Is it any good. I have this in my planner to watch, but the low ratings are hardly inspiring me to do so.
Did it have too bigger cross over in audience with the more popular George Gently which has harmed it?

I think its pretty good yeah. I don't watch that many ITV dramas tbh but for some reason I did with this one. Its different to most other ITV dramas. You'll know what I mean when you start watching.

Miller just sits to get the ITV1 ratings and then report them, thats a real problem for the articles he writes. Am not saying he aims to change things, just he reports from what he cares about (not the readers) and often goes in looking for what he is excited about (that The Voice article way back).

Am not saying he needs to stop writing them or anything, just sit more calmly and read the figures then report, its all a bit rushed in excitement and so the articles are not biased their just not fully reporting things.


ITV1 had a worse night that I first though. Last Weekend just got killed by Gently and it didn't start with a great audience. Someone said for the first episode it would be low because 'it wasn't very ITV' - I haven't seen it so whats the problem here?

CBB did decent for a weekend show and overall Ch5 had a very strong evening.

I think I'd go with this (spoilered as I know people are sick with fantasy schedules):

It's quirky and original - people complain that ITV stick with too many crime dramas (and I suspect they'll commission a few costume dramas now after the success of Downton Abbey) but when they do deviate and commission something different it generally flops.

He could have pulled some of the audience away, but it's still reasonable. I'm still of the opinion the normal version should go now and Channel 5 to have two runs of CBB each year, same as I suggested when Channel 4 was cancelling it.

For heaven's sake I'm really not biased and, if it has seemed so in the past, I can only apologise for sloppiness on my part.

I always keep tabs on this thread because I enjoy the discussion, and like to read suggestions/complaints so I can think about them and act on them if they make sense.

Sometimes I do have to rush and admit I've made mistakes in the past, but I do care a lot about writing the ratings and always try to remain balanced with any analysis. I understand though that it'll never please everyone - because of the (usually pleasantly light hearted) pro/anti BBC/ITV posters.

Talking about gameshows faring "better", I was indeed comparing it with The Last Weekend.

Even he could hardly ignore the primetime Sunday drubbing of ITV1 by BBC1 without looking ridiculous, but he tries to inject a little saving grace for ITV1 where there is, in fact, none.

Yes, it's a popular suggestion. But C5 have already confirmed BB will be back next year so they're committed to giving it another go without the sporting distractions of this past summer. Drop Dowling, cast a bit more widely, and they've got a show.

I can see what you are saying, but there is nothing else up Channel 5's sleeve which can pull in over 1m viewers almost every day of the summer for 6-8 weeks, especially the advertiser friendly demographic.

I think ITV sometimes struggle to market non-crime dramas (tbf, its not like the BBC isn't full of them as well); I've seen little clips of The Last Weekend but overall nothing came across in terms of tone, plot, quality - anything.

Shame.


Fair enough.

We appreciate the ratings articles, but Saturday's was somewhat odd the way it was written given that The X Factor's rating was the lowest for a second audition show since 2007, and Red or Black's rating for the second show was lower than last week's second show, which is not increased momentum, it is decreased momentum.

I remember once upon a time you came into here asking for suggestions on how to improve the articles, nothing appears to have happened on that front.

DS seems to stick with terrestrial between 20:00 and 22:00, primetime shares and multichannel winner. At least Broadcast has a lot more ratings and deviates a bit, and you can get a lot more ratings data nowadays on ITV Media, even on days they do perform poorly(!).

And do we have a figure for those shows?

I agree, as there seems to be no chance of them doing any of the old style lottery shows that don't involve a quiz anymore, it's time to seperate the quizzes from the lottery. They don't even pretend it is part of the same show anymore, since 'Lottery HQ' was invented


This applies to large parts of BBC1's schedule, if it's not broken don't fix it, hence Countryfile & Antiques Roadshow all year round, Holby all year round, The One Show all year round etc.



Which will be why ITV have few attempts, because the middle of the prime time is all they have. 10:30pm on ITV1 doesn't have a big enough audience to develop anything and ITV2 doesn't work in the same way as BBC2.



And this is why they rarely deviate from your Frost/Morse/Marple type detective stuff.

Which is EXACTLY how I read it as I have no bias towards either of the broadcasters.

The problem is, you can not mention anything positive about a bad night on ITV without the pro-BBC lot complaining. If you knocked ITV when they had a bad night, you would have the pro-ITV lot having a go.

It depends on people's agenda on how they view your reports in my opinion. As I have no agenda, favoured broadcaster or willfulness to see a broadcaster fail, I often can not see where the critisism comes from.

I think Channel 5 have made some overdue modifications to the show, they realised hardly anyone was watching through the night so cancelled filming people asleep, the pointless fanzine shows have gone, the season has been cut to 10 weeks and the set looks nicer. However, I would go for a 6 week run, get a new host and cast the net wider for housemates, maybe older and less unpleasant ones would be a good idea.

Paul - when you used to post on here, before joining "the staff", you were obsessed with ITV1 and how you could make it better, posting endless fantasy schedules - for ITV1.

So you can see why folk on here get a bit uppity about your ITV1-obsessed ratings reports - I don't necessarily mean you are biased or fail to be objective, you just forget the shows on other channels that we all might be interested in. So Countryfile may well have won the day yesterday, or at least come second, but we don't know and won't do till MediaGuardian reports tomorrow, because you haven't mentioned it.

Chase and Millionaire did alright but that's a poor rating at 9pm. There was a time when ITV would just let those kinds of series "fall down the back of the couch" although I guess mid/late August is the new equivalent of that. As we head into September there should be fewer and fewer poor ratings for ITV as they start building towards the key fourth quarter.
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Across the pond, a few more early starts than usual. In fact, the week beginning Monday 10th September (two weeks before the proper start of the season), there's a mini season launch of sorts. The Voice premieres over Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th on NBC with new sitcoms Go On (starring Matthew Perry) and The New Normal (from Ryan Murphy) kicking off at 9pm Tuesday followed by returning series Parenthood. Then on Wednesday 12th, FOX launch season two of The X Factor USA. Second episode on Thursday with Glee premiering in its new 9pm slot immediately after.

ABC and CBS are mainly sticking to "premiere week" beginning the 24th. In fact, CBS will premiere no fewer than 21 new and returning series in that week. ABC are tending to hold back series rather than start early, most notably their hotly tipped music industry drama Nashville which is held over until 10th October (where it's likely to launch with an hour long Modern Family lead-in).

The CW, who have typically started early, have changed strategy and they'll launch new series mainly in October. Although America's Next Top Model returned last Friday.

Looking like a fairy strong Strictly line up so far if you haven't seen the reports:

To be fair, I'm sure ITV1 would be delighted if their ratings of late never saw the light of day.

As for Countryfile - presumably it rated close to last week. Or the week before that. Or the week before that. Or even the week before that. Or maybe the week before that. Or possibly...you get the point.

Re, Red or Black:

Second show last week: 3.59m (17.3%) + 0.230m (1.9%) = 3.82m (19.2%)
Second show this week: 3.70m (16.9%) + 0.177m (0.9%) = 3.88m (17.8%)

So it was a very slight increase.


Sorry Fudd, but by that logic we may as well ignore just about every other programme that is on every week (or every day in some cases)?

Both with The X Factor and Red or Black? the +1 inclusion decreased the week on week boost. It seems more people just watched the original showing.


I know, I'm sorry; it should be reported. It's just a piece of lazy scheduling which really should be looked at by the BBC in my opinion. A bit like Casualty, the channel and the show itself would be better if it was used sparingly rather than weekly filler because they can't be bothered to think of anything else to take that slot.

How comes you dont say Coro St or Emmerdale are lazy scheduling as they're on almost every day every week of the year? Is it because Countryfile is a successful show on BBC1?

When it is getting 5m to 8m all year around I can see why it is on all year around. Casualty needs it's output cut though.

Yes, because I said EastEnders and Doctors was lazy scheduling as well, didn't I? Oh wait, I didn't...

There's a massive difference between a soap opera - which are admittedly over-exposed, especially on ITV1 - and shows from other genres which could be used more sparingly.

Just my opinion.