In fairness neither Revolution nor The Following is pulling in especially big numbers. They're big hits by comparison more than anything else at this point. Although given how the television landscape has and continues to change this might very well be the big new hit mark I suppose. Audience fragmentation and all that.


I hate this 'cable show' tag. There's no such thing.

You never know with the Champions League but I wouldn't write off the game - Celtic v Juventus is two pretty big names and I don't really see why Man Utd fans would be more disinterested in watching Celtic than they would watching Arsenal or Chelsea.

BTW, are STV carrying the Europa League matches on Thursdays. Surprised really these two games have been promoted to ITV - expected it in the later stages, but at this stage I'd have thought they'd remain on ITV4. Then again though I guess ITV have nothing to lose - saves them airing filler on Thursday nights which wouldn't rate that much better.

STV are showing the Europa League this Thursday, at least.
http://tvguide.stv.tv/


Even if the total viewing numbers are lower for the football than what would have been achieved by the filler which otherwise would have taken its place, the strong young/male/ABC1 demos presumably tip the balance in favour of showing football.

I'd rather see ITV air a football match than there usual Tuesday crap.

It just makes the channel look slightly better quality.

Ken

Well it couldn't rate worse than the Millionaire repeat. However, I do wonder what would happen if all the British teams go out of the ECL and ITV is left with a tournament that is irrelevant to most viewers. However, should British teams do well, it is a big rater for ITV and the final can attract 12 million viewers if an English team goes through.

Out of interest does anyone know how much a paid subscription is?

Has Graham always been too nice to humiliate an annoying guest, or is this a recent development?

I don't think the overseas-set episodes help the ratings. I don't know why they bother doing them.

This is what I was offered.

They may as well have left Dallas there for another week, or shown an old CSI than repeat one of those dreadful, exploitative documentaries.

Thankfully, they have a new series of CSI ready to go soon, or we'd be getting weeks of The Woman With the Giant Legs or The Man Whose Head Fell Off. Too many channels are doing these sorts of look and point documentaries now.

Hmm, I remember The Sun trying to get Den out of the programme after the first week.

Great NIght Out is a tad up, isn't it? I hope it gets another chance,too, despite the low ratings (2 .5 million ish is not usually enough).

I am very far from the audience it has been aimed at but I switched on largely as I know this part of Stockport well and the grandkids actually live in one of the streets seen in most episodes. Plus I did enjoy the writers 'Worst Week' series a few years ago. But it has proved to be an amiable show to watch. I was surprised it did not seem to be working with the viewers. Maybe it needs a go in a different slot.

Blimey, that's more than your Sky subscription.

Maybe it would work better as a thirty-minute show. It's hard to get new comedies to work, but dragging them out to an hour more or less guarantees to strangle them at birth.

The hour-lomg thing is doubly silly when you consider the writers' hit and miss record.

I think with the American guests, he's always nice and complimentary but the British guests who get Graham's humour, he can be a bit cheekier.

You make that same post every week.

How about wondering if all British teams got through to the final stages of both competitions, which could also happen. It would then be relevant to many viewers.

does anyone know the male/female breakdown for selfridge, ripper street and call the midwife. thanks.

I think GNO would be better scheduled on a Monday or Thursday night given that much of the core audience would themselves be enjoying a 'night out' on Friday! I know Benidorm does well at 9pm on Fridays, but it was moved into the slot having already built an audience.

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So, am I right in thinking no one has any ratings access now?

Maybe they mean by niche? Unless shows are following the latest trends of vampires, zombies, apocalypses, etc

You mean as occured when Man U took on Chelsea and 17 million watched.
Also I don't think I've mentioned the ground zero outcome for a while, but it is relevant as ITV must worry about this.

Maybe we should select a volunteer and organise a whip-round.

£2756 plus 10% plus VAT per year? What are they using to compile the figures? A computer weaved from dodo silk by a talking unicorn?

I don't think niche is a better description if only because almost none of the shows on cable are actually niche these days. Especially the scripted content which is becoming ever broader and blander. What I find particularly annoying about this 'cable show' tag though is that its become shorthand for 'quality drama' or increasingly anything that isn't a straight story of the week procedural. There's absolutely no reason why those shows shouldn't be on broadcast television and absolutely no reason why they shouldn't work on broadcast television beyond the fact that the audience constantly has it drummed into them by various corners that they can't.

At this junction its worth pointing out that part of NBC's problem is that they went from being the network that had the likes of The West Wing and ER to the network that was producing rubbish like My Own Worst Enemy. They alienated their core audience by buying into notion that there's such a thing as a 'broadcast drama' and a 'cable drama'. Also worth remembering that the only real success stories of the past couple of seasons for broadcast television (at least on the drama front) haven't really slotted into the so-called broadcast drama descriptor. Fox's only real hour long success since '09 has been Glee and now maybe The Following neither of which could be classed as a traditional broadcast drama. NBC's only drama success in far too long has been Revolution. ABC have had Once Upon a Time and now are growing Scandal. CBS is basically the only broadcast network where there's a clear skew toward the 'broadcast drama' shows although people keep trying to convince me that Person of Interest is some sort of groundbreaking marvel.

Yes there's stuff like Lone Star that dies painfully on broadcast but truth is I suspect that would have died quite painfully anywhere. If the audience don't want to watch a show putting it on cable won't help.

Also when you look at the cable successes with a couple of exceptions (all of which are on premium cable) there's no reason why they wouldn't work on broadcast. The Walking Dead was originally in development at NBC for example. And even some of the premium stuff could transfer quite easily. Homeland for example.

I don't think dreadful and exploitative is a fair description of the Extraordinary People series at all. Have you ever watched the show? Admittedly the rather sensationalist programme titles don't do the show any favours, and that aspect is regrettable if it gives off the wrong impression to potential viewers. But the stories themselves are always sensitively handled, well told and highly moving. It's been a C5 favourite for a long time because viewers have identified this and all feedback I've seen on the programme over the years has been very good. If there are viewers of the "look and point" mindset watching, I strongly feel they are very much in the minority as the programme clearly doesn't share those values or encourage that kind of stance in the way it is presented, and so it probably tells us more about those few viewers as people than it does about the programme makers and/or Channel 5.

On a similar note, I'm delighted that there seems to be universal agreement in the Brain Doctors thread (BBC2 series) that Brain Hospital (a C5 series running at the same time along very similar lines) has done a better job of telling these real life stories than the BBC show. Not that it's a competition, but it proves my point that C5 factual is in rude health if one of their series is getting the nod over a BBC equivalent, as they set such a high standard. The gap between them in the ratings has been smaller than anticipated, so perhaps for once this has shown through in the figures too.

I think the downfall of NBC was also to do with the fact that a lot of their hit shows ended on by one and they didn't replace them, comedy is the best example because while they did have some success with My Name is Earl, Scrubs and The Office, they failed to find a successful multicamera comedy and abandoned it but I would argue that apart from CBS, the multicamera comedy fell out of favour with broadcasters although they did occasionally a couple to series such as Back to You which lasted one season.

CBS have tried to shake things up a little with something like Vegas but they stick to their formula because it works but I would like to see them do something that doesn't involve crime, doctors or lawyers,

I do agree that with a few tweaks, a lot of cable shows would work on broadcast networks, the TNT and USA shows would fit on CBS like a glove and a show like Justified would work on FOX, Homeland I think could have worked on FOX or CBS butI imagine it would have been more procedural like as well as no language and gratuitous sex.