it would be in the same kind of range as Battle of the Stars. It wasn't really perceived as a huge threat. It was only as the week progressed that it took off rather dramatically.


Strategy implies long term thinking - I'm not sure ITV had any idea what they were doing with BGT until about two weeks ago!

I don't necessarily agree with this. Expectations weren't that high for BGT IIRC. The general feeling I got before it launched was that people didn't really expect it to do very well, plus it was going up against the final of one of Lloyd Webber's shows. Indeed it was only after the first episode aired and the response to the show itself was overwhelmingly positive did I personally think it might do okay, but even then I didn't think it would turn into the hit it did.

Its success took a lot of people by surprise, including ITV (who of course stripped the entire first series across a week). It certainly didn't experience the kind of hype and intense media attention that has been surrounding The Voice for months, nor did ITV have a massive promotional campaign in the same style as that of The Voice or Red or Black?.

Pop Idol was good.
It was fresh but then of course Simon cowell got involved come up with his own show (The X factor) and talent went out of the window and it was all about the Judges and Headlines.

The voice seems more fun i think and there's pretty much something for everyone in the Judges aswell.

Amanda Holden i still can't understand why she's a judge anyway. Seems very Random

I don't really go for all this 'Talent' TV but i will be giving The Voice ago on Saturday

You think one of the things that gives The Voice the edge is that it 'seems more fun'? Than what? Britain's Got Talent?

If there's one thing that BGT clearly has in its favour its the fun factor, and if the horrendously cringetastic group performance between the coaches (see YouTube for a sneak preview) is The Voice's idea of fun then I don't think BGT has much to worry about on that score.


That's a rather brave prediction. We'll see.

Incidentally it was the BGT press screening today and the response has been really good from what I've read.

The talent fluctuated wildly on Pop Idol, a judge (Cowell) got more attention than any contestant and the tabloids were a key part of the plan from the start. I know it was a long time ago, but there are a lot of rose tinted glasses come out when Pop Idol is mentioned.

If The Voice comes out particularly different then its producers will probably be disappointed. It is designed to be as similar to Idol and X Factor as possible with the hope of luring the same viewers. After 10 years of talent show success, I highly doubt that the BBC are banking on millions of people who have never watched these shows suddenly getting interested because of Tom Jones. The bet is on XF/BGT viewers being lured in purely by something which is new but effectively, the same. Hence the "piggybacking" on those shows in the media. It's a good format but it's not revolutionising television. It is to X Factor what X Factor was to Pop Idol.

I'll be recording BGT and More Talent then watch The Voice on Sunday BBC Three.

Would that be the same ITV who waved big cheques in front of a certain Christine and Adrian, built up by the BBC, then defected to ITV - and what a disaster that proved to be. At least with Harry ITV were trying to build their own talent instead of filching it from the BBC.

once again you seem to think that ITV (a commercial 100% ad funded channel with 0% guaranteed income) and the BBC (A publicly tax funded state broadcaster with a 100% guaranteed income) should operate to the exact same rules.