This CBB had no advertising and it followed a series which was struggling in the ratings for the last few weeks. Also it has been hotter AND as someone said, it was only 200k down on the equivalent of CBB9 AND ITV could only muster 2m, so 1.9m is very good for Ch5 to be that close to ITV.

It is rare for the closing ceremony to top the opening Ceremony but as it was happening here people wanted to see it, especially after all of the Team GB medal success. And I'd say people just wanting to see a bit of history and wondering if there'd be any massive surprises.

What could you be insinuating? I don't think anyone does, do they? That would be rather strange. I'm here because I have an interest in ratings that are out of the ordinary, hits that come from nowhere, channels punching above their weight, etc. C5 appeals to me a lot with its programming but I find its ratings performance interesting not because of that per se, but because they are somewhat uniquely positioned, bridging the gap between multichannel and the big four, and more recently because, for a channel that has tended to underachieve over the years, they are beginning to show more ambition. I stress, beginning.

Most on here such as yourself like to see the status quo of BBC One and ITV1 dominating things with the same few shows year after year continue, which is fine. We all look for different things in the numbers, there's no right or wrong way and nobody is 'above' anyone else just because they take a different approach.

Back to last night, and The Last Weekend must be a disappointment at ITV HQ but Silent Witness was always going to wipe the floor with whatever ITV served up in terms of new drama. Maybe ITV should have aired the Batman movie long overdue that's been sat gathering dust on the shelf for months. Instead what's the betting they save it for the run up to Christmas, when the sequel will be coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray. Better for ad sales maybe, but really viewers are getting a poor deal with ITV Movie Premieres and I'd sooner see them lose the contract to C4 who seem to get their films to air a lot quicker.

Plus then the license wouldn't have been quite so immediately appealing since the best Bond's would have just been on TV.


Both Strictly and The X Factor should certainly top 11.5 million before the end of the year but will that be enough to secure a spot in the top 10 by years end? Strictly's finale ratings last year would put it about 8th (or maybe 9th) in the top 10 we have right now and The X Factor would be 6th or 7th (depending on how you look at the football numbers). So the question then becomes are both shows going to be able to match last year or grow vs. last year?

And then what happens if something like Call the Midwife or Doctor Who or Downton Abbey pulls a 12+ million number out of the bag over Christmas? We could be looking at a situation where one or potentially both of the countries 'biggest shows' don't actually crack the top 10 for the year.

Doctor Who could get 11.5m - new companion. Especially if Downton is not on (I think Doctor Who struggled to compete for the overnight recorded audience up against EE and Downton (2 hours!)). It did 12 million the year before in finals, so hopefully. (also depends on the promotion, last year lacked any really commercially promoted enemy and the trailers made it all look a bit unexciting imo).


Back to its Monday slot and outside the Summer months due to the Olympics displacing it. Should be top 15, possibly in front of Sherlock.


Ripper Street I can see getting 8-10m. Could timeshift well too.
Oh and The Voice will never manage that again But who knows - maybe people like the auditions enough? And unlike X Factor their getting new judges in. Always helps.


Best family to do it with really. I still like the Branning stories and I hardly watch the show! If anything they've been over relied on in the past and thats hidden some of the shows underlying problems with other characters. Depends how its done ofc.

fair enough it wont be as good as the Max / Stacey reveal However EE is at its past when a family gets together, and learns a secret, so likely its still going to be good.

They couldn't hang on to the murder reveal much longer, and certainly not till Christmas, its also an excellent example of what I said above, even in Mondays episode it was providing some really good drama, this time between Jay and Billy.

When BARB said The Royal Wedding was the most watched show of last year that was a simulcast on other channels with different audio. So I say it can be added up as total viewership. Direct simulcasts only count on a channel if it's the same broadcast across different network channels. So BBC1/BBC1HD, ITV1/ITV1 HD etc


I agree. I'm going by the BARB ratings for the football matches.


I think the chart will lose programmes 8-10. Replaced by Strictly, X Factor and I'm A Celeb finals. We could have an end of year top 10 with no soaps! We shall see.

I suppose, the difference is, with The X Factor they normally do that simply to freshen it up and keep it at the top of its game, whereas with The Voice it really needs a lift from somewhere, and that's exactly how it will be interpreted by the media as well who know only too well the ratings pressures that it will be under next year.

Whatever they do, however brilliant it might be, it's always going to be prefaced with "in a bid to boost flagging ratings...................." And that's the challenge they face. Convincing people to care about a show that after starting so so well, turned into just another TV talent show and fizzled out fast.

I think it's capable of it but depends on the slot, it's sounds perfect for Sundays but Downton will prevent it from airing before November, even then it has I'm a Celeb to contend with. I suppose Monday might work, when New Tricks finishes, but that won't be until November as well.

I tend to think the reveals are only as good as the build-up to them. That's where the hard work is really done and the EastEnders team just haven't been putting the work into setting up any of the dominoes to knock down. The previous big Branning Christmas worked so well not just because they built up the affair but because part of that build up was building that brilliant Branning family unit. They haven't done that this time around and they don't have the time to do it now. And the Branning family isn't as good as it once was. So its all well and good saying dropping a secret on a family over Christmas can make great drama if the secret and the family don't mean anything because you haven't put the work in before hand then who's really going to care enough to watch and stick with it?

The murderer reveal is another example of the lazy unfocused writing that has plagued EastEnders for years now. Their primary focus after Heather's murder should have been building up that Mitchell family unit so that when you drop that bomb on it it actually means something. And the way the reveal itself was handled was piss-poor. I still think they should have done a slowly everyone but Shirley is in on the secret reveal and ultimately made the focus of the storyline 'when will Shirley find out and how will she react'. So this big summer reveal could have been Jay finally cracking and confessing all to Billy and you then have the drama of Phil trying to keep Billy quiet and how that changes Billy's relationships within the family etc. etc. But that's another subject for another time...

I think the focus has to be (for lack of a better description) surviving the second series. What they need rather than a big high is a stable and moderately successful second series which can change the tone of coverage. They don't need to hit it out of the park for the second series they need to show that they've learnt lessons from the first series and that they can build a show that works from start to finish that can then build in series 3. Easier said than done though obviously.

Have a sneaky feeling the Ian Brady Cutting Edge docu will rate well tonight in terms of people expecting something new.

Bit of publicity in news bulletins as well after Winnie Johnson's family gave C4 the go-ahead

In other news NBC have just given a straight to series 22 episode order to a new Michael J Fox sitcom. It'll debut Fall 2013 and will be loosely based on Fox's own life. He'll play a father diagnosed with Parkinson's trying to balance his family, career and disease. After watching him in the likes of Scrubs, Rescue Me, The Good Wife and Curb Your Enthusiasm a full time Fox return to television can only be a good thing (this will be his first regular/lead role since leaving Spin City after going public with his Parkinson's diagnosis).

On top of that a straight to series 22 episode order is basically unheard of in modern American television which speaks to how much all of the networks wanted this. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

His return to topline a series is definitely going to be a big deal. NBC seem to have made a few straight to series orders lately, although none as big as this.

Doubtful that New Tricks will be top 15 as it will need over 11, it's never been over 10m. And it's last Autumn series rated worse than last year's Summer series.

How right you were. I think the weather played the biggest factor in X Factor's dip. This week could dip too because of Bank Holiday weekend. Too early to say this series is flopping.

Larry Hagman on the one show should have boosted its ratings but dear god that alex jones is thick as shit, kept saying oohing instead of Ewing and asked the same moronic questions twice, baker is equally thick.

A change of presenters is required, the YTS kids need to go.

Thought it was a bit meh myself. Wouldn't be surprised if it only gets a million or so.

The reason why the 2010 series of New Tricks did so badly was because the planks in BBC scheduling put the show on Friday. New Tricks gets its best ratings on Monday but Jay Hunt wanted to bolster Fridays. This series is on Mondays.

I find The One Show unwatchable with those two. Both lack personality.

Seven
18:00 Seven News: 1.33m
18:30 Today Tonight: 1.22m
19:00 Home & Away: 1.11m
19:30 New Series: The X Factor: 1.6m
* most watched series premiere to date.
21:00 New Series: GCB: 873k

Nine
18:00 Nine News: 1.25m
18:30 A Current Affair: 1.18m
19:00 Big Brother: 1.21m
20:00 Big Brother: Live Nominations: 1.18m
20:30 Underbelly: Badness: 1.23m
21:30 New Series: Gordon Behind Bars: 417k

Ten
17:00 Ten News at Five: 749k
18:00 The Project: 573k
19:00 Modern Family (R): 484k
19:30 New Series: Can of Worms: 590k
20:30 New Series: Don't Tell the Bride: 583k
21:45 The Shire: 251k

Shares
Seven - 26.0%
Nine - 22.4%
ABC1 - 14.0%
Ten - 10.8%

I'm gobsmacked that it gets 4 million average a night, never has the phrase pig ignorant been more apt where Bland & Drones are concerned.

Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber. Woeful. It was great with Adrian and Christine and I miss those days no pairing has been that good since.

NBC has indeed fired out a few straight to series orders lately although I'm still somewhat unclear on how those have been financed. I remain unconvinced that NBC will be shouldering the full burden for Hannibal (13 episode order) or Crossbones (10 episode order) particularly since Hannibal has been fairly aggressively pre-sold into some international markets already. That's a little unusual although its a name franchise so...

The only other show that's had a straight 22 order was The Firm and that was certainly a co-production with Entertainment One selling to Sony (for international distribution) before NBC. What's really telling here though is that the Fox show got a straight to series order from an initial pitch with from all reports not even the beginnings of a script in place.. Hannibal had a script from Bryan Fuller, Crossbones is based on a book as was The Firm. So basically NBC has just brought Michael J Fox.

Ouch for Gordon Behind Bars. Nine must have been expecting more from that especially with the rest of the night being comfortably above 1 million for them. And a good start for The X Factor on Seven.