Sorry if I came across as rude there it was not intended. My opinion is I would rather the BBC spend my money on something new than simply dragging out repeats. Okay the shows tonight were cheep and uninspiring but I'd rather that than a 30 year old film repeat like we got in the summer.

The BBC has always had cheep tatty old filler and it used to be a lot worse in the 90's. Also we must take into account BBC One's early evening line up wasn't really aimed at us old codgers. Yes they need to do better. But this is better than repeats and better than simply killing pointless Celebs.

On thing I do worry about TV commissioning is there is no imagination there at all. It all feels like Box ticking now.

Ken

Ah yes, thanks, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I haven't caught up with Splash! yet, so going to reserve judgement. Britain's Brightest was not too bad, if a little over-long. A sort of cross between Eggheads and The Krypton Factor. Clare Balding added value as always.

Not so keen on Animal Antics which seemed to be an odd choice for Tim Brooke-Taylor to present, a sort of CBBC version of You've Been Framed. I suppose they thought he would add a bit of class to the venture, which he did.

Richard Hammond's vehicle was better. I did like the scene with the kids and the bear, very cute.

Really the ratings are anyone's guess with all of those, plus the wild card of the football.

60mins would have been fine. But it was by far there best new show of the day!

Thought it was better than The Magicians from last year though.

Ken

ITV1 will be better off repeating Dangermouse then showing Splash

One thing to be said about tonight's new LE shows is that they made this thread very enjoyable



I know we shouldn't link DS comments to ratings but the Casualty thread in the soap forum has had a total of 1 comment in the first 15 minutes.

Watching Splash and reading DS at the same time has been a hoot tonight! I haven't laughed so much in ages! I can't believe there was even a 'splash off'! I can see tonight's show attracting a fairly big audience... I'd go for 6-7 million, but then I can see the ratings dropping over the series and the show developing a cult following because it's so bad it's good

The DS thread on Spash! Made the programme a bit more bareable. I'm looking forward to the ratings though.

Well, wasn't a vintage night of telly, was it?

ITV's line up ought to do OK, I suppose. The FA Cup tie was good and Splash at least looked and felt on the surface like 'big' TV - even if it was totally lacking in content! The BBC's line up was truly dismal. In a way it was the 'anti-DQF'. Weren't they supposed to be shooting for "Fewer, Bigger, Better"? There were five entertainment shows and a drama tonight - and the most memorable thing in their line up will probably be the Mrs Browns Boys repeat after they all finish!

Figures could be ugly in the morning.


Quite. It would have been a totally open goal for The Voice tonight. They did record the auditions before Christmas this time, I believe (it was January last time round), so maybe they are planning to be quicker on air than last year. Then again, this is BBC One Saturday Nights we're talking about. They've been doing this for years - holding back big shows while nothing airs in Q1, then get absolutely sunk by BGT and football in Q2.

From the reaction here BBC1 could easily be in Don't Scare the Hare territory early in the evening with 2-3m for Animal Antics and Secret Story. It's anyone guess how Britain's Brightest and Splash will do, though I'd be surprised if either are above fair to middling.

and fair enough, I just struggle to see Animal Antics as anything new, it does not create enough new footage.

The BBC website reporting that the BBC missed out on the revival of Yes, Prime Minister because they demanded a pilot first and the writers took offence.

I think the BBC were quite within their rights to demand a pilot comsidering it's three new actors taking over roles so closely associated with three others who were all so brilliant in the parts. I have to say the trailers do nothing to make me want to watch the new Gold series and everything to make me miss it.

I dont think the job of the commissioner is simply to commission, its too commission what is right for the channel.

I am not going to sit here and say I could commission what is right for any given channel, but I could damm well simply commission anything that is put in front of me.


I know what you mean about the Sarah Jane Adventure, I always felt it deserved that a trail in that slot, it did get an airing on BBC Three, but I dont recall it being too successful.

However SJA is a CBBC given a shot in early evening (even if it would have been off the back of Doctor Who), not a BBC 1 show, more suitable for CBBC, given a quick re-brand to try and hide poor commissioning.

As for The Dumping Ground, I think the cast will be too young for that, also unlike Sarah Jane Adventures, Dani Hunter is not in it, Sarah Jane being the connect between Doctor Who and the SJA. Dani Hunters appearance on Strictly, being why The Dumping Ground is apparently worth a early evening out.

Maybe the BBC need to develop something for Dani Hunter in the early evening schedule, not sure what at this point, but she could well have cross generational appeal.

Well, just finished Splash! on the PVR. My goodness. So much padding.

I'm not sure Tom's trunks and a few funny moments are going to save this bloat-a-thon. But I could be wrong. So will the ratings headline be:

"TOM DALEY MAKES A BIG SPLASH ON ITV1!"

or

"SPLASH BOMBS!" ?

I have a feeling it may be the former for the premiere, but a big drop-off across the 90 minutes, and then further falls each week, as the novelty wears off.

I guess its easier to judge an international format, rather than a sitcom based on very little.

However its possible that I am a little too used to the US model, where the given 100 shows a pilot, knowing full well, only 20 will ever make it to TV, That is something UK TV does not do.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/interviews/...write_about_it.

"The comedy’s co-creator Jonathan Lynn certainly has sympathy for Hacker regarding the latter. When Gold approached him and co-writer Antony Jay about adapting their stage play spin-off back to television, the pair offered the BBC first refusal ‘as a courtesy’.

‘And they said we had to write a pilot!’ he laughs incredulously. Lynn responded ‘that there were 38 “pilots” available on DVD, manufactured by the BBC, and a play running in the West End to capacity audiences. They said it was policy. So we said our policy was to not write a pilot for them. I thought it was absolutely extraordinary.’"

Even so I'm still with BBC here - they asked for a Mrs Brown's Boys pilot even though that has had a very successful stage show.

Britain's Brightest is a format from Germany, where for the past couple of years it has been quite successful. I enjoyed tonight's show, and having seen Splash!, I think Britain's Brightest is a much better show (production and format wise).

I would go 3m for Splash and 5m for Britain's Brightest. People who are saying 6m-7m for Splash are pretty unrealistic. ITV and the FA Cup have never really gone together, so I would be surprised if the match beat the rating of the Manchester derby last season (hence a smaller lead-in for Splash! than people are expecting).

maybe its just im too used to the US system (as said above) but laughing that the BBC dared asked them to write a pilot, wins them not favours with me.

Agreed, the FA Cup just seems more right on the BBC, but its easy to underestimate the interest in Man Utd getting beat and I suspect there will be a large peak towards the end of the game.

I'm sure we'll see something like "TELLY FLOP" and "RATINGS DIVE" too.

There is also a bit of a wildcard in tonight's ratings battle - BBC3 are repeating Merlin from the beginning at 7pm and I suspect that'll find a decent audience given the alternatives.

It would also be interesting to see if we could get some kind of figure for DVR timeshift viewing tonight (of shows previously recorded). Seen a few comments from people saying they're catching up on other shows instead tonight.



Completely agree - and I'd say with a revival a pilot is even more crucial than if it were a new sitcom - the 38 previous episodes are irrelevent considering they're of a different age. The BBC are right to at least try and move forward with their comedy and turn down revivals of shows like Red Dwarf and Yes Prime Minister - and most would say they should never have revived Only Fools and Horses and The Royle Family either, though ratings wise they both had a job to do and they both did it. From the ads I've seen for Yes, Prime Minister it does look very dated - and frankly not that good.

The audience has voted like they would for Lets Dance rather than Strictly, and thats how the show comes across- fat guy jumps into water rather than diving technique.

EDIT-Im doing a diservice to Robert Webb whose dance was brilliant and Rufus Hound too probably.

I couldn't agree more - maybe we're oversimplifying, but surely something like The Voice and Dr Who would have been absolute gold-dust for dark and cold January/February Saturdays, rather than being held off to the warmer and busier Q2. Instead, we get served up absolute bilge like Secret service.

Precisely, the BBC are right to tread carefully given that they had their fingers burnt with revivals/reboots of Reginald Perrin in the 90s and a couple of years ago.

In an ideal world you are of course correct. The trouble with BBC1 though, is that there's only five weeks from the start of January until Saturday schedules become disrupted for Six Nations Rugby. Putting The Voice and Doctor Who on for 8 weeks from the start of January would do more damage to these two shows as they would be shunted around the schedule to accommodate Rugby.

While Animal Antics and Secret Service are both brain dead TV programmes, I think the BBC are just using these few weeks to try out new formats. Because this quarter is generally lacklustre for both BBC1 and ITV, I think they're more focused on experimenting rather than ratings. Once the Six Nations are out of the way they can then bring out their big guns.

I was expecting you to have a wander round your neighbourhood and look through people's windows to see who's watching what.

Worked on Christmas Day. Far more reliable than Zeebox!!

I hope we get ratings for the CITV Channel tomorrow, to see how much a Twitter whitewash actually translates into ratings, in the middle of the day.