Alex, what do you think about Last Resort on ABC? Getting better reviews (from critics and the public who watched the pilot early) but on a worse time slot?

Will either of these "high concept" shows survive?

The big new shows I saw being promoted in the US were Go On, Elementary, The Voice, Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue. Of the returners, X Factor, Once Upon A Time and Revenge got a lot of airtime and posters.

A bit lower than I was expecting for The Voice. It's great if it holds that number all season but I doubt it'll even hold that number tonight. On the other hand, it's still going to be miles above what NBC programmed in that slot last year. It is the lowest auditions episode ever by more than one whole point in the demo (the lowest previously was the 5.1 for the series premiere, last years lowest was a 5.4). So I guess it's a bit of good and a bit of bad!

Not sure what to make of the 2.5 for The New Normal, it doesn't strike me as particularly promising but who knows how it will do in its regular slot.

X Factor started with a 4.4 last year but that remains its series high and there was a fair gap between it and both seasons of The Voice in the demo. This season, it could be game on. A 4.1 seems achievable for X Factor on Wednesday.

EDIT: While it might be good news for X Factor so far and while it could beat that 4.1, Cowell's PR would do well to lock him away for the next 48 hours to prevent any bold predictions as there's still a very real chance that like last year, they'll come back and bite him if X Factor premieres with a mid 3 on Wednesday.

Monday 10th September

BBC1
16:45 - Doctors: 1.34m (12.1%)
17:15 - Pointless: 2.52m
18:00 - BBC News at Six: 4.63m (27%)
18:30 - Regional News and Weather: 5.33m (28%)
19:00 - The One Show: 4.16m (21%)
19:30 – Panorama: 3.52m
20:00 – EastEnders: 7.45m (31.7%)
20:30 - Our Greatest Team: Athletes' Parade: 3.08m (12.7%)
21:00 – New Tricks – 7.09m (29.2%)
22:00 - BBC News at Ten: 4.49m (23%)

BBC Two
20:00 - University Challenge: 2.5m (10.6%)
20:30 - Lorraine's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food: 1.61m (6.6%)
21:00 - Horizon: 841k (3.5%).

ITV1
19:00 – Emmerdale: 6.6m (32.9%), +1: 186k (0.8%)
19:30 – Coronation Street: 8.68m (39.3%), +1: 190k (0.8%)
20:00 – Paul O'Grady for the Love of Dogs: 4.53m (18.3%), +1: 246k (1%)
20:30 – Coronation Street: 8.53m (35.1%), +1: 268k (1.1%)
21:00 – Leaving: 3.71m (14.4%), +1: 245k (1.4%)

Channel 4
17:00 – Gordon Ramsey's Ultimate Cooking Course: 861k (7.1%)
18:30 - Hollyoaks: 874k (4.6%)
20:00 - Dispatches: 918k (3.9%)
20:30 – Food Unwrapped: 1.57m (6.5%)
21:00 – 999: What's Your Emergency: 2.07m (8.5%), +1: 400k (2.3%)
22:00 - 9/11: The Miracle Survivor: 1.7m (10%), +1: 216k (2.3%)

Channel 5
17:30 - Neighbours: 994k (6.8%)
18:00 - Home & Away: 734k (4.3)
20:00 - Frontline Police: 949k (4%)
21:00 – Cowboy Builders: 867k (3.6%), +1:104k

BBC One: 22.7%
ITV1: 22.2% (+1: 0.9%)
Channel 4: 6.5% (+1: 0.8%)
BBC Two: 5.6%
Channel 5: 3.1% (+1: 0.2%)

Multichannels
BBC3
21:00 - Tourettes: Let Me Entertain You: 530k (2.2%)
22:30 – EastEnders: 449k (2.9%)

BBC4
20:30 - Only Connect: 892k (3.7%)

ITV2
14:35 - The Jeremy Kyle Show: 533k (7%)
20:00 - The X Factor: 533k (2.2%)
21:00 - Hot Fuzz: 650k (3.4%)

E4
18:00 - The Big Bang Theory: 592k (3.4%)
18:30 - The Big Bang Theory: 724k (3.8%)
19:00 - Hollyoaks: 550k (2.7%)
21:00 - Revenge: 619k (2.5%)

5*
18:30 - Home & Away: 458k (2.4%)

Sky Sports 1
20:00 - Live US Open Tennis: 793k (5.8%)

Film 4(inc.+1)
21:00 - Patriot Games: 480k

More 4(inc.+1)
18:50 - Come Dine With Me: 310k
21:00 - Grand Designs Australia: 270k

Yesterday(inc.+1)
19:20 - Last of the Summer Wine: 300k

Dave(inc.+1
21:40 - Have I Got News For You: 280k

Watch(inc.+1
22:00 - Motorway Cops: 140k

ITV Media
C4 Sales

Half hours for The Voice

3.2/10
3.9/11
4.6/12
4.7/12

Predictably it grew throughout the two hours and the first half hour dragged the average way down. That first hour doesn't bode particularly well for the hour tonight and Wednesday but we'll see.


Last Resort is interesting. I'm not sure how well it works as a returnable series but the pilot is one of the better drama pilots of the season. I hold out next to no hope for its survival. I think there's more chance Revolution survives purely because of the network its on but I wouldn't bet on that either. Revolution has the next Event and FlashForward written all over it rather than the next Lost.


I'm not sure it is.

Had NBC not played spoiler and schedule The Voice and America's Got Talent against it then I'd agree that it absolutely should top its opener last season but with NBC playing spoiler I'm not sure that's going to happen. Neither of The Voice or America's Got Talent even has to do that well. Both could average a mid-2 (which is reasonably likely at least) and seriously dent The X Factor. My guess at the moment is that The X Factor will be lucky to crack a 4 average on Wednesday.

Down 39%. In line with this years X Factor in the UK.
I do think its maybe true these shows need to continually change their 'face' to really succeed.

X Factor I don't see beating it, but I don't see either doing 'great' either.

Anything could happen but I do think the X Factor team have done a pretty good job promoting the show this time round - Simon and Britney have popped up just about everywhere doing interviews for the show.

On Ellen, Cowell said he believed NBC put an extra episode of The Voice on Wednesday night as a spoiling tactic because they had heard how good the first XF episode is (although obviously he would say that!). On Entertainment Tonight, never one for an understatement, Cowell said Wednesday night's opening episode is the best they have ever done.

Given how abysmal the first season was declaring something as the best episode to date isn't a huge boon.

Having said that I should point out that the current rumblings doing the rounds are suggesting almost exactly the opposite of what Cowell is saying – The X Factor isn't much better than it was last year if at all.

666 Park Avenue has Terry O'Quinn in it so should do well here. TV and Satellite for next week says it starts on ITV 2 later this year. Seems a slightly odd place for it though its supernatural overtones will fit better there.

The Deal or No Deal expectees will not just have boosted the viewers on the parade yesterday but also any top ups from recordings will be compromised so this needs to be considered as a special case on final figures.

Both Sky and Freeview EPGs were not updated and recorded the parade instead of the show. As More 4 was not updated either it could not even be set to record on there by those who saw the announcemen that it had been moved to a 4.40 pm start on More 4.

This made it clash with both The Chase and Pointless so will have been effected by this option to only watch live or not record and so have to seek out a repeat.

Poor show by Four not to have someone updating their EPGs.

You may have to explain that logic to me...

Bit low for The Voice. I expected around a 4.7 so it was below my expectations. Not a horrendous start but it was quite a bit below previous blind audition shows and actually not much higher than last season's live shows (the live performance shows averaged a 3.8 in the Spring). It doesn't exactly bode well for tonight and tomorrow, and presumably it'll take a further dip when DWTS begins...

Poor for The New Normal too really. If the premiere could only muster a 2.5 out of a 4.7 for the final half hour of The Voice I can't see future episodes doing much out of Go On. Speaking of Go On, the repeat of the pilot at 10:30pm last night got a 1.8, which seems fairly promising given the slot and lead-in. I think it'll do well tonight.


X Factor UK is down 23% so far this year, so a 39% decline isn't really in line with that.


I don't think the first season was that bad. Flawed certainly and the female judges and the host were poor but the production (especially on the live shows) was very good. The fact that the audience was fairly solid throughout the run suggests that the audience it did have seemed to like the show.

I can't see Britney being a great judge but she should initially bring in some box office. Demi Lovato is really good though apparently so the panel is solid, as Cowell is Cowell and LA Reid was good last year. I believe there's some kind of press screening tonight though so we should know more in the morning. To stick my neck out a bit though, I'm going to make a few predictions:

The Voice (Tue) - 3.4
The Voice (Wed) - 2.9

Go On - 3.2
The New Normal - 2.1

America's Got Talent (Wed) - 2.7
America's Got Talent (Thu) - 2.8

The X Factor (Wed) - 4.3
The X Factor (Thu) - 4.0

That's the second or third repeat as well plus its been available online legally since mid-August. The pilot has certainly had a huge sampling so there's every reason why it should do well tonight. Of course who the hell knows how it'll hold up over the rest of the season. That its looking like it'll be followed by a dud isn't going to help its cause. Although with both Fox and ABC airing comedies in the 9PM hour it might not hurt all that much either. Tuesday 9PM is going to be a fun slot to watch.

When it comes to The X Factor I'm predicting a high 3 on Wednesday.

Demographic Information for BBC1 and ITV1 for Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th September: http://i50.tinypic.com/dq4yyw.jpg

Top programmes for the week among 18-49 year olds from that list (excludes soaps and news) were:

1. The X Factor (Sun): 14.2
2. Doctor Who: 8.9
3. Mrs Brown's Boys [r]: 6.9
4. Red or Black?: 6.6
5. Miranda [r]: 6.4
6. Moldova v England: 6.1
7. A Mother's Son (Mon): 6.0
8. The Jonathan Ross Show: 5.7
9. Waterloo Road: 5.7
10. New Tricks: 5.4

Note: Each number indicates the % of the UK 18-49 population. For e.g. 14.2% of 18-49 year olds living in the UK watched The X Factor (Sun)

Welcome back rzt you've bee missed!

Premieres in the UK via ITV2 on Thursday 27th September at 8pm, by the way.

Those figures will easily demonstrate to AlexiR why Doctor Who timeshifts much more than other shows.

Thank you!

A few more air dates and times that I stumbled across...

Nigelissima: Mon 24 September 8pm BBC Two
Martin Lewis' Money Matters: Tue 25 September 7.30pm ITV1
Officially Amazing: Tue 25 September 8pm ITV1
The Man Who Saved the World: Revealed: Tue 25 September 8pm C5
The Paradise: Tue 25 September 9pm BBC One
Kate and William: The South Seas Tour: Tue 25 September 9pm ITV1
The Boy Who Can't Forget: Tue 25 September 9pm C4
Later... with Jools: Tue 25 September 10pm BBC Two
Cuckoo: Tue 25 September 10pm BBC Three
Alphas: Tue 25 September 10pm 5*
Girlfr3ends: Wed 26 September 9pm ITV2
Drugs Live: Wed 26 September 10pm C4
Homefront: Thu 27 September 9pm ITV1
Russell Howard's Good News: Thu 27 September 9pm BBC Three
Real Servants: Fri 28 September 9pm BBC Two

You wait ages for a good show to come up, then two come along at once in the same timeslot Goddammit! (Thanks for the dates, by the way)

Any info on how E4's Beaver Falls did last night?

You realise this data is from the overnight figures...?

The Paradise on Tuesday will be interesting, would have a Sunday slot but guess they don't want it to compete with Mr Selfridge, I'm thinking that Ripper Street is going to be pushed back to January 2013.

With The Paradise on Tuesdays, I think Hunted or Last Tango to Halifax will get Thursday once Good Cop has finished.

I don't think Ripper Street will be pushed back, I think it will air on Mondays when New Tricks ends. Hunted is most likely to get the Thursday slot.

No idea where Last Tango in Halifax will air, it was originally planned for next Tuesday then replaced with DIY:SOS and now The Paradise is getting the Tuesday slot (which seems like a waste of to me, would do better elsewhere.) The only other slot I can think of for it is Sunday 8pm.

While I think The Paradise won't achieve it's full potential on Tuesdays I'm glad they're getting it out before Mr Selfridge.

AlexiR ....Terry O Quinn played a main character in Lost and been in Hawaii 5 0 lately and popular wherever he appears based on thread responses here.

If Last Tango in Halifax is likely to be a single series then airing it on Sunday at 8pm wouldn't be a bad thing, it would probably get 5-6 million giving a real alternative to X-Factor and would be a good build up to ITV's DA. However if it has the potential to be a returning series I think they will wait until a decent slot becomes available. Ripper Street I reckon will air on Sundays once DA has finished. There's still Shetland to find a slot for yet too!

Shetland's a one-off so it could easily fill a Sunday slot gap after History of the World, Brazil hasn't been slotted either but I'm guessing Sundays after History of the World or Wednesdays, is Junior Apprentice coming back this year?