This is all tinkering round the edges. The show is still the same, a 21st century The Gong Show. It is doing better because of the "Voice vs BGT" hype, and BBC1 delivering it a large talent/reality audience inheritance on a plate.

I've already agreed with that. However I still think the show has improved and if this had been last year's series I doubt it would have been anywhere near as resilient as it has been.

Would anyone be able to tell me what the Voice repeat added last Sunday?

This is a situation that suits both channels. I'm sure the BBC wouldn't expect to beat BGT so under the current arrangement, they both get the hype of a "ratings war", BGT gets to boast about having the higher average audience and higher peak but BBC1 gets to boast about winning during the head-to-head clash. The clash may dent BGT's ratings a bit but that's no big problem if the average is still higher than the equivalent show last year. Plus I believe (but don't know cos I was watched In It To Win It) that ITV held back the first commercial break until after The Voice finished so no advertisers would have suffered as the result of the clash.

As I've said before (possibly or possibly not with my tongue in cheek) a clever piece of combined scheduling by messers Cohen and Fincham.

It failed to make the multichannel top 30 for the week so it was under 660,000 viewers.

Do many series really benefit from lead ins now though. The last big series to do so (off The X Factor) is probably Downton Abbey - but for all we know that might have done just as well off it's own back.

Personally speaking nowadays I plan my viewing with much more precision, tuning in and out specifically for the shows I want, especially on the main channels.


Good point - and I think too the actual time spent filming would end up being even less than half for The Voice. I think they only had a few audition days, while TXF and BGT usually have 2-3 days in around 6 cities. Boot Camp and Judges Houses add 4-5 days to the schedule, then there are 10 weeks of live shows compared to 6 for The Voice.

Thanks, anyone have access to the overnights??

Doesn't the multichannel top 30 come out tomorrow for that week?

Very good signs for The Voice to be increasing week-on-week for the 2nd episode. The share is up 1.7% too, which is encouraging. I thought it would remain about level or see a small drop but the weather has changed and the show has done well on word-of-mouth over the past week. Casualty's rating was disapointing considering no BGT clash and a cold dark March night.


Good signs for BGT, the ratings are up and the show does seem much better to watch this year. Take Me Out hasn't really taken much of a boost though, if anything it seems to be down a bit since BGT started - could well be the pull of BGT on +1 and ITV2 effect.


Avatar has really not turned out to be big a rater. It had 3.1m [inc +1] last week, which is decent in terms of normal C4 film premieres but I do think they'd have been hoping for 4m at least for this one. I recall someone mentioned that C4 had spent a lot for 2 terrestrial showings of this film, so I think they will be quite disapointed with the ratings it has pulled in the last 2 weeks. Probably it is the sort of film that was sold as must watch in 3D and the fans buy on DVD so perhaps not a big bucks TV film.

Would be interested in how Avatar's TV premiere in the US or Australia if anyone knows?


Very interesting point about the time of year effect, BGT share is down slightly year-on-year although the raw figures are up.

Sorry, should have said - I was quoting the top 30 for the overnights.

3 weeks earlier actually, it launched on the 15th April last year.

Ok, so I'm full of rubbish. I didn't expect The Voice to increase by that extent or Britain's Got Talent to increase at all. Instead they both recorded stunning figures. The rest of the ratings look low in comparison though - The Lottery, Casualty and Take Me Out performed respectably. Avatar collected 4m viewers in total which isn't dire but it could've done better.

How do we think Once Upon a Time has rated?? I really liked it, and think it fits in with C5's target audience...

The vast difference in time requirement is really the key when discussing not only salaries but the calibre of the talent involved. The truth is that The X Factor is always going to struggle to secure big name artists because of the massive time commitment required to do it. Most artists can't afford to give up that much of their time or have no desire to. Indeed they struggled to accommodate Gary Barlow's schedule. In part the time commitment is why Cowell has struggled to get names attached to the US version as well. In contrast the pre-live stage of The Voice can be done in 3-4 days of shooting.

Considering Elf got that last Christmas for its fifth annual outing(s), it's not great for the premiere of a particularly high-profile title like Avatar. I think C4 will be disappointed with how it rated. Especially last night where it couldn't better the benchmark set by Gypsy Wedding repeats in previous weeks.

I don't think Channel 4 would have had high expectations for Avatar.

It made so much money because people wanted to see it in 3D. I don't think there was much appeal in seeing in 2D.

Though it was in a 'lighter' time slot against an improving Britain's Got Talent and The Voice.

2million viewers. I would say 2.3million but Harry Potter is a popular movie and will appeal to same kind of viewers.

No clue. It's making my head hurt just thinking about the possibilities, there's such a big potential range. C5 have done all they can with the marketing, and the presentation complete with special ident, break bumpers and break flashes was excellent, so hopefully they are rewarded with the audience this great show deserves. The response has been very positive which is always a good sign.

I should get the overnights quite early tomorrow so I will reveal all as soon as I find out!

If you missed Titanic, let comedian Chris Addison give you a summary...

http://twitter.com/#!/mrchrisaddison

This can't rate well, attacked in all directions at 9pm (Silent Witness, Homeland, a decent BBC4 documentary on rally drivers, and films for the youngsters like Streetdance).
Channel 4 + 1 had Disasters At Sea. Appropriately.

I see the logic in ITV1 repeated Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince tonight. It's the start of the Easter holidays for the kids.

Good points, I was thinking the mid 2's due to the massive marketing campaign, really can't wait for next week, very clever concept and hopefully one of many big new (less csi like) imports for 5 (after the success of walking dead last year)..

Was it just me or did Once Upon a Time finish 6 minutes early? I was watching on a few minutes delay and it still fell well short of 9pm. First time I've watched Five in months, maybe even a year.

all this Titanic stuff reminds me of Doctor Who: Voyage of the Dammed

other than that, I dont care anymore.

At least Voyage of the Dammed had the decency to be only one episode of poorly acted and written nonsensical cliche ridden rubbish. And air said episode on a day I could watch it drunk without issue so didn't mind the aforementioned problems quite so much.