But its not like Boyle is the only 'edgy' comedian in the entire country. Also when you consider that one of the country's least edgy comedians (Peter Kay) brings them big numbers for shows that are years old you'd think logic would kick in somewhere along the way.

Does anyone know what kind of demos Frankie Boyle's shows bring in? Is the entire audience young? That's just about the only reason I can think of to keep plugging away with someone who audiences repeatedly seem to be rejecting. That and the fact its Channel 4 obviously.

I read a piece on chortle.co.uk last week saying that a comics war- like a less violent version of east/west coast rap war- might be good for business- maybe 4 should encourage Boyle to insult Stewart Lee more, in the hope he'll insult Boyle more back and ratings for both will go up.

This is now confirmed.

ITV's schedule is the same as the previous week, The X Factor starts at 20:10, meaning a 10 minute overlap with Doctor Who.

Meanwhile for Sunday 8th September:

BBC One
19:05 - BBC News & Weather
19:30 - Countryfile
20:30 - Inspector George Gently

ITV1
19:00 - Coronation Street
20:00 - The X Factor
21:00 - The Scapegoat

- Dragons' Den returns to BBC Two at 21:00
- The closing ceremony for the Paralympics is between 19:00 to 23:30

Thanks to Elgin on GB.

That could be a very interesting night ratings wise, depending on how well the Paralympics does ratings wise.

No idea where that hour of Coronation Street comes from. It's on this Sunday at 19:00 due to the Friday football, but that doesn't explain why it is on the following Sunday as well.

What little I saw it seems one character has left or been recast and they got rid of the filmic look to the series. Very surprised this came from Simon Nye. I think it's awful. Might have gotten a million more had it been following Mrs Brown's Boys.

Paralympics will be the thing that will take some viewers from The X Factor

What are they appealing for? Is it some sort of telethon lite, with lots of Scottish celebs and SNP politicians dropping in?

That is another reason why ITV doesn't do much comedy, translate that into an ITV rating from a BBC rating and you get not much more than 2m.

Mrs Brown's Boys seems to be soaking up viewers in any slot, having said that it's increasingly lazy that BBC1 seem to schedule it all over the place whenever there is a spare half hour.

Would I lie to You is another one that is over used and seems to be on every week either in peak time or after the news.

And that's a perfectly valid opinion from someone who openly admits he doesn't like JJ Abrams' work. Wouldn't it be fair to say you're in the minority though? An 8.3/10 score on IMDB seems pretty decent from over 20,000 votes. If there were more people saying what you were saying, I'd be worried for it. As it is, I'm quite relaxed about its chances and what will be will be.


In the demo, maybe. I wasn't really talking about the demo, though. Total People numbers were strong enough to make it the #1 new show of the season, albeit in a weak season for new drama, and it reached some reasonable highs towards the back end of the season. In the end it finished #13 for the 2011/12 season. The current number one drama in the US, NCIS, finished #26 at the end of its first season. As long as Person of Interest picks up next season which I think it will, it could be around for a long time to come. It could do with recruiting more younger viewers but then you could say the same for a number of shows on CBS.

Downton Abbey is back on Sunday 16th September.

That's a high all day share for a summer Bank Holiday, even allowing for it not being a Bank Holiday in Scotland.

No surprises then, same day as last year. (I remember as it was back on my birthday on the 18th)

The lead actor isn't just a bad actor, he literally does not act and overall the first episode is horribly directed (US drama needs to stop flipping cars, especially when their on a road with no obstacle in sight).

The show is basically people saying exposition between colourful stuff happening on screen. Its utter tripe and pretty much unwatchable am shocked how good it did in the states. This would be like Paradox (similar premise) taking off over here.

In the pilot, an important character is killed off screen, another kidnapped off screen (or something - I generally don't follow plots if its random exposition and logic jumps from A to B and all spoken off a computer screen) and the main character is not just 100% stupid (he gets told she might not be the victim) hes 100% humourless and emotionless.

This show might be watchable if it had the tone of something like Vexed, it doesn't.

And the episode ended with an off screen shoot out. Worse than woeful, it was insulting that someone wanted me to watch it.


I mean a show like Chuck I enjoy, its fun, stupid and silly. Its got a stupid premise but its camp and fun. Person of Interest wanted me to really believe the plot; the lead actor could have at least seemed to find it all bizzare.

IMBD is a bad place to find show scores anyway; Mrs Brown only has a 7.7 for example. People will review these things to extremes if they like them or dislike them.

A few more bits, again, thanks to Elgin on GB:

Monday 10th September 2012
- The Olympic parade is between 13:25 and 16:15 on BBC1, with highlights at 20:30
- New drama Leaving starts at 21:00 on ITV1.

Tuesday 11th September 2012
- Trouble On The Estate at 21:00 on BBC1 (presumably a Panorama special).
- The Vikings starts at 21:00 on BBC2.
- World Cup qualifier from 19:30 on ITV1.
- New drama import Lilyhammer starts at 22:00 on BBC4.

Wednesday 12th September 2012
- Watchdog returns at 20:00 on BBC1.

Friday 14th September 2012
- Piers Morgan's Life Stories returns at 21:00 on ITV1.

They've recast the daughter, and I think they've replaced the brother of Will Mellor's character with a different brother, rather than just recasting the original brother, if that makes any sense?

Nye's writing is better than the original writing team's scripts, but I think Nye would do better creating his own family sitcom from scratch, rather than taking on other people's work and trying to transform it.

And for something about being In With the Flynns, there still seems to be a lot of location stuff.

And from C5:

Movie Premiere: Over Her Dead Body (2008): Sunday 9th September 7.10pm
Cowboy Builders (New Series): Monday 10th September 9pm
Emergency Bikers (New Series): Wednesday 12th September before Dallas
Paddy and Sally's Excellent Gypsy Adventure (New Series): Wednesday 12th September after Dallas
Eddie Stobart's Trucks and Trailers (New Series): Friday 14th September 8pm

Has Channel 4 picked up the second run rights to CBS drama Unforgettable? DigiGuide seems to think so, although you'd hope they'd give it a better timeslot than this. It aired originally here on Sky Living:


Most of C4 that week is TBA so little else to report.

New Tricks might have had the most bizarre episode ever last night, but I'm not complaining at 7.7 million, this is soap territory. CBB seems to be edging up to the 2 million mark as it heads towards its final week, I think this will be where the show ends up for its last few nights.
Also it looks like TXF is starting to come under fire even from loyal supportes like The Sun. Andy Ross savaged it for being boring and stale and it can't be long, if ratings fall again, that they do a BB on it and start encouraging their journalists to attack the show.

There's an England WC qualifier on Fri. 7th September.

When are the likes of The Million Pound Drop and Russell Howard's Good News returning?

Surely half an hour of Corrie on Sunday with the other half on Thursday (Pushing back the Corrie docs for 2 weeks) would be better than an hour on Sunday starting at the early time of 7pm?

They don't always use these extra Corries to their advantage and seem to want to get rid of them as quick as possible.

Moved from Thursday nights, presumably because of Waterloo Road? Should boost what is a flagging night for BBC One.

Also, TOS is extended to an hour on that Wednesday night, and with WDYTYA? at 9, it's a solid-enough line-up.

I think Watchdog might dip on Wednesday nights.

I'm getting the thought that they should go back to airing weekly additions of WWTBAM. Yes, it will never again get 19 million viewers unless they have the Queen on there or something (!).

That hour of Corrie could come in handy in helping to salvage something from what's likely to be a low to very low rating night for them thereafter. I still don't really understand why The Cube is being repeated in a Sunday 8pm slot in September, a slot which will soon be occupied by their highest rated show.