Are we sure ITV haven't had a drama before called A Mother's Son?

It seems such an obvious "ITV drama by numbers" name they simply must have pulled that one out of the "random drama title generator" machine before.


Which is why Steve Williams keeps going on about the Champion of Champions version - that's what they need to make the festive special stand out.

No I'm not. Why jump on ITV when at least they're trying next week:- 3 brand new dramas (Mother's Son, Mrs Biggs, Bletchley), a tie in (The Corrie Years) with their top rated prog, a tie in (Unforgettable:Sweeney) with a new version at the cinema, the return of Paul O'Grady & a top quiz/entertainment (Mr & Mrs) with the guts of putting the latter onto another night off the weekend.

What would you rather have? Repeats?

Friday 24th August 2012
Aside from The One Show and Mrs Brown's Boys, a pretty poor night for BBC One. In with the Flynns now looks like it is going to be axed at the end of the series. You can't really blame the scheduling here, as it does not get much better than an EastEnders lead-in, as it had last Friday. The Miranda repeat did poorly against Coronation Street as well, ITV Media haven't reported it, meaning it was under 3.08 million. Mrs Brown's Boys again did really well, and I'm looking forward to seeing how well it does a Christmas, must be an outside bet for it winning Christmas Day.

Fantastic night for BBC Two, rounding off a good week for it, with all shows above 2 million from 20:00 to 22:00. Paradise's End looks like it is a hit, although we have seen in the past shows on BBC Two drop from 3 million to under 2 million for some odd reason. The competition on Friday's is poor, however, so it should hold up. Mastermind and Gardeners' World did the usual good work in the 20:00 hour.

The soaps were reliable as usual on ITV1, but Corrie Goes to Kenya has performed hideously for them! Not good ratings at all for them, with one of their lowest 21:00 hour ratings of the year, outside of the Olympics. I can't see them commissioning shows like this again in the future.

So-so night for Channel 4, the 8 Out of 10 Cats special did okay, although the documentary from 22:00 to 24:00 flopped, while House Party, although different didn't do much overnight. I guess that is something, though, that could timeshift a lot although it will go un-noticed almost certainly outside of Channel 4's top 30. Channel 5 had a good evening, with Celebrity Big Brother steady as she goes, and beating ITV1 again in the 21:00 hour, which will no doubt please them.

Not many standouts on the multichannel, looks like a poor evening for BBC Three, with the usual film repeats bringing in the usual ~600k range.

As an FYI the new series of Miranda starts filming in October. People saying Miranda repeats don't do well against Corrie forget that it started on BBC2 against Corrie on Monday nights and did well there. I wonder how the new series will do on BBC1? 8.30pm on a Thursday would be where I'd consider putting it .

STV OPT OUTs next week might affect the figures:-

MONDAY - 8pm - STV APPEAL replaces Paul O'Grady.

TUESDAY - 8pm - STV APPEAL replaces Unforgettable: The Sweeney.

WEDNESDAY - 8pm - STV APPEAL replaces Mr & Mrs.

FRIDAY - 7.30pm - STV APPEAL replaces Football.

Miranda usually films in October for a November/December transmission. I wonder if we'll have a series starting at Christmas before continuing in January?

Lowest rated X Factor official episode 1 rating since 2008 I think.

Saturday 25th August 2012 - Full Roundup
BBC One
18:20 - FILM: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: 3.65m (18.9%)
20:30 - The National Lottery: Secret Fortune: 3.56m (16.0%)
21:20 - Casualty: 4.12m (19.0%)
22:10 - BBC News: 3.77m (19%)
22:30 - Match of the Day: 3.89m (27.5%)

BBC Two
19:30 - Dad's Army: 2.29m (11.3%)
20:00 - BBC Proms 2012: 955k (4.4%)

ITV1
18:00 - Totally You've Been Framed!: 2.965m (18%) inc +1
19:00 - Red or Black?: 3.41m (18.32%), +1: 106k (0.48%)
19:45 - The X Factor: 8.4m (38.04%), +1: 475k (2.15%)
* lowest second audition rating since 2007
* peak: 10.31m (43.67%) at 20:50
* slot average: 6.00m (25.9%)
21:00 - Red or Black?: 3.70m (16.88%), +1: 176k (0.91%)
* 21:35 to 21:40 - 3.79m (17.07%)
21:45 - The Jonathan Ross Show: 2.52m (12.61%), +1: 208k (1.48%)

Channel 4
17:55 - Come Dine with Me: 1.38m inc +1
21:00 - Channel 4's 30 Greatest Comedy Shows: 1.11m (5.5%), +1: 99k (0.7%)
23:05 - Channel 4's 30 Greatest Comedy Shows Results: 400k (4.5%)

Channel 5
21:00 - Celebrity Big Brother: 1.32m (6.1%), +1: 128k (0.7%)

Primetime Shares
ITV1 - 22.6% (+1: 1.3%)
BBC One - 19.2%
BBC Two - 5.8%
Channel 5 - 4.5% (+1: 0.3%)
Channel 4 - 3.7% (+1: 0.5%)

All Day Shares inc +1's
BBC One - 19%
ITV1 - 14.2%
BBC Two - 5.3%
Channel 4 - 4.8%
Channel 5 - 4.5%
ITV2 - 3.0%
ITV3 - 2.9%
Film4 - 2.6%

The X Factor - Second Episode Ratings
2006 - 06.9m (37%)
2007 - 08.5m (47%)
2008 - 09.4m (45.4%)
2009 - 09.8m (47.1%)
2010 - 10.0m (44.9%)
2011 - 10.1m (42.8%)/10.6m
2012 - 08.4m (38.0%)/08.9m (40.2%)

Multichannels
BBC Three
24:20 - Family Guy: 492k (8.2%)

BBC Four
20:00 - She-Wolves: England's Early Queens: 548k (2.5%)
21:00 - Inspector Montalbano: 817k (3.9%)

Dave (inc +1)
21:00 - FILM: XXX: 304k

E4 (inc +1)
18:30 - The Big Bang Theory: 562k (3.2%)
19:00 - The Big Bang Theory: 493k (2.7%)
21:00 - FILM: My Stepmother Is An Alien: 294k

Film4
21:00 - FILM: Die Hard 4.0: 889k (4.7%), +1: 159k (0.8%)

ITV2
21:15 - The Xtra Factor: 858k (4.0%), +1: 133k (0.8%)
22:15 - FILM: Mamma Mia!: 682k (5.1%) inc +1

ITV3 (inc +1)
19:00 - Agatha Christie's Marple: 675k (3.2%)
21:00 - Agatha Christie's Poirot: 623k (3.1%)

More4 (inc +1)
17:50 - Location, Location, Location: 270k
21:00 - Embarrassing Bodies: 174k

Watch (inc +1)
19:00 - FILM: Matilda: 236k

Yesterday (inc +1)
21:40 - Last Of The Summer Wine: 431k

Source: Broadcast, C4 Sales, DS, ITV Media, MG

Wasn't that what they did with series 2 of Mrs Brown's Boys?

Guys, Miranda actually starts filming on 9th September. That's next Sunday! I've been waiting for this for 2 years!!! I'm so desperate to attend the filming but it'll be really difficult as it's on Sunday evenings and I have to get up early in the morning the next day.

Highest overnight for "Mentalbaldy"?

K

Saturday 25th August 2012
A solid, if unspectacular night for BBC One. What people seem to forget is that BBC One can hold up all night with 3.5 million even when The X Factor is on, which is one of the redeeming qualities of the channel, it very rarely crashes and burns unlike 2 million like ITV1 has now three times in the past five days. The Pirates film was slightly low, but still a very solid average and would have beaten Red or Black? head-to-head. The same applies to Casualty, really, while the Lottery held its usual audience. Match of the Day did very well, as usual in the late slot. Dad's Army did great again on BBC Two, it always seems to draw in the viewers, while the BBC Proms did slightly better than usual afterwards.

We've covered Red or Black? and The X Factor, but in short both should be performing better. Red or Black? won't be getting a third series, unless ratings pick up fast and jump above 4 million. The X Factor I think will pick up steam at some stage as it always seems to do, but it really needs to reverse the decline, or at least bring it down to a sensible value. If it can get it down to a 5 percent decline in a few weeks, I think it's done well. Can I see it happening? I'm not so sure.

Abysmal night for Channel 4. By my calculations also, it had a 1.9% share between 19:00 and 21:00 for the Channel 4 News and the Harry Hill repeats, which are simply rubbish for the network, there is no other way of putting it, really. Not much to say about Channel 5 from one rating, although Celebrity Big Brother is holding up better on Saturday's than the civilian franchise.

BBC Three had another poor night, but Inspector Montalbano performed superbly for BBC Four, in line with how other detective dramas have done for BBC Four on Saturday's. Also worth mentioning Die Hard 4.0 doing very good business for Film4 with over 1 million, not often you see Film4 hit over 1 million.

This is positive:

But does indicate that at 7:45 the show must have been pretty low and still been low into the rest of the programme though.

8:20 start should help the average the worry I had was the peak would be more mid show, than in the last 5 minutes.

Should keep ITV from worrying 'too much' people are still being drawn in by the show. The worry is if the overnights don't change and the peak starts to drop; and from the timeshift its clear X Factor is missable (it is the auditions though - but does signal the need to really shake them up again).

[quote]

Sunday 26th August 2012 - Full Roundup
BBC One
18:05 - BBC News: 3.34m (22%)
18:30 - Britain's Hidden Heritage: 3.37m (20%)
19:30 - Countryfile: 5.34m (26%)
20:30 - Inspector George Gently: 6.14m (27.5%)
22:00 - BBC News: 5.22m (27%)
22:25 - Match of the Day 2: 2.80m (20%)

BBC Two
20:00 - Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure: 1.18m (5.5%) inc HD
21:00 - Toughest Place to be a Ferryman: 1.34m (6.0%) inc HD
22:00 - Murder: 1.0m (5.9%) inc HD

ITV1
18:45 - ITV News & Weather: 2.30m (14%) inc +1
19:00 - The Chase: Celebrity Special: 3.15m (16.8%), +1: 151k (0.8%)
20:00 - Who Wants to be a Millionaire?: School's Out: 3.14m (14.7%), +1: 106k (0.5%)
21:00 - The Last Weekend: 1.98m (8.8%), +1: 196k (1.1%)

Channel 4
18:55 - FILM: X-Men Origins: Wolverine: 1.30m inc +1
21:00 - Peter Kay Live at the Manchester Arena: 2.24m (10.0%), +1: 552k (3.2%)
22:00 - Bad Sugar: 710k (4.0%)

Channel 5
18:10 - FILM: Beauty and the Beast: 1.70m (9.6%), +1: 213k (1.0%)
20:00 - Once Upon a Time: 1.21m (5.7%), +1: 180k (0.8%)
21:00 - Celebrity Big Brother: 1.41m (6.3%), +1: 183k (1.1%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One - 25.4%
ITV1 - 12.0% (+1: 0.6%)
Channel 5 - 6.4% (+1: 0.9%)
Channel 4 - 5.9% (+1: 1.9%)
BBC Two - 5.6%

All Day Shares inc +1's
BBC One - 18.6%
ITV1 - 9.6%
BBC Two - 6.6%
Channel 4 - 6.3%
Channel 5 - 5.6%
ITV2 - 3.2%
Film4 - 2.0%
ITV3 - 2.0%

Multichannels
BBC Three
21:00 - Foo Fighters: Reading 2012: 471k (2.2%)
22:00 - Family Guy: 980k (5.1%)
22:20 - Family Guy: 915k (5.4%)

Dave (inc +1)
22:00 - QI XL: 347.5k

E4 (inc +1)
19:00 - The Big Bang Theory: 577k (3%)
20:00 - FILM: Volcano: 329k

Film4 (inc +1)
21:00 - FILM: Rush Hour 3: 561k
22:45 - FILM: The Final Destination: 434k

ITV2
18:45 - The X Factor: 547k (3.0%), +1: 198k (0.9%)
20:00 - The Xtra Factor: 543k (2.6%), +1: 162k (0.7%)
21:00 - Benidorm: 577k (2.6%), +1: 190k (0.4%) inc +1
22:00 - Lemon La Vida Loca: 592k (3%) inc +1

More4 (inc +1)
18:50 - Come Dine With Me: 396k
22:35 - Father Ted: 409k

Sky1
18:00 - The Simpsons 500th Episode: 603k (4.0%)
21:00 - A Touch of Cloth: 517k (2.3%)
* slot average: 340k (1.3%)

Sky Sports 1
13:00 - Live Ford Super Sunday: 950k (11%)
15:30 - Live Ford Super Sunday: 1.33m (10.3%)

Watch (inc +1)
18:30 - Hitch: 233k

Yesterday (inc +1)
18:40 - Last Of The Summer Wine: 346k

Source: Broadcast, DS (1, 2), C4 Sales, ITV Media, MG

Thanks for the full roundup, The rating of yesterday to me was Only Connect, Big ratings for a small channel

I think so, it's the first time that particular programme has caught my attention ratings wise, so probably!

Sunday 26th August 2012
You know a network has had a good night when it has had no soaps on, yet it can still command a 27 percent share over three hours in primetime. Not necessarily Countryfile, because it has done that week-in-week-out, but the fact that George Gently did better than Silent Witness did last week. It's not often BBC One has a 27 percent share over 3 hours, so I think it is worth noting. BBC Two had a fairly mediocre night, nothing really standing out.

The Chase did fine in the 19:00 hour, but I really feel if it was given a better slot, or even if it had an X Factor lead-in, that it would do much better. I know that The X Factor is weaker this year so far, but I think The Chase could potentially get 4.5m with an X Factor lead-in. The names are recognisable, and it is one of the most enjoyable gameshows on TV at the moment. Millionaire is at least half a million down on where it should have been, and The Last Weekend flopped. As I said yesterday, under no circumstances should a new drama be under 2 million on ITV1. Appalling numbers for it, especially when you consider that it built on a weaker lead-in last week!

Channel 4 benefited from a weaker ITV1 as Peter Kay once again delivered the goods at 21:00. X-Men did well before it as well, but Kay didn't help Bad Sugar at all after it. In terms of the 22:00 shows, Channel 4 have come out of these two weeks with poor ratings at 22:00 and no real hits. I don't think any of the Funny Fortnight shows at 22:00 have come out with over 1 million excluding +1.

Like Channel 4, Channel 5 had a good evening, Once Upon a Time has been a star for the network, while Beauty and the Beast did well in the early evening.

Family Guy gets the usual multichannel plaudits, although ITV2 and Sky1 also had a good night, albeit A Touch of Cloth dropped for the latter on Monday. Sky Sports did well with the football, it does seem to be a touch down year-on-year though.

Reason: Hard hitting, race storyline on Notting Hill wekend or the musical content ?

Really good start for Citizen Khan, and I have to admit, I really liked it.
I suppose Jay Hunt and co think C4 is being "edgy", "alternative" and "down wiv da kidz" by throwing Boyle the occasional bone, so I wouldn't bet against further shows cropping up from time to time, and playing out to tiny audiences.

Agreed, in particular, i think "Murder" deserved a better slot.

K

Monday 27th August 2012 - Full Roundup
BBC One
18:00 - Countryfile Summer Special: 4.53m (23%)
19:00 - The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo: 4.83m (22%)
20:00 - EastEnders: 7.62m (32.4%)
20:30 - The One Show Best of Britain: 2.21m (9.3%)
21:00 - New Tricks: 7.77m (31.6%)
* series 8 debut: 8.25m (35%)
* slot average: 4.81m (19.4%)
22:20 - Citizen Khan: 3.41m (20.9%)
* Mrs Brown's Boys debut: 2.63m (16.38%)
* slot average: 3.72m (21.11%)

BBC Two
20:00 - University Challenge: 2.46m (10.5%)
20:30 - Lorraine's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food: 1.56m (6.6%)
21:00 - Horizon: 1.54m (6.24%) inc HD

ITV1
18:00 - ITV Regional News: 3.49m (18%) inc +1
18:15 - ITV News & Weather: 3.80m (19%) inc +1
19:00 - Emmerdale: 6.37m (29.2%), +1: 137k (0.6%)
19:30 - Coronation Street: 7.75m (33.4%), +1: 205k (0.9%)
20:30 - Coronation Street: 8.29m (34.8%), +1: 222k (0.9%)
21:00 - Harry's Mountain Heroes: 2.15m (9.43%), +1: 72k (0.48%)
* slot average: 5.41m (21.81%)

Channel 4
18:00 - The Simpsons: 1.59m inc +1
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 864k (4.2%), +1: 76k (0.3%)
20:00 - The Restoration Man: 1.1m (4.6%), +1: 154k (0.6%)
21:00 - Alan Carr: Spexy Beast: 1.16m (4.7%), +1: 305k (1.7%)
* slot average: 1.77m (7.14%)
22:00 - The Boyle Variety Performance: 898k (5.5%), +1: 135k (1.5%)

Channel 5
13:45 - Neighbours: 774k (7.2%)
17:30 - Neighbours: 826k (4.8%)
21:00 - Celebrity Big Brother: 1.86m (7.6%), +1: 205k (1.18%)
22:00 - Celebrity Wedding Planner: 818k (4.7%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 24.5%
ITV1: 18.5% (+1: 0.5%)
BBC Two: 6%
Channel 5: 5% (+1: 0.3%)
Channel 4: 4.2% (+1: 0.8%)

All Day Shares inc +1's
BBC One - 21.1%
ITV1 - 13.1%
Channel 4 - 6.4%
BBC Two - 5.6%
Channel 5 - 4.7%
Film4 - 2.5%
ITV2 - 2.5%
E4 - 2.2%
ITV3 - 2.2%

Multichannel
5*
18:00 - Home and Away Classics: 152k (0.8%)
18:30 - Home and Away Classics: 181k (0.9%)

BBC Three
19:10 - FILM: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life: 797k (3.4%)
21:00 - Our War: 728k (3.0%)
22:30 - EastEnders: 590k (3.9%)
23:25 - Family Guy: 625k (7.0%)

BBC Four
20:30 - Only Connect: 905k (3.8%)

Dave (inc +1)
20:30 - Man V. Food: The Carnivore Chronicles: 300k

E4
18:00 - The Big Bang Theory: 639k (3.3%) inc +1
18:30 - The Big Bang Theory: 710k (3.4%) inc +1
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 607k (2.8%), +1: 75k (0.3%)
21:00 - Revenge: 705k (2.9%) inc +1

Film4 (inc +1)
16:40 - FILM: Night at The Museum: 727k (4.2%)
21:00 - FILM: Avatar: 592k

ITV2 (inc +1)
14:35 - The Jeremy Kyle Show: 632k (5.6%)

More4 (inc +1)
21:00 - Jimmy's Forest: 337k

Sky Atlantic
22:00 - Hunderby: 110k (0.63%)
* slot average: 43k (0.24%)

Sky1
21:00 - A Touch of Cloth: 384k (1.6%)

Watch (inc +1)
21:00 - Men in Black: 239k

Source: Broadcast (1, 2), C4 Sales, DS (1, 2), ITV Media, MG

I'd expect it to keep dropping. French and Saunders used to do these drama spoofs, and have them done and dusted in ten minutes. And even those ten minutes were too much sometimes.

Who the hell knows. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a little uplift and build up of momentum across the live shows. As with all shows of this nature the deciding factor will be what kind of narratives they spin during the boot camp and judges houses stages and whether those connect with anyone. Last year they got that section of the show rather badly wrong and it led to a series of unspectacular and fairly dull live shows where they were forced to stir up heavy handed and not entirely logical or sensible 'bullying' scandals and the like. The real issue that The X Factor has on this front is that they don't appear to have any new ground to cover. Last years series played out a bit like a parody of The X Factor with the panel doing their best impression of various judging archetypes on these shows and the contestants felt like someone in the production team said 'they'll be the next...[insert former contestant here]'. I suppose on that front allowing people with management deals etc. into the show opens up new doors. Maybe.


I'm curious about how much Countryfile you actually watch these days. Your description of it seems somewhat at odds with the actual content of the show. At least the bits of it I've seen lately. Increasingly it seems to be becoming The One Show in a field.


I already do think there should be less Panaroma and Songs of Praise and have complained about the BBC schedule a few times over the past couple of days alone.

For the record I don't think there should be less Countryfile because its popular (and that wasn't even close to what I said). My point was that the fact a show is popular should not give the BBC license to run said show into the ground. Just as the fact that a show fills their PSB requirements shouldn't give them license to run it into the ground.

To reverse your argument for a second if you're interested in rural affairs why should Countyfile be the only show on BBC1 meeting that requirement? Equally if you're religious why should Songs of Praise be the only show catering to that audience? And I've said before that I don't think the Panaroma brand works and would much prefer to see them move away from that and create a series of documentary strands that focus on different areas. This would also help the audience to identify a subject that would be interesting or relevant to them. The BBC schedule is far too rigid because they produce far too many episodes of the same handful of shows. It has to stop and they have to look at new and different ways of servicing the audience beyond those handful of shows.


And yet completely fitting.


My problem with Person of Interest isn't that its not believable its that its a terrible show.

The lead has the charisma of a pea. The characters are thin poorly developed piles of nothing. There's no sense of fun to it because it takes itself far too seriously and certainly more seriously than a show with its premise should. The writing is awful not to mention filled with holes and containing giant gaps in logic. Person of Interest is just a bad drama.


Where did the notion that the US ratings were particularly impressive come from.

Just to put this into context Person of Interest averaged less than cancelled CBS sitcom Rob. If Person of Interest had been a sitcom it would have been cancelled. It also spent too much of its season struggling to beat The Mentalist which airs an hour later in a slot where PUT levels are noticeably lower. The numbers really weren't anything to write home about.

Easy to see why Zai Bennett stopped the Foo Fighters midway through on Sunday night considering the share the two FG episodes received.

The jury's out on Citizen Khan, perfectly watchable sitcom fodder, but I feel it might bomb next week.

How much was the storyline promoted in advance? I think it would have got ~6m irrespective of the storyline because of the poor opposition, and a good lead-in from Countryfile.

Monday 27th August 2012
New Tricks may have been down 500k on the start of the last series, but no other drama besides Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife commands over 7 million viewers for every series, so with that in mind it is good to see New Tricks still at full strength and still pulling in brilliant ratings. I didn't watch Citizen Khan so can't really comment on how good that was. The Military Tattoo looks like it was up a bit on last year, and was higher than what The One Show normally gets, denting the ITV1 soaps slightly. BBC Two had a good night with its usual line-up.

Saying that, the soaps did well, Harry not so well though! Considering Harry's Arctic Heroes did good business for BBC One last year, it is surprising to see it get half of what his show got for BBC One last year. I can only assume the bad press over the weekend hurt the show badly.

Channel 4 had an okay night, The Restoration Man did okay at 20:00 although Alan Carr should have been slightly higher, it did timeshift well an hour later suggesting people didn't know it was on. CBB did it's usual reliable self on C5.

The multichannel standouts have to be Only Connect and Our War, both did fantastically. I am surprised the latter was not nearer 1 million though with a great lead-in from Tomb Raider.

I think that's the end of that! They've ironed out some of the problems from the first series, but it is not enough to save the show. I think it was in the planning for around six years, judging by a link rzt found last year, so I'm not sure why it wasn't better from the off.