looking at the next 7 days.

The Xtra Factor, TOWIIE, Girlfri3nds, Youve Been Framed, Celebrity Juice, Super Tiny Animals, Top Dog Model, X Factor USA, Beauty And The Geek, The Real Housewives of Orange Country, Mark Wrights Hollywood Nights.

Throw in some repeats of The Cube, and the usual well repeated movies, yes I agree ITV 2 is a vast improvement on what it was.

I also recall seeing a show called "Peter Andres Bad Boyfriend Club" mentioned.

I don't think ITV had much of a say, to be fair. Cowell was going to sell The X Factor to the US whatever they did and he dragged Cheryl with him. Dannii wanted to go stay in Australia rather than spend three months in the year in the UK which meant they had to find three replacements.On paper, they didn't do a bad job and indeed the UK panel looked better than the American panel. It just didn't work in the lives.


Is location the key though; will a change to the savannah or the desert work? 71 Degrees North set a bunch of challenges in the Arctic and that didn't pay of.


That's true - it really is a case of the less the better for television. The commercial market has been split so many ways it's harming the standard of overall television programming.


It depends how much ITV pay for The X Factor contract. If it doesn't see a horrific decline then they will be looking to renew next year but I'm sure it will be at a lesser rate of the old contract. The question is how Simon will take to that and whether he feels he'll be able turn the show around or at least stabilise it.

I think there is an attempt to move away from some of the more banal shows they had. Certainly rubbish like Katie and Peter and Celeb Air seem to have been eradicated and I'm keen they're branching out into American sitcoms.

Except for the fact that he produced Hollyoaks' most successful era from 2006-2008.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007...ymediasection4

Having him back is probably the best (and last?) chance Hollyoaks has of turning around.

In response to Fudd, 71DN was a blatant cash in on IAC and people saw through it. IAC should have been rotated location wise every year as the show has become too samey.

so there is a tiny tiny improvement, but im not exactly sure I would start inebriating yet, i mean "Top Dog Model" is hardly the stuff of quality TV.


yes ok he was successful on Hollyoaks previously, however he failed to repeat that successful, its possible he was creatively spent after his first stint on Hollyoaks, just returning to Hollyoaks does not mean he will all of a sudden be able to repeat that.

last maybe the important word, in your post.

They're screwed either way to be honest - people will complain if he's there as the novelty act for the year, people will complain it's boring if someone like him isn't.

IMO the talent on The X Factor is so much stronger and varied than last year at this stage, notably with the groups. Louis could put through three very strong, very different, groups - but as it is Louis making the decision I'm expecting three very bland, very samey, groups. It's similar in the other categories - there is a great mix of varied talent - but a lack of big personalities that people are going to latch on too, and that is what will hurt the ratings.

The live shows more than ever though need a bit of a revamp and the theme weeks to be ditched in favour of letting individual acts carve their niche rather than having this idea they need to be a jack of all trades, master the none.

Personally I've concluded ITV2 is as bad now as it ever was. Everything from the tacky look and feel of the channel (including those programme specific DOGs they plaster over everything suggesting they don't give a stuff about their viewers), to the tone of their announcements and promotional material, to the quality of the programming on offer the vast majority of the time, points towards a very poor standard of service. The fact that a channel that meets this description can find itself top of the digital rankings speaks more about the value of EPG prominence than it does about anything else.

E4 is so far ahead quality wise it's unbelievable, and yet they are both catering for the same sort of age group. How could ITV be getting it so wrong in comparison with a far bigger budget? It doesn't even make sense. Case in point: tomorrow night's flagship ITV2 offerings consist of a repeat of tired old clip show You've Been Framed! followed by a movie title they've shown 8 times in the past year alone. E4 in comparison has a genre-spanning lineup that includes a damn good sitcom block, a smash hit drama from the U.S. and a documentary.

ITV4 is the only ITV channel that strikes a chord with me these days, but outside of its sport output (which is very good indeed and still improving) I'm not too fussed about that either.

I agree

Well an assumed BARB screw up seems to have caused some excitement this afternoon. One of those things - it's happened before, it will happen again.

I'd be surprised if the overnights are re-issued because they are just that - overnights. Let's see what the official ratings bring.


Yes, it does. But you're are speculating wildly here. How on earth can you say C4 has been overstated by 1-1.5m and then unilaterally decide to award all those viewers to ITV1's shows?

There's no way on God's earth that last week's extended and early-starting TXF got a 10.4m average!

You'd have been better not posting these extrapolations, as some people may take them as gospel.

All-day shares from C4 Sales:

BBC 1: 18.9%
ITV1 inc +1: 15.4%
BBC 2: 5.4%
Channel 4 inc +1: 4.5%
Five inc +1: 3.9%
ITV2 inc +1: 3.1%
ITV3 inc +1: 2.9%


Considering ITV1 won primetime by 5 points or so, the fact that they lost the whole day by 3.5 just shows how weak they are in daytime and late night at the weekend. BBC1 has better content and variety across the day, but is not infallible....


I agree. My heart sinks when I see Bargain Hunt listed on a Saturday afternoon. Often sport pre-empts such programmes. Also I suppose there's an argument that people who work conventional hours during the week might not otherwise come across these programmes which they might enjoy; but still, in the interests of variety something else should go there. A family film? Obviously the Pixar titles are finite in number and shouldn't be wasted in a low-rating slot but something like Escape to Witch Mountain would be a better use of airtime. BBC2 usually airs old films at this time: stick the factual-entertainment repeats there and have proper family movies on BBC1.


Post of the day!

I agree. Some dangerous assumptions are being made, perhaps because it's convenient to do so.

I suggest waiting for the official data release tomorrow.

on the subject of ITV 2, im only surprised it does not air shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo or Toddlers & Tiaras. It could also make a UK version.

You think they give a crap about quality? E4 don't air any documentaries.... Also, E4 treat their shows like shit, New Girl/2 Broke Girls delayed heavily, Rules of Engagement every episode except two of the last season aired, and there's no indication that the final two episodes will ever receive a showing...

ITV2 have picked up a load of sitcoms for this year. Ben and Kate (three of it's producers are from E4's New Girl, and the other two are from SONY's critically acclaimed Community), Up All Night and Animal Practice (from the Russo Brothers who directed several episodes of Arrested Development and produced Community).

I think ITV2 are trying to turn themselves around, ditching Idol, picking up a few sitcoms (most of which are crap, but it's the thought that counts). I reckon the rebrand/new year will see them playing up their properly scripted series rather than pseudo-reality bullshit.

If that is the case, then how come Sky1, Sky2 and Sky Atlantic don't do as well as they used to (in the case of Sky1) compared with ITV2.


Because rzt noted it here: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=3654

And two members on another forum who both have access to ratings have stated that it is only Channel 4 and ITV1 affected. I'll quote their post:

"BARB have informed company's that there was an error with the audio matching of ITV1 and Channel 4 on the 19-24 September. BBC channels were not affected. Corrected data will be re-issued over the next few days."

Plus, don't be surprised if ITV1 and Channel 4's ratings are delayed in the officials: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=3664

----------------------------------------
DOCUMENTARY: World's Greatest Body Shockers
On: E4 (136)
Date: Monday 1st October 2012 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 22:00 to 23:00 (1 hour long)

With an unflinching eye and a wicked sense of irreverence, Tom Allen presents a romp through the world's most shocking body transformations, sprinkled with some comedy surprises of his own. Featuring incredible stories of ordinary people's body battles, from those who want to build up their muscles to the point of bursting, to the men who give birth, or those who tattoo, pierce, chop and change their bodies, all in the name of body modification. It's a compelling spectacle that includes the very best archive, tabloid tales, social commentators and comedy talking heads.
(Repeat, Subtitles)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=254032

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Probably not going to win a BAFTA, but still...

That's a repeat of a C4 show. I assumed we meant original content/films only...

There is some almighty rubbish on ITV2, and I must admit I don't watch it very often, but it does help ITV by getting 3 pc of the audience and the way ITV focuses its digital channels is clever.

Maybe, maybe not. I was talking about what's happening on air now, as opposed to what might be happening in a few months time.

Clearly they've seen how the likes of The Big Bang Theory has helped E4 and taken note of its extraordinary repeat value and now they want a slice of that action. Remains to be seen once they are slotted in around the usual ITV2 dross whether viewers that like US sitcoms will respond, or whether they'll be too busy doing something else like watching E4. And that's the big reservation I have with ITV's mini spending spree on US sitcoms, they are not necessarily going to be a good fit for the channel. Not to mention the fact there may not be a hit show in that mix, as shows like The Big Bang Theory don't come around often.

To be frank, I feel this is a tad unfair on ITV 2. The recent shift into original programming and gaining some decent new imports does indicate a definite shift in tone and quality for the channel and is more than can be said for Channel 5 ( or even Channel 4 to an extent.) Totally agree that ITV 2 show some crap ( TOWIE, Bad Boyfriend Club, Hollywood Nights) but they are also a business and therefore need to appeal to there demographic successfully in order to make any kind of profit. Nobody can deny that ITV 2 knows its audience very well and does actually have a very entertaining flagship format in Celebrity Juice. Channel 5 & 4 seem to be lost at the moment with no "clear" identity anymore. Channel 5 is a mix of crime imports, classic films and Big Brother with some half arsed attempts at 18-34 programming to try and capture the Big Brother audience ( and failing most of the time, probably due to the fact that young people don't see 5 as there "type" of channel.) and god alone knows what is happening at Channel 4 these days.

Just read this back and realized I sound like an ITV 2 fanboy (not the case I can assure you) and I find E4 to be a far far better channel, but I did find some criticisms of it unfair.

ive said many time both on and off this thread, that ITV has got its digital house in order, each targeting a specific audience, with a strong identity. The problem is that ITV 2s strong identity is of a channel that shows rubbish programs.

As for ITV 2s forthcoming US sitcoms, its too early to say how many will be successful on either their US network or ITV 2.

Up All Night is fair enough in its second series, but TBH this is the first I am hearing of it.

Ben and Kate has started with 4.2 million viewers, which is not the best of starts.

Animal Practice started with 12.8 million viewers, but dropped to 5.2 million for its second episode.

So for now "Up All Night" is the only safe bet for ITV 2.

I would not expect those 3 shows, to show the strength of line up that E4 currently enjoys with its sitcoms.

I see your point, and bet they'll pull the most stupid stunt possible and schedule them on a Thursday. The same day as E4, BBC Two, BBC Three and Sky1 schedule many of their comedies

And I think they've picked up a number of duds, but then there hasn't been that many good network TV shows this year. They missed a trick by not picking up NBC's Go On. Here's my run down of ITV2's sitcom acquisitions...
Animal Practise - Awful, likely to be cancelled
Ben and Kate - Shows potential, likely to get a second series
Up All Night - Not seen it, likely to be cancelled after it's second season

If I was ITV2, I'd look at something from FX/Comedy Central. It's cable, so it'll be fairly cheap, and there already enough episodes of a few of them to enter daily repeats, not entirely sure how appropriate any of them would be though.

I've heard good things about Louie (36 episodes), Workaholics (30 episodes) and Tosh.0 (92 episodes)...

The only reason Katie Price is no longer on ITV2 is because she was poached by Sky Living. She's flopped badly on Sky Living. I wonder if she'd still be a ratings hit if she was still on ITV2.

I'm afraid I don't really follow your argument. ITV2 is a "business" so it's fine that it shows crap 99% of the time. C4 and C5 show crap some of the time so they are "lost" and as much use as a chocolate teapot!

On the subject of demographics, as PSBs C4 and C5 are obliged to a certain extent to appeal to a wider audience than ITV2 targets, so whilst you might be right that they are not performing as well as they could because they are not consistent in terms of who they are trying to attract, there's not an awful lot they can do about that aside from careful scheduling and ensuring everything they commission is in line with the brand's values. The fact that ITV2 has a clear target audience makes major misfires like The Exclusives harder to forgive. Surely they should know their audience better than that by now.

Of course it's great that they have a big channel defining show like Celebrity Juice. To be fair, I'm struggling to think of a channel off the top of my head that doesn't. But a failure to do much else of note around that means ITV2 isn't really achieving its potential. And whilst they've picked up some new US shows, they aren't the only channel to do that in the past year. They are however quite unique in terms of how quick they were to take the plunge. US network TV isn't exactly on fire just now, so it's kind of risky what they are doing, buying "blind" and not waiting to see how they go down in the US first. There can be a (significant?) cost advantage to that, but not if they all turn out to be flops.

Ben and Kate is 2nd out of Fox's 3 new shows that have already premiered this year. TVBTN has no prediction for Fox as of yet. I think Ben and Kate is boderline, but it looks like a cheap show (no big name actors or producers), so it might just tip a second season.

Up All Night is the lowest rated season premiere for NBC this year. TVBTN lists it as likely to be cancelled. However NBC is in the unique position of losing a lot of it's comedies this year, with The Office and 30 Rock retiring, and the possible retirement of Parks and Rec (I can't remember NBC clarifying that - I'm sure they said it was the final season, then stopped mentioning about that ever since), as well as the smothering of Community and Whitney...

Also, due to mechanics of syndication often if a show gets a third season, it's practically guaranteed a fourth. Especially if (like UAN) the network airing the show also produces it...