I very much like the one they've been using for the now and next clips, much nicer than some plain red screen.

Someone posted yesterday that in a couple of weeks we get an hour long Emmerdale on Tuesday with Corrie on at 7pm on Wednesday before the National Television Awards at 7,30.

But on the DS TV news headline page, there's a NTA advert inviting you to vote now and it has a clock counting down to the NTA and it's counting down to a 8pm slot.

In fairness I suspect the large scale drops at ABC, NBC and Fox in the same slot have probably helped Person of Interest more than anything CBS has done for it. Fox switched Bones for Glee on Thursday night which in and of itself is a big help for Person of Interest given its procedural nature. When you take into account that a mid-November episode of Bones in 2011 got a 2.9 and a mid-November episode of Glee in 2012 got a 2.1 the picture gets even better and Mobbed did even worse last night than The Finder did in the slot midseason last year. The Office meanwhile got a 2.2 last night on the equivalent episode last year it had a 2.9 and over on ABC Grey's went from a 3.8 last year to a 3.1 last night. There's an argument to be made that CBS is just feeling the benefit of being the only network airing a show that isn't at least a couple of seasons past its best. I'm not sure Five will have the same luck.

Of course having said that sticking Two and a Half Men at 8:30 certainly hasn't hurt either.


What do you mean by traditional sitcom? Plus I'm not entirely sure what you can learn from the success of US comedies. If you look at the two big comedy success stories of the last few seasons, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory, they have almost nothing in common.

While both did get over 40%, the actual number of viewers for both was under 1m.

(in 16-34)
One Born Every Minute - 872k (42% of show's viewers)
The Undateables - 890k (40.1% of show's viewers)

20% of 5m is better than 40% of 2m!!

Just to tidy up a rating from the US;

Big Bang Theory - 6.4/19 with 20.00m viewers.

That is very true. It seems to be more difficult for TV to reach that audience now with other distractions around.


So they finally hit the magic 20m in overnights. I knew Big Bang would do it eventually.

I think that's without +1, C4Sales has them both over 1m (The Undateables nearly 1.1m).


Problem is, how often do ITV even get 20% of 5m? More likely to be 12% of 4m! Hence the general focus on ABC1's when it comes to drama.

Of course if Great Night Out ends up with a low rating like 2.5m but pulls in 1m+ 16-34's then that's good news for ITV. But it probably won't skew like that. If it gets 2.5m it'll probably have about 650,000 tops.


Nice to see it hit 20m - just!

Person of Interest (3.3, #1 at 9pm) and Scandal (2.8, #1 at 10pm) held up in finals as sophomore series swept two thirds of primetime.

And that's a good plan. As I said before with ITV dramas they had a lot of flops when they tried to get a young audience with their dramas and alienated their core viewers. ITV dramas have tended to be big because they got lots of a demographic. Doc Martin is a perfect example, it skews old but gets so many viewers that it gets enough younger viewers. It also does well in ABC1 viewers.

Sssssshhhhhh - we've sneaked past the 200 mark without those pesky admin folk noticing.

If they had the shows on Friday people would watch them, they just don't at the moment.

Utopia has been getting rave reviews from the few I've seen, but it's another drama going out at 10pm. That slot hasn't been kind to some recent good dramas. 9pm is a better slot but Channel have some popular shows at 9pm already that won't get moved. Also their dramas have been getting great promotion but not delivering. Compare that to the promotion Line Of Duty got, just a few trailers of clips. Why waste so much money on glossy promos for such little return?

My predictions for TBBT's 20m were correct - just (and only with the final adjustments)! With their People's Choice win on Wednesday, it was a perfect advertisement for the sitcom, which aired last night. PCA and TBBT were both on CBS and Kaley Cuoco (Penny) was the host for the PCA. FOX might have to brace themselves when Idol returns. Sure, they have the Carey-Minaj feud as their ratings gimmick, but what if that backfires? Also, if TBBT wins huge at the Globes on Sunday (not likely, really), TBBT will most likely get more audiences and widen the winning gap against Idol.

It looks like both CBS and ABC have given POI and Scandal a chance to grow and as a result, now bringing in decent numbers. I am more impressed with Scandal because a 2.8 is rarely seen for a 10pm drama. Moreover, it wasn't long ago that this drama was getting a high 1's to a low 2's, being in threat of cancellation. Impressively, POI narrowly beat Grey's whereas Scandal beat Elementary outright. Grey's 3.2 is super good as they are on their ninth season. Their People's Choice win () for drama also speaks for the show's loyal fanbase, even now!

CW's 0.6/1.88m for Critic's Choice Awards is pretty much an uneventful number, but it is certainly on par with 75% of what The CW is getting on a regular week. Besides, even though Critic's Choice does brings some importance to the Awards season, was it ever big with the viewers in the past, when it aired on VH1? That being said, it was interesting that Ben Affleck won Best Director for Argo, since he missed out on the Oscar nomination.

It is the 10pm slot where C4 needs quality shows as that's where BBC1 and ITV switch to the news and where traditionally C4 have been able to take advantage. Often sticking a show in a more competitive 9pm slot leads to less people watching it, so any 9pm slots need to be picked carefully. I don't get why these series need extended openers either - indeed the OCD scheduler inside of me finds series with varying length episodes annoying.

I really do think as well with C4 struggling in daytime and to an extent in the 8-10pm slot they really do need to focus on the 10pm hour - it should be their flagship hour and to go back a decade to the most rubbish of marketing slogans, they need people to "See 10 - think 4".

Have C4 promoted World Without End at all - the follow up to Pillars of the Earth which airs at 9pm on Saturdays from tomorrow?

I felt it was only a matter of time before Big Bang hit 20m, but for them to do it the week after repeats stopped and new shows were on is very impressive. It used to be Two And A Half Men's lead-in and look at it now. Very impressive indeed.

Good to see Person Of Interest and Scandal rise, I like what I've seen of both. Wish The Mentalist was back on Thursdays though.

They really should be expoliting that slot with comedy and drama, the problem is very few things there take off. They have some hits at 9pm but when it comes to 10pm viewers seem to disappear.


That would be a great slogan for them and in the past I did. I also thought 4 when it was Friday night, now the channel doesn't really register for me. Daytime is a mess, DOND is on the slide, Countdown is past its prime and they're doing shows in daytime that BBC1/ITV do anyway.They need something different the other channels aren't doing, like when they had Light Lunch.


Let me answer your question with this. I didn't know it started tomorrow until you told me.

Some people were asking about a second series of BBC3's Cuckoo a few days ago. Worth mentioning on that front that Andy Samberg has just signed up for a comedy pilot in the US for Fox so it doesn't look great. Especially not if that goes to series.

6.3 + 0.63 = 6.93 by my reckoning....

I don't think Cuckoo is particularly funny and the ratings dipped across the series didn't they?
And then the +1 figure for Lewis of course that takes it into the 7m category.

Yes, the morning blocks on BBC Two have gone completely. Here's one for you Hassaan, about the CBeebies Christmas Panto, which you posted about on New Year's Eve, regarding the consolidated figures for the week ending 23 December:

Its audience was 782k (5.6%). Were you aware that this panto was actually simulcast on BBC One? It rated almost the same on the bigger channel: 749k (5.3%). So a total of 1.53m (10.9%). Quite impressive.


The thing is, the darts were finished by 3pm on BBC Two in the same week last year (my analysis just looked at 3-5.15pm). Sport would often have to finish at about that time so that there would be a non-sport alternative to kids' shows for adults to watch on the BBC. The darts highlights have been running up to 4.15pm this week, taking advantage of the new scheduling freedom. They've been doing well: 632k/8.1% from 1-4.15pm on Thursday, as against 441k/6.4% from 12.30-3pm on the equivalent Thursday last year. On average, the darts on Monday-Thursday this week are up over 200k and almost 2 share points year-on-year.

It's the repeats later on in the afternoon which are dragging the share down: e.g. Rivers with Griff Rhys-Jones at 4.15pm has averaged 5% this week compared with the 13-15% shares Flog It and Perfection were doing this time last year.

Interesting BBC Two schedule this evening. They are repeating all three Stargazing Lives from 4-7pm, and then after a re-run of Flog It! there are classic episodes of Dad's Army and Fawlty Towers, then QI XL, and then they round off the night with the 2010 Ken Loach film Oranges and Sunshine. I wonder how all that lot will do against the sizzling entertainment line-up on the two main channels. I don't suppose we will see Richard Hammond getting beaten by 'Stargazing Not Live'?

Channel 4, meanwhile, has a Ben Stiller film leading into the premiere of Ken Follet's epic historical drama series.

Good writing

[quote=Brekkie;63517989

Have C4 promoted World Without End at all - the follow up to Pillars of the Earth which airs at 9pm on Saturdays from tomorrow?[/QUOTE]

I have seen the first 3 episodes and production wise it looks very good. However the storyline has been changed from the book, with main characters disappearing and minor bland characters being brought to the screen, oh and the acting is pretty awful apart from Miranda Richardson. I will be surprised if it holds up as well as Pillars of the Earth.

If I had to choose I'd much rather watch NCIS than The Mentalist.

Great Night Out: 3.41m (13.8%)
CBB: 2.05m (8.3%)

exc +1

CBB continued with 2.29m (9.3%) last night, peaking at 2.68m (10.7%). Beat ITV's new sitcom amongst 16-34s but lost out to 16 Kids and Counting in both the demo and Total People.

Just 3.4m for ITV's latest comedy drama flop. The trails since xmas and 8.4m Corrie lead in helped then...

5.31m SW
8.14m EEIC