Yeah Criminal Intent's share was good especially (rising from 4.7% for premiere to 5.6% last night). Yeah hopefully they will both grow even further over the coming weeks.

No I didn't catch them. What's that about then?

More info here (straight from C5 press release):

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=1420

It's going on Thursday nights.

Haven't see the trail yet but I hope it does well, hopefully the lack of competition will boost it.

When does christine bleakley end her contract with itv? I agree that I dont think either party will want to renew it. But I dont think shes to blame for the dreadful choices itv have made for her. She was more a bbc girl. They offered her the main presenting role on the one show and olmpics coverage which would have progressed christine and her personality I think chiles was quite selfish to persuade her to leave. I cannot see itv axing an entertainment show like dancing on ice whem it gets 7 million viewers.

The problem with the big brash LE shows is that the shows we've got have pretty much got everything covered, most notably through BGT. X Factor covers singing and Strictly covers celebrity dancing.

BBC1 have attempted several members-of-the-public dance shows without much success and they had to pretend The Voice was a singing contest with a difference in order to justify buying it.

They can try subsections of BGT but ITV tried Dancing Dogs at Christmas with little to suggest a series would be a hit and they tried a comedians talent show that bombed.

As for a Morecambe and Wise style variety show - I think Miranda Hart would be a good bet for that sort of thing and, as a big M&W fan, she might be up for that, but the penny-pinching BBC accountants wouldn't be.

I wonder how The Apprentice will do this year. Last year it took a nasty fall. If it continues in the same trend then we will be having the same discussions about it just like DOI now. If they have a few real characters and some good challenges then it could increase. Not to 2011 levels but increase a bit.

Masterchef is starting a lot later this year. Do we even have an air date for it yet? Last year it was pretty much all BBC One had in the January schedule. What's going on?

Ken

It's meant to be on tonight. Not that anyone would know; the amount of adverts during the show has been ridiculous.

Yes that would really suit her. Lee Mack and maybe Michael mcintyre? It would really be refreshing if we moved away from talent shows. When was the last big style mainstream sketch show on. French and Sunders probably.

I don't know why they don't look into these different areas. It seems it's just talent shows not. As you say money is probably the reason. And maybe total lack of talent on and off screen.

The more I talk about this the more it angers me!

Ken

It's a 3 year contract so it will be up later this year. Whether or not DOI is back, I'm certain this will be Christine's last one anyway.


It's very strange how both DOI and The Apprentice used to be able to stand up against the big reality shows but both have taken an almighty tumble in the space of a series or two.

I believe Waterloo Road finishes on 7th March and Holiday Hit Squad finishes 27th February. Maybe Masterched will run Wednesdays and Thursdays 8pm to 9pm from 13th March. Or perhaps 20th March if they've got Comic Relief documentaries in the pipeline. If they wait until after Comic Relief they could also give it Friday 8.30 as Room 101 finishes on 22nd February.

Two and a half hours of Masterchef in peak-viewing. Yuck!

dancing on ice performance show and results show should be put together like splash show at the mo the results show is against big hit midwives would be better if
dancing on ice was longer show from 6pm till 8pm (including results) then family fortunes at 8pm and news at 8.45 before the drama at 9pm
that way less venom from press and bbc fans about dancing on ice low ratings

The problem is same-old same-old.

Also with The Apprentice, the change in prize may have had an effect on ratings. Instead of a job with Lord S, it's a £250,000 investment in the winner's business venture. There are some people who think the tasks are now a waste of time because Lord Sugar chooses the winner based on the business plan they present in the final week.

Sounds decent, although I do prefer US crimes shows, I will give this a go. Hopefully it'll pull in strong figures, hoping for 1.8 million. Do we know what it's lead in is and what timeslot it has?

To me, this sounds like Channel 5 is to Jack Taylor what ITV1 is to Single Handed. ITV became co-producers in series 2 but despite some rave reviews, Single Handed bombed in the ratings.

9pm. In week 1 it follows the last in the series of Dangerous Drivers' School. In week 2 it will follow a new series, possibly Beat the Ancestors or Whale Adventure.


It didn't bomb in the ratings for series 1. The premiere delivered 4.2 million viewers and a 21% share, which isn't bad at all for summertime on ITV.

Audiences did fall back to 3.5m/17% and 3.2m/15% for episodes 2 and 3 respectively, giving a solid series average for 3.6m. More than some non-import dramas have got for ITV since.

Indeed, ITV suffered worse flops in that month alone, with feature-length Gunrush starring Timothy Spall and Homeland's David Harewood mustering 3.1m/15% and Monday Monday slipping to a rather dismal low of 2.5m/11% (series average was under 3m).

Its not always a lack of talent but a lack of available talent.

Miranda Hart for example might want to do a big entertainment sketch/comedy show but when is she going to have the time? In between writing and headlining a hit BBC1 sitcom and Call the Midwife and writing and performing a stand up tour plus anything else she might want to do (like having a life) where does a show like that fit in? There was already a big enough delay between the second and third series of Miranda I doubt the BBC would want to extend that by adding another show into her diary.

The same is true for someone like Michael McIntyre. He'd seemingly be quite a natural and popular fit for something like a Generation Game revival but would he actually want to do it and would he have the time? Part of the reason he left Britain's Got Talent after one series was so he could do his stand up tour and the BBC can't compete with the kind of cash he'd made from a tour like that.

But of course there is also the issue of a lack of talent to overcome.

I don't see why that would be a terrible thing? There seemed nothing particularly offensive about the show itself. The format needs some work but it's got enough potential and there's clearly a reasonable audience there.

What was disappointing is that the BBC seemed to consider it 'big' enough to use as an anchor for the evening. Clearly it didn't have the capacity to do that and never did, even on paper. But if it came back to form part of a different schedule - with a Doctor Who, The Voice or Strictly there to act as the nights big anchor - then it seems perfectly reasonable.


There we see why the BBC are willing to part with big money for the Six Nations - and why it seems to place so highly on their list of sporting priorities. It's a genuine whole-UK event and is in fact the sporting event of the year for certain audiences.

Makes the event worth a little more than the sum of it's parts to the BBC, I think. Especially when they're so sensitive about being South East-centric.


I've not got the figures to hand, but I think it'd be pretty close.If they do, is not by an absolutely enormous amount.

It's easy to look at X Factor versus Strictly and assume that speaks for the age appeal of the respective channels, but its not wholly the case. In terms of younger age groups, the BBC is in a better position from the off on weekdays because EastEnders comes in younger than the ITV soaps. Waterloo Road is young too. And a good proportion of their non-drama does surprisingly well in 18-49's: comedies, The Apprentice, Masterchef or natural history docs.

From memory, the split between BBC One and ITV1 is more pronounced when looking at gender (ITV has a much heavier female skew) and economic groups (BBC One does better with ABC1's)


Lets not fly off the handle on the basis of someones unsourced post on an internet forum. I imagine Doctor Who funding is pretty complex, coming in from a variety of sources. It might be the case that the domestic license fee portion of the funding has dropped in recent years - but didn't BBC America come on-board as a co-producer a year or two back?

Certainly going off what we've seen on screen - I've not witnessed any discernible drop in the quality of guest stars, special effects, CGI work, location shoots. etc. In fact, much of that seems better than ever!

So I wouldn't concern myself about it - but I understand big Who fans have something of an anxiety complex when it comes to how the BBC treats their show.

Stop worrying: They're not going to cancel it (again) any time soon!

Indeed. Britain's Brightest is by no means a perfect show but the audience certainly seems to be there for it to be a decent utility player for BBC1 on Saturday night. Obviously not the star attraction they'd hoped for but a decent supporting player.


Again I agree. Whatever people might think of the creative content since Moffat took over visually the shows been spectacular and never looked better. He certainly knows how to make good looking television and so far budget struggles haven't shown on screen.

Prisoners' Wives trailer between Call the Midwife and Baftas. Taking Death in Paradise's place when it finishes?

Or is it a bit early to advertise something for the 5th March, maybe the 27th or 28th then.

I dont think BBC America are a co-producer but they did co-produce the first episode of Series 6 which was filmed in America, they're quite actively involved as co-producers of dramas such as Ripper Street, The Hour and the upcoming making of Doctor Who drama An Adventure in Space and Time.

If BBC1 brings back Britain's Brightest for a second series it'll be The Magicians all over again. They tried to revamp that to make the second series bigger and better after an average first run and it didn't work.

I'm really looking forward to Jack Taylor. It looks great. I think it has the potential to hit 2m for its premiere, then settle around the 1.5m mark.

I'm not sure she's planning to do a lot more work on her sitcom. And she's only part-time in this series of Midwife.

But it's all hypothetical anyway cos the BBC don't have any plans or desire for Saturday night sketch shows. I'm afraid BBC1 has become an extremely lazy and unambitious channel these days.

I don't think Brightest will be revamped to make it 'bigger and better' though. If anything the revamp will be to make it smaller and better. The Magicians was revamped to try and make it a big centrepiece of Q1 whereas any revamp/changes for Brightest would or at least should be to cement its status as a solid utility performer.

cant say I agree, that CGI work has gotten better, some of the CGI work in Matt Smiths first season was shocking.

Further budget cuts will do nothing to help that.