The Voice's ratings pattern is so weird given the type of show it is. I watched it for the first time in about 4 weeks on Saturday and it's a bit of a mess and less about "the voice" than they make out. Where the BBC are spending £22 million on this I don't know because it doesn't show on screen. ITV rely on a few sucessful shows like BGT and XF but they at least make them look like big events with the production values. Maybe a re-boot next year would see The Voice get bigger ratings.

Good for Vera, does anyone know if the episode from last week will be shown?

The "best rating" is the one that goes in the End of Year Chart. So 12.57m is unmistakably down on 12.63m.

Granted, not by much (or as much as I remembered... )

Fair enough (although it isn't the lowest ever, it was 11.something in 2007 IIRC).

It is, undeniably, a better performance than last year's final overall though.

I'm obviously no fan of The Voice, having been a fierce critic from the outset.

But I do despair of the way the BBC right royally screwed over all those behind this show, and the vast amounts of money spent on it, by giving a great slot and massive publicity, and then letting it get shafted by teatime starts and clashes with big hitting shows and events when they could have had it all done and dusted by now had they started it earlier. It still has no respite despite BGT and the Champions League being done with.

Yes, it has done very well indeed against competition that would normally have had BBC early evening light entertainment languishing in the 2-3m bracket probably at this time of year, but there is no mistaking 12m down to 6.5-7m is not good, especially when it's entirely self-inflicted. The lost 5m viewers won't come back to it now.

And I doubt they will next year - though a January/early Feb start rather than "start of BST" would possibly help...

Sunday, June 3.

And whilst I'm here catching up, a surprisingly average rating for the domestic victory in the Champions League Final!

One of the TV events of the year, without question certainly one of the top sporting moments of 2012 - yes, even this year - and ITV can only atttract an absolute peak audience of 10m on a Saturday night for an English team beating the Germans on penalties. Surely that should have got 13m at a bare minimum, perhaps more?

Did nobody know it was on???

Chelsea just aren't a very 'big ' club when it comes to the ratings. Man Utd would have got 2 or 3 million more.

Or Cardiff City?

They got 10m on a Sunday teatime just a few weeks ago...

Pub viewing. You'd have to be pretty drunk to support Chelsea

No doubt you're a Man United fan - like everyone else who works for ITV?

Man City, but I'm more of a rugby fan really.

Less than stellar for Sky's Heineken Cup Final 286,000 /1.8%. Considering 83,000 attended the game in person this is a ratio of 3:1 tv viewers to attendees.

I think you'll find that was almost entirely due the mighty Liverpool being in the final

Fact is super LFC and that other lot down the East Lancs Rd are the only/main draws for club matches

Also Platini's annoying decision to move CL to a Saturday isn't exactly great for UK viewers

could be worse, remember ITV Digital's football league ratings

I'm surprised as Ulster being in the UTV region should have generated nearly that many viewers alone, before factoring in the casual rugby audience. Also surprised to see no ITV4 highlights yesterday of the game. Usually they have highlights on Sunday at 8pm. Not great exposure for the sponsors on tv given the attendence figures at games are at an all time high. I do think it needs some terrestial live coverage to bring it to a higher level from here.

The drop is obviously a huge issue and the quality of the live shows will have undoubtedly played a role in that but so, unfortunately, will some of the less than logical decisions the BBC have made with the show during the live stages – shifting it too early in the schedule certainly hasn't helped nor has putting it opposite football and the BGT final. Those are I suspect relatively small factors though in the grand scheme of things.


People keep bringing up the 'changing songs' thing as a weakness of the format but I remain unconvinced that's actually a problem particularly given that, that's one of the few areas in which the live shows set themselves apart from the glorified karaoke of The X Factor live stages. Of all the supposed problems with the show I actually thinks that's the biggest non-problem they have. And if we're being completely honest about it I don't think the show actually has that many problems.

Format and scheduling wise there's a lot the BBC can do with the show next year that can paper over cracks better yet resolve a lot of the issues that people are having with the live stages.

Thinking about it a little one of the things they might want to do next year is strip the first live shows across the week and have a big live results show on Saturday night. So you'd have something like this:

Saturday: Battle Show #1
Sunday: Battle Show #2
Monday: Team Jessie Performances
Tuesday: Team Tom Performances
Wednesday: Team Will Performances
Thursday: Team Danny Performances
Saturday: The Voice Live Results

Give each of those first live shows an hour (at 9PM?). That's more than enough time for five acts to perform and maybe a group performance or two. Then on Saturday night you eliminate two from each judges team which would by the end of the first week leaves you with 12 contestants total which you could then combine into one live performance show on Saturday night with a live results show either later in the night or on Sunday (or they could do one elimination from each team and have 16 total but I wouldn't because that gives you monster Saturday night show the following week). They can then eliminate the idea of getting rid of one act from each judges team every week and just run it in the same way we see The X Factor and Strictly run with one contestant leaving every week. That in turn allows them to build the whole 'contestant journey' through the competition more easily as well and in theory build momentum toward the final.

Then the pressure would just be on them to produce a semi-decent live show which might be easier said than done give series 1 but still....

Also they desperately need to change the set. I think this about the US version and in just about every version on the planet. The set is way too dark which makes lighting it much more difficult than it needs to be and doesn't create a particularly great picture or atmosphere on screen. The black and dark raid colour scheme needs to be replaced with a lighter tone. That might seem like a ridiculous thing in the grand scheme of things but it really bugs me.


The key difference being that huge numbers of people tuned into the opening episodes of The Voice and from all accounts seemed to enjoy what they were seeing. The same cannot be said for Red or Black. Although having said that I do think the vast majority have people suggested at the time that with the right format changes Red or Black could be a solid performer for ITV (but not the big hit they'd wanted).


The judging panels are a huge draw but I completely disagree about the presenters. Assuming they're not Steve Jones on X Factor US bad I don't think the presenting talent really makes any difference to these kind of shows. The X Factor UK has had two pretty dull, lifeless and irritating presenters and that's not stopped it being a huge hit. The key with presenters for these shows is finding someone that doesn't make the audience switch off rather than finding someone who makes them switch on to the show. I think the BBC has mostly done that with The Voice although they maybe need to take another look at giving Reggie more to do.

No they don't, ITV4 are allowed to show highlights of HC matches until Monday (I blame Sky naturally)

Highlights show is on tonight at 7pm

She'll be lucky. The comedies are dreadful this year.

There's a couple of decent one's kicking around, Whether any of them survive more than a handful of episodes remains to be seen. Presumably though ITV2 are looking at the strength of E4's comedy block and thinking they'd like to get in on that action... Of course there isn't a Big Bang Theory for ITV to build around which causes problems.

Most Watched Shows of 2012 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 12.57m - BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT (14/04/12) - ITV1/HD
02 - 12.20m - CORONATION STREET (23/01/12) - ITV1/HD
03 - 11.99m - THE VOICE UK (14/04/12) - BBC1/HD
04 - 11.41m - CALL THE MIDWIFE (19/02/12) - BBC1/HD
05 - 10.98m - EASTENDERS (02/01/12) - BBC1/HD

06 - 10.66m - SHERLOCK (01/01/12) - BBC1/HD
07 - 9.29m - DANCING ON ICE (08/01/12) - ITV1/HD
08 - 9.11m - EMMERDALE (05/01/12) - ITV1/HD
09 - 8.41m - TITANIC (25/03/12) - ITV1/HD
10 - 8.31m - MRS BROWN'S BOYS (04/02/12) - BBC1/HD

11 - 8.05m - THE APPRENTICE (11/04/12) - BBC1/HD
12 - 8.00m - WILD AT HEART (08/01/12) - ITV1/HD
13 - 7.97m - ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS (01/01/12) - BBC1/HD
14 - 7.93m - SILENT WITNESS (01/04/12) - BBC1/HD
15 - 7.87m - UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS (19/02/12) - BBC1/HD

16 - 7.86m - ENDEAVOUR (02/01/12) - ITV1/HD
17 - 7.61m - SCOTT & BAILEY (12/03/12) - ITV1/HD
18 - 7.59m - COUNTRYFILE (05/02/12) - BBC1/HD
19 - 7.41m - ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (15/04/12) - BBC1/HD
20 - 7.32m - ABOVE SUSPICION (09/01/12) - ITV1/HD

Most Watched Multichannel Shows of 2011 [Top 20 - Officials]
01 - 2.85m - LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY (05/02/12) - Sky Sports 1
02 - 2.74m - CELEBRITY JUICE (09/02/12) - ITV2
03 - 2.66m - LIVE FORD MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (30/04/12) - Sky Sports 1
04 - 2.30m - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LIVE (24/04/12) - Sky Sports 2
05 - 2.16m - TREASURE ISLAND (01/01/12) - Sky1

06 - 1.96m - LIVE FORD FOOTBALL SPECIAL (11/02/12) - Sky Sports 1
07 - 1.94m - THE BIG BANG THEORY (19/04/12) - E4
08 - 1.69m - BRITAIN'S GOT MORE TALENT (12/05/12) - ITV2
09 - 1.68m - LIVE CARLING CUP FOOTBALL (25/01/12) - Sky Sports 1
10 - 1.68m - MAD DOGS (19/01/12) - Sky1

11 - 1.53m - TOUCH (20/03/12) - Sky1
12 - 1.53m - THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX (29/02/12) - ITV2
13 - 1.47m - FOYLE'S WAR (21/01/12) - ITV3
13 - 1.42m - STELLA (06/01/12) - Sky1
14 - 1.42m - SUN, SEX AND SUSPICIOUS PARENTS (22/02/12) - BBC3
15 - 1.42m - EASTENDERS (16/02/12) - BBC3

16 - 1.35m - THE BIG BANG THEORY: ACCESS ALL AREAS (05/04/12) - E4
17 - 1.35m - FILM: SHREK THE THIRD (08/04/12) - BBC3
18 - 1.34m - DOC MARTIN (21/01/12) - ITV3
19 - 1.30m - ALCATRAZ (13/03/12) - Watch
20 - 1.30m - HAWAII FIVE-0 (22/01/12) - Sky1

Source: BARB. Excludes +1, Includes HD for Terrestrial Chart. Only 1 programme per 'show', i.e. only one Ford Super Sunday game.

Britain's Got Talent moves to top...

BGT won't be top for long, although how do the England matches usually rate for the full coverage? Probably still above 12.57m. The Diamond Jubilee will run it close but I'm not sure if any of the programmes will top 12.57m.

Also, The Sun are sticking the knife even further into The Voice:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...ther-show.html

The Voice did actually have a slightly higher average but the fact it was so close between them is quite shocking really.

I can see interest in The Mindy Project but that's about it, the other comedies don't look great.

The Voice timeshifts...

- 12/05 - 5.64m >> 6.54m = 900k
- 13/05 - 6.20m >> 6.75m = 550k

Well, clearly it cannot end quick enough now for all concerned. We have almost reached "One Wheel on my Wagon" territory.
The big test though will be next year. It cant have been missed by anyone that the live shows need revamping. Its just now whether its looked at with sufficient boldness or not.

ITV/SS1 figures from Broadcast for various parts of the match on Saturday:

7.45pm 5.64m (24.11%) ITV1; 1.7m (7.28%) Sky Sports 1
9.34pm 8.35m (32.83%) ITV1; 2.02m (8.35%) Sky Sports 1
10.25pm 10.56m (43.03%) ITV1; 2.35m (9.6%) Sky Sports 1

so ITV1 picked up a lot more viewers as the evening progressed that SS1 did

not much solace there for the fanzines. Currently forecasting 20C and sunny for 6pm Saturday evening too!