I think the football should do alright, it has an 8pm kick off so the post Eastenders audience will flick over and there is no other major program on at 8pm. I wouldn't normally see the BBC1's new gardening show at 8pm doing very well, however it does seem like one of those shows that may somehow pop up out of nowhere with a decent audience. I'd say 30% chance the gardening show does surprisingly well (4.25m +). Celebrity Big Brother I think will run in the 3 millions until the football finishes, then perhaps seeing a peak in the mid to high 4 millions as the football audience flicks over.

i wonder if the high ratings for Accused had anything to do with the drama trailers the BBC ran during the Olympics.

The Flowerpot Gang is a variation on Alan Titchmarsh's Love Your Garden which in turn is a variation on Nick Knowles' DIY SOS.

LYG had higher than usual ratings for an ITV1 Tuesday night programme whilst DIY, just before the Olympics, was getting 4m for repeats. I see TFG as the sort of programme the core BBC1 audience takes to. I too predict 4m+ tonight.

What the ??? Nearly fell of my chair when I read this.

Absolutely no chance of CBB topping 4m tonight.

It's the lowest key launch to date (including BB) since the franchise came to C5, coming off the back of a poor series of BB. Even on the channel itself more time has been given over to promoting Person of Interest than CBB, and outside of C5 there's been nothing this time.

It should be around about the 3m mark, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was lower.

Yeah I think topping 4m is a slightly ambitious target for CBB. Can't see it myself.

Big surprise if CBB could get anywhere near that figure. Unrealistic prediction I feel.

This was the perfect week to launch last year. But this year coming out of a very quiet period for the commercial channels, it's amongst the worst. Low awareness that it's coming back a certainty, and the football will surely do better than some are forecasting, serving as a precursor to the start of the football season.

Not seen Love Your Garden, but surely it sounds like Ground Force.

I'm genuinely surprised by the decision to stick this on ITV1 to the nation. Celtic didn't even sell out for their first CL game and there's not a great deal of interest in Scottish football atm, outside Rangers, its pretty awful stuff.

Do people seriously think an England match, albeit a friendly, will fail to win its slot against a cheapo Ground Force rip off and the fading WDYTYA, which fell below 4m iirc at times in its last series?

Of course it will win its slot, and that's not Robbie ramping, it's basic common sense!

And we're playing ok...

I think last year a lot of people were wondering how Channel 5 would do CBB, so ratings were good for the launch show. I think the lack of interest in BB could put CBB down to 3 million, but the show has been trailed heavily on Channel 5 and in Desmond's papers, so I don't think 4 million is that unrealistic.

DO we have any idea of the nobodies who are going into it this year?

I picked up a tabloid today but it didn't even have a passing mention to it

The Accused did very well last night. Much better than I expected.

EE did fine - share is strong and for everyone expecting it to jump to 9m in very unrealistic. Its in crisis remember!?

Person of Interest launched with less than I expected - which is a shame as I enjoyed the 1st episode last night.

You content with the Emmerdale figures, Roscoe?

Close enough to EE's numbers for you?

Can we please concentrate on the matter in hand Robbie. And that's the "EE crisis".

Well, I've given Challenge Anneka Force SOS 5 minutes at half time.

Does anyone think it was made for daytime?

Or Channel 5?

How's it ended up on peak BBC1?

BB and CBB should not be this close together. This is going to be what happened last year but backwards. Didn't realise it was on!


Who do you think you are? Was done a bit when it was last on wasn't it? I think it'll do okay but nothing too exciting.
Vexed should get a good boost with some terrible weather and no Olympics. Its done pretty well for a show against the Olympics that hasn't been on for 2 years.

CBB on 4m? If it happens, well done - but it'd also be bonkers. So for me? No chance (whose even in it?).

The football? Should do alright, nothing special. Nothing awful (3 million odd is alright).

Ch4 will do very well.

Not really. I've watched a fair bit of C5 this week (never!) and I haven't really seen many trails at all. Sure, it's in rotation. But it's mostly been about Person of Interest, and more recently, Dallas, as the channel continues to make the case for strong acquisitions that underline the brand's core values.

I think they are saving their marketing monies for the latter. BB had next to no promotion this time last year following CBB and brought in around the same numbers as this year's which had a lot more, so they probably think they'll be able to get away with a lesser approach this time. The difference of course is, they could get the word out to more people through CBB that BB was coming back than they could or can the other way around.

ITV just shown an advert for Jonathan Ross on Saturday and didn't bother to promote Bolt, Daley or Ennis.....

Same one as last night, must have been done before they agreed it. Though the papers were reporting Ennis would be on last week

Itv bosses and PRs probably don't know who they are.

They've all been in the bunker for the past 3 weeks lest we forget...

Bolt and Daley were only booked last night so the trailer won't have been re-edited yet. I'm sure it'll be promoted later in the week, and throughout X Factor and Red or Black. Promotion during (and over the credits of) XF alone would raise awareness to a good number, and it'll probably be plugged during Corrie etc too.

Big coup for his return though - they should boost the numbers a bit. Hopefully they'll extend it to 75 mins with the extra guests they have (although I guess Ennis and Daley might be interviewed together?).

Surely it is standad practice for shows like this, and stuff like Parkinson in the past to run generic 'series' trailers early in the week and then run a trailer with highlights from the show nearer transmission.

I'm sure once they've filmed it they will do a new trailer.

If it was The Sun, they delighted in giving the show a real kicking in its last days on Channel 4 and now ignore it. Only The Daily Star shows any real interest now, with sister paper the Daily Express giving it five stars in its reviews, and even then this is well down on the noughties.
I think CBB will probably peak at 4 million, and then settle down around 2.2 million for the rest of the series. Again good for Channel 5 and not that much worse than this year's ITV reality flops The Biggest Loser and Superstar.
However, for the inmates, it will be the usual mixture of past it stars, glamor models, reality show contestants and whoever else is tempted.

If the highlight of any presenter's career is presenting some BBC3 coverage to a few million less than DOI gets, then I'd take the money and run!

I don't see how they were going to get her into any prominent role in the coverage. She'd probably have done the Diamond Jubilee, everyone else did, but most of them didn't show up at The Olympics and I see no reason why Bleakley would have.


I've heard it on Capital a few times this summer. They're horrible, awful adverts. Unless you knew what the shows were but didn't realise they were back, there was nothing to draw you in. Basically a rundown of their schedule (often not for that particular night - Lloyd Webber was mentioned after Superstar had finished!) with some cheesy dialogue linking it all together (something about summer and fun or some crap like that - as if ITV Saturday nights are ideal summer activities).

Not a bad line-up so far actually. Heather from EE, Bet Lynch from Corrie, Julian Clary (who's already hilarious) ..