Springwatch International was exactly the feeling I was getting from the few minutes I saw.


Don't even get me started on the Daily Star.

And the usual pattern is that C4 tie up the rights for the first two series, then Sky nick the third. From the press release Dancc posted it's getting a consolidated figure of 4m a week. Wish I'd got into it now - I did tape it initially but never got round to watching the first 2-3 episodes so deleted them.

Link: http://twitter.com/#!/MediaweekAUS

To be honest, the only area where money is obviously limiting The Voice is with the recorded Sunday results show. The studio is massive, the set is good, the lighting is great - it's got plenty of 'scale'. There were some issues with camerawork - but that won't be a money thing, just a 'learning the ropes' process. The BBC have invested properly in those sorts of things (for a change) - and it shows. The problems I can see are all with format, tone or personalities.

That's a disappointing start. Still a country mile ahead of Ten's other shows, but a sign perhaps that it's not going to be the force that it once was. More competition now of course with Nine back in the ratings race.

Good start to the semi-finals for BGT tonight. Quite a few decent acts and the panel was a million miles ahead of last year on the live shows. Stage seems a bit different as well - brighter and more open than last year. There was one wide shot of the audience at the start and it really did look tiny - I think the stage is taking up all the studio space! Production around the acts was generally better this year as well.

That being said, the first semi-finals do tend to be the best. By Thursday it could be 6 street dance acts and three acts that get buzzed off!

Seven
18:00 Seven News: 1.56m
18:30 Dancing with the Stars: 1.11m
20:30 Bones: 1.01m
21:30 Castle: 711k

Nine
18:00 Nine News Sunday: 1.48m
18:30 The Block: 1.47m
19:30 60 Minutes: 1.29m
20:30 The Mentalist: 652k
21:30 The Mentalist: 478k

Ten
18:30 The Biggest Loser: 936k
19:30 New Series: MasterChef Australia: 1.36m
20:30 Touch: 703k

ABC1
20:30 Midsomer Murders (R): 721k

Seven wins. 22.1% share.

Simon Cowell wins ratings war? That's not news. That's just a sad reflection of the state of the nation, once more hypnotised by itv and Cowell enterprises. Yawn.

Do you think the front page headlines couldve actually been instigated by staff/PR people at the BBC/The Voice in order to maximise its press coverage this week so ratings dont fall much again? It's been a few weeks since The Voice was last on the front page of a major newspaper so maybe they want that sorta coverage as we head towards Saturday.

I think people are still pissed off at last year's season. I remember that people have been saying how the challenges got ridiculous, contestants were getting unlikeable and the show "lost its way". Ten said that this year, they are "going back to the basics" with Mystery Box challenges and so forth. The question is will people give the show another chance? Also, I HATED their promo of where some home cook goes into this "cooking wonderland". Luckily, they stopped that the last few weeks and started showing sneak peeks. I don't know if My Kitchen Rules on Seven might get the same fate next year, since fans were not happy with how this year's season played out.

I wouldn't be at all surprised. It has a tough Saturday night coming up with the early start and Britain's Got Talent supposedly monopolising the press' attention with nightly semi finals ahead of the grand final. Could this be read as a sign of panic from the BBC, though? It's not often a sex trick from the Beeb is displayed on the front of The Daily Star.

It's always a danger when you push it too far with shows like this that are a big commitment for the viewer as fans who have invested literally hour after hour across many weeks can be left feeling cheated, and they don't tend to forget that in a hurry.

Given the papers in question, my money is on Syco wanting to make a point. And it's not as if they need to worry about handing The Voice publicity and viewers - X Factor got all the same headlines last year and it didn't seem to do them any good!

I've long thought that publicity in terms of ratings needs to involve something happening on the next show. So Simon Cowell banging Dannii Minogue isn't going to (and didn't) do any good for BGT ratings. Had The News of the World printed that story in 2010 during the X Factor live shows as they wanted to, then it might have lifted ratings that weekend as people tuned in to see any potential reaction between the two. Headlines that everyone is tuning out (whether it be XF or TV) aren't going to encourage people to tune in.

Obviously The Daily Star put their own unique angle on it!

Simon disappeared very quickly after Britain's Got Talent tonight; he wasn't on More Talent as usual. Maybe he was stirring up trouble instead.

But I still think the BBC is behind this. Why would Simon want to promote The Voice at all during his show's big week?

Yeah. Especially when you run a show for six days a week, feels like you are watching a reality novela. I was fully into it the first few weeks then it all went downhill from there. I think I stopped watching the halfway and didn't bother until the finale.

Link: http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2012/05/...-business.html

Also, Nine's new drama, Tricky Business will premiere next Monday after The Voice Live Show. No doubt we might see the cast in the audience. Although, there have been some comments about how despite a huge lead-in, people might switch off because of its late start. Because when a network says 9:30pm, you know you might have to wait 17-22 more minutes for the show to actually start. But that shouldn't matter since Nine has been playing promos of that show on every commercial break opportunities they have.

I'm surprised that Tricky Business' promos hasn't appeared on Nine's other closing credits-promo yet (or that I have seen), as they would do to promote The Block. Then again, Nine's scripted shows have started showing next week's episode promos again for all their respective shows. I was even surprised The Big Bang Theory had a "next week" promo at their closing last week. I don't think CBS even does that with their sitcoms.

The way things are looking there could well be a 4 million plus gap between the shows tonight-the Beeb is going to have its work cut out explaining that away.

He was off for a smoke! Or firing whoever designed that voting app!

Syco won't decide what's on the front page of The Sun and they'll not write the copy. But I'm sure someone there has been on the phone and firing off e-mails to showbiz journalists pointing out the 1m gap last night. Plus, some of those journos read these forums *waves*.

The tabloids have put it into whatever story they want (e.g The Daily Star writing a story about Holly's boobs with a big picture too!). They may have been in touch with BBC people as well to get their spin.

I could see the BBC maybe wanting to replicate the Holly cleavage storm if they were desperate (and willing to use ITV's old tricks!). But "ratings slide" stories didn't help X Factor last year or Big Brother. They'd be better stirring something about judges or acts (or coaches and artists).

I doubt there's anyone "behind it" as such. More that the newspapers are looking for a spin on anything to do with TV and/or BGT and they know this is easy to write because both PR teams will co-operate (SyCo because it makes them look good, and the BBC because they're secretly rather gratified their show is considered worthy of a frontpage splash). We probably get rather carried away by the idea that everything is 'planted', when it usually has more to do with the newspapers themselves than the PR's.

I don't like the idea of next time trailers on sitcoms at all. I don't much like them on the Australian soaps either, they spoil key moments for no good reason. The networks over there seem to be forgetting that it's possible to leave people wanting more without giving away a load of stuff that's going to happen, that can be counterproductive if anything.

Tricky Business has the best possible chance of success now. The slot's a little late but the inheritance will be so large it could still do really well. Good to see Nine backing something of substance that's also a bit different for them in this way, they're starting to get their confidence back.

That's true, though I'm surprised they went with The Voice as a front page lead rather than Britain's Got Talent as the latter appears to be the one with momentum (though that could all change when tonight's ratings come in!)

If the BBC wanted publicity for The Voice they certainly wouldn't want a headline shouting about the fact its losing viewers.

But they'd want to show that they're responding to criticisms with the judges getting tougher. I'm sure there will be a reference to a BBC 'source' in the article though admittedly this source might not exist.

I'm guessing Big Brother is going to 8-10 weeks which will bring it to August followed by another series of CBB, I wouldn't be surprised if the one of the eviction nights is moved to Thursday 26th July to avoid the Opening Ceremony and just have a highlights show

BB Aus doesn't start till after the olympics and CBB's supposed to be starting the day before it ends. So if there is a swap it will be a CBB housemate.

Homeland ended on a series high of 2.4m (9.85%) / 458k (2.56%) +1. #homeland

Source: Michael Rosser

Last night #BGT was the highest rating programme in peak by more than 2m viewers - averaging 9.5m (9m ex+1) for the 2 hr live show.

Audience peak of 11.4m (10.7m ex +1) at 21.10 for the first #BGT live show on ITV1

Source: Jenny Cummins