So after all the anticipation - the lead-in for the Christmas Downton is finally revealed.

"Er, Julian mate - we've gone with the ITV News and Weather. That ok, chap?"



Oh dear, rolling around PMSL....

(But surely it could still change?)

This just calls out for Mrs Brown at 10.45 now!

Come on, surely?!

And clash with Midwife? No imo

The splitting of Emmerdale looks dodgy too. Shocked they've chosen Paul O Grady's dogs over All star Family Fortunes if confirmed

Confirmation from Sam Hodges it's the News on BBC1 at 10.45. Nothing extra added. Better at 10.45 than right in the middle of primetime though....

Saying that it has happened to BBC1 on at least a couple of occasions. I think it was once at 8.20 following The Big Impression and got monster ratings. Also at 8.50 following The Green Green Grass.

This will probably be ITV's highest rated news bulletin of the year.

Why would they do that? CTM is capable of getting DA style ratings, so if people are watching CTM, they are hardly going to schedule their top show to start before the other top show finishes! The BBC have triumphed in their aggressiveness for a change, and it gives ITV a taste of its own medicine.

What's the betting though that ITV play the victim and reports in papers have headlines "BBC Forces Audience to choose their Favourite Shows" then go on to say how nasty and mean those BBC schedulers are for playing ITV at their own game!

So really, the panic has inflicted major black holes on both parties.

ITV seems to have ended up with the worst possible schedule and a news bulletin just when they need to build their audience to its biggest point of the night, whilst BBC1 knocks off early and goes to bed.

No doubt in my mind now that the biggest peak of the day will be for the final 15 minutes of Call the Midwife.

Yes, I know. Was getting too excited by ITV's mess up to realise that of course would mean a CTM clash.

I know! It's hilarious that ITV's tough tactics have severely backfired! And DW starting before Emmerdale is just the audience grabber the BBC needed to hook in the viewers for the entire night!

Is it a double news boo-boo for ITV then, as presumably Emmerdale pt1 is screwed by DW getting news opposition?

BBC1

3.10 Shrek 4
4.40 Room on Broom
5.05 News
5.15 Doctor Who
6.15 Strictly
7.30 Call the Midwife
8.45 EastEnders
9.45 The Royle Family
10.45 News
11.00 The Vicar of Dibley (rpt)

ITV1

3.10 Tangled
5.15 News
5.30 Emmerdale
6.00 Love of Dogs
7.00 Emmerdale
7.30 Corrie
8.30 ITV News and Weather
8.45 Downton Abbey
10.45 [film presumably?]

Disasterous schedule for Itv1. They couldnt have made it any worse in terms of timings. Cant wait for Christmas day ratings to come out now and all the subsequent PR headlines, newspaper headlines and BBC News reports.

Call The Midwife will get the best peak of the day against Itv news and will be reported in the press as the nations favourite drama and a bigger show than Downton abbey, great PR for the show.

Good schedule from BBC, if not finishing a little early

From what we currently know about the other days, my only problem is it looks like Ripper Street is staying on the 30th, against the second hour of Wild at Heart. Hopefully it should do well but it would have no doubt done better on New Year's Day. Call The Midwife/Ripper Street from January 6th then? If Ripper Street is a hit, which it should be, Mr Selfridge has no chance.

Maybe ITV has a good film on at 10.45pm - that should win its slot.

With hindsight, I bet the Beeb wish they did have Mrs Brown on at 10.45 - would have been a perfect end to what now looks like a perfect night!

Can see heads rolling at ITV, and I do wonder if even now, they might think "stuff it, we're not sticking the news on there"?

Im shocked Itv didnt extend Coro St to 75 mins. They couldve done some last minute filming of some extra scenes to put in the show. Something like people singing carols, some light hearted humour from characters not involved in the main storylines etcerta couldve meant no Itv news at 8.30pm.

Youve Been Framed at 5pm on Itv1, should get a good beating by Doctor who.

Stephen Fry's Doors Open is now at 9pm on Boxing Day on ITV1. A better slot for it.

I'll post the schedules from the last 15 years to compare later. 10 years ago it was the likes of Bargain Hunt and Ground Force..

Boxing Day is confirmed. Mr Stink has been moved.

5.00 How to train your Dragon
6.30 News
6.50 Alice in Wonderland
8.30 Eastenders
9.00 Miranda
9.30 Mrs Brown's Boys


I remember Outtake tvon Christmas Day!!

So ITV won't win Christmas Day... shocker. I guess having the news at 8.30pm might dent Downton a bit but a sizeable portion of the audience will be recording it to watch on boxing day anyway if last year is anything to go by. The 75 minute SCD/CTM episodes do seem to have put ITV in a bit of a difficult position.

I'd imagine CTM will hang on to a lot of the Strictly audience (similar audience profile I think?) and ITV will be betting that some of them will transfer over to Downton at 8.45pm so it's better to delay than start at 8.30pm. On the other hand, they might lose some of the Corrie audience to Eastenders by giving them a good opportunity to switch over.

The ITV schedule overall is fairly uninspiring. Fincham might want to play on Christmas Day but I suspect the accountants hate him for it. The BBC schedule is at least a bit fresher than last year but Doctor Who seems a bit early and yet it still has the feeling of being one show short. I guess that's the effect of the 75 minute shows.

ITV, to be fair, has done some good stuff drama wise on Boxing Day.

As far as I recall, it's almost always been trounced.

This year, it competes with Miranda and Mrs Brown. Will give them tougher competition than Dale Winton, but you'd still bet against ITV there.

I assume the schedule goes 8.30 EastEnders 9.00 Miranda 9.30 MBB, with no Corrie on ITV at all?

That's a winning line up, surely?

Where have they dumped Mr Stink though? Christmas Eve?

With looking at the BBC One twitter feed for some very nice menus with the confirmed schedules. Boxing Day looking good for them too.
@bbcone: XMAS SCHEDULE: We’ve got the perfect post-Christmas telly line up for you on Boxing Day. Take a look here! http://t.co/3de0QGWh

Crap schedule for both sides. I'll watch DW who maybe record the dog show on ITV but nothing new or innovative just the usual fare with "Christmas Special" tagged on the end. Couple of decent films but each one repeated many times on Sky and DVD-wise.

Not there either
Christmas Eve is

5.05 The Lady and The Tramp
6.20 BBC News
6.45 A Christmas Carol
8.15 Merlin
9.00 Eastenders
9.35 Outnumbered
10.15 Mrs Brown's Boys



Yes thats what the nation wants on Christmas Day new and innovative

Up against the Hitchcock drama on BBC 2.

With a on-going Royal story and the very real possibility of some extreme weather around Christmas a prime time news bulletin could do very well. Problem folks here have is that despite spending 12-15 hours a day on fantasy schedules they don't really understand the average (non anorak) viewer very well and often end up having to eat humble pie later Of course the joy of news bulletins is that they can be used to pad out or tighten the running times quite easily too

That's all I think needs to be said, til December 26th

I'll stick to family and DVD's then