Quality programming costs money and therefore tends to be more of a risk. If it fails, the broadcaster is in a mess financially and cannot afford much in way of further programming. It's not nice, I agree, but ITV are simply playing it safe. I can't see how it's going to be rectified either.

Besides, recent successes from the UK have been more of the lower end of 'quality' rather than the higher - the Got Talent franchise, Idol/The X Factor/The Voice, Dancing with the Stars etc.

Call the Midwife has already won that honour given that programme's success came out of nowhere.

I enjoyed series 1 of WVM but never got round to watching series 2. I have to say, I can't really understand why it was commissioned in the first place. It didn't really seem to have a unique selling point for BBC3 and its limited comedy budget. I can only assume it was because it starred Will Mellor or Two Pints Of Lager fame. (TPOLAAPOC - the BBC3 version of Last Of The Summer Wine. The never-ending sitcoms. Until sense prevailed and they ended.)

Or alternatively....

There are hard ways of making money.

And there are easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy ways of amking money.

I may have got this completely wrong, but didn't they, at one stage, have a phone competition on Benidorm.

Oh dear. ITV is a business and needs to make money. If they don't make money then they can't make programmes. Making a bit of profit on phone voting and competitions is an easy way of making money and I don't have a problem with them at all. They don't make the programmes unwatchable at all, they aren't particularly intrusive (competitions are only at the end of a programme part, not during the actual programme). Nobody forces anyone to vote or take part either, people choose to so I don't see what you're getting at there either. Perhaps if ITV had a bit of guaranteed income they wouldn't be so reliant on such money making mechanisms.

On another note it really shows that The Voice has been pre-recorded on the cheap rather than airing live. It's a very flat affair and not doing it live was a real mis-step.

So it's all about the voice, and the first person kicked off by the public is the unconventional fat bloke.

Did the general public not get the memo?

That results show was remarkably flat. Can't see myself watching next week.

He had the worst voice though anyway. But the editing was a problem tonight, they kept playing fake clapping throughout the show, sometimes accidentally before the result was actually announced! It needs to improve next week, for the first time Twitter reaction wasnt that great.

In fairness, he was the worst singer so it was the right decision.

The show felt flat though. Stupid decision to pre-record.

Businesses shouldn't think 'we need to make money'. Do the job well, treat your customers well and money will come. The easy way isn't always the best way. GMTV is one example of a programme where, IMO, constant competitions cost it a lot of viewers.

Agreed with everyone else, The Voice Results show needs a bit of work.

Yes they could have done it on 9.30/9.45 Saturday nights as the Sunday Countryfile/AR line up doesnt need disrupting anyway. Strictly fits alot better here and it doesnt matter so much about being live or indeed what the result is.
I dont think TV was devoid of emotion, there was bags of it from the two that were ejected though Tom needs some lessons in how to ramp up the drama. It was like he was he was telling a supermarket checkout person he didnt want help with his packing. The show needs to be sold at every stage, but I guess they are still feeling their way a bit. The right two people went though.

The results show should be live, irrespective of where Britain's Got Talent is in the schedule.

Also: http://t.co/k9nxuu4L (I won't take credit for it, its the work of this guy)

Though The Voice might beat it for the final, CTM was the surprise of this year, a show that I thought would attract only 5 million viewers got 11 million and badly hit DOI.

It also killed Wild at Heart.

Having said that for me there is going to have to be some pretty special writing to keep CTM where it is, it could get very samey.

Solid enough figure for BGT last night. Very consistent so far, but the lack of clash now for the second week hasn't seen any increase which is very odd I think considering how it rated in those 20 minute clashes. It doesn't make sense. TVUK did OK, but I thought it would have been over 10m with all the hype, the fact is the first live show and also because the weather is awful. Even the soaps have been low this week and they usually benefit from bad weather. TVUK faces some tough challenges in the next few weeks. Will be interesting to see how it holds up. And BGT finishes at 10.15pm next week? That's very late IMO. I think it will only be at about 9m next Saturday excluding +1.

Roy Hodgson could be the new England manager...if his appointment is sooner rather than later his first game in charge could be the Norway friendly on May 26th. That'll make for an interesting ratings battle between the football match and Eurovision. Eurovision should win though.

I've seen quite a bit of negative buzz around The Voice for the first time this week, describing it as boring. Which I don't think it going to be helped next week with 10 contestants who are... well, pretty boring.

I think the problem seems to be that the show starts off so different and fresh in the blind auditions, then progressively gets more and more like any other singing competition out there.

They needed to have a unique selling point for the live rounds and they don't. And that's not the fault of the UK team - they have a format they need to stick to - I don't think there is much they can do.

The show is still going to be a massive returning hit for the BBC for many years, no doubt. And despite the media reaction, still a very cheap show for the BBC - by most accounts it costs almost half the amount of X Factor per hour.

Everyone on Twitter alert to see which footballer first says "Woy has always been my favourite manager"

I don't understand why ITV do so badly with their other shows. BBC programmes are so boring compared to what ITV offer yet the ratings are so low(Tuesday nights being one prime example)

Celeb DOND (Sarah Millican) heading for a thrilling finish on Channel 4. Then hopefully people will stay for Homeland.
The ad break at 9.10pm-ish is to include an advert for the upcoming film Prometheus (the prequel to Alien).

Because ITV put out shite on Tuesdays?
Also your definition is boring isn't going to be shared by everyone...

ITV have no support on Tuesday nights outside Emmerdale, who's lead in is taken by EastEnders. They have no support on Saturday nights outside Britain's Got Talent, who's lead out is taken by The Voice and lead in is being bizarrely swallowed up by a repeat.

I much prefer ITV regional news to Look North, which I find boring since Mike Neville left, ten minutes interviewing some stonefaced union rep about cuts, then some parish pump news and then local sport rushed into three minutes. North East Tonight is more varied and does better than Look North.
However, I find most ITV entertainment banal( though Lemonaid is a hoot), but some of their Tuesday factual is better than people realise.
ITV3 is still my favourite ITV channel and I can watch this for hours.

To be fair on this issue it's the mobile companies which are money grabbing - absolutely no reason at all they should be allowed to charge even more for premium rate calls.

That's one thing which pissed me off about the whole text voting scandals - the TV companies allowed themselves to take all the blame when really is should have been the mobile companies having to answer the question as to why they weren't delivering votes made by text to the broadcasters within the expected time frame.

Anyhow, turns out some BBC middle management must have got the idea for these short codes by browsing the adult section of the EPG.

I'm not sure there will be a great deal of audience overlap between DOND and Homeland. My mum watches DOND but Homeland is definitely NOT her type of programme.