I cant believe that the BBC schedulers didnt know that ITV would do this, unless they are now sitting there saying things like "Oh I say dashed bad show you bounder" in very posh voices. However they are in a pretty difficult position being the PSB and always start 2-0 down in games of tit for tat-with an army of press (and commentators on this thread) waiting to cry foul.
They should have just put in TV at 6.30 and left it. It would have dented the BGT rating just enough to prevent Simon Cowells ego from attaining orbit.

Well Glee still has a rating of 2.4, which I think will comfortably lead Fox's original shows this week, it's not a poor rating at all. Smash is already down to a 1.8. Touch is now looking iffy for Fox, they really haven't got any scripted shows going for them.

New Girl was the big new hope, but that rating isn't looking great, and that's in it's first series. Of course it could carry on falling, and then it's in trouble but there's no reason to believe it's finished yet. So why would they think of putting that in a comedy block, and what would they put it in with, Raising Hope?

Many shows have been saved by a network going through a poor run, Glee could easily be saved.

Oh and I quite like the third series, and think the Brittanna plot is cute.

When do the printing presses fire up then?

What's to stop them deciding to reinstate The Voice to its usual 7pm slot?

Sky1 are reviving The Kumars, with a six part series in the autumn.
http://www.c21media.net/archives/81178

Hilarious, considering last weekend we had predictions that TV was going to grind BGT into the dust on this very thread


and the BBC1 controller has no ego? Yeah right!

I think the real reason Auntie blinked is that she got a case of the willies after seeing how quicky TV shed viewers over the weekend. Who wants to go head to head and get beaten up?

The displaced episode of Emmerdale from the BGT finals week goes up against The Voice results show on Sunday 13th May. I guess though despite it having some potentially tough competition over the next three weeks ultimately the BBC will prefer the 3rd live show of six to face the BGT final than the finals themselves to go head to head.

Surprised that ITV haven't began airing Corrie on Wednesday yet now their football commitments for the season are over and due to Euro 2012 they could probably afford to air it Wednesday and Thursday for the next month or so, then keep it in existing slots during the tournament when they have no games, then ditch the Thursday episode from July.

The fact that the BBC choose to put a 95 minute edition of TVUK on on BGT final night, when they know damn well that BGT takes up 2 and a half hours of air-time suggests that the BBC were spoiling for a fight. But that was before last weekend's negative reaction to the live shows.

But they should have been ready for that cos practically all versions of The Voice have lost viewers for the live shows. You would have thought John de Mol would have got the message by now. Er....flaw in the format, mate.

"Shed viewers"? You mean both shows that increased in viewers throughout the programme?

Even if The Voice got beaten up, BGT would have a bloody nose and a black eye. Not sure how the accountants and advertisers would feel if their big show had a few million knocked off and others skipped the ads.

To clarify I meant they shed versus the previous weeks outings

I do have to ask though... why has BGT's final gone back to 1 long show? It didn't work in 2010 so why do they think it will work now? Or have they had to do it to avoid The Voice? They could have had two shows and avoided The Voice, albeit the first show would have been ridiculously early...

BBC One
17:40 - FILM: Madagascar
19:05 - Casualty
19:55 - The Voice
21:30 - Lottery: In it To Win It
22:20 - BBC News
22:40 - FILM: The Proposal

ITV1
17:40 - ITV News
17:55 - Britain's Got Talent Final
19:55 - You've Been Framed!
20:30 - The Cube
21:30 - Britain's Got Talent Final Results
22:00 - Lemonaid*
23:00 - ITV News

I guess from a ratings perspective, have the first show on that early would not have helped things, but who knows given the amount of timeshifting nowadays.

* the slot it should have been in all along, after BGT, not before

If they had done a seperate results show, then The Voice would have slotted in in the gap, and The Voice is likely to be longer than the gap that ITV leave, which would never be longer than 1 hour/1 programme, meaning people may forget to tune back in to the results show.

CNN U.S recorded its worst ratings in 10 years for the month of April.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/bu...s-worries.html

The Wall Street Journal have reported that execs at Time Warner are becoming increasingly impatient with the inability of CNN bosses to deal with the ratings problem in the United States. Jim Walton surely has to go. He has overseen a host of new programmes in recent years that have been complete failures.

I think they need a complete relaunch, a clean slate to redefine the network and refocus on news. Despite their claim to be 'the worldwide leader in news', in the U.S CNN is a pale shadow of its former self. While its programming isn't biased like FNC and MSNBC, it is just as low brow. Some of the channels coverage really does beggar belief, its sensationalist, its brash and its simply a bad imitation of what is already being offered by their cable news rivals.

At least if they focused on quality journalism, breaking news and exclusives they would have something to be proud of - even if ratings remained low (they can't go much lower), they could at least take the moral high ground. Instead in their failing attempts to chase ratings, they diminish the CNN brand. Obviously in the American news industry personalities are important and CNN's strengths in this area are Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, who they bizarrely don't put in primetime. Erin Burnett, a solid journalist at CNBC, has performed awfully in the 7pm ET slot and her show is of very poor quality.

Huge changes are required, not just cosmetically but in the whole structure of the channel. They need fresh faces and fresh ideas to reinvigorate the brand and differentiate themselves, rather than imitate, Fox News and MSNBC.

Having one BGT show is probably the best way to do it for revenue. It worked fine in 2010 really - we slagged it off at the time, but in both 2010 and 2011 the show averaged 9.9m for the performances and 9.4m for the results for the semi finals, and then in 2010 the all in one final averaged 12.3m, whilst the two shows last year averaged 11.6m and 12.5m. Having a separate results show might help them on the end of year chart but that doesn't get them advertising revenue. Plus an all in one show makes it more difficult for The Voice.

ITV played a blinder with the BGT Final schedule. They knew exactly where they wanted BGT to be but played around with the schedules until they got The Voice tucked away in a nice early slot before unleashing their final plan. For the first time this year ITV can feel smug about their scheduling whilst BBC1 will probably be a bit pissed off as The Voice has essentially been forced out of its slot.

With regards to the new Dom Joly show, I agree that it sounds bad, but ITV Media had it down for a Q3 slot when they were looking for sponsorship so it probably won't take the TV Burp pre-XF slot in the Autumn.

As for DOI, they have to do something. I don't necessarily think they should get rid of the celebrities, but I like Brekkie's idea of having a member of the public as a wildcard, voted in during a special launch night probably just before Christmas (perhaps on XF Final weekend?). Between that, scrapping the double elimination and not doing an elimination in the first week (like SCD) they could then cut the number of celebs without cutting the number of weeks, which could give them more money to spend on getting some decent names. The comedy aspect of it should have more emphasis put on it like someone else said.

Torvill and Dean are quite dull, and they're also a bit too nice. The producers need to get them to start fighting back when the judges slag off the celebrities and get a bit of drama going. Karen Barber should be axed from her on-screen role as there are too many opinions to be heard at the moment, and T&D could then sit with the celebs and defend them a bit more rather than just sending everyone to sleep.

I'd get rid of the whole panel - even Robin who is incredibly dull. They should bring Jason back and bring Arlene Philips in alongside a skater with a bit of personality. Maybe a younger female as a fourth judge although they'd at least need a decent dance background.

We've suggesting splitting it across the weekend for years, so interesting to see they're finally considering it. With Wild At Heart gone, I'd consider this schedule for Q1 next year:



Thursday could have something cheaper at 9pm if necessary, whilst I think Fridays could cope without the 7:30pm Corrie. The boost it'd give Sundays would be worth it, and DOI would really benefit from the inheritance in what would be a difficult slot for it. They could probably get away with pre-recording the DOI Results as it doesn't skew particularly young, whilst the longer show would mean they could keep the Saturday shows down to an acceptable length.

To be honest they probably just need a war.


My initial feelings are the same about Dom Joly but actually we forget how popular Trigger Happy TV was at the time, and it's probably better someone with history in the genre is given the slot than they try it with someone new.


Adding a member of the public and then a show to select that person automatically means they need two celebs less. I think it was quite evident this year that they really needed to get their wallets out and pull in a couple of bigger names. (Resurrecting the Champions of Champions cuts one more too).

I don't think the show is broken beyond repair as some people here suggest - it just needs to go back to basics and get the production right. A well produced show can hide many flaws.


If one Friday Corrie did go to Sunday I think I'd scrap the Thursday Emmerdale and have an hour long show at 7pm on Fridays, freeing up the 8pm hour on Thursday. That way ITV can pair their comedy up and run cheap and random filler the rest of the year (well with the football moving they need a new Tuesday!).

I really do think though the sitcoms would have more of a chance if they gambled them back to back in a single hour (perhaps Wednesday rather than Thursday) rather than have them alone in the schedules after Emmerdale.

If they were to air in isolated 30-minute slots perhaps the 7pm slot on Sunday would be better if Corrie aired at 7.30pm. A nice alternative to Countryfile, and things like Barbara did OK there in the past. Indeed ITV used to quite often have comedy at 7pm and 10pm on a Sunday.

And back to Saturdays as I've said before I really do think ITV should take advantage of the limitations they have on ads in primetime and try and establish an early evening slot for ad free family films. They often go without ads through to about 7.30pm, so they could easily do it if they get creative and work with a sponsor who in return for giving up their break bumpers around breaks with no ads get a bit more of a shout in the promotion of such movies.

I like your schedule Score, it looks like it would be a big improvement. My only change would be possibly to move Jonathan Ross to the post-drama slot on Sunday nights - his show isn't really working on Saturday nights. I'm guessing it skews older so it could really bolster Sunday nights and give them a much stronger schedule than they had this year. The only problem would be what to replace it with on Saturdays but I think with the ratings he's been getting in that slot they haven't got much to lose in that respect.

I concur with the suggestion of moving Corrie back to Sunday nights. I don't think Friday would miss one episode and Sunday nights would really benefit from having a consistent puller in the schedule all year round.

I’m not sure new faces are the answer - they’ve had plenty. Of the whole day, almost everything is down over 20% in 25-54 and many in the high 20’s. The only slots that aren’t are 8pm with AC360 (down 8%) and 9pm with Piers Morgan (down 14%). But bear in mind that AC360 is being compared to the short lived In The Arena. I’m not sure Anderson Cooper is really a draw for people on a nightly basis. Piers benefits from airing after a show that isn’t down 20%+ like the rest of the schedule - although that didn't help AC360 at 10pm which was down nearly 30% probably due to being on just an hour earlier!

5pm - Situation Room - 557,000 (131,000) - Down 24%
6pm - John King USA - 435,000 (106,000) - Down 41%
7pm - Erin Burnett Outfront - 409,000 (113,000) - Down 34%
8pm - Anderson Cooper 360 - 504,000 (144,000) - Down 8%
9pm - Piers Morgan Tonight - 567,000 (161,000) - Down 14%
10pm - Anderson Cooper 360 - 522,000 (175,000) - Down 28%

Situation Room ought to be back at 6pm at least, maybe even try it out to 8pm. AC360 in 2 slots is absurd.

Long term, and as I said when they hired Piers Morgan or any of their other schedule reshuffles, it won’t matter until they look at the programming and overall brand.

They still get the breaking news audience and they’re still trusted above other outlets but in a quiet month (like April) they’re screwed. Why will people tune in each night?

They can hire whoever they want but unless they've got some kind of overall direction as part of the brand, it won't matter.

There has been lots of false dawns on this story but E! News are reporting tonight that Britney Spears and Demi Lovato are locked in to join Cowell and Reid on the second season of X Factor USA.

The Hollywood Reporter suggested yesterday that Lovato was in talks with XF and also speculated that an announcement was likely in time for the Fox upfronts on May 15th.

Has there been any news on the host(s) yet?

ITV1 are always going to be thought of idiots by a fair few here - let us think - we have the ghost of schedule past (High Stakes, Show Me The Funny, The Marriage Ref) the ghost of schedule current (Keith Lemon's LemonAid) and the ghost of schedule future (Fool Britannia). Well that's me convinced anyway.

ITV1 do have some decent shows, but they continue to surround them with vacuous nonsense and most viewers vote with their remote controls to any other channel.

The issue there is that the sitcoms would be very isolated in that 8pm hour with a lead-in from Tonight, and like you've said, they could end up with another Tuesday. Having Emmerdale at 8pm gives them a decent audience to work with, and Emmerdale does pretty well in that slot anyway. Nice idea with the films - don't know how feasible it would be but it sounds good on paper.


Thanks. I agree to a point about Ross as his total numbers weren't great. Worth noting that his demos were actually very good - his 16-34 %-skew was normally in the mid-20s and he usually had a mid-50s ABC1 skew which is really good for ITV, so in terms of demos his show did reasonably well despite the low total audience so it might be worth leaving it on Saturdays as whatever they replaced it with would probably be weaker in the demos at least.

Fridays would be fine - cheap but decent old-skewing stuff like The Chase and Countrywise could probably get c4m over that hour (especially with the half hour headstart on EE) so I think they'd be fine there.

Boyd Hilton would say putting the test card opposite BGT with his mates Cowell and Walliams would have been "pretty agressive scheduling". I don't know where the hell he thought the Beeb should have shown it, presumably not at all as it makes Cowell angry. Just like he's shamelessly hyping up the ratings for his mate Matt Lucas' show in this week's issue.

Primeval is back on ITV1 on Saturday 16th June apparently. Can't see it rating well at all - the last series struggled in January, so in a Summer slot and taking into account that Watch have already aired it I can't see the overnights being much better than 2.5m.

Sam Hodges‏ @Sam_Hodges
Last night's #Apprentice was the highest rating show of the day across all channels, averaging 6.1m #BBC1

17.79 million viewers for French presidential TV debate last night, 20m watched Sarko v Ségo in 2007

Both showings of The Soap Awards got an aggregated figure across both channels of just 5.2m. Poor.