Which particular ratings do you think are suspect?

Eastenders has been quite low for a long time, and now is slowly creeping over the 7.5m mark more often, helped by the seasonal uplift in viewing as we head further into autumn (average viewing per person was 1h27min higher in the BARB week ending 30 Sep than the week ending 9 Sep).

Waterloo Road is creeping closer to the 3m mark, not good news.

The people gloating at how Hunted was trouncing Homefront seem to have gone quiet, 3.4m isn't a good rating to win with. I wonder if a certain person will start a 'BBC drama in crisis' thread in the Broadcasting forum?

Tonight rated well last night

I wonder if Simon is worrying more about the US show or the UK show?

My money would be the US show - while the UK is down it seems to have found some energy from last week's elimination (though the proof of this will be in the ratings which will undoubtedly be hurt by the late finish on Saturday) plus is still in a relatively healthy state for British TV. In comparison, The X Factor USA is not in the brilliant state for a singing show considering how Idol and The Voice perform there.

I suspect much more money is at stake with the US version.

If they reduced the $5m prize and replaced Britney & possibly Simon with people much cheaper, it would suddenly become much more attractive, and in turn frees Simon up to return to the UK. But that of course is dependent on whether Simon would allow it to be scaled back in the US. If this year is performing roughly the same as last year, then obviously the expensive judges just aren't worth it.

Big Bang Theory slightly down in the US, but still achieved 14.23m. (last week was at 15.18m). It is still doing brilliantly! Also the episode was the best of the first 3 episodes of Season 6 so hopefully next week it will increase.

For someone who said they were "pro-ITV" instead of "anti-BBC", you sure aren't showing that sentiment...

I know The Plane Crash did well last night, but I was honestly expecting more.

Considering it's been about three years in the planning/making, and they created such a a massive online hoo-hah about it, I can't help feeling C4 will be a little bit disappointed, too.

VP debate ratings down 18m from 2008 which got a huge boost from the Sarah Palin effect. Still, the 51.4m audience was the second highest since 1984.

Good to see TBBT rebound a bit in finals. First time that X Factor has varied from its usual levels, a bit disappointing for them considering Wednesdays show was pretty much on a par with last years first judges houses episode.

Wednesday Ratings - 3.4, 3.6, 3.5. 3.5, 3.5
Thursday Ratings - 3.1, 3.5, 3.2, 3.2, 2.9

Chances are that the Thursday show will log some far poorer numbers. Results shows tend to do a good bit worse for all these shows, especially when scheduled at 8pm and last years average was around a 3.0. The key thing is how it performs on Wednesday. Sticking above a 3 will be important.

Might as well be talking Turkish.

I don't know why people on this thread were expecting Hunted to storm the ratings. Because it's from the makers of Spooks? Like ITV ratings-smash The Fixer you mean?

Because its ITV1 opposition is such a ratings disaster? This isn't the age of three TV channels, you know? This is the age of multichannel and timeshift and DVDs and thre internet.

Hunted is all style-over-substance, a charmless drama filled with charmless characters and that was pretty obvious from the much-shown trailers. If it was a 100% US import and not a BBC co-production it wouldn't be seen anywhere near terrestrial TV or any of their family of channels. It would be shown on Sky Atlantic or FX to little fuss and so-so ratings.


Meanwhile ITV have shown a serious error of judgement with Homefront, turning the real-life prediciment of the military wives into a cliched soap opera that makes the American daytime soaps of the 1980s look like a BAFTA-winning production from Dennis Potter.And those feeble ratings are no more than the tasteless project deserves.

Poor night of ratings in Australia last night with Daylight Savings seeming to take effect. 4 shows topped a million (which is up on the 3 from Thursday). And top of the pac was New Tricks for ABC1 with 1.09m, followed by Nine news on 1.05m, Better Homes and Gardens on 1.02m and Seven News on 1.01m. Rare for ABC1 to score the highest rating programme of the night, and New Tricks repeats on a Saturdays push 0.9m anyway. Kind of strange it premiering on Fridays at 8.30, if they wanted to move it out of the saturday slot, Sundays at 8.30 would have been better (especially over December/January where there is no competition).

Better Homes and Garden is a remarkable performer, across 90 minutes. Now back on fridays, it seems to top a million every week, must be cheap to produce and even more weirdly does well in the demos. This is a show that executed right could probably solve some problem for ITV on a Thursday or Friday at 8.30/9pm. If BBC1 are going to persist putting dramas on thursdays at 9, then Better Homes and Gardens could use the Emmerdale lead in and play for 90 minutes. If it was a success it could easily fill what is appearing to be a tricky slot (and thursdays could end up in Tuesday territory this time next ear if ITV don't find success there)

We had Carol Vorderman's Better Homes on ITV in the late 90s; a blatant rip-off of Changing Rooms if I recall correctly. It was a moderate hit in the ratings but didn't last too long, I don't think.

Better Homes and Gardens is more a magazine show. It has a few hosts that show you DIY projects, pet advice, gardening tips, recipes and also snoop around a minor celebrities house each week. In my opinion its dreadful and uniteresting, but it seems to do well on Fridays. It is like a primetime version of This Morning crossed with gardeners world and the one show

I think it would flop miserably on primetime ITV. I can't see the UK audience getting the show. If anything maybe they should try it in the 5pm slot first and then if it collapses it's no big deal.

You're right its probably one of those shows that would do ok on the BBC becuase of the default older audience, but other than say 8pm on Fridays in a Corrie sandwich mopping up a few pensioners it probably wouldn't work

The One Show pulled in a decent rating last night - hasn't been over 4.5m that I can remember lately. Eastenders also slowly edging up which is a good sign but it really needs to get some 8million ratings under its belt. Hopefully the wedding next week might bag an 8m for EE. Poor for Hunted, a very steep drop from the premiere and I think it could drop further over the 6 remaining episodes. There is also I'm a Celebrity coming along to kill any potential series finale boost as well.


Very good rating for The Plane Crash, seems to have generated a lot of chatter and it was genuinely an interesting watch too. I'm sure C4 bosses will be on the phone ordering a full series of Plane Crashes for next year.

Abysmal rating for Hollyoaks at 6:30pm though, we're in mid October now, Hollyoaks is going out after dark.


It was only about 12 or 18 months ago when Neighbours 5:30pm airing was regularly Channel 5's top show of the day. Back then Neighbours was pulling in much higher numbers though. With Neighbours (unlike Hollyoaks), it seems ratings have been hit by strong competition from The Chase and Pointless rather than the show itself turning people off.


Fair enough it's the big Emmerdale anniversary next week so a documentary on Emmerdale kind of makes sense. However I would agree that this 8:30pm slot is crying out for some more attention. With the Beeb half way through a program already and a 5.5m-6m lead-in from Emmerdale, ITV should of moved one of their new shows in straight away. Have any new comedies actually been thought up or made yet incidentally?


With Emmerdale coming off the back of the live episode next Thursday, Waterloo Road could well be getting very close to going sub 3 million next week. The Scotland move and scheduling has turned WR into a disaster really.

So the comedy "The Next Caller" from NBC that was supposed to be shown this midseason got cancelled.

Cancellation #2?

http://www.deadline.com/2012/10/next...ed-nbc-series/

The CW is having a better week from what started off as a disaster. With Arrow and Beauty and the Beast starting with over a 1, the network should be over the moon. The Vampire Diaries proves to still be a beast as 1.6 is the best number, so far, for The CW this season. Emily Owens premieres next Tuesday after Hart of Dixie and I expect it to start lower. To me, it looks like Grey's Anatomy for younger viewers. Also, the whole "working at a hospital is like high school" premise is really off-putting. The Carrie Diaries has more of a chance to score a 1+, perform better and maybe getting a renewal than Emily Owens. However, the CW allocated The Carrie Diaries after 90210 midseason, which unless the show can build from the lead-in (not ruling that out completely), is virtually Mission Suicide.

Up All Night is finished after their 13 episodes run and 30 Rock looks like they will be finishing with less dignity, since they are getting beaten by The CW. In fact, that is what is happening to most NBC sitcoms now. All that Emmy Awards and critical acclaim never translated into new viewers for 30 Rock. Modern Family wins the week in demos amongst scripted shows while NCIS tops in total viewers. Did CBS screw themselves over with 2 1/2 Men? I can see what they are trying to do here, but Ashton Kutcher's hype has passed and the show is now in its tenth season. Having said that, none of the new CBS sitcoms looked like a promising hit anyways.

Its nice that you think that but if you read the article its say Sony, WB and Sky have denied any deals for Last Resort and Revolution. Also The Hollywood Reporter has a piece saying that Revolution is still "enjoying multiple bids from the UK"

So they havent been picked up yet, Sky may just be using a focus group to determine interest in them.

Some ratings from yesterday:

EastEnders 6.26m
Emmerdale 6.73
Nigel Slater 4.36m
Football 5.58m
HIGNFY 5m
Me & Mrs Jones 3.13m

Alarmingly bad start for Me & Mrs Jones, and the football dented EastEnders badly, beaten by Emmerdale!

Agreed. Will be interesting to see the BBC3 figure for EE to see if much viewing was displaced to 10.30pm.

A shame for MAMJ; it looks a promising sitcom IMO, but will have suffered also due to the football which may have peaked around then. Solid for HIGNFY considering the competition, helped by being on partly against half-time.

Good for Nigel Slater against the football build-up.

3 million for a sitcom these days is not bad. I didn't see it though as it looked like the standard cliche BBC sitcom of the past decade.

As the football matched become more important watch their ratings rise. Wasn't interested in Me & Mrs Jones at all. When a trailer for a sitcom doesn't make me laugh I avoid it.