Brave man. I like to see someone nailing their colours and not fence sitting. Of course The Voice is a copy of X Factor not BGT so why you could ask where are the variety acts on The Voice?

Is there really any new and original format in TV LE ? DOI is a fairly blatant copy of SCD, BGT and TXF always look remarkably similar to me.

BBC are supposed to innovate. Thats why they get £3billion a year without any commercial constraints.

I think The Voice will beat BGT by about a million overall, maybe half a million during the head to head - but a million overall.

*there's a reason I dont play the ratings game, maybe I've gotten better at predictions now*

Danny Cohen is taking a really big risk with The Voice. Just look at some of BBC1's biggest hits of the last few years. None of them had a "This is going to be massive" launch.

The Apprentice started on BBC2.
Mrs Brown's Boys and Outnumbered started in 10.35pm slots.
Sherlock launched at the height of Summer.
Strictly launched in the Spring with Bruce Forsyth thinking it would be "a nice little comedy show".
And the Dr Who revival also launched in the Spring because the BBC weren't sure it would be a success.

Yes, Call The Midwife launched on Sunday nights in January but like Sherlock, this came out of nowhere. I expect the BBC's target for CTM was to match the ratings of Lark Rise, the programme it replaced. I'm sure they didn't expect it to get 10m viewers.


Now, some may say "But The Voice is launching in Spring just like Strictly and Dr Who did." But when ITV say "The BBC are parking their tanks on our lawns", I say they speak accurately - that Cohen is looking to create a BGT v The Voice story to sit alongside the Strictly v X Factor story we get in the Autumn.

It's a very risky strategy and he's likely to be in for a severe kicking if it doesn't work.

Anything other than a comprehensive win for BGT would surprise me, also the least interesting outcome. However, I reckon there is a slim chance The Voice could win the head-to-head. In that scenario both broadcasters would have something to cheer about.

Why was it necessary to launch The Voice against BGT - surely if Cohen had really wanted a ratings winner he would have placed it either on Sunday night or started the run when he wasn't in direct competition with BGT.

More promotion for The Voice this morning. Tom Jones was a guest on Chris Evans' Radio 2 breakfast show whist BBC1's breakfast had two of the contestants from the blind auditions on the sofa, which seems a bit of a strange promotion device.

And just heard that Danny O'Donahue will be on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show this afternoon.

Whilst The Kitchen Sink will be be appearing on This Morning, Loose Women and Saturday Kitchen.

Oh no,, I'm going to miles off with my prediction of a win by the Voice of a million

Add to that Holly on BBC Radio 1 breakfast. This is one hell of a PR effort from the BBC!

Because he knows that part of the reason for Strictly's ratings surge of the last couple of years is down to the hype surrounding the Strictly v X Factor ratings battle. He's attempting to generate the same hype around The Voice and BGT.

You never know - if The Voice is a big hit, it might boost the ratings for BGT.

I going to take a guess and say BGT will get around 11 - 12 million and The Voice 8 to 9 million but its just a guess.

I hope BGT wins

I note no one is mentioning the lastest arrogant comments of cowell in the papers this morning.

I'm sorry if anything i'm about to say offends any Britains Got No Talent fans.

Bear in mind that i'm not a fan of any particular channel and will watch any programme that I think is good, Also I couldn't care less whether The Voice is a success or not, haven't seen it so have no opinion yet on it.

But I really hope BGT bombs horribly this year because I want that hateful man Cowells career to be destroyed, I want him and his dreadful baleful influence on British cultural life finished, I want him gone for good since I sick and tired of hearing his stupid lying views.

And I say this as someone who has always quite liked BGT and Xfactor, well theAuditions of BGT anyway, finals week is always a farce of total talentlessness, Since it seems to Cowells policy to not actually have anybody good in the BGT or Xfactor final stages.

Cowells career must end.

Meanwhile last night's ratings are in...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...m-on-itv1.html


Love Life slips to 3.4m whilst John Bishop's Sport Relief Hell scores a solid 5.2m

Thursday 22nd March Overnights
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.26m (21.8%)
19:30- EastEnders: 9m (41.1%)
20:00- Watchdog: 3.84m (16.4%)
21:00- John Bishop's Sport Relief Hell: 5.2m (22.5%)

BBC Two:
19:00- Hairy Bikers' Bakeation: 1.11m (5.2%)
20:00- Natural World: 1.68m (7.2%)
21:00- White Heat: 1.1m (4.7%)

ITV1
19:00- Emmerdale: 6.95m (34.2%) , +1 122k
20:00- Emmerdale: 7.35m (32.3%) , +1: 217k
20:30- Coronation Street: 8.05m (33.4%) , +1: 256k
21:00- Love Life: 3.39m (14.7%). +1 129k

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 1m (5.4%)
20:00- Get Your House In Order: 1.08m (4.6%). +1 190k
21:00- Mary's Bottom Line: 1.52m (6.6%), +1 221k

Channel 5
13:45- Neighbours: 658k (11.3%)
17:30- Neighbours: 1.03m (6.9%)
18:00- Home and Away: 730k (4.2%)
20:00- Titanic- The Inside Story: 1.44m (6.2%), +1 113k

BBC One: 22.9%
ITV1: 20.9% (+1: 0.6%)
BBC Two: 5.8%
Channel 4: 4.8% (+1: 0.9%)
Channel 5: 4.7% (+1: 0.3%)


Multichannel
ITV2
22:00- Celebrity Juice: 1.41m (7.9%)

5*
18:30- Home and Away: 423k (2.3%)

BBC Three
20:00- EastEnders Revealed:The Murder: 501k (2.1%)
21:00- Pramface: 374k (1.6%)
21:30: White Van Man: 360k (1.6%)
22:00- EastEnders: 729k (3.8%)
22:30- EastEnders Revealed: The Murder: 710k (5.5%)

E4
19:00- Hollyoaks: 527k (2.6%)

Sky One:
21:00- Glee: 331k (1.4%)

Source: Digital Spy

That eastenders revealed thing is a bit weird having more at 10.30 than than at 8, I know its after the EE repeat but even so .

Meanwhile i'm suprised that no-one is claiming that Doctors is in rating crisis, its been very low this week.

I'm just going to dig out the headline

''Coronation Street/Emmerdale in Ratings Crisis''

which is what it was when EE was down to those figures according to some on DS

Exactly this

At 8pm it was on against the ITV soaps. Seemed to have a bit of an effect on at least Corrie (which was down from 10m+ on Monday - ahem! See how soap opera ratings can fluctuate.)

Look at that share for EastEnders! This story seems to have certainly worked its magic. Corrie looks like its struggling in comparison.

Guests on today's Loose Women are Alesha Dixon and Danny O'Donahue. How very balanced of them.






(Balanced - not a word I'd use too often in a comment about Loose Women)

So last week Eastenders was in a ratings crisis and Corrie was flying high and this week Eastenders is flying high and Corrie (except for both Mondays eps) is in ratings crisis?

Don't think I said that.

You certainly can't make that kind of assessment on the basis of one episode. Corrie tends to underperform on a Thursday regardless and EE has clearly benefited from a major storyline this week. All I was saying was that it was a good number and share for EE and that Corrie does look low in comparison.

I think we should ban the word 'crisis' actually, it's doing my head in.

I only mentioned it because everybody seems to get carried away all the time and claim multiple crisis on the basis of one ep/weeks ratings, everything seems to be an automatic crisis all the time.

Soap fans are fickle, they go to where the action is.