the bbc has a lot more ratings hits on when xfactor is on itv such as dr who, merlin, antiques roadshow,

itv seems to lack any shows to screen when strictly is on that would pull in anything above 5 million etc although no other channels seem to bother either so is the reason stricty doing better this year simply down to lack of any challange on any other channel.

is the lack of shows against strictly down to the fact advertisers dont want there adverts on against the biggest bbc shows and therefore there is a lack of money to invest or is it simply because there isnt anything to put up against it at all??

its clear the bbc is in a stronger position being licence fee funded to take more risks against advert channels where advert channels have to save there best for after or before bbc biggest shows.

bbcs best night apart from sat seems to be tue night as once again lack of any real challange from any other channel, so is the bbc just ahead in ratings on thoes nights simply through lack of challange and not the quality of whats on offer as it seems advert channels worse night all year has been tuesday nights.

No point plugging his album when there's no time left before Christmas to buy it.

You are right there.

In fact I think you have understated it, which is as rare as an all day posting

Goodness, there really are some awful sounding shows coming up aren't there! Goodnight Britain, Britain's Hidden Housing Crisis, and Pensioners Behind Bars - they all sound dreadful. I know everyone has digital now so there's loads of choice, but you'd think BBC1 in particular would put more effort in, in the run up to Christmas seeing as they are a leading broadcaster.

Clearly they are holding over planned autumn programmes for the winter season. Ripper Street was one of the 6 new autumn drama series and was "coming soon" in the post Olympics trailer.

Ridiculous to promo something in August that you won't air till January. It has clearly been pushed back.

Any Royal Bodyguard re-runs coming up, to aid the DVD sales?

Perhaps not repeating it is the preferred tactic on this one!

A Rod Stewart greatest hits album sounds like something you'd buy en route to your mums from a petrol station on Christmas morning, so the later the better on that one, surely?

Well done NBC!

http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/nbc-...ps-since-2003/

He sung a Christmas song on Graham Norton almost a fortnight ago.

BIB - that's not how I remember it. In my day the BBC1 scheduling went like this - a glut of new series at the start of September to compensate the poor bloody viewer for a Summer of non-stop wall-to-wall repeats. Then at the start of December the repeats and filler arrived. I assume this was pyschological. BBC1 toning down the schedule so that the viewers would appreciate their Christmas goodies even more. Also, having lots of filler at the start of December means they can concentrate all their promotional efforts on their Christmas TV. People will say "I wish they'd hurry up with the Christmas stuff cos this week's TV is absolute rubbish."

Plus there's no point in sticking on good stuff on next week cos I'm A Celebrity is still on.


This will be because BBC1 will want the Wednesday 19th slot for the last episode of Last Tango In Halifax. Can't have drama on against drama.

Both Corrie's rated really well last night. EastEnders was at last a bit more respectable, rating significantly ahead of Emmerdale but still falling way short of matching Corrie.

I'm a Celeb continues to do well. BBC1 was really low at 9pm, that would be less than 2m translated to an ITV1 figure.

Panorama seems to be going through a bad patch as well, it's never often high but it seems to be less than 2m a lot lately. Is it just a string of inaccessible topics or is the old favourite heading for a revamp.

The most amazing thing about this list is that's still there. It wasn't even episode one. Unlikely to stay in the top ten for much longer, though, I feel.


Sorry to be a smartarse but they've already done that, it was called Duet Impossible and it was on BBC1 on Christmas Eve a few years back - 2006, I think - when it was presented by Vernon Kay. I remember Westlife were on it, "performing" with Roy Orbison. And really once you'd seen the trick once, you didn't need to see it again.

I wonder what happened to Pros vs Cons, the series BBC1 were piloting when they taught someone a skill and you had to guess which one was the professional.


Looks like 8 Out Of 10 Cats is doing better against the tired, boring Buzzcocks than it was doing against HIGNFY so maybe Channel Four's scheduling wasn't so bloody awful after all. If any show on telly needs axing it's Buzzcocks, Delivering Quality First said there were too many panel games on BBC2 and yet this continues.


Oh, they've always done this, I might have to tell my story again about how only my course was left at university the week before Christmas in 1997 when everyone else had already gone home, and I was reduced to watching the likes of Animal Hospital and Police Academy 5. And when you used to have the new season starting in September all the thirteen-part series used to end in early December and it'd be films and filler for the rest of the month. I wonder if they might avoid doing anything big in December anyway because a) people are busier and b) it wouldn't get much publicity as people are already looking forward to the Christmas shows and the TV guides come out weeks in advance so everyone's forgotten about it when they're on. And ITV looks just as useless.

I couldnt believe my eyes today when I saw that we had sold a copy of TRB's DVD, that's 1 sold in 9 days now!


He has his own Christmas Album out, it sold 54,000 copies last week. Not quite sure those buying his music or those watching the X Factor though.

Not too surprising really - it runs through to 10am with no real competition at all. The only thing hampering the Sunday edition is it usually finished around 7.30am for a MOTD repeat and I think actually if ITV ran a Sunday edition of Daybreak (though perhaps not in it's current fluffy rubbish form) from 8am-9.25am it would probably do rather well.


OK, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised C4 continue with a low rating flop but really thought C4 would drop these awards at the first opportunity considering how poorly they rate - and I don't think anyone would bat an eyelid now if they moved back to ITV. Or to Dave.


Fairly uninspired all round - and why they continue with both the pre-X Factor teen popstar specials and the post-X Factor pensioner specials I don't know as they just never really rate. Surely 7-9pm for the Sunday final followed by a premiere of a new drama (whether a series or 2-3 parter) would be much better use of the night, even if it isn't bringing in mega ratings this year. The way TXF has gone this year I doubt we'll be seeing the final top 10m this year.


Amazing turnaround from 1st to 4th, though be interesting to see if they can maintain that over the year with their three biggest hits now off air for 3-4 months.

Makes you wonder though whether ITV can ever topple BBC1 - but until they find the shows to build weeknights around that's not going to happen. To be fair at weekends love them or loathe them ITV do have a fairly solid reliable schedule with shows viewers know to expect - we already know where Dancing on Ice, BGT, The X Factor and Downton will all air next year, but couldn't really pencil in the first week of January for weeknights at 9pm, never mind the full year. Apart from the soaps, Champions League, BGT finals week and 3 weeks of I'm a Celeb their weeknight schedule is pretty much a blank canvas with no hooks which guarantee an audience for themselves on certain nights at certain points of the year.

Some people already have their xmas trees up

Corrie airs Thurs. 13th at 8:30 according to the ITV Press Office spoilers, maybe it'll air on consecutive Thursdays to make up for the episodes it loses to Text Santa.

Good to see Channel 5 picking up some Irish drama, they should try and get their hands on Love/Hate (16 eps. would cover 1st 3 series) Series 3 is doing brilliantly at the mo. Ep. 1 got 631k(34%) and ep. 2 got 670k (36%), beating IAC on TV3. Up 500k on last season's average. I think STV are showing it early next year though.

Inception aired last Wed. on RTE(don't know what UK channel has that) and How To Train Your Dragon airs Sat.

Can't believe no UK channel has showed The Dark Knight yet, TV3 aired it ages ago.

Still no sign of EastEnders' missing episode. Maybe Boxing Day will count. Likely to air 6 episodes xmas week, 5 if they don't split the xmas day one which I hope they do.

Same day last year
Emmerdale: 7.71m

Corrie: 9.15m / 9.75m

EastEnders: 8.61m

all soaps down y-o-y. Thanks rzt for the comprehensive roundup and the official averages for the soaps.

Shane Richie was on Radio 2 last week and talked about the Eastenders Christmas storyline and said it would be on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Eve. Christmas Eve Eve is Sunday the 23rd.

Dear ITV, WHEN IS CORONATION STREET ON. For heaven's sake.

What's wrong with programmes going out in January and February? That's when ratings will be at their highest, particularly if it's a bad winter. Did you not see the ratings that Sherlock and Call The Midwife attracted at the start of the year?

So a year ago EEIC was 1.1m behind the second Corrie, but still won the Christmas Day overnights and the aggregated consolidateds (not my preferred measure, of course, but it did).

Last night it was 1.3m behind.

Are people perhaps getting a bit over excited?

It used to be that ITV could use the slot between the two X Factor shows on a Saturday. Because viewers were hanging around it meant stuff like All Star Family Fortunes could do 7m on occasion. In 2008 The Girls Aloud Party made it into the yearly top 20 with an 8m+ rating. The stuff that followed the results - Afterlife, Parkinson - never did particuarly well from what I recall.

These days with Strictly taking a more central position and X Factor going later, they don't have many options on Saturday nights. Sundays have become the key slot but that's pretty much sealed off for Downton and I'm A Celebrity.

In recent years with the finals they've used specials - most notably The Susan Boyle Story in 2009 which worked a treat. But the truth is that they don't have much that would benefit from a run out after X Factor. The aim is usually just to maximise their audience on the night and TSBS did that incredibly well.


Looking at the top 10 shows on TV, it's clear that the easiest way to pull a mass audience of anything more than 4m is to make something that appeals to people aged 65 and over.

The top shows on TV can get 3-4m in that demographic. Whereas a top "young" show might only hope to achieve 1-2m 16-34's.

What ITV have done with Take Me Out is field a show which can still provide an audience for advertisers. Because it skews so young, it can take the hit in total viewers and still be valuable. On several occasions it has beaten Strictly among 16-34's. My guess is that the majority of the 1.5m-2m decline for Take Me Out is coming from non 16-34's (although Strictly is still significant there so there will be some impact).

Basically, whatever ITV do against Strictly, they're not going to get a huge audience. Their best hope is maybe 5m. So they've gone for a more targeted approach.

In turn, this probably helps Strictly a bit.

Can't think of much that could push it out of the top 10, possibly Strictly final, IAC final?

TV3 have moved I'm a celeb to their digital channel 3e this year. It was the Xtra factor that was against Love/Hate on TV3.

Absolutely no problem. I think Ripper Street will get great figures on NYD with an EE lead in and the final death throes of WAH as competition.

I was just saying they were going to air it now, but have held it back, which may explain the threadbare pre xmas line up.

I can see Channel 4 doing well with Elf repeat, I'm surprised Channel 5 hasn't nab the rights when Channel 4's rights expire.

Itv have failed to be nominated for Channel of the Year in Broadcast awards, rounding off what has been a weak year for the broadcaster. Sky1 were nominated instead of Itv1 for their contributions to television in the last year.