I officially do not understand this format at all...

It may (or may not) be worth while mentioning at this point that UK broadcasters didn't really become interested in The Voice until it was a success in the US. I'm not sure how much attention any of them pay to anywhere other than the States so this might just fly under their radar. Stranger things have happened though.

Where would the bbc move DW to? It doesn't make any sense to have it earlier than 6pm or later than 8pm. I suppose they could move it to Sunday, but that'd mean having to rejig Sundays schedule.

I've said this here before, but there's no way the beeb would ever come out and say Dr Who was axed. If they wanted to stop making it, they would come out and say that they thought it was tired and needed looked at again etc. That there would definitely be more but it maybe some time.

When Michael Grade tried to axe Who in 1985, the decision was reversed in less than a week as the BBC's PR pointed out there was about to be a large protest outside the House of Commons and if that happened the beeb would get negative publicity from every newspaper in the world over it. And that was for a Doctor Who that everybody knew had seen better days.

Have ITV really renewed Eternal Law???


To be honest they should have congratulated him for the race and asked him about tactics etc. before moving on to the blade query. I'm assuming the poor guy was bemused about the whole thing; he certainly looked it.

Re. The X Factor and Doctor Who - The X Factor increased 0.4m in the officials from the overnight figure (8.7m to 9.1m) for the launch - if it follows the same pattern for episodes 2 and 3 it'll rate at 9.3m and 9.0m in the officials. The launch of Doctor Who last year increased from 6.5m to 8.9m so if this year's launch follows the same pattern it could be a battle between the two this week.

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest that they'd renewed Eternal Law just that it was an obvious attempt at finding a returnable drama. As far as I know no one is going to be subjected to a second series of it.


The whole thing is a little odd in general. The presence of the translator gave the whole thing the air of a comedy sketch as well which was an added bonus.

In the Netherlands, there is lots of buzz about this show. There was a very successful press launch prior to the series about the celebrities being involved in the show and this was well linked with the show coming straight after the Olympics. In the last week, some stars have been rushed to the hospital with injuries which has resulted in further press coverage about the show. The first episode was well received by viewers due to the competitive element of seeing these stars in 'jeopardy' but as well as having a 'lighter tone' due to seeing some "unfit" [aka fat] celebrities belly flop into the pool which amused many viewers. Also for viewers at home, there are some very fit male and/or female celebs to cast your eye upon as they take their tops off or wear just bikinis, which is never a bad thing! The recent press coverage of stars being taken injured into the hospital has given the show an extra narrative, as viewers tuned back this week to see if those celebrities were fine to continue and to see the extent of those injuries.

Thanks; I could understand the premise and for me there were promising moments but they made the 'apprentice' unbearable and it unraveled from there.


It was cringeworthy stuff; I would've expected it to appear in The Last Leg instead of the main show!


Just by the description I'm going to guess it's produced by either Syco or Endemol - I could be wrong.

So its basically strictly come diving Tbh, it could work as we have a real diving celebrity as a mentor in Tom Daley-Can't be any worse than red or black

...You haven't watched the clip SamuelW posted, then?

But I still don't understand the actual format.

I mean I get The X Factor and shows like it. I understand the appeal and I understand how the show develops across the week and why people get involved with it. I even (mostly) understand Strictly and Dancing on Ice and what makes them tick but I cannot grasp a diving show. I just can't. I don't understand how 'celebrities diving' works as a pitch, I don't understand why people watch that and I don't understand how it develops every week. Surely its just for all intents and purposes exactly the same every week?

I get that diving is difficult and technical but does that actually translate? How impressive can x number of not very good celebrities jumping off a board be? The whole format is just completely lost on me.


It was I think a show designed to sell internationally. Its the kind of procedurals with a twist that US networks love for example but the problem is I don't think we're (as in the UK) very good at making those kind of shows. Possibly because we tend to take our drama way too seriously.

haha, Ok, it looks naff, but a sport related light entertainment show like that is a good idea in theory its just finding the format to do it and diving is popular at the moment due to the Daley effect so I can see it possibly having an audience if it launched next week and can see why its doing well post olympics- I think by the time it made it to air here it would defiantely be a WTF is this moment but Total Wipeout has made 6 series out of people falling into water so who knows?

Well the first three minutes are golden, that's for sure. I never thought of the Dutch as being so much fun! Beyond that my Dutch isn't all that sharp so I lost it in bits but I see the general format.

If a sport is to work then this is it. Cycling won't work, we can't judge cyclists. We can (try to) judge diving. But how far can we judge it if they're all not very good? We already have DOI to try and cause injury to our D list celebrities and they find it difficult enough to attract contestants. Diving doesn't take long so they need to probably have multiple dives per show to make it work (the Dutch version is too slow).

Perhaps part of my problem watching it is that in the absence of any Dutch language skills, I'm not entirely sure what I'm waiting for or judging them against. The VT's just seem to show them falling into the water! I think you'd definitely need a Tom Daley to "educate" the audience and set the scene a bit. Maybe have difficulty levels?

One of the problems - it's fun and tongue in cheek. But if it were commissioned, people would be condemning it immediately. I genuinely don't know if something left field like Strictly would make it on the air and get the same chance from audiences as it did in 2004. It's best bet is probably to be launched under the Comic Relief or Sport Relief banner because the BBC get away with this stuff in the name of charity! I'm not sure ITV could get away with it these days although perhaps having Tom Daley would help a bit (nobody wants to be mean to Olympians for now!).

Was the Games on C4? I thought it was on C5. Anyway I do think it is a format that could work as it also had the BB element of the participants being watched 24/7 & then them competing a different event each night. It could be refomatted to work over a period of weeks. Learn a different sport each week & if they could get use of some of the Olympic venues even better!

I'm 95% certain that the creator of 'Sterren Springen' just saw the episode where Bobby Davro bellyflopped in The Games and thought "That's some funny TV". Spin it out to a whole show, add some flashing lights and there you have it! There's no such thing as an original idea in television...

Seriously, though, The Games was a superior format - though you could say that C4 rather attempted a revival of sorts with the disastrous Famous & Fearless. It worked on exactly the same premise, just upped the stakes a little. So it's little wonder The Games didn't return after that.

Some real guff posted on this thread today.

Starting it's 7th series in the modern era, Doctor Who will/should timeshift to around 8.6m. Which is pretty much in line with every single series opener since it returned.

Next.... :yawn:

That's no fun at all. Where's the "the ratings are falling" gif from Gallifrey Base when you need it?

I think 22-24 episodes for British dramas is unlikely but I think having 10-15 episodes rather than 6-8 would be better at least for selling international purposes. I've noticed that a lot of cable networks in the States are now ordering 10 episode dramas rather than 13-15 episodes and if they're successful, the order is increased for the second season which i think UK dramas should adopt, start with 6 and increase to 8-10 for the following series. The White Queen has10 episodes which for a period drama is lengthy as most BBC costume drama tend to short orders of 3-6 episodes.

I don't think the 3-4 parters will fall of favour as there are some stories that can only be told like that.

Happy days!

10 or 11 episodes is probably what ITV would be looking at to do a proper "autumn/winter" schedule - starting in September and running through to mid November when I'm A Celebrity starts and ad rates peak.

I think ITV's main new six parter this Autumn is Homefront. If that one works then next Autumn they'll have Homefront, Doc Martin and Downton Abbey taking up three nights. A fourth night could be taken up by Monroe (if that rates OK this time and if they can get it on air by then) or an extended run of Bletchley Circle. That'd be a pretty nice schedule for them. Mr Selfridge is also apparently starting at some point this Autumn but I've no idea how they're going to fit that one in (I've got an awful feeling they're going to strip it in December).

I can see the point in the 2-3 parters when they're basically mini pilot runs and have the scope to extend a la Whitechapel and DCI Banks (and Bletchley Circle), or when they're exceptionally good and they want awards a la Appropriate Adult and Mrs Biggs, but other than that it does seem odd that they commission so many. Maybe one or two serials in a year would be OK but they do so many and they do clog up a lot of the schedule. I guess they're less risky than six parters but they could probably do with scaling them back slightly (as they have done already to be fair) in order to allow more returnable stuff to come through.

It's an international co-production like The Tudors and The Borgias where 10 episodes is the norm.

It's launching in the US on October 19th, in the Friday 10pm slot on Cinemax when Sky's Strike Back finishes its run.

Interesting to see what the sex/violence/bad language quota will be like.

Haven't seen last night's Strike Back yet, but apparently the sex quota has been increased on last year's!!

GMTV, err, Daybreak's relaunch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa9_iOiaWsY

Compare with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhTWxnMEVBg

4.17m (16.44%) peak last night for the Paralympics: https://twitter.com/Jake_Kanter/stat...42487611269120

But nothing ever happens and when it has happened it happened off screen, many months can pass by between scenes and the 1st world war began with a few casual words in a couple of scenes.

It'd be interesting to see how well the repeat of The Cube with Mo Farah did last night, considering more people know who he is now compared to before the Olympics when it was originally aired.