Thanks. Quite low, that.

Dire for what was an interesting documentary. The BBC would have been better scheduling this at a better time.

People are getting bored of celebrity sport relief challenges, especially when they are dragged out for weeks before the actual day (and no doubt the highlights will be shown again as part of Sport Relief night anyway)

Most adults probably don't know who Helen Skeleton is whilst most of the kids who would be interested have probaly seen her CBBC series or seen reports on Blue Peter.

It'll be interesting to see what ratings Sport Relief gets because the line-up looks awful, what on earth have Benidorm and Britain's Got Talent teaming up got to do with sport?

At least in Sport Relief's early years most of the items were to do with sport - now it's like what Comic Relief has become, just special editions of current shows comedy or otherwise, music acts etc. and both telethons have become really lazy.

Here's the Sport Relief Night 2012 line-up:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/s...rt_relief_2012

Any news on the F1 highlights on the BBC yesterday compared to Sky's figures??
Thanks

I like that. Yes, I wasn't expecting much for this, brilliant though she is, because it was basically an episode of Blue Peter in primetime and it was opposite Corrie. In addition, it was a nine-part series edited down into half an hour so it wasn't very interesting on its own terms. In any case, I love Blue Peter in primetime, and I liked how Matt Baker was back to narrate.

The MOTD rating we had was very impressive given the matches involved, and I'm not sure what kind of appetite there was for highlights after the incident at Spurs. Possibly a lot of people switched on for more news.

EDIT: Oh, I say that, I don't think there has been a rating yet, I must have imagined it.

Hoping to post the F1 figures tomorrow.

Well nothing presumably, but the whole idea of charity telethons whichever name they use is to get as many people to watch and give as possible. I guess the idea is that BGT and Benidorm will do that, though its useful promotion for BGT I would imagine. There are a few things I am looking forward to in the line up.

What is particularly stupid is that the Benidorm does BGT skit is scheduled to air at 9pm, opposite Benidorm on ITV1 at the same time!

Next week's show is the final one in the current series. It got pushed into a later slot because of Talent starting a week earlier than planned.

Erm talk about awful scheduling, Andy, surely after Benidorm would make more sense.

Oh well.

More Schofield to endure, grrrr, does he own ITV1 as he's never off. However, the Cube does reasonable business.
Any estimates for the penultimate DOI, I'm going for 7.5 million for the main show? DOI has been knocked a bit this year, but I wouldn't say it's in terminal decline. Actually as has been suggested on here before, why not move the main show to Saturday and have the skate off on a Sunday as ITV1 seems a bit flat on Saturdays.

It still performs better than about 90% of the entertainment shows ITV aired last year. It's still capable to get between 3-4 million.

Now Tom Jones is criticising The X Factor:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s154/...tom-jones.html

At least The X Factor gained viewing figures before the panel etc. became really arrogant. I think the BBC pushing it too far - they'll push viewres away if they keep making cheap shots IMO.

He really is an insufferable, miserable old man. He's the one thing more than anything else which would put me off watching The Voice.

If they really had the confidence in their own format and show they wouldn't need to resort to cheap shots like that. The X Factor is a proven hit and a massive success in this country. The Voice hasn't even aired yet.

Its not like Simon Cowell hasnt criticised rival judges before, has he ? The louder the Voice coaches are before the series launches, the more column inches it gets, the more viewers it gets. Saying Simon Cowell is not qualified is a good publicity tactic because people will be wondering "oh is Tom Jones actually better, then?" and people will tune in to find out. Thats why The Voice UK could be a big hit, lots of people are going to watch this Saturday just out of interest and like in other territories, many will be impressed by the format and stick around for the entire season. This is an almost perfect publicity strategy from The Voice UK. Be loud before the series launches, get millions and millions of people watching the launch, and then let the format and quality of the show speak for itself.

Sports Relief is an inherently flawed concept. At least it is as a big entertainment driven telethon. It just comes across as a poor man's Comic Relief and given how poor Comic Relief has been in recent times that's really saying something.

I can't help but feel that the BBC might do better with this if they were to ditch the telethon and instead recreate the whole thing as 'Sports Relief season'. That would give them the chance to have various Sports Relief challenges and events across the BBC over say a two-week period without having to create these tenuous sports themed specials of shows for a telethon that doesn't really work. Doing that might also give them more scope to incorporate the actual use of sport within Sports Relief. If ITV hadn't already beaten them to the punch for example the big centrepiece for the Sports Relief season could have been something like the Soccer Aid match rather than the telethon.

And I suppose if they really wanted to they could then devote an hour or 90 minutes on a Friday night to recap all the Sports Relief events/challenges that have taken place over the two-week period and push people to donate during that.

On the subject of the Benidorm/Britain's Got Talent sketch. That does just seem like ITV have brought an ad for Benidorm and Britain's Got Talent on BBC1...

I like the format; I love the American version - but I'm sick of the British version already. Obviously I have my own personal issues with it but I'm getting annoyed with all the sniping. Surely the way The Voice should be getting headlines is by promoting the potential talent; not by taking shots at a show which isn't even on air at the moment?

There hasn't been one show and it's already all about the judges and The X Factor.

Completely agree Fudd - I've really gone off Tom Jones in recent weeks and considering it's trying to sell itself as a cut above The X Factor they are resorting to a very dirty PR campaign. I've seen nothing from the judges celebrating the talent they've found.


I agree. I used to love Comic Releif and would watch the 2-3 build up shows without fail, which usually focused on what they were raising money for rather than some celeb doing something - but Sport Relief have taken it too far now and have had far too many celeb specials this year.

I've no issue with one big challenge a year (preferbly for a group like Kilamanjaro was, rather than making David Walliams a saint) but they should put the focus on the public raising cash and use celebs mainly for doing the Sport Relief mile or stuff on the night itself rather than these endless big challenges. The Freddie Flintoff Record Breaking thing taking place tomorrow is an example of something they could have had running through the broadcast itself on Friday night instead - and it would actually be better than the endless cycle of VTs, music and pre-recorded sketches.

Its difficult to promote the talent before the show has actually started because they dont want to give spoilers away like that. So the next best thing to promote before the season starts is the coaches themselves and what they have to say. After the series begins, the talent will be promoted much more and will make the headlines. Social media will be important in all of this and I have been looking closely at this over the last few days, The Voice UK are implementing social media very well so far with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Okay its sometimes not nice that The Voice judges are saying a few negative things about their rivals but all their trying to do is make sure their show is making headlines and more people know about it. Then the talent will drive the show forward when the series begins, I have read the talent on day one of The Voice was better than any X Factor or Got Talent finale ever. So it should hopefully be good. I say, give it a chance, yes its not nice hearing the coaches say bad things about XF but the show itself and its contestants will do the talking from next week onwards.

In fairness I don't think that is particularly critical of The X Factor or even Simon Cowell. All he really said was that A&R guys and managers aren't best qualified to help judge, guide and mentor new artists but other successful performers who have been through the process and come out on the other side are.

When you look past the over the top headlines from these 'The Voice panel criticise The X Factor' stories the vast majority of them are actually The Voice panel (or PR team) establishing the difference in focus and tone of the two shows. Inevitably The Voice was going to be compared to The X Factor so I don't think its a bad thing for them to face that head on and try and put some distance between the two shows.

Any numbers for last night's Bank Job please?

The Voice should have set itself above X-Factor, and this kind of media sniping, the X-Factor is all about publicity, where as The Voice is about The Voice, let the quality of the singers do the talking. as the format suggests/