Brucie's week off was announced before this series started.

Yeah, not as if it's a decision based on ratings. Though gawd knows why not. IF DVO wins it's just a joke stage school educated fake Essex girl, whats the point, similar with Kimberley? If it's an Olympian well what a depressing downturn in their career.

Not sure which is the more depressing show this or x-factor, that Karen bird is hot though.

Your thread in the Broadcasting Forum didnt last long did it?

Its a pretty strong stand to make to make that your boycotting the BBC. Please let us know when you start viewing once again.

Personally I just dont feel that the public are that up in arms against the BBC-its more centred on Savile himself.

For what its worth, all of the fireworks around here starting going off shortly after SCD ended-that hasnt always been the case before. They are still going off now. Glad its not my money going up in smoke.

And what has this has got to with present day ratings?? I'm sure you've posted this or a similar post about 10 times already.
The critique of the thread by GeorgeS isn't totally wrong.

I think you are spot on. The public are angered at the deception the entire media played regarding Savile. Those old enough to remember Saviles shows feel sickened that such popular shows were fronted by such a fiend. The BBC do have questions to address but overall the public will still tune in to the BBC for News and events over other channels. It's a blip that the media are inflating into a giant. Most people are actually more bothered about whether they can afford Christmas presents than they are about worrying whether they'll ever trust the BBC again.

Schedule updates:

According to Digiguide:

Secret of Crickley Hall starts Sunday November 18th at 9pm
Last Tango in Halifax starts Tuesday November 20th at 9pm.

The CS omnibus moved more because it cost them more to show it on ITV1 than ITV2. Perhaps the BBC can pay less in repeat fees airing it after midnight on Fridays than on a Sunday afternoon.


Granada used to air a Corrie omnibus around 5-6pm on Sundays back in the days when it aired just twice a week - though not sure if other regions did.


Love how in this country anyone with natural talent or previous experience is considered cheating. Strictly has never sold itself as a pro-amatuer competition, but instead a pro-celebrity competition, and indeed they've probably had far more people over the years who struggle more to fit into the definition of "celebrity" than "amatuer".

Wow, natural talent, as in by being taught it in your school when 99.9% of the population wouldn't be. How could anyone consider that unfair?

the Sunday afternoon EE omnibus is how I got into the show, when Bianca was cheating on Ricky with her mothers boyfriend Dan. Once the Slater girls hit the Square, I was hooked.

It wont be hooking new viewers at stupid o clock on Saturday morning.

I'm sure the idea will have been floated before but would ITV be able to air The Chase at 6pm and move their newshour to 5pm? From a ratings perspective The Chase would have a far bigger potential audience in the 6pm hour and the news could also benefit from not going head to head with BBC1 (which also has a PSB element to it because there's little to be gained by having 2 newshours head to head).

they did here too but that was also not long after it stopped bucketing down with rain/hail/sleet.

Within your post, you've hit upon the problem with EE at the moment - the lack of anything to grip the viewer. It's a show that seriously needs those talking point characters and storylines that made it so unmissable in the late 90s/early 00s. EE just seems to be going round in circles, as evidenced by the big Christmas storyline which is virtually a retread of the corresponding storyline a couple of years ago. I'm not sure that promoting Lorraine Newman from second-in-charge was the best decision - we really need a completely new producer who has the objectivity to give EE the overhaul it needs.

I wouldn't get carried away. The news can't be at 5pm, The Chase would probably do worse at 6pm because it would be up against the BBC News which would then be the only early evening news bulletin that is on after people get home from work.

Remember The Chase airs at 6pm on ITV1+1 for those who want it at that time anyway.

but there has some point talking points

1) The return of Sharon, which didnt start well, and continues to go poorly. However the reason for her exit like she did has been revealed, its was all so Phil can guilt trip her into helping him try and get Lexi. A storyline ive mentioned my problems with before.

2) Lauren and Joey, can someone please tell the Daily Mail about all the incest on EastEnders, its like they have given up criticising it. That should be a talking point. Instead all we have is stupid rumour about them actually being siblings, which is taking it too far. A poor storyline twist choice IMO.

3) Alife and Kat Moon, I mentioned above that by the time the Slaters arrived I was hooked, and obviously I really enjoyed the Kat/Zoe "you aint my mother", "yes I am" moment, but one thing I never liked was Alife. Kat and Alife hooking up gave Kat a nice exit, yet since she comes back, Kat has gone wrong, and it keeps making the same mistake with her again, and again, and most likely again.

Who killed Derek, and the latest Branning family fall out, will no doubt be good TV, but as you say its all been done before.

There is no question EE has a different feel to it, than it did under Kirkwood, BUT it continues to make storyline mistakes, which seem obvious to the fans.

Firstly news restrictions means it couldn't happen (though ITV would only have to ask OFCOM and they'd roll over as usual).

Secondly even if The Chase got a boost in figures (though as Andy says BBC News would be stiff competition) the news hour would lose ratings so overall their 5-7pm block wouldn't rate much better.

Thirdly due to the restrictions on ads between 6pm and 11pm The Chase is far more profitable in the 5pm hour, probably the most lucrative hour out of primetime. The show airs with the maximum number of ads around it, but in the 6pm hour it would likely see ad breaks packed with promos with ITV holding them back as usual until more lucrative slots later in the evening.

I'll eat my hat if EastEnders doesn't hit 9m before 1st December

Interesting BBC scheduling for ATP World Tour finals.

Every afternoon is live on BBC2 / BBC HD until 5.15pm. Big improvement from last year when I think coverage on BBC2 ended at approx 4pm each afternoon (continuing on BBC HD and red button). That meant last year most games finished only on BBC HD / red button whereas this year all should finish on BBC2. So a very sensible change.

However this year the final is on the 2nd Monday evening (last year - Sunday afternoon). Final starts at 8pm and is therefore on BBC3! I know everyone now has BBC3 but still seems odd to show 6 group matches and 1st semi all on BBC2 and then the final is on BBC3.

I know why the decision has been taken but would have thought the final was big enough to justify BBC2 prime-time. Especially if Murray is in it!

(On first 7 days BBC don't show the evening match at all so issue doesn't arise).

Mm, well its not unknown for them to shift schedules for Murray-interesting to find out if that only exists when there is strawberrys and cream on offer.

If Channel 5 can show news at 5pm and then half an hour at 6.30, I cant see why ITV couldn't air it for an hour at 5pm and then have news at Ten. But moving The Chase and the news would just be stupid.

Firstly a show llike The Chase is unlikely to maintain 3m+ ratings for any sort of longevity. In 2/3 years time when people are bored with the concpt will ITV have new gameshow to replace it with? The news is something that will always be important, the only reason it would have a marked decline in quality is if viewers switch from ITV news to BBC news.

Secondly having the news at six o'clock is the perfect time, it avoids primetime, yet is in time for most people getting home from work. Move it to 5pm and many people will miss it. meaning those will flock over to BBC news, meaning the cahse would likely lose ratings too.

Thirdly while sitting through an hour of news is acceptable, how many people would watch 5-7pm every night? The Chase works well, because game shows are popular with pensioners, kids, students, meaning 5pm is the perfect slot

I must say though, its good to see ITV are still experimenting in the 5pm lot. It means the Chase will have more longevity and when it declines there shuld be a new show to replace it with. Whereas the BBC show no effort and just show the one show (first weakest link, now pointless) mixing repeats and new episodes, to the point here the show gets completely burnt out. The rapid decline of The Weakest Link was painful. The same is happening with Deal or No Deal on Channel 4 which wont be long before its sub 1m thanks to Jay Hunt's genius plan of extending an already incredibly padded out show to an hour. The only game shows that seem to have lasted are those which require intelligence, namely University Challenge, Mastermind and Countdown. Its a shame Channel 4 are moving Countdown to 2.40pm, given a chance in a 4.15pm slot I think it could do much better than Deal or No Deal on a much lower budget.

Good point. Maybe that's the plan - if Murray makes the final it'll switch to BBC2 but they aren't willing to give over an evening of BBC2 to a non-Murray match.

On the subject of EE, I do think axing the Sunday omnibus has had an impact. I was speaking to someone at work the other day who mentioned that was how she usually caught up with EastEnders as she never had time to watch it during the week. Now it's been moved she hasn't watched it in a while.

Moving the same day repeat to 10:30pm also won't have helped matters.

I'm pretty surprised at the Jonathan & Charlotte doc getting 4m for ITV. You wonder how much ITV even paid for it (and how much Syco/Sony covered as a promotional expense) so I imagine they'll be really pleased with that. I honestly wouldn't have blinked if it had come in at half that number. Although I'd be wary of commissioning loads of similar shows.

In the US, ABC had a really good night and Fridays do seem to be a bright spot in what has been a fairly testing season so far. I seem to recall Shark Tank being the worst rated series to be renewed in its premiere season but shielded from the tougher competition earlier in the week it appears to have carved out an audience on Friday nights. The comedies also did a lot bettert than I expected although how much of that they'll hold on to is uncertain. A 2.0 average is great - their last regular Thursday averaged a 2.1. Their dire Tuesday line-up managed just a 1.5 average.

Personally I think it is all hysteria, Savile was not a BBC employee, he was contracted talent and there is a difference.

The BBC have never denied having paperwork on Savile, they said there was no record of any complaints which actually ties in with what some of the victims have said about how they didn't report it through fear they would not be believed.

Not to mention the fact Savile worked for other broadcasters during his career yet now people are acting like he was only used by the BBC.

I am not saying the BBC don't have any questions to answer and I know there's been further allegations against other celebrities but for some it has become a witch hunt.

I enjoyed both SCD and TXF tonight. Overall SCD had the edge but I think that's going to be true of the rest of their current series. When Dermot says 'your Saturday night starts here' yeah ignore the show on the other side that 9-10m people have just watched.

Nicole Scherzinger is really great on TXF and it's because of her that it doesn't fall apart. She was non-existent during the auditions but has really shone in the live stages. It's the rest of the judging panel that are a problem, I do think next year they need to replace Gary and Tulisa. Tulisa just isn't very outspoken on this show, in fact she is the quiet one. I also think it's possibly time they binned off Louis Walsh; to the show he is as much of a relic as Simon's pet Sinitta became.

I will be disappointed if they don't bring Nicole back. To think there were reports she was being axed a few weeks ago -madness when she has been its saving grace this year.