So you are claiming that 80% of the population (those who support the monarchy) are slow! And, the BBC's coverage yesterday was brilliant. As was ITV's. But both offered different styles and it was clearly the BBC's style that people overall preferred.

BIG BROTHER LAUNCH NIGHT AUDIENCE BY DEMOGRAPHIC

Children 4-15: 317,100 (22.6% share)
Male 16-34: 401,600 (21.0% share)
Women 16-34: 512,900 (23.7% share)
Adults 35-44: 584,300 (17.2% share)
Adults 45-54: 517,400 (13.5% share)
Adults 55-64: 199,700 (5.5% share)
Adults 65+: 174,900 (3.3% share)

In total it had 914,500 viewers aged between 16 and 34, about three or four times C5's usual values. By this measure, it will almost certainly go down as one of the most popular shows of the week on ANY channel. Here are some figures from last week to compare with (with credit to rzt for the following table), no ITV1 entertainment show came close:

http://i46.tinypic.com/ej78jl.jpg

Part of me still wonders why ITV bother when most people just gravitate to BBC One. Then again, I suppose if they put anything else on it'd do even worse figure wise but at least they'd be able to air adverts then.


ITV1 really have an image probelm with the younger audience outside their reality franchises and sport. I guess their failure to find a success in their previous 16-34 dramas means they're aiming for the ABC demo instead now.

1,498,800 viewers in the 16-44 demo for 105 minutes. If Channel 5 could do that every evening in primetime they would be ecstatic.

conservative with a small "c".

Did it rate higher last year? It was said to be 2.6m overnight without +1 and this year the same.

Do you have the demographics ratings for the all important one legged grannies with a parrot, surely they must have made it the most popular programme of the year.

good lord what is ITV thinking airing a program containing the words "Trash" on a Tuesday night, thats basically asking for a Tuesday Flop Zone type rating.

Channel had a good night, shame I missed my CSI fix.

I don't think anything can beat Mayday or Missing Millions to be honest.

I think someone said it was marginally ahead this year?

2.71 with +1 included, a marginal increase but better than a decline.

Do yer own research

In the past week the Mail online has run a BB related story almost everyday, today it has 3-4 seperate stories related to housemates.

The Sun online has been writing far more about BB this year than last years.

So all those pundits who said the launch last year was poor due to CBB are suddenly wrong.

I can understand fans of a programme wanting it to do well but the explainations and excuses I read on this thread are farcical.

I wouldn't be suprised if traffic cameras get a higher rating.

Whilst I understand the logic behind the argument I'm still not convinced by this notion that they need (or indeed needed) Big Brother. They spent a reported £40 million on the original deal for the show plus presumably there were fairly extensive promotional costs on top of that. I can't help but feel that a new format (or a couple of new formats) couldn't have delivered similar results with better long term prospects at a smaller price tag. Although I accept the inherent risk of that strategy compared to relative safety of Big Brother.

I also continue to be concerned by the general lack of inspiring content around Big Brother particularly in regards to content that's going to appeal to the younger viewers Big Brother is pulling in (its telling that they had to run an audition special leading into the Big Brother launch last night). Is a largely unoriginal Marco Pierre White vehicle really going to appeal to that audience? Or indeed any audience given his track record to date. The Bachelor has certainly proven to be a better bet although I'm not entirely sure how much of that can really be credited to Big Brother. Its a very good format and the casting of Gavin Henson gave them a lot of press (in the right places) leading into the launch. We'll see how things work out second time around with a less splashy name. Plus that really appears to be all they have.

Where's the drama? Comedy? Any format other than reality?

fair enough

I'm sure Channel appreciated you missing CSI for her, but isn't it up to her to say if it was good or not?

Yep.

BB12- 2.63m
BB13- 2.71m

lol I see what you did there

I will however resist the urge to delve further into smut, my Channel is a very private woman, and wouldn't want last night to be discussed online.

Big Brother did good, higher than 2million people were saying itd get and better than last years launch. Why do some people always come here to moan about BB even if it rates well. Dancc thansk for the ratings again. Shame people like this guy and her are saying bad things about you on Twitter when all youve been is helpful.

I wouldn't say I'm excusing it. Just because I didn't expect it to do better doesn't mean I'm excusing it. I do think the main series' days are numbered now.

BBC still coming in for a lot of criticism about it's coverage this last weekend



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18337851

They just got the tone wrong.

I can understand how it happened, they did very little different from their Royal Wedding coverage - and that was really well received. So on paper this should have been fine.

I think a lot of it is a lack of preparation. They just send the presenters out to ad-lib the whole thing. Hence why they made silly mistakes like calling the Queen 'HRH' - they were just filling time and not thinking about what they were saying. And it let to all the usual standard questions and answers and clichés from everyone which added nothing to the coverage at all.

The good thing is they should learn from this for The Olympics - simple, well researched, coverage is all that is required - let's hope they don't cover London in every presenter on the BBC payroll again just for the sake of it.

Channel 5 can't afford drama or comedy - unless it's imported.

But I agree - they need to use Big Brother better. It's great to get as many young viewers to the channel. I would guess that outside of football and BGT Channel 5 had more younger viewers last night than ITV have had in months? But you need to do something with them when you get them.

No the soaps would regularly have more 16-34's.

Oh yeah, so except football, BGT and the soaps

Still, very good considering Channel 5's budget is around 7 times lower than ITV1s?

Yet spent £40+ million on Big Brother...

But to be completely serious about this I don't even come close to buying this argument that Five can't afford to make original drama or comedy. How many original scripted shows is E4 churning out per year these days? You're telling me that what is supposed to be one of the 'main' broadcasters in the country can't even make one original scripted show a year? Hell even ITV2 is looking at original scripted content at this point. I understand that (to some extent) the digital channels are likely able to work to smaller budgets but still there really is no excuse for Five not to be making original scripted shows.

No problem mate.

And thanks for that. I've been called worse. I wonder if one of those is also the rather odd person that keeps starting up new accounts on here partly to wind me up as much as they can get away with and PM me abuse?

I'd quite like to know how reporting a peak figure amounts to "desperation." Had I not been looking at raw data only on my phone, I would have posted peak figures alongside the averages as I always do. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to construct an average there and then, so I just picked out the headline figures.