I haven't looked at the numbers for the current series but Shameless has always done well for young demographics particularly young men which is quite rare for a regular series on C4 these days. That maybe what has kept it going the last few years.

looking at Digiguide, does it look to anyone else, like Hunted will be Thursday at 9pm?

I would like to say its a big slot for a new show, The Choir and Russel Howard will do well, the later could loose Hunted some viewers. Nothing from the ITV network. C4 & Film4 both airing what im sure is a thrilling episode of "To Be Announced", C5 Making Face average at best.

So Hunteds biggest problem will be the BBC itself, typical BBC and its anti News Corp bias

I thought it was BBCW/Cinemax co-prod? Cinemax is a TimeWarner company...

it was produced by Kodus (who did Spooks) which are owned by News Corp. It is also produced by " Big Light Productions" which looks ilke the vanity production company of its creator Frank Spotnitz, he looks like he was a big cheese in The X-Files.

So its a BBC, News Corp, & Warner Brothers show.

Cinemax is apparently owned by HBO, owned by Time Warner.

I think the bigger question is, why didnt Disney Corp get involved in this, just round off the set.

According to digiguide, Homefront's starting on the 27th and is a six parter so I assume that will continue in the Thursday 9pm slot. The X Factor USA seems to be taking up the 8-10 slot on ITV2.

I did not mean ITV was just airing the Test Card [insert your own joke here], i meant there was nothing that would prove a challenge to Hunted.

Homefront seems like a WW2 series only without the war, so boring, in other words.

X-Factor USA, boring.

ITV 3 - 7, boring.

Could have done with Lionsgate as well to steal the rest of the BBC and Cinemax's money, even though other shows are more popular...

Oops. Don't underestimate Homefront, though. If Bletchley can hold 4m+ against Good Cop then Homefront should be able to manage the same as I'm assuming Hunted will be quite bleak.

Homefront will be bleak, only for any poor & bored viewer, who accidentally has there TV set to ITV, and has lost the remote.

Yes............. or anyone with different tastes to you.

In the US, clearly it's been a difficult few days for XF USA. If you take the view that last years' performance wasn't really up to scratch - as Cowell and Fox obviously do given the personnel shuffle and all the talk of "change" - then it's particularly poor. Obviously direct comparisons are troublesome because of the denting effect of NBC genre competitors, so next week will be important. But even if it does lift, you'd worry it'll be temporary once formidable comedy opposition comes into play during premiere week.

---

In the UK, Bletchley Circle did well to hold up, though someone made an excellent point earlier about how misguided ITV were to debut it when they did. The Paralympics really stopped it launching big. And yes, Fudd, I sort of agree. When I saw the title I thought "Ooh, I might like this!", then I quickly realised to my disappointment it was another classic crime-solver, just with a modestly interesting twist. As someone who doesn't really enjoy the crime genre very much (I've only really got into Ashes to Ashes and Sherlock - and both of those are rather hybrids with other genres) a lot of ITV drama offerings leave me feeling a bit alienated, which is a shame. The recent return to costume drama is a step in the right direction on that front, though.

That is a poor figure for Shameless, and I think I've made my opinions of C4's 'creative renewal' known before. It's not that I actively hate much of their programming, I just feel that the schedule is littered with missed opportunities - to launch a recognised comedy block, to get aggressively back into the entertainment market at weekends, to make a splash with a new signature drama. It always just sinks my heart a little when I hear their latest hyped commission is yet another factual format. It's frustration more than anything.

Meanwhile, amazing August shares for the BBC, as of course we expected. I love the way it's just completely messed up the trend on a BARB graph of the last 20 years:

Channel Viewing Share, 1992-2012

Spot the Olympics!

People in decades time looking at stats like that will be asking "What the...?!" - its the sort of statistical anomaly that will always require a little annotation just to explain. That's sorta cool. Well, to me anyway...

Ignore my comment about The One Show earlier. I forgot about the switch with Friday's.

I think Cowell must be panicking. TXFUSA didn't do that well last season and OK it had very strong competition this week, but to be pushed into third must be humiliating for him. Maybe it's talent show overkill as American Idol's ratings are falling and this is possibly one talent show too many for the Americans.
Also at home ROB limps along and, for all Ant and Dec have denied it, I doubt ITV would want to pay over the odds for this again. Also TXF is down 3 million this series and even the tabloids aren't so uncritical of it, whereas a couple of years ago it was non stop coverage.

Channel 4 Sales have not highlighted last night's Shameless (I wonder why) but they have the demos up for Wednesday's premiere (all inc +1):

Individuals........1,624k (100% skew, TVR 2.8)
Adults...............1,538k (95%, 3.1)
Children.................86k (5%, 1.2)
Adults 16-34.......575k (35%, 3.9)
H'wives w/Kids...310k (19%, 4.7)
Men 16-34..........288k (18%, 3.9)
Women 16-34....287k (18%, 4.0)

So a 35% skew in 16-34, split 50/50 between men and women, which is as you say very good as young men watch relatively little TV (so the share of Men 16-34 would have been a lot higher than the share of Women 16-34, I would think).

I reckon it's not very upmarket though as C4S haven't listed any ABC1 demos. They must sell it on the young demos, or housewives with kids. [EDIT: probably Men 16-34 or Adults 16-34, as the cost per thousand is higher than housewives. Did anyone see the flavour of the adverts? That would give a clue]

I have the feeling talent shows are just being over-exposed in general now. The Voice isn't needed in the UK; The X Factor isn't needed in America and nor, arguably, is The Voice. Surely one singing show per market is enough without saturating the market?

Of course, NBC and FOX have their own reasons for commissioning another singing show - FOX didn't want to risk Cowell selling it to another network and hurting Idol in the process and didn't want to axe Idol as it was too risky resting everything on a new look format. NBC wanted a slice of the pie to build on ailing figures.

FOX may have well feared overkill but were backed into a corner. Arguably they should have looked to split Idol and The X Factor so they were bi-annual but that would have resulted in a search for something to fill the autumn; it may have broken the Idol contract and Cowell may have wanted The X Factor to be annual anyway.

NBC also knew there could be overkill but at the start would they have cared so much? The Voice was a new series and if it could hurt Idol and a fledgling X Factor then more power to it. Now they have to be careful not to over-expose it but I fear they've already done that much.

Yeah, tough to see what ITV could really do here. It would make more sense to put it on Sunday - if for no other reason than the schedule would seem much slicker, Sunday to Friday 7pm is a logical slot - but then I suppose they'd worry that Thursday will just have all the problems with Tuesday, where people switch to BBC1 for 'stEnders and don't come back and BBC1 get a cushy slot at 8pm to launch new shows.

I suppose all they can do is keep plugging away at pre-watershed drama and trying to find something that could work for half the year, like The Bill did. The Corrie Years is an alright filler but as you say not quite the kind of thing that thrives in an exposed slot - a bit like when Food Factory did alright for BBC1 at 7.30 but then they moved it to 8pm and it did next to nothing.

At the moment Thursday at 8.30 might be a good slot for other channels to target, you get a decent floating audience after Emmerdale and BBC1 is halfway through Waterloo Road, might be good for BBC2 to try a Miranda-esque sitcom or a popular factual format there.


I assume Shameless is quite cost-effective in the same way Waterloo Road is, because it's got its own permanent set and a huge cast so they can knock episodes off quite quickly, and apart from David Threlfall I doubt any of the cast are on huge wages. It probably ticks boxes for hours of drama, regional production and encouraging new talent as well. But it's so blatantly past its best it's unbelievable. The Radio Times didn't even bother making the new series a choice, whereas in the early years they were crazy about it.

I suspect Hunted will do quite well, I wonder if it was pitched to BBC One first and Cinemax came in later or the other way round? Co-productions aren't uncommon but the BBC seem to looking for partners other than HBO. Episodes was a co-production with Showtime, Starz and BBC Worldwide co-produced Torchwood and even The Thick of It is a co-production with Hulu. Wonder if we'll see a co-production with Netflix in the near future?

Speaking of BBC One, The Village sounds like an interesting drama but I think it's an adaptation of Heimat which they're been developing for a while.

Maybe these shows are coming to the end of their shelf lives now in America and, to a lesser extent, in Britain. Yet the Yanks have the same problem as we have, AI and TXFUSA are declining shows, and I'm sure in the past AI would have been culled at the slightest sign of decline( as happened with shows like Starsky and Hutch in the seventies even though it was still popular), but the risks are what can FOX replace it with. Soaps have been out in American peak time for 20 years, reality does OK but shows like ANTM are more suited to the CW and are worn out too, and drama and comedy are risky.

Is it me or is there quite a bit off hype around SDC this year. Seems a good line up as well. There is a good mix off different people.

What did last years launch show get?

Ken

I dunno, WOULD THEY REALLY BE STUPID ENOUGH TO LAUNCH A SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT SHOW AT THE SAME TIME AS EVERY OTH... oh, they are.


There's already a channel that gives people stuff they know and like. It's called ITV. Channel Four was not set up purely to avoid making a loss, it was set up to provide innovation and an alternative to the other channels, and the way it is funded is because of that. And although clearly it needs to make money, that does not mean it has to play safe. Wanting original television is not "whinging", it's what viewers want, and it is ludicrous to suggest otherwise.


I don't see what on earth is wrong with that statement, Channel Four should only do formats that other channels are doing if they're able to put their own spin on it. Otherwise there's no point. It should absolutely not be doing a panel game just because panel games are a quick win.

There are many ways to do a chat show, in the eighties the likes of Wogan and Parkinson were on BBC1 and ITV but then Jonathan Ross came along ON CHANNEL FOUR with a Letterman-esque format which was the first time that had been done on British telly. Then Graham Norton ON CHANNEL FOUR added his own spin on it. A decade on, Alan Carr has not added anything new to the format, and Graham Norton is doing the same thing at the same time as C4. It's time to find a new format for a chat show, we have enough of them on telly.

Similarly if panel shows are "a fairly generic format" they shouldn't be doing them. And they're not anyway, that's why I specifically mentioned School of Hard Sums and Would I Lie To You because they take the panel show format and do something new with it. It doesn't have to be upmarket and those shows are not. WILTY is on preimetime BBC1 and it is a far more effective way of showcasing comedy talent than the derivate formats on C4. What we don't need are more formats which simply say "Do some jokes about this clip", which is what we're getting from C4. You can even cite Celebrity Juice, it is downmarket and disgusting and is massively popular - but it's doing stuff no other panel game is doing. If ITV2 can be original, why not C4?


Do they? I can only see Friday Night Dinner as a C4 sitcom. The Inbetweeners isn't coming back and they're commissioned a series of Bad Sugar and that's it. There are no sitcoms on C4 this week. And the references to Stewart Lee and Grandma's House are not meant to say they should go upmarket, it's to say they are original formats. I could easily have said Celebrity Juice.

The recent comedy season showcased the likes of Vic Reeves Big Night Out and Harry Hill's series. Those are the kind of shows I'm talking about. They are clearly more innovative and original series than A N Other Panel Game. And they were on C4 when it was in exactly the same position as it is now, it had to make money. So does ITV and even they show documentaries and posh dramas.

This is the final point - Big Brother. When that started on C4 in 20000 it was a brand new format to British TV, massively innovative in the way it was produced, the way it was filmed, the way it was scheduled and the way it made use of social media. Completely original (I know it was a foreign format, but C4 were responsible for the execution of the British version) and also massively, massively popular. To suggest original and popular are two different things is just bizarre. Especially when this whole debate came about because Shameless Series One Million is getting under a million viewers.

At this stage I would be amazed if Glee doesn't get at least a short fifth season. It'll have 88 episodes at the end of this year which in theory is enough for syndication but given all its additional revenue I suspect Fox will be happy enough to at least push it to 100 episodes.


I'm not sure anyone else would want America's Got Talent at this point and certainly no one is going to pay as much as NBC for it.

To be honest Cowell only has himself to blame for The X Factor. Its just not very good. He's completely misjudged the tone and edit. For all the talk of The Voice's auditions being all about the spinning chairs gimmick (and that's not unimportant) the equally important part is that there's genuine talent on display in every audition. No one is there to be laughed at and no one is there to be set up as a villain to be torn down by the judges. Cowell seems to have forgotten that the reason these talent shows worked in the first place is because at their core they were uplifting and positive. It gave 'normal people' the chance to do extraordinary things because of their talent and ability. Now though they've morphed into this horrible thing where they're about giving 'normal' ex-crack addict single mothers a chance to be on television because they're moderately talented or willing to play the game. Its just not particularly uplifting or positive to watch any more.

Additionally I think Cowell's probably angrier about the success of The Voice than the failure of The X Factor.

ITV would have the same problem with a 7pm Sunday episode as they have now with the 8pm Thursday episode - it's exposed in the schedule. All BBC One have to do is air half decent competition and Emmerdale struggles. If it's moved to Sunday's BBC One could run:

6.30 Countryfile
7.30 Antiques Roadshow
8.30 Inspector George Gently

and hurt Emmerdale badly.

IMO the only option they have for that episode is to tack it onto the 7pm Thursday episode and take the EastEnders' hit - it'll still hold up better as a package than being split. That does leave 8pm slightly exposed but whatever is aired there should hold up better with an albeit slightly weaker Emmerdale lead in than what Tuesday shows manage.

But that extra episode is messy; whatever they do with it won't be 'clean' at all.

7.62m (37.3%). Considering it's being plugged everywhere and has the feelgood factor with the two Olympians taking part I think it should beat that figure tomorrow though the weather's meant to be decent which may dent it slightly.

The X Factor, on the same weekend, pulled in 10.7m (43.6%) with 0.5m (2.1%) watching on +1. Don't hold your breath comes to mind regarding that show though it should be able to close the gap to below 2m.

Things What I Done Read In Broadcast This Week

* C4 are "in talks" with Adam Hills to do more stuff, including spinning off his "Is It OK?" feature into a fully-fledged programme

* As mentioned up there, Bad Sugar is the first show from C4's comedy season to be commissioned as a fully-fledged series

* In fact speaking of C4 drama, as we were, they're looking at adapting the novel White Gold, which if it's commissioned would be a bloody massive thing with a massive budget and two hour episodes. It's part of a new development deal which would involved plenty of co-production money and selling it to a lot of countries. Of course, if it does appear, no doubt it'll be in an awful slot with no repeats

* And the Channel Four we know and love lives on as they've commissioned Brendan's Love Boat with Brendan off Coach Trip which appears to be Coach Trip on a boat

* Sky One are going to show some more Sky Atlantic shows in order to promote the channel, including a complete rerun of The British, and of course as of this week, as my Virgin box proclaimed, they're showing Game of Thrones

* Channel Five are piloting "a Judge Judy-style format"

* And also C4 are doing a deal with Sky to get a shedload of data about their audience and what they watch and like and that

How is the new series of Eddie Stobart on C5 doing?