The first series had an extra round since it had five pairs rather than the usual four. The decision to do this was to keep more banter between Xander and Richard. The second series had the head to head as best of five, now it's best of three. . The problem with Pointless it had to divert from the original format (where you had to find a obscure/pointless answer) and invent a quiz around it which has led to many shows having not many and hardly any Pointless answers. Yesterday's show springs to mind since there was only one pointless answer to add £250 towards the jackpot.

Because Emmerdale loses a lot of ratings momentum over Christmas (for a number of reasons, such as bad scheduling), so I suspect some of the current extra viewers won't be back in January.

Conversely, EastEnders gains a lot of ratings momentum over Christmas, and carries it forward into January.

If you think the smaller gaps are going to be a long term thing, you're going to end up as disappointed as Keith Richardson and Linda Lusardi did a few years ago.

US Election ratings (from Broadcast)

ABC:
8pm - The Middle - 9.11m (2.8)
8.30pm - The Neighbors - 6.98m (2.1)
9pm - Modern Family - 12.29m (4.7)
9.30pm - Suburgatory - 7.64m (2.9)
10pm - Nashville - 6.01m (2.0)

CBS:
8pm - Survivor - 10.25m (2.7)
9pm - Criminal Minds - 12.03m (3.0)
10pm - CSI - 10.31m (2.3)

FOX:
8pm - The X Factor - 6.99m (2.6)

NBC:
8pm - The Voice - 10.41m (3.7)
10pm - Chicago Fire - 7.09m (2.3)

CW:
8pm - Arrow - 3.69m (1.3)
9pm - Supernatural - 2.31m (1.0)

Tvbythenumbers

Good night for ABC and The CW which both rebounded sharply from Halloween dips. Everything on ABC posted week on week gains of 11%-21% while Arrow jumped 30% to tie a series high and Supernatural also posted double digit gains.

NBC won the night courtesy of The Voice, although it's about one point lower than recent ratings. It also boosted Chicago Fire to a series high 2.3.

CBS saw fewer gains, perhaps because the 55+ crowd that tend to watch Criminal Minds and CSI probably weren't bothered by Halloween!

X Factor on FOX was flat from last week, despite the arrival of The Voice to Wednesday nights, suggesting it did benefit from a post Halloween bounce and perhaps some regular scheduling. Tonight could be bleak but after that they have two consecutive weeks of regular scheduling and competition.

Children in Need soon for BBC One. Looking back at the ratings over the years last year seems to be abnormally high! even against tough competition.

I know some people get driven crazy by these sorts off shows but I quite like them. The BBC ones that is. The only one I don really like is sports relief because it's lost it's original identity. I would expect 8-9m this year or CIN no way will it be as high as last year.

Ken

Arrow is certainly one to look out for! I am completely hooked and immersed into it and I'm on US pace and am so happy it got the highest ratings since the pilot. It is a massive hit for CW.

CW and ABC doing very, very well.

Yeah, in my region the commissioner elections have been quite high profile but that's because I get Look North from Hull and they only have to cover two votes so they can go into detail (and John Prescott's standing, so it's a bit glamorous). Whereas in some of the larger regions there'll be umpteen elections so the coverage of the individual polls will have to be sketchy. This is perhaps the only event where Jeremy Hunt's local TV channels might be of any use.


Presumably this will just be a cross between his bits from Ten O'Clock Live and You Have Been Watching - but that's exactly what I want anyway, so I'm looking forward to this.


Be interesting to see how that Celtic figure compared to both the Chelsea and Man U matches on SS3 and SS4 respectively, and also how it compared to SS2 when they show an English club. Certainly I'd assume the Chelsea and Man U programme averages would be higher, because they started at 7.30 whereas Celtic had the usual SS2 build-up show which covers all the matches and starts at six. They used to bill that as a separate thing in its own right, actually.

The standard with US shows seems to be the first two series and then Sky can snatch them if they want them, so no surprise at all C5 have the second series. I suspect the deal was signed at the point they got the first.


That's actually a very good result for ITV - head to head getting 197k compared to 250k on BBC1. I'd imagine most of ITV's programme was ad free after midnight too - maybe people are realising such events usually are.

Also in the discussion about 5pm shows the other day I bought up the subject of the 11pm hour and how broadcasters don't seem to care about the other end of primetime. Based on that peak figure for ITV1 there are around 7.5m-8m potential viewers around at 11.30pm. Can't seem to find a share for The Chase to work out the 5pm viewing (though ITV1+1 probably screws up that calculation), but based on Nick Nickelby from Monday that is more viewers than in the 2pm hour, and it's roughly around the 7m across the afternoon based on the shares for the tennis, but presumably viewing would grow significantly in the 5pm hour.


Some bits of C4 News I've not seen mentioned here - firstly a spin-off from the Inbetweeners:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...-drifters.html

That'll air on E4 according to the following article from Media Guardian, which is about a "mating season" coming up on C4:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...-mating-season

Also unsurprisingly C4 continuing on the track of worthy but generally not that popular drama delivered just 1.25m viewers for Secret State last night,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...4-secret-state

I'm guessing Ten o'clock Live has finally been put out of it's misery. Surprised though C4 didn't do something for the US election on Tuesday.

That's a great figure for ITV.

Based on the shares for Pointless and The Chase posted here a couple of weeks back, there are about 15m watching TV in the 5pm hour (inc same-day timeshift of that period of course.)

They're planning another series for next year:
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/c...043521.article

I never ever thought I'd see a post with the words John Prescott and glamorous in the same sentence

John Bishop's Big Year is taking Me and Mrs Jones' slot, Friday 30th 9.30, so not set for Christmas after all.

Strictly is finally moving later, but only by 10 minutes, 6.40-8.00.

Peep Show returns on Sunday 25th after Homeland at 10, followed by something called Kookyville, not sure what that is.

Very interested to see how well the Inbetweeners Movie does tonight. It really felt like an event, watching a movie pretty quickly on terrestrial tv compared to the usual wait. It made me realise how much movies are missing from our schedules, $ky have too much of a monopoly. Could it win the timeslot? 3-4m must be likely!

who wants to watch a review of the year a month early????

Wonder if Channel 4 will win 9pm hour tonight with Inbetweeners. DCI Banks is in an irregular slot so will probably be around 3.8m/3.9m excluding +1, which I think is beatable for C4 tonight.

In 2011:
Taken premiered to 3.2m [+1 505k]
Ice Age 3 premiered to 4.11m [+1 469k]

In 2010:
Slumdog Millionaire premiered to 4.31m [+1 282k]

All tape checked overnight ratings.

I think it will win the 9pm hour, but BBC1 news will win at 10pm. 4m [exc +1] is my prediction for the film. If it comes in anywhere above 3m [exc +1] that would be a good result though, below 3m would be poor IMO.

Will Angel from H&A slap badly against it?

Or will the respected Gina McKee lose to the man behind the worst song ever in Don't It Make You Feel Good for the 1st time thanks to C4?

Big burning questions.

Sky surely? Grown up thread here (aside the Sunday morning X Factor meltdown)

Confirmed Last Tango in Halifax starts Tuesday November 20 at 9 pm on BBC1.

http://www.attentional.com/screenwat.../08NOV2012.png

Inbetweeners - 3.24m

I'm guessing that excl +1 on there, should have passed 3.5m.

That Inbetweeners number will include +1, so might be below 3m excluding +1. At least I got my DCI Banks prediction roughly right - came in at 3.99m inc+1.

Yup Channel 4 Sales confirms:

The Simpsons - 1.55m [inc+1
Kirstie's Vintage Home - 2.0m [inc+1]
Inbetweeners Movie - 3.24m [inc+1]

Screenwatch includes +1. Still a great rating, but not at the top end of people's expectations on here.

And the demos from Channel 4 Sales: 1.22m aged 16-34 - a TVR of 8.3 - and an 9.4 in Housewives with Children.