Gone where? Gone 5 nights because that's where it will be in 10 years time. Still one of the most watched programes 27 years later it's going nowhere


You don't need to say Dan2008 told you so

Thanks rzt.

That list really brings home what an awful week ITV1 had.

The highest viewership from a selection of mostly new shows was a repeat of Midsomer Murders, half of whose audience were over 65! OK, New Tricks was equally doddery in the demos, but at least it was 53% ABC1 (against 44% for MM).

Let's Get Gold, as well as rating low, was especially downmarket (37-38% ABC1). In its defence, it did skew young.

Surprised to see Secret Fortune as chavvy as 39% ABC1; but then again the BBC is supposed to reach everyone. ITV1 has a commercial imperative to aim upmarket but doesn't seem to try much to get there. Only its two serious docs (Real Chariots of Fire, Bomber Command) managed more than 50% ABC1, but they had low overall viewership (2-2.5m).

Superstar might have been expected to be more upmarket than ITV1's usual fare, but 45-47% ABC1 is on a par with Love Your Garden and (on the other side) Casualty.

Doesn't Jeremy Kyle have the lowest ABC1 demos of all shows? However, in its defence, this is a cheap daytime show that most people will never see as they are at work.

Well could be worse - compared to what BBC1 and BBC2 serve up during the day that is quite a varied schedule. I'm surprised though they're broadcasting the full day - I'd have thought in that week they'd just extended the hours as and when required (for the football).

How Who Wants to be a Millionaire began 14 years ago:

1 4 September 1998 9,470,000 11 Graham Elwell becomes first ever £64,000 winner
2 5 September 1998 7,760,000 20 First time the Ask the Audience lifeline is used
Arlene Harper becomes the first contestant to get a question wrong on the show
3 6 September 1998 12,370,000 5 Ross Jackson wins £64,000
4 7 September 1998 8,970,000 20
5 8 September 1998 9,920,000 15
6 9 September 1998 11,780,000 8 John McKeown wins £64,000
7 10 September 1998 10,700,000 11
8 11 September 1998 12,300,000 7 Matthew Asbury wins £64,000 (His wife went into labour during recording)
9 12 September 1998 10,550,000 13 Eva Whittam wins £64,000
10 13 September 1998 12,470,000 6
11 25 December 1998 8,960,000

Does anyone know just before Who Wants To Be a Millionaire started, was there a massive publicity campaign or was there loads of hype? Did the ratings surprise everyone at the time or were they expected? Im curious how Itv managed to get over 9million people to watch the first episode.

Maybe they do want to experiment and test the water for a 24-hour schedule (the BBC Executive does want to extend hours asap, but only from 3pm at first). They'll need to promote it properly though, as people won't tune in until the evening otherwise.

Since April, ITV2 has been airing the US version of his show at 6pm.

Well ITV have really let viewers down with The Dark Knight. Still no sign of it before the Olympics and the new film is out next week.

Bit of a joke when it's a film from 2008 and C4 are busy showing titles from 2009/2010. I wouldn't mind so much if their summer schedule was bursting with great shows, but quite plainly it isn't. So what's the excuse?

They need to have a mix of shows, they are supposed to aim towards ABC1s in certain programmes, not the whole schedule.

You wouldn't get very far aiming towards the audience who by definition don't watch as much TV as other groups across the whole schedule.

Technical errors on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire: Ask The Audience results didnt come up properly, every answer had 0%. They went to Plan B, which was for the audience to hold up cards with the letter on it. Quite funny, never seen this happen before. They delt with the problem well though.

Earlier this year Channel 5 showed highlights of a mixed martial arts event after the boxing. It did rather well, as I reported at the time. Today it's been announced the next BAMMA event will be shown live on 5*, with highlights later on C5. Interesting to see 5* being used for live sport, albeit non mainstream:

http://www.mmauncagedmag.com/news/ba...a-on-channel-5

The perils of live TV...
Millionaire contestant "asked the audience", but no figures came up on the computer screen
So the audience instead were asked to hold up cards with A B C or D on them
Most got it right.
Last edited by Joe40 : 10-07-2012 at 22:08

They've had all sorts of problems this week, haven't they?

One of Broadcast's top stories today reported on how they had to pull the plug on a mobile app for the new series at the last minute.

Oh, and Ask the Audience was supposed to be Ask the Nation but they had to drop that too.

Pretty sure that they had that as the prize yesterday too. I remember seeing the clip with the prizes yesterday.

The thing with the Ask The Audience was funny but they dealt with it pretty smoothly and Chris made light of it and wasn't phased at all. Don't know what went on with the app and Ask The Nation but it doesn't sound good. At least they scrapped them before the series began though rather than letting the issues plague the show on screen.

These live shows have been really good though. Doing it live has given the show a new lease of life and Chris is right in saying that it works better with ordinary people rather than celebrities. There's been some genuinely exciting moments already.

Apologies, edited.

God, don't tell me you're not old enough to remember.

Of course it was hugely hyped - it was the first game show to offer a £1m prize and the first to basically invite viewers to call in to get a place on the show rather than go through the usual casting process - and with it being near live (taped the night before IIRC) you could be on the show within a couple of days. Also worth noting that it launched just a few years after the £20,000 maximum of TV game show prizes was lifted.

It was sponsored by The Sun too to start with - so they gave it loads of promotion. And those were the days where the million pound sat in a glass case hanging in between Chris and the contestants. It was also the days where Millionaire was unmissable TV. I ditched the show years ago - but I used to really enjoy it when it aired for 14-15 nights in a row.

Pretty much everything on ITV has a lower ABC1 skew than on BBC1. The Lloyd Webber shows will probably be a good example of that (I'd not be surprised if they got 50%+ ABC1 on BBC1). Jonathan Ross still had a strong ABC1 profile (not too much lower than when he was on BBC1), but like the Lord, he collapsed in raw numbers anyway.

Entertainment also tends to have a more downmarket profile than drama but it doesn't particularly matter because they sell on 16-34's (which carry a higher CPM than ABC1's but there are fewer of them which might be why ITV are finding entertainment so difficult!).

I remember Big Brother used to have a pretty good audience profile - young and relatively upmarket (even if popular thought suggested otherwise). But I think that owed a lot to the fact that it was on Channel 4. The ABC1 profile has probably dipped on Channel 5. Wouldn't be surprised if 16-34's were broadly similar (that was in sharp decline anyway) - probably less built-in stereotypes of channels and far less loyalty to the old terrestrials.

In terms of 16-34s, Big Brother fairs very favourably in comparison with every single ITV1 entertainment show on that list. Not sure about ABC1's but yes I suspect it has dipped here.

Do you have a similar list for BBC1. I doubt there will be as many 'new' shows in the list though.

This demo table (from rzt) is hysterical reading regarding ITV1, but not in a good way...

http://i46.tinypic.com/flv68o.jpg

A Question of Sport beats everything in that list from ITV for 16-34 age range. Even Antiques Roadshow is kicking ITV1s arse for the younger viewer.

In fairness Jonathan Ross's total numbers didn't collapse when he moved to ITV. His last ITV series got about the same audience (when +1 is included) as his last BBC series did, although obviously the timeslots were quite different and you'd expect more at 9.30pm on a Saturday than at 10.30pm on a Friday. When he had the XF inheritance he was a decent bit above the numbers he ended on at the BBC although again you'd expect a big difference. IIRC his ABC1 skew at the BBC was in the 60s, whilst at ITV it was normally in the 50s, which is still very high for an ITV show (the only other ITV show that I can think of that is consistently above 50% is Downton). His 16-34 skew is normally in the 20s at ITV but I can't remember what it was at the BBC, but if anything I guess he probably skews slightly younger than he did at the BBC. I do think his show is one of those where the total audience doesn't really tell the full story, especially with it being so cheap to produce.

ITV does tend to skew a bit more downmarket than BBC1 and I suspect you're right about Superstar. Whilst those are decent enough ABC1 skews they're nothing out of the ordinary really, and pretty similar to The X Factor, which is normally in the high-40s (one of ITV's more upmarket skewing shows, despite what some on here would have you believe!) and also pretty similar to last Summer's flop Popstar To Operastar. I reckon they might have hoped for Superstar to be at 50% but then I suspect Superstar hasn't lived up to any of their expectations so far!

And here is how ITV promoted it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Hrq0IEbHY

Shocked to read only 0.6m (3.7%) for the Hollow Crown on Saturday. Thats lower than week 1.

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