We knew that. It's Downton's big timeshifts that'll see it reach number 1 for the week. When the officials come out I think Strictly on Saturday 13th could possibly top Sunday's edition of The X Factor.

Apparently the peak for Stand Up To Cancer happened at midnight but as you say we'd need to see the breakdown across the night.

To be fair though it did finish at 2am more or less.

Add me to the list of people that loved The Worst Week Of My Life. That really was a funny show and it annoys me that it was never a big hit.

Awful ratings for an awful sitcom. There are not enough jokes. Very poor.

The peak audience for Stand Up To Cancer was 2.3m.

I was expecting more for sutc, I thought piers and hignfy would have been dented. Me and mrs jones should have taken the after news slot.

Graham Norton does well after the news on Fridays and higher than Me & Mrs Jones at 9.30pm.

Not too surprised about SUTC to be honest as C4 just haven't got the other shows around to promote it at the moment. C4 viewers may have been aware of it, but not sure it had managed to get tiself noticed by the wider public (though they did run some ads on ITV1).

The trouble with all charity telethons now is celeb specials are no longer special - we see them on quiz shows, dancing and singing all the time nowadays thanks to various shows, so them turning up for a telethon and doing something isn't exactly a unique broadcasting event. Indeed flicked through the first 2-3 hours so far and the only thing any good was the Celebrity Squares call centre.

Maybe not the Friday slot, but Monday. Me and mrs jones is a hard one, because it should be more funny, but the characters are really likeable!!!

I'm completely with you on both counts. As I said last week I bailed out of the 1st episode of MAMJ after just 10mins. Not something I would normally do as Ilike to give something new a fair chance.

Every body I knew who watched The Worst Week Of My Life thought it was great. I feel the BBC missed a trick with the programme. I'm sure if it had been nurtured and given more exposure through well targetted repeats the audience would have grown. Afrer all many classic BBC comedy series' had a shaky start initially.

Bit disappointing for Stand Up To Cancer. The peak looks OK but they'd have been hoping for more. To be fair over that slot it wasn't a disaster but a 1.5m+ average and a peak closer to 3m would have been more acceptable. I think they should still give it another go next year though, although with this, Text Santa and the well established Children In Need and Comic/Sport Relief there are quite a few of these telethons per year now and a little bit of fatigue may be creeping in unfortunately. Good rating for HIGNFY but Me & Mrs Jones is a disaster. More like it for Life Stories, that's a decent rating for it.

Anyone know anything about a new ITV drama called Acceptance? It stars Billy Murray, Leslie Grantham and Crissy Rock amongst others and is apparently airing on ITV1 over Christmas. From what I gather it's an independent film that ITV are somehow involved with as they're airing it as an ITV drama but I don't know how that works. We've had no information about it but one of the actresses seems to think they're airing it on Christmas Day at 10pm, which seems very unlikely as that is a bizarre slot for a new drama, and also it doesn't exactly sound very festive so Christmas Day wouldn't be a good bet. Does anyone know any more as it seems odd that they haven't made any announcements. It's former title was 'The Air That I Breathe' by the way.

Here is the trailer - I can't see them airing this on Christmas Day at all.

I think that this show should have been an hour long drama rather than a half hour sitcom.

Worst Week Of My Life was tremendous. With better scheduling it could have been a big hit. Me & Mrs Jones just isn't funny. It's no Just Good Friends.

The performance shows for XF so far have been rating sub-8m, only reaching 9m including +1, and peaks of just over 10m (inc +1). The results have been rating between 9-10m (inc +1) and peaking over 11m (which is good, for 2007/2008 standards ).

Maybe the fact the theme is 'club classics' should interest viewers a bit more, possibly adding on a few more viewers than last week?

Regarding BGT, do you think the separate results show is working for them? in 2007-2009 the show on the whole managed high peaks, 11-12m (if we're going on 2009, then 14-15m). Subsequently the results have been rating lower than the performance shows. As well as these, what do you suspect they'll do next year to ensure the ratings are higher than they were this year? They should stick with the same panel, and obviously have acts that will create media interest, or follow XF 2009 & 2010's strategy (they didn't need any SuBo/internet sensation to pull in incredibly high ratings, 19m peaks for the final).

Also, even if Surprise Surprise (tomorrow) gets 5 million, I wouldn't get too excited as we see shows that launch like this plummet as they go on. Look at Take Me Out, it's gotten 3 million two weeks in a row compared to last year's series. Sing If You Can is another example, despite being used as an XF lead-in it constantly pulled in 3m (after a 5m launch). The Cube is also one, recently having 3m compared to 5m 2-3 years ago (when it was aired before XF).

This is a stupid question, but I'm in two minds about it. What is meant by 'timeshift'? Is it like ITV1 +1? What is meant when you say it timeshifted by a million?

I don't really think there's anything offensively bad about Me & Mrs Jones. It's not a raucous laugh, but I don't think everything has to be.

The bigger issue, in my mind, is how on earth BBC One can try and launch any sort of sitcom in primetime. Because, regardless of quality, they haven't managed it in absolutely years. Outnumbered, Mrs Browns Boys, Miranda - all from either late night or BBC Two. Not Going Out launched in primetime, but needed the 10.35 slot to survive a cancellation attempt. Aside from that, literally everything launched in primetime over the past couple of years has flopped.

I don't think the post-HIGNFY slot is very helpful. As solid a performer as it is (and it's good to see it back over 5m again) it doesn't seem to deliver the right audience to a new show at 9.30. Using the next series of Miranda and Mrs Browns Boys properly to support new shows looks absolutely vital for comedy on the channel. Otherwise, they might as well dispense with the idea of launching in primetime completely and focus on finding great stuff for 10.35 that they can build up and promote.

As I've said before, CS has a hardcore audience of around 6 million that will stick through it regardless. 52 years on the air means it has built up a loyal following who would watch it even if it is was mimed.

I reckon strictly will drop tonight in the ratings, I would like to see it pass 10 million, but feel like last Saturday was a one off!!

I know strictly does go higher, but so early on???

It's a remake of 70's detective drama, Hazell.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ve-Hazell.html

But that doesn't match the trailer!!!!!

I agree, you either give the sitcom the best possible slot, massive promotion and expect it to fail, as people are expecting it to be fantastic( come fly with me, the royal bodyguard) or you stick in a new sitcom with barely any promotion, and no one will tune in. Late night seems to be the way, let people find it!!

I saw a bit of it last night and actually found quite funny. I think comedy's problem ( and tv's in general) these days is actually getting people to tune in at the outset of a new show when there are so many other channels and distractions around. In the three and four channel era there was almost a gift of 7-10 million viewers with subsequent word of mouth promotion if it was worth tuning in. MaMJ was worth more than that imo but from such a small base its hard to see it growing enough to make a hit.
Its difficult doing comedy without gimmicks. Miranda has her pieces direct to camera, Outnumbered has its improvisation. Mrs Browns Boys is a seventies sitcom with added swearing, the bloopers left in, and has the ultimate lead character gimmick imo. People use to tune into Love Thy Neighbour and Til Death us do Part partly because it felt a bit naughty and maybe there is a bit of that with MBB.
Whatever, its very difficult to launch comedies with ordinary people in ordinary situations these days.

I really like Me and Mrs Jones, its a gentle sitcom good turns from Sarah Alexander and the guy from Misfits- I like the lack of a laughter track and its just an easy watch for me so I'm disappointed its not doing better-However, there's certaintly been far worse sitcoms about (Citizen Kahn, In with the Flynns etc...)

The reaction to Mr & Mrs Jones (even though I haven't watched it) is similar to that of Citizen Khan, though people began to like it as it went on.

DS's round-ups confuse the issue by sometimes calling +1 channel audiences "timeshift", although to be fair they are sometimes called "timeshift channels" elsewhere. It's far easier if we restrict talk of timeshift to recordings.

The overnight figures we get each morning include timeshifted viewing (viewing of recorded programmes on VCRs/DVRs/DVDRs) up to 2am on the night in question. Using clever technology such timeshifted viewing is matched minute-by-minute to the original broadcast, so if you record Friday's HIGNFY and watch just the first five minutes at 11 o'clock that night, you would be added as a viewer of the period 21:00-21:05 on BBC1. The overnights are therefore live viewing plus same-day timeshifted viewing (Live + SD).

The consolidated figures we get on Mondays from BARB (often called "officials", although BARB don't like this as their overnight data is no less official) include timeshifted viewing up to 7 days after the original broadcast. They also strip out commercial breaks and use more precise timings, supplied by the broadcasters.

The BBC release what they call "Live + 7" data, which includes all the above plus repeat showings and iPlayer use. BARB are going to start releasing 30-day consolidated figures quite soon, it has been reported.

The Beeb have done rather well squeezing in Frankels last race before consigning racing to the out tray.

I can't predict ratings very well as I'm always wrong. But I don't remember Strictly being so how for it's first Saturday competition show. It could be over 11m in the officials which would be quite an achievement as it usually takes several weeks to get there. The 6.30pm start time definitely helps as BBC1 have finally wised up that starting before 6pm is stupid. Over 10m as an average tonight? I wouldn't rule it out. I also think the Sunday results show could also get over 10m. Don't ask me why.