WAH is a tough one - but I suspect if it goes then they'd merge DOI and maybe put on something unscripted after it. They can't really launch any new drama in that slot next year - it'll get killed by CTM - and WAH may be too expensive for the ratings its getting (even though they're admirable given the competition and how long the show has been on). An alternative would be to move WAH out of that firing line to something like Wednesdays at 8pm where it might have a better chance?


Of all the things for ITV to argue about after all these years, arguing to keep last years panel seems absurd. If they don't make at least one good change, it's going to launch miles below last year. I think some of the y-o-y declines were 20% by the end of the series?

Get that hippie girl who was sacrificed for entertainment purposes on The Voice, bring back Gamu and hire a replacement for Kelly. Maybe bring back a finalist as well - they've only ever had judges houses acts back but bringing back a controversial eliminee could be good. Whatever they do, they need some press and an angle to bring back the old viewers. Ms Minogue might not be a realistic opportunity just now!

The big downside for ITV is that there has been bugger all about BGT in the book! The show has hardly been mentioned at all - even the usual teasers have been buried among the supposed "scandal".

It is a unique event like The Boat Race but on a huge scale, it will also feature the word's top prospects for London 2012. I have not been awake to watch it for about 10 years, but I might make the effort this year. I hope BBC1 are not paying more than £200,000 per year for the rights.

I very much doubt there is much truth in any story that filming abroad has done for Wild At Heart - not least because South Africa is notoriously cheap to film in compared to many other countries, not least the UK. Outcasts, Strikeback and Kidnap And Ransom didn't go there for no reason whatsoever. Relocating that series to the UK would probably cost more than shooting it in South Africa.

You are, however, of course quite right that ITV will be wanting its own baby-based drama ... :yawn:

Do we think EE is improving or not. The ratings seem to be slightly better in my opinion.

I must say The Two Greedy Italians was by far the best thing on yesterday. What a brilliant program it's funny, informative its great.

Ken

CS seems to be down, EE pretty stable, the CS on +1 cannot match the BBC3 repeat. CS can be 1m above EE for first run, but EE narrow the gap by 10:30pm. Both shows deserve decent ratings, well done to EM also for strong ratings last night.

I wish everybody would take into account the BBC Three repeat it really does ramp up EE's ratings.

EM did well last night as well.

Ken

I love people's barbed attacks at ITV1 for ripping off a show (which they haven't even done yet) considering what BBC One's biggest hit at the moment is...

Anyway, a decent if unspectacular night for the big two. Long Lost Family would have some long lost viewers if it was aired on a Tuesday night but as it is it's holding up nicely. Watchdog is a consistent performer against the soaps but the sooner Coronation Street is moved back to Wednesday's the better. Heather's murder plot seems to be stabilising EastEnders, somewhat unsurprisingly. 9/11 appears to be a draw even now with a decent figure for Channel 4 and the football didn't perform badly on Channel 5 considering it was an all foreign tie. 2 Broke Girls is the show of the night, though, with a great figure. Big Bang Theory also did very well in the 8pm hour. Celebrity Juice didn't do badly, relatively speaking, but does seem to be slipping.

EE isn't really improving, just the other soaps are not doing as well!
The %%%'s seem to show soaps on the down turn. I do think its to do with quality, and they all just seem to be increasingly shit atm!

In terms of WaH - meh, too expensive and not very good anyway. Why produce something that expensive if something cheaper will bring in the same revenue?

So not surprised, but it'll be interesting to see if ITV launch anything new...they need it atm.

Thursday 19th April Overnights
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.63m (21.9%)
19:30- EastEnders: 8.06m (37.1%)
20:00- Watchdog: 4.31m (18.2%)
21:00- New Tricks: 4.27m (18.3%)

BBC Two
20:00- Two Greedy Italians: 1.41m (5.9%)
21:00- Louis Theroux's Extreme Love: 1.91m (8.1%)
22:00- Grandma's House: 979k (4.9%)

ITV1
19:00- Emmerdale: 7.13m (34.3%), +1 131k
20:00- Emmerdale: 7.33m (31.9%) , +1: 192k
20:30- Coronation Street: 8.09m (33.4%) , +1: 217k
21:00- Long Lost Family: 4.69m (19.9%), +1 299k

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 888k (4.7%)
21:00- 9/11: The Lost Tapes: 1.82m (7.8%), +1 355k
22:00- Extreme A&E: 1.11m (6.4%), +1 147k

Channel 5
13:45- Neighbours: 762k (10.1%)
17:30- Neighbours: 1.03m (6.7%)
18:00- Home and Away: 750k (4.3%)
20:00- Europa League semi: 1.07m (4.6%)

ITV1: 22.3% (+1: 0.8%)
BBC One: 21%.
BBC Two: 6.5%
Channel 4: 5.1% (+1: 1%)
Channel 5: 3.8% (+1: 0.1%)
E4: 2.9% (+1: 1%)
ITV2: 2.6% (+1: 0.3%)

Multichannel
5*
18:30- Home and Away: 489k (2.6%)

BBC Three
21:00- Russell Howard's Good News: 712k (3.1%)
22:00- EastEnders: 796k (4.0%)
00:30- Russell Howard's Good News: 458k (12.1%)

E4
19:00- Hollyoaks: 544k (2.6%)
20:00- The Big Bang Theory: 1.23m (5.3%), +1 245k
20:30- The Big Bang Theory: 1.24m (5.1%), +1 360k
21:00- 2 Broke Girls: 824k (3.5%), +1 253k

ITV2
22:00- Celebrity Juice: 1.67m (8.8%), +1 286k

DS(1)
DS(2)
DS(3)

I forgot that ITV1 and Simon Cowell created the singing contest genre.

Once again I understand what you're saying I just disagree with it.

That I disagree with the idea that one subscription goes toward covering one additional cost does not mean that I fail to grasp the theory you're using. As I've said before that the cost of Mad Men is equal to 4.6k new subscribers does not mean that 4.6k new subscribers covers the cost of Mad Men because Sky have any other number of costs to consider alongside Mad Men and don't have the luxury of saying one unit covers one specific cost. You're taking a very isolated view and Mad Men isn't an isolated purchase - its actually more likely at this stage that Sky would be looking at it as part of the Atlantic budget and whether as a channel Atlantic works financially and if not it might then get broken down into individual expenses vs. revenue within that budget.

But by all means continue your dismissive and patronising posts.


You're missing what I'm saying namely that 100% of the revenue from any random 4.6k new subscribers isn't going to go exclusively to covering the cost of Mad Men but rather a tiny percentage of that revenue will and as a result the number of new subscribers needed has to be much higher than originally suggested.

I didn't realise that the BBC own the midwife drama genre.

Regarding Wild At Heart, the impending axe was reported as early as January so it must be a slow news day.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/...-Wild-At-Heart

US Ratings Thursday Apri 19

Powered by American Idol and with CBS in repeats Fox easily won the night in the demo (and total audience) but it wasn't all sunshine. American Idol dropped four tenths vs. last week to a series low results show rating and Touch dropped two tenths to a series low as well.

On ABC Missing continued its death march at 8PM dropping a tenth to a new series low. At 9PM Grey's Anatomy climbed three tenths and Scandal was up a tenth as well.

NBC's Thursday night woes don't appear to be easing up. After a surge when it returned with original episodes Community is back down to a series low and its fans may want to remember that The Big Bang Theory is still in repeats. Following Community 30 Rock was up a tenth and at 9PM The Office was steady at its series low. Parks & Recs returned with original episodes in a new timeslot but was even with its last original episode back in March. At 10PM Awake continued on the road to its series finale dropping a tenth to an all-new and painful series low.

CBS' only original of the night, Rules of Engagement was down five tenths from last week when it was sandwiched between two Big Bang repeats. And on The CW The Vampire Diaries dropped two tenths to a series low and The Secret Circle dropped a tenth to record a new series low that matches the finale of the surely cancelled (and running out of a repeat against tougher competition) Ringer on Tuesday. The future does not look bright for Secret Circle.

ABC
8PM: Missing – 1.3 [7.08]
9PM: Grey's Anatomy – 3.2 [9.65]
10PM: Scandal – 2.1 [7.35]

CBS
8PM: The Big Bang Theory [r] – 2.5 [9.25]
8:30PM: Rules of Engagement – 2.2 [7.73]
9PM: Person of Interest [r] – 1.5 [8.86]
10PM: The Mentalist [r] – 1.5 [8.17]

Fox
8PM: American Idol – 3.9 [14.59]
9PM: Touch – 2.1 [7.35]

NBC
8PM: Community – 1.3 [2.91]
8:30PM: 30 Rock – 1.5 [3.16]
9PM: The Office – 2.2 [4.31]
9:30PM: Parks & Recreation – 1.8 [3.53]
10PM: Awake – 0.8 [2.74]

The CW
8PM: The Vampire Diaries – 1.0 [2.18]
9PM: The Secret Circle – 0.5 [1.12]

When will the Office realise that Andy and Erin is creepy, it's not just that she's a lot younger, but she acts 12.

I dont think anyone has ever said they did.

But commisioning a midwife drama not long after another midwife drama had become a huge hit, beaing in mind there have been very few, if any, dramas of this type for many years could look like jumping on a bandwaggon.

I doesn't really matter as ITV haven't announced anything............. yet.

A bit like the BBC jumping on the singing contest bandwagon as The X Factor hit remarkable figures. Although BBC have tried other LE shows which haven't been a success, but then ITV have tried other non-crime drama genres in recent times which have mostly varied between flop and disaster (ignoring Downton Abbey but including Drownton at Sea).

But as we both have said, ITV haven't announced anything...yet.

Whilst I agree that keeping the exact same panel is not going to help improve the show's fortunes, I guess from ITV's perspective it was safer to keep most of the panel rather than risk another wholesale change like last year. I would not bring back Kelly though and it will be a huge error of judgement if it turns out that all four judges have been re-signed.

The show does need a massive kick up the arse though. I just don't know what that kick will be now. Triumphantly announcing the return of Gary Barlow makes me feel like they haven't really got a clue what they're doing.

If Alesha performs well during Britan's Got Talent's live week I think she'll replace Kelly on the panel. I can understand why they re-signed Gary; it'd be hard to find someone with his stature and with The Voice pushing the credibility side of singing contests they need a respected judge with a strong history in the production side of things.

I also have the feeling Kelly may take the fourth seat on the US version. She knows the show and how it works; her manner will work better on the US version than on the UK version and I think the press and public in general will accept her better than Nicole Scherzinger simply because it'll be a 'clean' signing rather than murky and muddled.

It is worth noting that ITV Studios are really making in roads in the US daytime market now - along with Jeremy Kyle they also make The Bill Cunningham Show and America Now.

Here's an article on the non-networked stuff in the US:
http://www.c21media.net/archives/80328

I hated The Chase when it began but prefer it to Pointless now. I do think such shows though generally are better in the daytime market - and surely a safer bet to launch it there than gamble on getting more than 8 episodes over the summer in primetime.


A tough call but the right call IMO - better than it hanging around like Heartbeat long after it's gone, though probably too late now for them to have a replacement for next year. It does mean though they can review their weekend strategy and split DoI if necessary, and axing Wild at Heart frees up the funds for a 9pm drama which moving DoI about would enable.


P.S. The BBC are looking at another Talpa format - though this one seems a bit on the cheap side as it's basically two celebrity teams competing against each other in a show called I Love My Country.

http://www.c21media.net/archives/80556

And the reward for understatement of the year goes to...


I hope they don't commission this one for primetime. It may be ok as pre-news programming on either BBC One or BBC Two but it seems slightly lightweight for primetime.

I can see ITV launching their new period department store drama in place of WAH......


.....but maybe run DOI as one programme as suggested here then start their drama at 9pm to avoid a clash with CTM.

Won't it be ready for the autumn? Surely running it off the back of The X Factor (even if it's ailing again) is better than leaving it to try and salvage something from a Dancing On Ice lead in; especially if Dancing On Ice has an all-in-one format which'll see viewers desert it after the performances. Plus BBC One will have the likes of Sherlock to throw at it or they may move Call The Midwife to the 9pm to try and claim an even bigger audience.

Good idea. DOI needs a revamp anyway. So I agree, I think the best bet would be to run DOI as one show (the results have always performed quite poorly in comparison to the performance show anyway) and play Mr Selfridge at 9pm.

Where would it fit on a Sunday night with Downton and I'm A Celebrity already booked in? It's a ten part drama so I'm struggling to see how it would fit into the Autumn schedule (it could play on a weeknight I suppose but it sounds perfect for Sunday nights IMO).

Plus the Winter schedule really needs a headline drama along the same lines of Downton.

The worst thing ITV should be doing is running scared just because the BBC 'might' move CTM to 9pm.

ETA: ITV have already confirmed it won't be airing until 2013 anyway.

If they're planning an all in one show for Dancing On Ice they need their heads examined. It isn't as though Dancing On Ice is in a healthy state where it could survive such a move. I think they should move the performance show to Saturday nights (which is very quiet in quarter one, though the BBC may try for a quick turn around on The Voice) and then hold a results show in the 7pm on Sunday. For me, the dip in viewing figures for the Results Show is the late start time for families combined (Britain's Got Talent also sees a dip for it's results on work nights though it has a higher starting point) with it being away from the natural junction on other channels - only people who watched Wild At Heart are at a loose end at 9.30pm.