I think 5pm would be too early for Doctor Who; Syrictly may start the evening at 5.30pm but I think they'll hold it back to boost another night as they have so much programming to fill Christmas Day with.

See, that first Eastenders now seems too early. In my opinion, not all of those programmes are going to make it to Christmas Day. I think one of the sitcoms (probably Miranda) will be moved to Boxing Day, as three separate sitcoms throughout the night is a little heavy, especially as Michael McIntyre will almost certainly follow later in the night after the great success of last year's show.

Otherwise, I like the look of those ideas - I think that's probably spot on for ITV, and the Eastenders split is proven to work in principle.

I'm just glad that there's enough programming this year to make sure that Eastenders isn't BBC's highlight of the night. It'll be interesting to see what they put against DA this year.

Then where will Strictly go, as Brekkie said it may get lost on the 29th, New Year is an option I suppose, or the Sunday (30th) leading into The Paradise (trying to get an upper hand on Mr Selfridges, which I hadn't realised was written by Andrew Davies may give it a go now.) I suppose as long as it's well promoted it could go anywhere in that week and do decently, maybe not as good as would on the actual day though.


I think it's absolutely tailor-made for Christmas Day, what's more fitting than I show about birth . I didn't see you saying this about Downton Abbey.

Drop Strictly!
Theres no chance they'll put Doctor Who that early AND then have Strictly kill the young audience (every year!) and any momentum throughout the day and from DW.

I would do the EE sandwich like so:

EE: 8:00
CtM: 8:30
EE: 9:30

Hard for ITV to move around that, they might just keep Downton out.

Also don't think RF will be on Christmas Day itself after last year.

Will The Royle Family be on at all, have they actually written one? and has the year's gap meant that any momentum has been lost and it's lost it's place?


That's because CTMW & DA are completely different types of shows. CTMW usually airs at 8pm for a start and was a surprise hit. Downton Abbey was always expected to be a landmark 9pm series.

I suppose the bottom line is that programmes which would have last year been guaranteed a Christmas Day slot are not so certain this year. I think these programmes:

- Call the Midwife
- Miranda
- Mrs Brown's Boys
- Strictly
- Michael McIntyre
- The Royle Family

.. are all more than good enough for Christmas Day, but at least one or two of them won't make it, I would bet anything.

I doubt Mrs Brown's Boys will be on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve or Boxing Day is more likely for one or two reasons

Strictly won't and the Royle Family won't.

Christmas Eve:
Strictly - 7
Merlin - 8
RF - 9

BBC One Christmas is going to be busy.

It could easily take the Christmas Eve or Boxing Day slot:

7.00 Strictly Come Dancing
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 Birds Of A Feather
9.00 Jonathan Creek

I get where you're coming from, but I really wouldn't be so sure - it seems to be universally popular. I would say it's actually less niche than TRF or Miranda. It depends how important ratings are to the Beeb this year, because Mrs Brown is dependable. Miranda is more of a risk and TRF is a little same-old.

Christmas tv this year sounds so exciting. Hopefully there will be some great ratings

If they were to consider an 'Olympic special' for Strictly then it might pay for them to go a little broader and make it a 'Sports Star Special' and pair it with Sports Personality of the Year. I would imagine that this year 'Strictly Sports Stars' at 7 and Sports Personality of the Year at 8 would probably give the BBC quite a big night.


Didn't Kidnap and Ransom get a second series? I thought it did and that it didn't go down well so they passed on a third. Equally ITV did pick-up a second series of Monroe despite that not really being much of a commercial success. Occasionally, when there's enough factors in place, commercial broadcasters gamble on shows growing. And to their credit ITV have tried that a couple of times recently...

I'd also point out that ditching shows people don't watch is hardly exclusive to the commercial broadcasters (or ITV). The BBC do it. Unfortunately its just the way television works.

Ask Channel 4 how One Born At Christmas panned out...

On the horribly premature discussion of Christmas schedules surely the BBC won't schedule both Miranda and Call the Midwife for Christmas Day BBC1 (and surely not back-to-back). Does no one remember the David Tennant is everywhere row a few years ago? Surely they'll want to avoid another one of those. I suspect if Call the Midwife is locked in for Christmas Day (and it seems likely) then Miranda will slot into Boxing Day or Christmas Eve (maybe alongside Outnumbered?). And doesn't the family film (Up this year?) usually run to about 6PM which means starting the 'prime time' line-up before that seems unlikely.

I also really can't see the BBC revisiting Birds of a Feather. Ever. Nor do I think they should.

Of course I'd also like to see them ditch the yearly Royale Family specials. They did perfectly fine without it last year and as we're seeing they certainly don't need one this year. They have enough content.

I'm starting to think the commercial broadcasters may as well give up for Christmas...it's going to be like the Olympics all over again!

Saying that, I doubt anyone would notice the difference if they did give up for Christmas.

Two shows is hardly the same as Tennantmania. The problem with the David Tennant thing was that he showed up on lots of shows he had no place on like Buzzcocks and QI, whereas people who watch Miranda and CTM clearly already like Miranda.

And at least if they were both on the same night it wouldn't be as arduous for non-fans.

Doctor Who's probably a tad early, and the junctions like the one at 9.40pm and 10.10pm are slightly odd but everything else is OK. I'd probably do:

6.00 Doctor Who
7.00 Strictly Come Dancing
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 Miranda
9.00 EastEnders
9.30 Royle Family

I'd defer Call the Midwife to Sunday 23rd or Xmas Eve if there was to be a Christmas Special.

The above schedule will probably force ITV to do something like this:

6.00 Emmerdale
7.00 Coronation Street
8.00 All Star Family Fortunes (or other LE show)
9.00 Downton Abbey

We've yet to see what, if anything else, she'd do in the run up to Christmas Day. And given that she'd be in two centrepiece shows for BBC1 Christmas Day she'd be all over the Christmas ads. Would she, for example, do a sketch for McIntyre's Christmas special again? And would the BBC be able to resist the urge to put her everywhere to promote the Christmas Day schedule especially if ITV put Downton on Christmas Day again (and why wouldn't they)?

My early suggestion would be:

6:00 - Doctor Who
7:00 - Strictly
8:00 - Eastenders
9:00 - Miranda
9:30 - Royle Family
10:30 - Michael McIntyre

With Call the Midwife and Mrs Brown on Boxing Day.

I read somewhere the other week that ITV are planning a Downton Abbey special on Boxing day this year. so who knows what could happen.

I think BBC One works with comedy on Christmas Eve so they could go with something like this:

Sunday 23rd December
7.00 Strictly Come Dancing: Sport Star Special
8.00 Sports Personality Of The Year 2012

Monday 24th December
6.30 *Family drama*
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 Miranda
9.00 Outnumbered
9.30 Not Going Out
10.00 BBC News and Weather
10.20 The Graham Norton Christmas Show

Tuesday 25th December
6.00 EastEnders
6.30 Doctor Who
7.30 EastEnders
8.00 Call The Midwife
9.00 The Royle Family
10.00 Mrs. Brown's Boys
10.30 Michael McIntyre's Christmas Roadshow

Wednesday 26th December
7.00 Winter Wipeout
8.00 EastEnders
8.30 Jonathan Creek
10.00 BBC News
10.20 Match Of The Day

I would argue they still need a strong comedy in the 9pm slot; Miranda isn't established enough yet; Mrs. Brown's Boys is too crude, Absolutely Fabulous' return wasn't a rip roaring success, Only Fools and Horses will never return due to the sad death of John Sullivan...The Royle Family will hold the slot until Jones and Corden are ready to bring Gavin and Stacey back for a one off IMO.

My guess for BBC1 is:

Christmas Eve
18:45 - Alice In Wonderland
20:25 - EastEnders
21:00 - Outnumbered
21:40 - Not Going Out
22:10 - HIGNFY
22:40 - Graham Norton

Christmas Day
15:10 - Up
16:45 - BBC News
17:00 - Room on The Broom
17:30 - Strictly Come Dancing
18:30 - EastEnders
19:00 - Doctor Who
20:00 - EastEnders
20:30 - Miranda
21:00 - The Royle Family
22:00 - Mrs Brown's Boys
22:30 - Michael McIntyre

Boxing Day
18:00 - How To Train Your Dragon
19:30 - EastEnders
20:00 - Call The Midwife
21:00 - The Moonstone
22:00 - Ab Fab

I think ITV would find it pretty difficult to schedule against that lot, especially on Boxing Day.

Hotest day of the year and we have christmas ratings talk

I think we'll see a pairing of Miranda and Mrs Browns Boys after christmas, so it would make sense for them to be paired together from the get go to have maximum ratings impact. Although Mrs Browns Boys has two christmas specials this year, so we could possibly see the first on christmas day, with Miranda and Mrs Brown on Boxing Day?

I think it would be nice to have Miranda on christmas day itself, as there hasn't been any pre-watershed comedy on the big day itself lately. Also everyone seems to have forgotten "Mr Stink" which is the christmasy cartoon in the vain of The Gruffalo, which i assume will have an early evening slot on the big day itself, so that'll have to be squeezed in there somewhere as well!

So i'll make my guess as this :-

3:00 - The Queen (about the only thing i'll get right )
3:10 - Film - Up
4:45 - Shrek Forever After
5:15 - News
5:30 - Mr Stink
6:00 - Eastenders
6:30 - Miranda
7:00 - Doctor Who
8:00 - Call The Midwife
9:00 - Eastenders
9:30 - Mrs Browns Boys
10:00 - The Royal Family
11:00 - Michael Macintyre

Just about manage to squeeze everything in, apart from poor old SCD, but i can't see how they will physically have room, unless Call The Midwife or a comedy is moved (Which would be silly really, as they have the best chance to give a fresher line up this year) I've also put MBB on before TRF as i think the BBC will want to to truley smash through, and it wouldn't get a better slot than that!

Do we know for definite what films we're getting this year? I assume Up, How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek 4, Alice in Wonderland. Do we know about Toy Story 3 yet?

Edit - thought it all worked out too well, only had Shrek down for 30 mins

could switch Strictly to 5pm then and Dr who at 6


EastEnders had aired earlier than that on xmas day before and rated very well.

If Call the midwife doesn't go against downton then EastEnders & The Royle family will

No one else think Merlin will get Christmas Eve again? Got brilliant ratings, only slightly down from the Strictly Finale Sandwich.

They had EastEnders,Melin and something else on xmas eve last year. what was it?