Absolutely agree - absense makes the heart grow fonder and all that. At the very least they should be breaking for summer and stations shouldn't be afraid to drop shows for a few days when they're airing a live event - and it actually benefits the station long term, as we've seen with ITV who piloted a couple of cheap shows in the slot while The Chase took a break and potentially found something else they could put into the cycle (even if Tipping Point is awful).

I know you'll have your theories but the simple fact of the matter was that I was away on holiday for the most part of July and August and completely missed the Olympics. Contributing to the Ratings Thread wasn't exactly near the top of my mind if you know what I mean, and even if it was, the internet connection in some of the places I was staying was pretty dodgy to say the least - I just about managed to get my weekly RPG predictions in after lots of attempts! Obviously the Olympic ratings were incredible, way higher than what I was expecting, but you didn't really need me to say that when I returned from holiday, a few weeks after everyone else had said it anyway. If you're particularly interested in what I had to say though, you can read a post I made towards the end of August on Gallifrey Base forum and have mentioned the Olympic ratings effect in my monthly BARB shares posts. I quite like the title of 'Notes and Corrections editor in chief of RobbieSykes123's posts' but since I've replied to only one of your contributions in the last four months (and that was only after you replied to one of my posts), I don't think I can be given that title just yet ...

I'd have Tipping Point for a few weeks in the Summer leading up to the first few weeks of September and then have The Chase takeover. Have the strong shows in Autumn/Winter where ad rates are highest and a few weeks of Summer but then have the less popular shows on in the warmer (allgedly), months when viewership is traditionally down. What would be ideal for ITV is if The Paul O'Grady Show does return for a few weeks a year. That and The Chase in rotation would be unbeatable in the 5pm slot.

DCI Banks averaged 306k (16.3%) on STV.

You might be thinking of the day of the public-sector strike, Wednesday 30 November 2011, when Pointless averaged 3.33m (20.5%), with a peak of 4.2m (22%). That was a repeat of an episode first shown in March of that year on BBC Two.

Neighbours back over a million for the tea time episode yesterday.

I concur, DOND six days a week all year round has turned the show into a total bore and lost viewers. However, this is a problem with modern television, successful shows seem to be hammered into the ground, Emmerdale's six episodes a week is a case in point. All this does is turn people against a programme.

Thanks. Presumably that covers the whole of Scotland, including the Scottish part of ITV Border. Banks held up pretty well. More than a 50% share for channels 1-3 in Scotland in the 9pm hour on Wednesday.

Yes, indeed.

I wonder how the hell he managed to produce a show allegedly so bad it can't be broadcast then slide his way up to the top o the greasy pole at the BBC ... does he have something on someone high up or something?

Paul O'Grady has said he likes the idea of doing two blocks of 6 weeks per year, so if he does 12 weeks in a year, The Chase could run for 6-7 months and then they'd have 2-3 months (probably in the Summer) where they could air shows like Tipping Point and try a few other things. 5pm looks like a really strong slot for ITV just now, whereas just a few years ago they really struggled there. I wonder if they're considering running the news hour at 5pm and then The Chase/POG at 6pm - do you think that would work or not (they'd be allowed to by OFCOM as they have the 10pm bulletin in primetime still).

The Chase really is doing so well at the moment though - 3.3-3.5m at 5pm is brilliant.

I'll be interested to see how Jonathan & Charlotte did last night as I think it might have bombed quite badly for the reasons Dancc mentioned the other day.

I totally agree with Drifter's response to this post and would add ...

Sorry, but Jeny Agutter, Pam Ferris and Miranda Hart aren't all big mainstream names. Ferris had a high profile 12-15 years ago - but her stock has dwindled since then (nothing to do with her work - as ever, executives have their favourites, and are always moving onto someone new). Agutter is indeed well-known but has, to my knowledge, never led a series of her own. Viewing figures didn't leap when she joined Spooks. And Hart was the star of a BBC2 show - which may since have transferred to BBC One - but, again, hardly a major player. And the characters all three took were not the lead: that part went to someone new - and she is the focus of the show.

CTM's success was not a given at all: other period dramas do not automatically succeed (I'd hardly call The Paradise a roaring success), and it launched against two established big hitters on ITV, Dancing On Ice and Wild At Heart, neither of which could beat it.

I don't think 'big mainstream names' are an automatic shoe-in to decent ratings in the way they once were. Martin Clunes may have got half-decent ratings in A Mother's Son, but they were hardly comparable to CTM's. And DCI Banks and Monroe show that it doesn't really matter how many big mainstream names are cast in a drama - if the public aren't engaged by the premise and/or writing, it doesn't matter.

I don't know why C4 have kept DOND six days a week. It's been airing on Sundays lately in a mid-afternoon slot, and next week moves to Saturdays at 12.55pm, with C4 airing a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall series on Sundays with 5 back to back episodes - a series clearly commissioned for weekdays. Weekend daytime is becoming as boring and repetivtive as weekday daytime now - and axing T4 completely is only going to add C4 to the list of channels not worth turning on during the day at weekends.

As for Emmerdale, as has happened with every soap schedule change over recent years by moving an episode to solve one problem they've opened up another - and arguably the 8pm hour on Thursdays would benefit overall from not having Emmerdale take up half of it.

DOND is a classic case of overkill. If it was only on for six months of the year and the running time was reduced to 30 minutes gross, it would become a good show again. Now it's been hammered into the ground and with stupid themed weeks, people are getting sick of it.

Good news for Channel 5, but the lunchtime episode's share looks very low - less than 7% when it's usually about 10%.

It might i can start watching again now that horrible woman and her warbling has gone, expect her voice had driven others with Barb boxes away as well.

Bit of a risk the BBC holding an Eric Sykes evening isn't it, given how virtually everyone from the 60's and 70's are currently being accused of being sex fiends, I'd have held off on tribute shows for anyone until things calm down a bit.

They're trying to fix the start time, rather than the end time, by the look of it.

Yikes! EE beat Emmerdale by just 40k last night. Corrie leading the pack as usual with two good ratings. They all should be rating better now so its abit disappointing to see these low ratings in November. Emmerdale still fairly strong following the 40th Anniversary bump.

I posted a 1989 top ten where Neighbours was second in the ratings with 20 million viewers, well ahead of the British big two. It's interesting to see how such a big show has fallen to about 1.5 million on a minor channel. However, same thing happened to Dallas earlier in the eighties, 22 million tuned in to see who shot JR and then the novelty gradually wore off.

Well we still love Countdown, at least. It is one of those rare shows where you have to work as hard as the contestants to play along and that way get the most out of it.

Looks like Channel 4 are going for a tripple whammy of afternoon game shows on a regular basis. As yesterday they announced a new daytime one coming for 2013 to presumably be the sandwich show between Countdown and DOND.

It is to be presented by Rory Bremner and is called Race the Clock. The premise is that contestants answer questions and build up money by gambling on not running out of time on a ticking clock that they cannot see but the audience at home can. Sounds interesting. But will no doubt get boring once they start dressing them all up as mummies and have to throw brains at the moving clock (in essence the latest gimmick being tried by DOND this week).

Not sure where the 40 episodes of The Common Denominator reoported yesterday are going either (daytime, perhaps?) Presented by Phil Spencer (another of the Channel's entertainer/presenters being redeployed). Contestants have to discover the link between seemingly unrelated things (the Eifel tower and Hilton Hotels being the example cited)

as in

Countdown is an intelligent word game with witty guests. DOND is just tedious box opening and X Factor style sob stories, any chance it will get cancelled soon.
Also I don't know if anyone else has Yahoo, but Sinitta, best friend of Simon Cowell, told Yahoo News that TXF could be cancelled after next year's series. If this is the case, ITV had better get thinking about a replacement as this will leave a massive hole in the schedules.

There is also a story now that Cowell is trying to get the previous panel back, though whether this includes himself has to be doubtful given the extension to XF USA.
As for Sinitta, well most things "could" happen!

WOW!! In the US, ABC won the night with some Family Friendly comedy and Shark Tank at 9
Full story here http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...ita-up/156040/

Maybe, though, he is getting a bit angry with the viewing public. ROB was an expensive failure, the Talent franchise isn't doing well in America and Australia, and TXF is losing viewers in Britain. I can't see him accepting failure for long.

Coronation Street 7:30pm 8.0m (37.2%) +1 131k
Coronation Street 8:30pm 7.8m (32.4%) +1 234k

EastEnders 7.2m (30.7%) +2.5 376k
Emmerdale 7.1m (34.0%) +1 125k

EastEnders very close to being the 3rd soap yet again. I don't recall a situation before where EE has been beaten/been close to being beaten not just as a freak one off but on multiple occasions over the same few weeks.

Christmas could be very interesting if these ratings continue.