They never fared that well in summers in previous decades either. Yes they could pull in big audiences for TOTP and Seaside Special, or if a major sports event was occuring, but their schedules were notorious for repeats. Usually ITV dominated with a livelier schedule of films, imports and variety as well as Corrie and Crossroads to always keep 16 million tuned in.
Yet the tables seem to have turned in recent years. It is ITV1 that seems to churn out flops that at any other time of the year would have been cancelled after two weeks and BBC One manages to keep a decent schedule.

I remember ITV1 battering BBC1 nearly every Sunday evening during the early to mid 90's with huge drama hits like London's Burning, Heartbeat, Darling Buds, Forever Green, Frost, all over 15 million at times...BBC1 could only come close with Lovejoy which often had 14 million which by todays standards is huge.

yeah BBC1 started to beat ITV1 all day shares back in 2001 for the first time in its history and has stayed that way ever since..but all main channels have lost share since the early 2000's

Also the time when ITV1 started to really go downhill in the quality stakes. Remember while the new Doctor Who was cleaning up the ratings, ITV1's answer was a reality show about celebrities wrestling that was so bad it was moved to Sunday mornings.
I wouldn't say the BBC was perfect in the noughties as they had some dud shows but at least they had a varied schedule that featured continuing hits like Holby City, EE and Casualty and some fantastic new dramas and daring comedy like Little Britain. ITV 1 just seemed to tank with shows even MTV wouldn't touch now and was still churning out Blind Date as late as 2004.
Yet even now on a good day the two main networks only get 40 pc of the audience and don't command the same level of loyalty.

The only time BBC1 seemed to do well on a Sunday was when Only Fools And Horses and One Foot In The Grave had a regular series...getting 17 to 18 million each time...how times have changed.

Here's a question (not related to BBC or ITV). This time its channel 4.

I was too young to remember but for older ratings experts can you answer 2 questions about whether Ch4 drew in a much higher audience than it does now (I know it was the case for BB and all that, but for other shows I mean)

1. What did the 9pm films on Channel 4 get? The films that were sponsored by Stella Artois? I loved the nightly films shown on Channel 4, they were great.
2. Wasn't So Graham Norton getting pretty much the same as he gets now on the BBC? Pretty impressive to keep that ,many viewers interested in Norton after 10 years.

Hello, Salv, I'm a lot older than you and Channel 4 after a very shaky start in 1982, was getting 10 pc of the audience by the mid eighties. I do remember the films in the eighties like Angel and First Love getting decent ratings, but their biggest hits were Brookside, A Woman of Substance and The Far Pavilions in the mid eighties, the latter attracting 10 million viewers.

BIB: Really?

What was Sabrina rating?

You know something is wrong when a network comissions a celebrity wrestling reality show..it screams naffness..

Here's a look at how the four main broadcasters did in the BARB Monthly Shares for May 2012:

BBC
BBC1: 20.6% (May 2011: 21.3%), BBC2: 5.7% (6.5%), BBC3: 1.7% (1.6%), BBC4: 1.0% (0.7%), BBC HD: 0.2% (0.2%), BBC News: 1.1% (1.1%), CBBC: 0.7% (0.7%), CBeebies: 1.3% (1.2%)
--> Total: 32.3% (May 2011: 33.3%)

ITV
ITV1: 17.0% (16.5%), ITV2: 2.7% (2.7%), ITV3: 2.4% (2.4%), ITV4: 1.3% (1.2%), CITV: 0.3% (0.3%)
--> Total: 23.7% (May 2011: 23.1%)

Channel 4
C4: 6.4% (6.5%), E4: 1.9% (1.8%), Film4: 1.5% (1.4%), More4: 1.1% (1.4%), 4Music: 0.3% (0.4%)
--> Total: 11.2% (May 2011: 11.5%)

Channel 5
C5: 4.1% (4.3%), C5+1: 0.3% (n/a), 5*: 0.5% (0.5%), 5USA: 1.1% (0.9%)
--> Total: 6.0% (May 2011: 5.7%)

Channel 5 (+5%) and ITV (+3%) overall both increased their market shares year-on-year - this was the third month out of the last four that Channel 5 have been up y-o-y so they're in good form. Channel 4 (-3%) and BBC (-3%) both slipped vs. 2012. In terms of terrestrial channels, ITV1 (+3%) was up for the first time this year vs. the equivalent month of 2011 - boosted by the fact BGT finals week was in May rather than June this year. C5 (-5%) was down y-o-y or even up (+2% inc +1). C4 (-2%), BBC1 (-3%) and BBC2 (-12%) were all down vs. May 2011.

The BBC's most improved channel vs. one year ago was BBC4 (+43%), which posted its best ever monthly share. No BBC digital channels fell vs. 2011. For ITV: ITV2 and ITV3 were flat, whilst ITV (+8%) showed steady growth. For Channel 4, E4 (+6%) recorded its best monthly share since July 2011 (2.0%), while Film4 (+7%) continued to make y-o-y gains. More4 (-21%) however was down for a fifth month in a row. Over on Channel 5, 5* was flat while 5USA (+22%) got its best ever monthly share.
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And here's a look at how the broadcasters have averaged for the first 5 months of 2012 (January to May) vs. the same period last year:

BBC: 32.5% (Jan-May 2011: 33.2%)
ITV: 23.1% (23.3%)
CH4: 11.3% (11.6%)
CH5: 6.1% (6.0%)

So for the first five months of 2012, CH5 (+3.0%) has been the only broadcaster up year-on-year. The other three broadcasters were down slightly: ITV (-1.1%), BBC (-2.1%), CH4 (-2.1%).

And Ballykissangel. The first three series did quite well - it was somewhere around the 11-12m mark, but it was always scheduled after Heartbeat's run finished on ITV. But after Stephen Tompkinson and Dervla Kirwan left, ratings plummeted, plus it was pitted against Heartbeat after Series 4, before moving to Thursdays in a rather odd move which killed off the show.

Ho ho there were more abysmal shows from this era as ITV decided that it wanted to do more reality than anyone else and some of the shows were absolute garbage that are probably in a sealed vault now.
However, with regard to Sundays in the seventies and eighties, BBC1 only tended to do well if they had a really strong drama like The Onedin Line or one of their biggest sitcoms. Usually on this night ITV would bring on its epics like Jesus of Nazareth or premiere a Bond film( even a repeat of Diamonds Are Forever pulled in 23 million in 1981).
BBC1 in the seventies and early eighties tended to do best on Saturdays when they had all their best entertainment shows and on Thursdays when Tomorrow's World, TOTP, a sitcom like The Good Life would wipe the floor with ITV. Also BBC1 could do well on Fridays if the ITV opposition was weak( no soaps then) and they showed a sitcom like Porridge.
Traditionally ITV tended to rule Mondays through to Wednesday as Corrie and Crossroads were in the mix, variety shows like Wednesday at 8 would attract 18 million viewers, their comedy big hitters like Benny Hill broadcast on these days and their dramas like Brideshead cleaned up. Also popular imports were shown on these days.

Only one episode aired on a Thursday, though. It was the first episode of the final series.

Glenn A, what are your opinions about Lady to Ladette, Love Island, Celebrity Wrestling and Wags Boutique? Are shows like this in your opinon which have caused many viewers to stop watching Itv?

Also on Off the Telly, you correctly predicted the demise of Neighbours on BBC1 about a year before it happened. In your expert opinion, when do you think the Australian soaps will come to an end?

Thanks. Didn't Woman of Substance get 14m and the highest rated ever show on Channel 4? BB3 final has been highest of the 21st Century but as far as I know AWOS was the highest ever.

Aha, well these above shows certainly gave ITV a very bad image, but the problem was the main network was ditching whole genres of programmes like current affairs and regional programmes that were reducing ratings in favour of shows like those you've outlined that weren't exactly setting the ratings alight and were plain terrible. However, they are mercifully six foot under now and ITV1 has made some improvements and ITV3 is excellent.
Yes I was right about Neighbours as the BBC and the viewers were losing interest. The two Aussies now seem to be doing not so well on Channel 5 and it's hard to say when they will go as they're on a whole life deal, maybe if they fall to under 500,000 in peak time and the Australians decided they're over.

I think the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral got 12m, but I'm not sure on this. Somewhere in 1994 or 95.

Flicked over to Sky 1 during the football half time. No Simpsons; instead they have David Attenburgh presenting a programme on endangered species. Certainly a bit different from the usual Sky 1 output.

Just think a so called minority channel pulling in a bigger audience than the final of TXF.
I'm sure the record for BBC2 was 18.5 million for the final frames of the 1985 Snooker WCF.Away from the sport, a big hitter for them in entertainment was the last series of Not The Nine O'Clock News, 10 million in 1982, and The Young Ones averaged 9 million for its second outing, vital as the BBC's ratings were down to 40 per cent or so.
One way BBC1 found of breaking ITV's deadlock on Monday ratings was to move Doctor Who into a Monday slot for the 1982 series. This managed to attract 10 million viewers, but come 7.30 and BBC1 went into its usual Monday deadzone.

A Woman of Substance did extremley well for Channel 4 I think it was shown in Jan 85 and got 13.8m viewers.

This was when Channel 4 finally arrived as people realised it was a good channel. To me Channel 4 was its creative best in this era. For all The Tube was never going to rival TOTP, this was must see television.

This is what I mean by an edgy and gritty channel. It was a great channel not afraid to try new things, but it started to get a lot more mainstream by the early 00s.

They used to show too much Simpsons, now I think they've gone too far in the opposite direction. It was nice to just sit back and watch some Simpsons for an hour

I don't know why they can't show it on Sky2 like they did once.

I remember sometime in 2006 or 2007, they did a Simpsons marathon. Around 2004-2007 time AFAIK, they used to show Simpsons on Sky1 6.30pm-9pm, so 5 episodes worth.

I think they wanted to compete head on with ITV1 while trying to be edgy as early BBs certainly weren't the exhibitionist borefest they became in later years. However, an odd mixture of elderly skewing shows like Countdown, tired out entertainment like DOND, endless property shows and a soap that makes Neighbours look good as well as the remnants of PSB, has made Channel 4 look weird and unwatchable.