Doctor Who was a pretty good episode considering there was no big pull. Quick question how did Sinbad go down in the UK? I preume its not a BBC show, was it on Sky? It premiered last night on ABC after Asylum of the Daleks, wasn't really the best drama, not surprised Chnnel Nine relinquished the rightss

Premiere did very well with a 1.9m official rating for Sky1. But it fell week-by-week for about the first 4 episodes, and seems to have now stabilised at around 1m officials. Pretty strong and still mostly at the top of the Sky1 chart, but it's not quite broken out like they might have hoped given that premiere.

Sinbad is a SKy drama, but it had some BBC Worldwide money in the pot (traitors)

Well, if it's a sound investment, that's more money back into the BBC pot to make programmes.

Thats a really impressive start for Sky, though whether 1m is enough for second season I would think how it plays out internationally would be key



I guess Sky would find it easier to sell overseas if BBC Worldwide was involved? Would this be same for shows like an Idiot Abroad or Strikeback (they are the only two shows that I'm aware of showing in Australia from Sky)

I would rather they be making sound investments in BBC programming.

This weekend is going to be horrible for The X Factor. I think ITV are going to have to suck it up and accept that it's just a host of events coming together to conspire against the show; some of it self-inflicted.

I always said the edit was the show's biggest weakness and it appears that they've sorted out that problem. Really, with word of mouth spreading that the programme's improved plus the momentum they're hoping Cheryl's return will provide, next week should be up on this week. This week may be hit either way; it's just one of those things.

For Saturday, they'll want the overall share to hold up against this week as the only difference between this week and last week is the better weather. Tomorrow...who knows? The Closing Ceremony could hurt the show badly.

There was a US show called Platinum Hit - but they didn't write for popular artists, so I'm not sure it's the same idea. They had to write and perform a new song and they did have popular artists as guest judges.

The Hit is an Irish format, part of RTE's "format farm" idea which is basically a pilot season for unscripted projects which have been originated in Ireland.


The other projects can be found here...

http://www.rte.ie/tv/formatfarm/programmes.html

The only thing not yet tackled successfully is the idea of original songs. X Factor is doing it a bit this year. Fame Academy tried to do it. If someone can put the right format together then I think it's the next hit in the genre. But it's difficult to get right.

And given the current market, I think it's best to hold off a couple of years at least to see how things shake out among X Factor, Idol and The Voice. Then the time might be right to launch something new.

X Factor was much, much better tonight. The outdoor cafe crap was ditched and it was a pacey, fun hour. It won't have rated brilliantly and tomorrow will be even worse, but hopefully this will signal the end of the rot - Cheryl's 'return' may help there.

Is there any news on how Daybreak did yesterday/across the week?

A couple of interesting shows there, though still quite derivitive. I could see both The Takeover (employees taking control of a struggling company for two weeks) and Six in the City (basically Come On a Night Out with Me) getting a chance here.

Worldwide certainly wouldn't be a hindrance to international sales. Although its somewhat strange that given Sky's links to News Corp they'd need the leg up from Worldwide on that front.

On a Sinbad related note it just sold to SyFy in the US. They also air Merlin and coincidentally it appears as if Sinbad will air in the same slot as Merlin. Be interesting to see if it does as well.

Seeing as ITV Studios have done Come Dine With Me, Come Party With Me (Party Wars), Come To My Wedding (Four Weddings) and Come Date With Me, I'd imagine they're disappointed not to have go to this particular idea first! But I'm not entirely sure where this would sit on UK TV. Maybe Sky Living?

The Takeover sounds like something that might end up on Channel 4, maybe Channel 5. It's not an idea which is hugely inspiring - I'm sure someone must have done something like this in the past. But sometimes the simple obvious ideas work best.

Getting The Hit commissioned would, I suspect, hinge entirely on the talent involved. If they could get big names involved then I could see someone commissioning it.

BBCW's 2011/12 annual report explains the thinking behind investing in non-BBC programming:

BBC [intellectual property] is the cornerstone of our content strategy and forms the vast majority of investments we make. This investment is even more crucial to fund BBC programmes after a tighter licence fee settlement. We need increasing levels of content to fuel the growth ambitions of all our businesses and so we also look to supplement the BBC content in our pipeline with programmes from other sources.

Which is fair enough, when you consider that the BBC's content spend is going to be constrained over the next few years. Investing in, distributing, and exploiting all that content - plus some non-BBC stuff such as Sinbad - all makes money, which goes back to the BBC:

Our total return to the BBC this year amounted to a record £215.7m, equivalent to over one pound in 10 spent by BBC Vision.

The edit slaughtered the early episodes; that's all it really was. I've got halfway through tonight's programme and it's like watching a completely different show to the rest of the series.

That was like reading a 'coming soon on Channel 4' press release.


The problem is how do you turn original songs into an episodic returnable format?

The Hit is never going to be able to churn out series and episodes in the way that The X Factor or The Voice can. As a format its just not strong enough. Its Dragon's Den (with a tiny taste of The Voice) for songs and I don't know how you get more than one episode out of it. How many songs can you really get out of Brian McFadden in a year? It just doesn't seem like it has the depth or variety as a format to really work beyond a one-off.

I actually think the next step (if you like) of these reality contest shows is to devolve and go pack to the kind of ground they were covering with the original Popstars. Where rather than having the big live studio shows you have more of a fly on the wall construction of a band/artist vibe. I could see something like that working with original songs. So maybe a panel of two or three producers being pitched original songs and selecting their own artist to mentor. You then follow them writing and recording that persons album and the release of it. But even then it feels like it has a pretty niche audience.

Having said that I could see the BBC using The Hit to select a Eurovision entry. So they have their pre-selected artist as they have the last couple of years and then people pitch them a song for Eurovision. That could work as a short yearly series or one-off.

Beyond that people might just have to give up on finding new spins on this talent show competition format and just letting it die out for a while.

Let's be honest, it's coming to the end of its run. The end of TXF would hardly be the end of society as we know it. Except for its hardcore fans,it would be no less than when Opportunity Knocks ended. Hughie Green sent in a petition, which was a flop, and that was that.

Even though she is only going back in a guest capacity I think Cheryl will regret returning to XF. After the way Cowell treated her and her vows not to return to the format afterwards it makes her seem a bit desperate. Or it makes them seem desperate for asking her, I haven't decided which yet.

I don't think it will do much for the ratings long term as well if it's only for a couple of episodes.

whilst I agree with your first point, im not sure I agree with your second, if X-Factor fans needs a little sweetener this year, Cheryls return will do that, and the show has two episodes to hook people, who maybe giving it a final chance.

The big drop of this season, may not be this season at all, it will be next season, where X-Factor fans have had many months to realise how uncool the show is now, and how they are so over it, at that point they will not return for anything next year.

Society would be absolutely fine...I'm not so sure about ITV, though!

Coronation Street, EastEnders and, to a lesser extent, Emmerdale have survived years going through periods of so called 'coolness' and 'uncoolness'. A lack of hype and appeal for The X Factor has dragged it down from it's peak but killing it off is a completely different thing.

And Opportunity Knocks only departed because of personal issues surrounding Hughie Green; the programme itself was rating well.

oh I cant wait to see the desperate little X-Factor fans, as they start there pointless web petitions sending it to ITV, Simon Cowell, Channel 5 (and anyone else they can think of) in the pathetic hope, they can get the show unaxed.


but the soaps dont thrive on publicity like X-Factor has done, yeah ok its good for the soaps, but with shows like X-Factor what was on TV was only ever half the story, with the other half playing out in the tabloids. They also dont have any massive pay cheques, like X-Factor does.


yes if Simon Cowell allowed it, ITV would keep dragging out X-Factor for years and years to come, as they dont have anything else new that would rate half as well as the show currently is. I suspect Simon wont allow that to happen however, not without distancing it from himself so much, it has an impact on the show.

It worked for Big Brother; though Channel 5's purchase just lead to some more petitions being set up!


Soaps used to, and still do. The X Factor has barely caused a ripple this year compared to other years and is still holding above 8m (up to tonight's episode) which is still the highest overnight of the week. Even if the Closing Ceremony/Strictly usurp it it won't be a disaster - uncomfortable yes, but not a disaster as long as The X Factor holds up.

And the show could easily work on a smaller budget. I have the feeling Louis and Sharon would do the show on the relative cheap as would Dermot as it's the best exposure they get on British TV.


Simon will be happy as long as it stays above 7m in my opinion; if it consistently dips below the 7m mark he may want to pull it...ITV could bring back the Idol format which is relatively fresh in this country compared to others.

If X Factor is getting beaten by Strictly and whatever else is on that week, Cowell won't let it carry on. It's all about ego and being the best, if it's getting clearly beaten every single week then Cowell will pull the plug.

I'm not entirely sure the point you're trying to make when you say this. It's TV. Nothing on TV ending is going to be the end of society as we know it. In the long run, all TV series are reduced to quiz trivia questions and maybe some fond memories.

I remember a list of the top rating new entertainment series on ITV a while back. Sing If You Can, Red or Black and Push The Button were the top 3. So long as that situation persists, it's hard to see X Factor going anywhere. They may review the budgets, the number of hours, but for the forseeable future I'm not sure what options ITV have.

It's also worth remembering that BBC1 aren't awash with series pulling X Factor ratings (or, from a commercial perspective, X Factor demos) on Saturday nights. The Voice was the first big hit in years but may well have peaked in its first series.


When they were massive, they did. I remember Richard Hillman and Who Shot Phil were national obsessions. Much like X Factor lately, that aspect has been lost. The soaps do well with their audiences, produce a large number of hours, nothing else will replace them with the same ratings and they manage their declines well. But they're not the phenomena that they once were.