So in the ratings battle of the genealogy web site shows it is a good start for Genes Reunited.

That is an OK performance for Long Lost Family which is a highly emotional show to watch and freshens up the format of WDYTYA nicely.

Not sure if Find My Past's eponymous Yesterday series is now (um) history or has been renewed. It had its moments but could do with tweaking if it returns and they have covered a lot of the easily researched key events (The Titanic episode is unsurprisingly repeated this Sunday).

And ancestory's Who Do You Think You Are? is only seemingly doing US episodes at present. Anyone heard anything of there being a 2012 UK series?

Makes a change from the ratings battle of singing shows on two channels to consider the scrap between web site family history series on three channels.

Not wishing to be pedantic (oh, alright then ) but it's the Bolton Albert Halls...


And this is why +1s opened such a can of worms, as I always said they would. People lumping together the 10pm and 11pm hours to say "we beat all the other channels at 10pm".

What a load of cobblers...


I think Apprentice is holding up ok really. It just isn't picking up as many casual viewers due to tougher ITV1 competition. Can't remember what ITV were putting up last year, but IIRC it was a flop in relative terms. This year, Apprentice has contended with a new Midsomer (with an hour head start), Champions League football - and when it had a Foyles War repeat this week, the overnights shot back up by 0.5m to 7m.


The fractionally higher AIs for BGT may be skewed by all the dancing dog-loving pensioners watching that show, and the more critical Facebook/Twitter generation going for The Voice. I suspect many shows much loved by the nation's old folk (Downton, Coro St, EmFm, DOI, Midsomer etc) get high AIs simply because the telly is on, it's nice and warm and there's fresh Horlicks in the pot...

That is interesting. Britain's Got Talent does have a much brighter vibe, there are a lot of laugh out loud moments. I think this is where it might have the edge. The Voice can be quite pretentious - the stressing of how amazing the judges and the format is every 2 minutes is quite tiring after 80 minutes.

Fantastic yet again for The Big Bang Theory.
1.5m is huge for E4.

Meh. I've learnt through Doctor Who breakdowns of the AI that theres some problems in using it.

Firstly - whose answering them?
Secondly - its not a '1-100' score, its an average of a mix of questions of 1-100.

Odd AI's for that genre are all we can really define things by imo. (e.g. Daybreak)

I'd question the rigour of your polling sample

To be broadcast in week commencing 28th April:

War Hero in my Family (New Series, 1/6)
In this brand-new series, celebrities trace the heroic and touching stories of their relatives and discover the sacrifices and contributions that they made during times of war. The first episode features popular TV presenter Chris Tarrant and actress Lisa Faulkner in search of the World War II heroes in their families. Chris sets off an emotional journey to find out what his father Basil did during his time in the British army. He begins by meeting a veteran from his father’s regiment, the 5th Wiltshire’s, who fought alongside Basil on the beaches on D-Day. Chris then follows in his father’s footsteps as his regiment became part of the front line pushing the Germans back through northern Europe.

World’s Scariest Flights (New Series, 1/4)
Following on from ‘World’s Scariest Plane Landings’, which drew more than two million viewers earlier this year, ‘World’s Scariest Flights’ leads a new four-part series looking at incredible stories filmed by ordinary people. The series will reveal some of the most extreme footage ever caught on camera and speak to those at the centre of unbelievable, life-changing events. From terrifying real-life in-flight movies of planes in trouble and people filming in the eye of the world’s most violent storms, through to hair-raising animal attacks and jaw-dropping drivers, each show provides adrenaline-fuelled, high-octane action that is 100% real.

The Restaurant Inspector (New Series, 1/6)
The Restaurant Inspector is back for a second series to save Britain’s struggling restaurants from oblivion. Top restaurateur Fernando Peire scours the UK, searching out failing local eateries and turning their fortunes around, provided the owners are willing to take his advice. This new series takes him all over the UK. In Edinburgh, he finds a Spanish restaurant that’s stuck in the past; in Sheffield it’s a failing Afro Caribbean eatery; in Somerset he finds a roadside restaurant that is failing to attract the passing trade and a stone’s throw from London’s Piccadilly Circus he finds The Maharaja Tandoori, a family run Indian with a dilemma…

10 Things I Hate About…1987 (New Episode)
This is the series that stamps on the rose-tinted spectacles of yesterday and shows us what we were actually doing at the time – and it certainly was not cool. Robert Webb takes us through 1987, one excruciating category at a time –what we were buying, what songs we were listening to, which shows were genuinely on our TV sets and the celebrities that cleaned up at awards ceremonies.

Fear Itself (New Series, 1/13)
Part of Friday Fright Night on 5*, ‘Fear Itself’ is a top-quality new series of 13 original, stand-alone horror-thrillers from the makers of ‘Twilight Zone: The Movie’, ‘Freddy vs Jason’, ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, several films in the ‘Saw’ franchise, ‘30 Days of Night’, ‘Jeepers Creepers’ and other such horror legends. This week, two schoolfriends get a message from beyond the grave telling them that a classmate did not commit suicide, but was murdered.

Abby’s Flying Fairy School (New Series, 1/26)
Starting this week on Milkshake! is a brand-new, award-winning, CGI-animated series featuring Abby Cadabby, a three-year-old fairy-in-training. This popular ‘Sesame Street’ puppet is the first to be turned into a 3D CGI character and star in her own show! It’s quirky, completely original and very funny – youngsters will love it.

Movies:
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Pacific Heights (1990), William & Kate (2011), Scooby-Doo (2002), Disney's Mulan (1998).

Source: Channel 5 Press.

EE wins the night shocker!! EM over 7m viewers!! LLF gets record rating!! Peter Kay gets 3.4m total viewers for an ancient show!! Yeah Gervais is back 2.1m viewers, what a varied night of viewing.

Which makes you wonder why Channel 4 (or anyone else for that matter) aren't offering the man bundles of cash to make something new for them. You'd think a new Peter Kay vehicle would be the perfect thing to build a new comedy night or block around wouldn't you...

US Ratings Thursday 12 April

Up against a CBS line-up in repeats Fox easily won the night and American Idol repeated its Wednesday night growth gaining three tenths on last weeks results show performance. In other good news for Fox Touch seems to have found its ratings floor it was steady week-on-week although that may drop a little in the finals.

Over on CBS it was an interesting night of repeats as they tested the waters on a two-hour Thursday comedy block with undeniably positive results. A 9PM repeat of The Big Bang Theory out rated everything not named American Idol last night (and the 8PM repeat was only beaten by Grey's). Interestingly CBS put a repeat of 2 Broke Girls on at 9:30 and it did OK. At 10PM a Person of Interest repeat performed well. At this stage the only thing holding CBS back from extending the Thursday comedy block to two hours will be the recent wobbles of the Monday night block but I think we can probably lock it in (Tuesday, Friday or Sunday night awaits The Mentalist – keep in mind CBS tried an original Mentalist on Friday earlier in the season and it did very well). CBS' only original of the night, Rules of Engagement, was steady vs. last week despite being surrounding by repeats (albeit it repeats that perform better than just about every other original on the night) and will no doubt have just locked in another season.

Back in the land of originals ABC's Missing dropped a tenth but both Grey's and Scandal were up a tenth. Scandal will pick-up a second season if it holds at this level but God knows what that'll mean for Private Practice and it'll be another nail in the coffin of Body of Proof.

On NBC Community and 30 Rock were both up but The Office, returning after a month on hiatus, dropped three tenths. NBC just got a taste of what a two-hour CBS block is going to do to them next season. At 9:30 the season (and likely series) finale of Up All Night was up three tenths presumably because it had an original lead-in. At 10PM Awake continued its march to cancellation and once again failed to crack a 1 in the demo.

ABC
8PM: Missing – 1.4 [7.87]
9PM: Grey's Anatomy – 2.9 [8.84]
10PM: Scandal – 2.1 [7.45]

CBS
8PM: Big Bang Theory [r] – 2.8 [9.58]
8:30OPM: Rules of Engagement – 2.7 [8.46]
9PM: Big Bang Theory [r] – 3.0 [10.25]
9:30PM: 2 Broke Girls [r] – 2.1 [7.37]
10PM: Person of Interest [r] – 1.8 [8.66]

Fox
8PM: American Idol – 4.2 [15.34]
9PM: Touch – 2.3 [8.22]

NBC
8PM: Community – 1.4 [3.18]
8:30PM: 30 Rock – 1.4 [3.04]
9PM: The Office – 2.1 [4.35]
9:30PM: Up All Night – 1.5 [3.18]
10PM: Awake – 0.9 [2.65]

The CW
8PM: Vampire Diaries [r] – 0.4 [1.08]
9PM: The Secret Circle [r] – 0.3 [0.85]

It wouldn't be so bizarre but the fact from 9.25 on to 5.30 they make absolutly zero effort and just show repeats and films makes it very odd they're starting to put effort in at 8.25. And the programmes are an odd choice for that time of day. It's very obvious Saturday Cookbook will be thrashed by Breakfast on BBC1.

TV executives have their finger on the pulse!, unfortunately it's their own pulse.

Peter Kay is not nearly enough of a northern caricature, and he's not female.

an FA Cup Semi Final is now "zero effort". I mean there is loads of rubbish posted here every day, but that takes the biscuit.

Every other week George all there is on ITV1 for non-FA Cup weekends is films, repeats and news in the daytime. There's a reason their all-day share is low during weekends.

You realise that there are 52 weeks in a year right?

Does Kay actually do anything these days? I know he's done nothing new on television for quite some time.

Last time I saw him, he was doing a very good impression of a drunk on The One Show.

I bet he has been asked though, countless times, but he seems the type that isn't really that bothered about doing anything new bar the odd project here and there. And he doesn't really need the money, his DVD sales and tour receipts speak for themselves.

Plus if his latest tour is anything to go by the man is desperately running out of material.

Isn't he just perpetually on tour these days?

The reasoning will be that they want to get back into the cookery/lifestyle format that is popular.

They wouldn't want to go against Saturday Kitchen which rules out 10am. They aren't able to cross the 9:25am divide so 8:25am is the available slot. 9am would be better but it seems it isn't possible.

After a few weeks when viewers find it, I should expect it will beat whatever CITV currently rates in that slot.

I don't know. Hopefully, with some new material, if he is.

As I have a bit of a soft spot for Channel 5 your posts (especially these updates of what's coming on) are much appreciated.

That's kind of you to say, thank you.

Its a budget thing. The money is better spent else where.

Anyway I could add the irony of the BBC fanboy criticising ITV for doing a cookery show when BBC1 are running an X Factor rip off is doubly mind boggling. Different rules, for different folks I suppose

Be fair - I don't think anyone's criticising the genre choice; just the scheduling. Plus I wouldn't brand any of those suggesting there's a problem 'BBC fan boys'.

Anyway, Long Lost Family did well last night. Panorama crashed and it's figures are similar to the 8.30pm slot where it depends strongly on the subject. The soaps are feeling the spring pinch though Coronation Street's share really stands out to me as quite low. Channel 5 had a slow night but Channel 4 did well with their comedies and there was obviously a method in their madness regarding showing a repeat before Derek. BBC Two had a steady evening, though Celebrity Juice beat Sarah Millican.

Wait, you're calling me a BBC fanboy? And using The Voice as a reason? Sorry, but genuinely 'lol'.

If it wasn't for The Voice's high ratings, I would be criticising the BBC for spending £22m on the program especially considering what they effectively chopped in half for it.... oh, I see you didn't consider that when calling me a 'fanboy'.

Nevermind.