Picture is cloudy until +1 gets involved.

Corrie - 9.22m
NTAs - 5.87m

Tipping Point - 1.97m
The Chase - 3.91m

So a 500k drop for the NTA's year-on-year. Not too bad, could have been worse. There was a lot of negativity around last night's show for some reason. And I did think it would be a little down beforehand anyway.

Maybe they could look at it again next year and do something a bit different. Dermot is a little bland in the role of presenter (The Golden Globes has genuinely hilarious presenters who make it worth watching even if you're not too interested in the outcome of the awards) and the setting of the O2 does nothing for me whatsoever.

Previous NTAs:

01/11/06 - 6.80m (29.7%)
31/10/07 - 6.85m (30.7%)
29/10/08 - 5.27m (22.0%)
20/01/10 - 7.44m (29.65%)
26/01/11 - 6.54m (27.7%) exc +1; 6.71m (28.4%) inc +1
25/01/12 - 6.18m (25.8%) exc +1; 6.38m (26.6%) inc +1
23/01/13 - 5.58m (22.5%) exc +1; 5.87m (23.6%) inc +1

Last night's were the lowest-ratest NTAs since 2008, when the awards faced Silent Witness.

Scheduling note:

Last edited by NeilVW : 24-01-2013 at 10:58

Wednesday 23rd January 2013
BBC One
06:00 - Breakfast: 1.67m (36.1%)
09:15 - Wanted Down Under: 1.47m (24.7%)
10:00 - Homes under the Hammer: 1.68m (26.4%)
11:00 - The Sheriffs are Coming: 1.60m (25.0%)
11:45 - Cowboy Trap: 1.52m (23.0%)
12:15 - Bargain Hunt: 2.39m (30.1%)
13:00 - BBC News: 3.29m (36.5%)
13:30 - Regional News: 3.57m (38.25%)
13:45 - Doctors: 1.74m (19.2%)
14:15 - Father Brown: 1.63m (18.7%)
15:00 - Escape to the Country: 1.54m (17.8%)
15:45 - Perfection: 1.45m (14.0%)
16:30 - Antiques Road Trip: 2.41m (18.0%)
17:15 - Pointless: 3.86m (22.9%)
18:00 - BBC News: 5.25m (26.0%)
18:30 - Regional News: 6.67m (30.5%)
19:00 - The One Show: 4.33m (18.8%)
20:00 - The Food Inspectors: 3.50m (14.1%)
21:00 - Africa: 5.81m (22.4%)
* beat the NTAs head-to-head (ITV: 5.32m/20.5%, ITV Total: 5.68m/21.9%)
* peak: 6.13m (23.75%) at 21:45
* 21:00-21:50 (main programme): 5.77m (22.2%)
* 21:50-22:00 ('making-of' segment): 6.01m (23.4%)
22:00 - BBC News: 4.88m (23.3%)
22:25 - Regional News: 4.97m (26.6%)
22:35 - A Question of Sport: 2.34m (15.8)
23:10 - The League Cup Show: 1.35m (13.9%)
24:55 - Film 2013: 557k (9.4%)
24:25 - FILM: Cabaret (1972) (to 26:00): 237k (7.9%)

Yes but they should limit these repeats to 7-8am, so they can make way for Newsround/new programming.

Talking of the Magaluf Weekender C4 have recommissioned the "eye popping and classy" What Happens in Kavos for a second series.

Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents seems to have opened up the market for these type of shows once again, and I guess the more of them there are, the easier it'll be to keep Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents running for a couple more series.


In a way it's kind of nice to see these sort of shows making a comeback after a rather too cautious few years when it comes to post-watershed youth entertainment - and of course all the "scripted reality" shows that have plagued our screens.

Sometimes Channel 4 comes across as a slightly upmarket ITV2. That's not a good thing. Stay classy.

I fully agree with you that landing a major drama hit - or, indeed, any drama hit - is an unusual achievement. But ITV did use to have the knack of catching lightning in a bottle, repeatedly and in abundance, to the extent that it flattened the opposition ... perhaps because it had the commissioning talent then that it's struggled to find since.

I expect a raid to be staged on executive producers at the BBC (Christopher Aird and Polly Hill, to name two) - but I'm not sure that would solve the problem for ITV ...

I think they would have been better off starting them at 8pm. It's a drag of a show usually.

BBC Two
06:00 - Homes under the Hammer (r): 70k (2.9%)
07:00 - The Sheriffs are Coming (r): 103k (2.2%)
07:45 - Cowboy Trap (r): 66k (1.1%)
08:15 - SIGN ZONE: Don't Get Done, Get Dom (r): 71k (1.2%)
09:00 - SIGN ZONE: MasterChef: the Professionals (r): 77k (1.3%)
10:00 - SIGN ZONE: You've Been Scammed (r): 102k (1.6%)
10:30 - See Hear: 41k (0.65%)
11:00 - BBC News: 89k (1.4%)
11:30 - Daily Politics: 319k (4.4%)
13:00 - Lifeline: 171k (2.0%)
13:10 - LIVE World Indoor Bowls Championship: 463k (4.7%)
* peak: 641k (7.0%) at 15:45
17:10 - Vintage Antiques Roadshow (r): 719k (4.4%)
17:55 - Party Political Broadcast (Conservative): 800k (4.3%)
18:00 - Eggheads: 1.63m (8.1%) inc 80k (0.4%) on BBC HD
18:30 - Great British Railway Journeys: 1.81m (8.2%) inc 160k (0.7%) on BBC HD
19:00 - Heir Hunters (r): 1.28m (5.6%) inc 80k (0.35%) on BBC HD
20:00 - The Great Comic Relief Bake Off: 3.94m (15.8%) inc 280k (1.1%) on BBC HD
* peak: 4.61m (18.05%) at 20:55 inc 297k (1.2%) on BBC HD
21:00 - Double Cross: the True Story of the D-Day Spies (r): 1.18m (4.6%) inc 88k (0.3%) on BBC HD
* late replacement for Funny Business (ep 2/3). After ep 1 got 795k/3.1% overnight inc HD (898k/3.0% consolidated in HD), FB was pulled and is yet to be found a slot
22:00 - The Culture Show: 442k (2.1%) inc 16k (0.1%) on BBC HD
22:30 - Newsnight: 649k (4.6%) inc 14k (0.1%) on BBC HD
23:20 - Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War Two (r): 329k (4.1%)
24:20 - World Indoor Bowls Championship: 131k (3.5%)
25:20 - SIGN ZONE: Dara O'Briain's Science Club (r) (to 26:00): 60k (2.9%)

I wonder what kind of an uplift in HD viewing, if any, we will see on BBC Two HD (apparently due to be launched by April) when compared with BBC HD. Newsnight in particular looks low on the HD channel; I'm not sure that many viewers are aware it's now broadcast in HD.

So bowls peaks at about the same audience as Daybreak.There must be a message there somewhere.

Probably not to compare a peak figure with an average!

Indeed, the TV Times Top Ten Awards, Wogan won Most Popular Male Personality at least ten times. The NTAs are really the modern equivalent of that, though I do have some TVTs from the early eighties and in one of them, when they invite readers to vote, they point out you can't vote for Eamonn Andrews, Benny Hill, Violet Carson or Morecambe and Wise as they're already in the TV Times Hall of Fame.

The best ever TV Times awards was in, I think, 1984 when Brucie was presenting where he forgot the final award and starting saying goodbye, although he remembered before he actually finished and tried to make it look like it was delibrate. The following year they were presented by Ernie Wise, one of his first solo gigs.


They've always been an awful programme, though. I've said this before but the first ones, in 1995, were presented by Eamonn Holmes and the next day on The Big Breakfast I remember Cheggers and Paul O'Grady slagging them off, saying they were a boring show and Holmes was a rubbish host. So it's been hopeless since day one. I don't have any issue one way or the other with who wins them, though, it's an award ceremony for people who read What's On TV and watch the soaps. They can co-exist with the BAFTAs.


According to Richard Marson, the producer of show one, it's been rescheduled to later in February and is going to be on Saturdays, which seems a more appropriate slot for it.

Where did you get that figure for corri? As DS have it as 8.58mil.

I wonder how much the introduction of the third internal break in ITV's dramas, ten or so years ago, has affected viewing figures?

The eleven minutes on, four minutes off pattern has surely driven viewers away? Especially when you can get 59m of uninterrupted drama on the other side.

Perhaps ITV should launch their new dramas with more time before the first break to hook viewers?

Sky Atlantic have a weird policy, they put an extra break into the first episodes of new 30 minute shows, which in the case of Girls drove the audience away. It was less than ten minutes until the first break. Subsequent episodes only had a single break.

Surely, TV executives study the figures and see that people turn over during the ads, and they should give new shows the best chance of survival?

And Daybreak airs in a lower-viewing slot (the TV audience was 28% lower at the time of its peak than when the bowls peaked).

Daybreak's peak was 1.08m (16.4%) exc +1, at 08:15. It is only right that a breakfast-time news/magazine show on a major network should be in a different league from afternoon bowls coverage on a minor channel, however.

Score was providing +1-included figures.

That was in a completely different television landscape though. It was easier to launch drama of any stripe 10, 20 or 30 years ago when you weren't competing with a near endless list of digital channels. Part of the reason its gotten harder to launch anything and not just drama is that the audience has more choice now. They're no longer in a position where they almost have to watch the BBC or ITV or nothing at all. In addition to that the reputation of ITV drama used to be much better than it is now which would have prompted more viewers to be inclined to at least try new dramas.


Its also about maximising revenue though. The additional ad break brings in more money even if fewer viewers are watching.

Not sure about that. Surely the amount that advertisers are prepared to pay, is directly related to the viewing figures. Hence the most expensive slot is the one half way through Corrie.

If advertisers are aware that viewers are switching off in droves, they won't want to pay very much for an extra slot.

ITV
06:00 - Daybreak: 671k (15.7%), inc +1: 683k (16.0%)
* peak: 1.08m (16.4%) / 1.11m (16.8%) exc/inc +1 at 08:15
08:35 - Lorraine: 1.05m (18.3%), inc +1: 1.10m (19.0%)
09:25 - The Jeremy Kyle Show: 1.41m (22.9%), inc +1: 1.53m (24.9%)
10:30 - This Morning: 1.20m (18.9%), inc +1: 1.25m (19.7%)
11:25 - ITV News: 1.16m (18.5%), inc +1: 1.21m (19.3%)
11:30 - This Morning: 1.18m (17.4%), inc +1: 1.22m (18.0%)
12:30 - Loose Women: 1.17m (13.6%), inc +1: 1.22m (14.2%)
13:30 - ITV News: 1.17m (12.8%), inc +1: 1.21m (13.2%)
14:00 - Dickinson's Real Deal: 1.29m (14.7%), inc +1: 1.38m (15.7%)
15:00 - The Alan Titchmarsh Show: 1.07m (12.2%), inc +1: 1.15m (13.1%)
16:00 - Tipping Point: 1.89m (16.0%), inc +1: 1.97m (16.6%)
17:00 - The Chase: 3.57m (22.2%), inc +1: 3.91m (24.3%)
* peak: 4.26m (23.1%) / 4.65m (25.3%) exc/inc +1 at 17:50
18:00 - Regional News: 4.40m (21.9%), inc +1: 4.55m (22.7%)
18:30 - ITV News: 3.74m (17.1%), inc +1: 3.89m (17.7%)
19:00 - Coronation Street: 8.58m (36.9%), inc +1: 9.22m (39.6%)
* peak: 9.00m (37.9%) / 9.64m (40.4%) exc/inc +1 at 19:20
19:30 - The National Television Awards: 5.58m (22.5%), inc +1: 5.87m (23.6%)
* lowest-rated such ceremony since 2008
* peak: 6.42m (26.9%) / 6.64m (27.9%) exc/inc +1 at 19:55
22:00 - ITV News at Ten, Regional News: 2.45m (12.6%), inc +1: 2.57m (13.2%)
22:35 - Inside Death Row with Trevor McDonald (r): 1.42m (11.8%), inc +1: 1.56m (12.85%)
23:35 - Safari Vet School (r): 523k (6.7%), inc +1: 565k (7.3%)
24:05 - Jackpot247 (to 26:00): 149k (4.35%) exc +1

Looks like a new Saturday night show for BBC One with Shane Richie: http://objectiveproductions.com/supe...s-bbc1-series/

True, but i was thinking of launching a commercial TV drama like a 'part work' to get more people hooked.

You know the sort, 'Build your own HMS Victory, first part only 99p', and then they charge a fiver an issue.

They suffer reduced income with the first issue to get more takers for the rest

If ITV launched a new drama without ad breaks (or dumping the first one), they could hold onto more viewers.

I'm sure if new BBC dramas went off after ten minutes for four minutes of promos they wouldn't keep as many viewers.

Obviously times have changed - but that doesn't alter the fact that it's all about the quality of the idea. The millions who used to watch London's Burning, say, didn't so purely because there wasn't anything else on, and implying that diminishes the genuine popularity of that show and all the other big hits ITV once had in its drama canon.

CTM is a valid example to use, because it's very much about audiences engaging with the show and identifying with it straight away. It launched with no stars in the main roles, and the familiar names when it started (Pam Ferris, Jenny Agutter) certainly weren't marquee names who would automatically guarantee viewer interest. Miranda Hart only appeared part-way through Series 1, by which time audiences had started tuning in anyway.

The bizarre thing with CTM is that it very much embodies many of the qualities that ITV dramas used to have: characters with heart, stories that weren't afraid to say something about the world we live in and a mix of drama and comedy. Maybe Peter Fincham should be head-hunting Pippa Harris?

The "dropping an ad break" idea makes a lot of sense in terms of bringing in viewers. But I think it's the kind of thing that could only be financially justified for a longer running series - where they'd have a chance to recoup some of the lost money from the first episode. Wouldn't really work for all the short run drama ITV are doing.