Some ratings from the Netherlands. Yesterday the speech from Queen Beatrix, who resigned from the throne was shown live in dutch television.


Nederland 1:
Journaal extra at 17:00: 1.758m (32.5%)
NOS Journaal at 20:00: 2.377m (29.7%) --> most watched show of the day
Journaal extra at 20:54: 1.655m (23.5%)

Nederland 2:
Journaal extra (18:57 - 19:15): 0.350m (4.3%)

Nederland 3:
Journaal extra (18:58 - 19:07: 0.453m (5.5%)

RTL 4:
Nieuws extra (18:55 - 21:33): 1.621m (20.5%)

Monday night really does create strong ratings. 7m+ for EM, 9m+ for two CS, 8m+ for EE, 7m+ for both BBC comedies and 6m for Lewis. Both main channels managing to grab sizeable shares throught the evening. Naturally it is hard to replicate that on a nightly basis, but with the average viewer watching 30+ hours per week - there is an audience for the right shows.

I think that both bbc comedies have done very well to achieve seven million overnight more than many dramas. I still think miranda and mrs brown should have played on sunday evenings at nine after the ratings torpedo that is call the midwife. I think the comedies are suited to a follow on audience and would have matched the unstoppable midwife figures. Ripper street could have easily provided a bit of competition to lewis and who knows may have rated better too.

In your humble opinion....

What if people choose the BBC3 repeat of EE as a means of timeshift?

Can you read the minds of 63m people?

When people talk about Dr Who here I often see reference to 'Timeshifted viewing' but the BBC don't have a +1 channel.

If god forbid a channel decided to have a +2 as well as a +1 channel would they both count towards the overnights?

Just a thought, what if a commercial company paid BBC1 to provide a +1 channel with income generated by commercials where the promos run, would that count towards BBC1's overnights?

I do think the bbc were wrong footed by ITV chopping up Lewis for Mondays, they probably expected Above Suspicion or something.

But I'm not sure either would have done massively better on Sundays where there is a lot of competition.

Given that Above Suspicion was axed months ago I do hope they weren't expecting that to show up!

I know what you mean though, they were probably expecting just a generic crime drama or a couple of 2-3 parters. Lewis has been somewhat tougher competition and probably has dented the comedies a little.

I have to say I've been surprised at how well Lewis has done on Mondays. I suppose I should have expected it to do well in what is a fairly cushy slot on ITV, but with the comedies doing so well I was only expecting 5m or so, particularly as the last series was only getting low 5 overnights, so the numbers it has been getting have been surprisingly high for me.

The comedies have done really well too. Admittedly down on their bumper Christmas numbers, but there were different circumstances. Getting 7m against 6m+ ITV competition with a rubbish lead-in is really, really good.

They seem like very good ratings for a small country. I wonder if ratings would explode here if our Queen made similar statement today. Not that it would ever happen.

Surprised they axed Above Suspicion, it always did well despite being "La Plante by numbers".

The comedies, of course, are doing better than 7m, it's c9m for Miranda and nearly 10m for Browns once consolidated and of course 7.5m for Lewis.

Amazing figures are really good for comedy the tv companies will invest more in writers if they think that they can be rewarded by those kinda ratings and we may get an end to the reality format for a bit. Be good to see quality comedy return primetime. Im not all that fussed on either bbc show to be fair but if this means a renewed interest in the genre then they're bound to create more ans more if the ratings come in. A good opportunity for budding sitcom writers! Wish I had the ability to write one think its a good time what with sky nicking loads of talent of itv and bbc too

I was a bit surprised too. Maybe they were fed up of only getting one three parter per year instead of a bigger order and decided to just cut their losses.

And yes you are right of course about the second point, officials really are key nowadays. Even more impressive for Mrs Brown is that it's getting another 4.5-5m for the Saturday repeat - astonishing!

I'm not too happy about the Saturday repeat which takes viewers off Monday, doesn't help Miranda, and just encourages lazy BBC1 scheduling.

Am sure it would get 2m more on Mondays without the repeat.

Officials from last Monday via UKTVratings:

Corrie 11.03m (biggest audience of 2013 so far)
Miranda 8.44m
Mrs Browns 9.26m
Lewis 7.15m
EE 9.79m
Bake Off 4.34m

Mrs Brown up from 7m in overnights. Then add on the BBC1+120 rating of 4.62m. A total of 13.88m!

Love to know how many of Saturday's are second viewings.

Excellent for the Welsh programme to match Portillo's share and beat his audience, in SD at least. This was originally shown only in Wales so it was a good idea to network a repeat screening.


Oh dear. Monday at 9pm is a very competitive slot but I can't see it staying there with those numbers unless it has dreamy demos.


ITV2 repeats Corrie four times including the omnibus, to EE's 2 repeats, but I suspect you're right as most of the Corries are shown in very low-viewing slots.

The Queen could very well step down in the next two years, if she lives as long as her mother - does she really want the hassle of a daily itinerary age 90+? A similar announcement here could easily rate 20m across the main two channels (16m BBC1, ITV 4m) - Sky News would get a token share of course (maybe 0.5m).

Me neither. That rating wouldn't even be good enough for 8pm.

If it were me I'd push Champions right back to 7pm and air double episodes of New Police Interceptors which is a 10 part series.

The Beeb were certainly desperate to cling onto it, because of course the creators Fegen and Norriss gave it up at the end of the 1994 series, with the final episode being a proper conclusion, only for the Beeb to decide to bring it back with new writers. That worked OK for two series but it was seriously running out of steam in the end.

I do remember the first series under the auspices of the new writers was in March 1996 on Tuesdays at 8.30 and they had to take it off every other week for football, and at the time I wondered why they'd given it such a hopeless slot that was being constantly interrupted.

Brittas Empire was a great programme.

The first season didn't quite nail it as they made Brittas too nasty a character but later on when they softened him (well at least made it clear he was doing it out of good intentions) and upped the absurdity levels it really worked. Series 3-5 match anything One Foot or Towers did.

Then the original writers and one of the main characters left and Series 6 was a disaster. Series 7 was an improvement quality wise but by then the damage had been done.

2.4 Children was the other big comedy hit the BBC had at the time - it went on to around 1998-9 though I think.

2.4 Children was another great show, did solid ratings for a few series then in Autumn 1992/1993 I believe it became huge when it went out at 8.30pm opposite World In Action. That's when the show took off. Very underrated I felt, a bit like a British Roseanne and also very surreal in places. And ended far too soon due to the tragic death of Gary Olsen.

BBC 1 HD Wales launched this morning on Sky channel 143 taking over from BBC 1 HD England. Also now on Freeview. BBC 1 HD England stays on the Sky EPG at 976.

A Channel 4 OD 'Coming Spring 2013' page was also added to the Sky Catch Up page alongside the (already working) BBC, ITV, Five and Sky catch up boxes. Nat Geo, History and Crime have also been launched as day by day catch up service boxes alongside the above - much strengthening the service accessible via Sky boxes from today.

Absolutely dreadful ratings for the two US comedies on ITV2. Surely it's only a matter of time before they're either moved to a late night slot, or pulled completely from the schedule. It's a shame, as I've really enjoyed the first few episodes of Up All Night.

Incidentally, does anybody know the slot average over, say, the last 12 months in the 9-10 slot on Mondays on ITV2?

Then by definition every repeat of Corrie ect should be added to the initial ITV rating, BBC Three is a distinct channel with its own identity and therefore is not by definition a plus one.

And yes it is my humble opinion and thankfully the BBC will never launch pointless plus one channels.

But we won't fall out over our differing views I hope.

I see where you are coming from, I'm pretty defensive of BBC Three and it annoys me that the channel is viewed as a plus one, Three has a distinct identity and that tends to be overlooked by those who see it as a plus one.

As for your last point, interesting and probably very controversial, certainly worthy of debate.