Originally Posted by Sceptilianus:
“Between a 6PM timeslot and a non-existent marketing campaign - it looks like the BBC's plan for doctor who to get a sub-5million overnight rating is going well.”
Why would they want that to happen, then? Stop being paranoid.
Originally Posted by johnnymc:
“Too much for bbc one to actually signpost their loyal viewers to what time doctor who is actually being shown. But of course it wont get a fixed slot either. I suppose they dont care about the extra millions of viewers they loose through rubbish scheduling.”
What's the point of telling us now what time it's going to be on in two weeks? My TiVo doesn't go up until then so I can't put it into record. If you tell people now they'll probably forget it. They haven't said what time The Voice and The Village are starting either and you can't say they're not massively committed to that. The X Factor and Strictly do perfectly well without a fixed slot as well. Stop being paranoid, again.
Originally Posted by NeilVW:
“Comic Relief (BBC Two): 4.48m (26.0%)”
That's a hell of a rating, especially as it was up against the news on BBC1 and you'd assume quite a big percentage of the audience would have taken the channel switch as a cue to go to bed. Of course it's only in recent years that the programme has continued as a seamless affair on BBC2, in the nineties and early noughties the BBC2 bit, when it was at 9pm, tended to be a pre-recorded affair, cast adrift from the main business.
Originally Posted by NeilVW:
“There had been speculation that the audition shows will be shorter than last year. Someone said that last year they had to be longer but fewer in number than originally intended, in order to get the series finished in time for Euro 2012, so a 60-minute length would not be unexpected.”
It'd be better if it was an hour long as well, I think, you don't gain much from programmes going on for ages. What I quite liked about the opening episodes last year was that they got a bit of a move on and seemed quite slick.
Originally Posted by GeorgeS:
“Excellent tweet from TV Scoops. Itv4 had 3m viewers at 20.30 on Thursday night. This was its highest ever audience.”
Well done to them for that, I know it affected the ITV1 audience a bit but they're all ITV so they'll be happy either way. I thought ITV4 was pretty much doomed when they lost the second choice Champions League matches but fair play to them, the Europa League has been hugely successful. The ITV digital channels all seem to be doing well, they all effectively target the audiences they're after.
Just wish they'd do another series of The Big Match Revisited, rather than just repeat the same episodes a million times.
Originally Posted by iaindb:
“Not an unusual situation. Back in 1980 Edward Woodward starred in a BBC1 sitcom called Nice Work which came with a Christmas special that was clearly comissioned before series 1 aired. This sticks in my mind only because The Radio Times Guide To Comedy makes a point of observing that the presence of the Christmas special indicates that the BBC must have had high hopes for the sitcom, but it failed to return for a second series.”
Yes, and Woodward is also prominently featured in the 1980 Christmas Radio Times, alongside all the other stars of that BBC Christmas. There was a trend, of course, for series to be commissioned for a second series before the first aired, which is one of the things that saved Red Dwarf because the first series' ratings declined sharply during the run.
The Steven Moffatt sitcom Chalk in 1997 was also commissioned for two series immediately, though of course the first series was a flop and the second series (which followed extremely quickly, just six months after the first, presuamably to get it out of the way) was shoved in a late night slot. Actually I wouldn't mind seeing Chalk again, actually, it was promoted incessantly by the Beeb at the time which annoyed everyone and I think the first episode was apparently the worst, which didn't help it. I didn't like that one but it can't have been that bad with Moffatt involved.
I know Chris Barrie's post-Britass sitcom A Prince Among Men around the same time also had a two series order, but the second run had virtually no promotion and then got dumped on Sunday afternoons after five minutes.
I dunno about Vicious, to me it doesn't sound mainstream enough for ITV, though hopefully it'll funny either way, we can never have too many good sitcoms.
Originally Posted by gavin shipman:
“Wales doesn't have a National Football team at a high level but Swansea are in the premiership.”
Originally Posted by seansnotmyname@:
“Cardiff probably will be next year too.”
And of course Wrexham are on course for a fantastic league and cup double, the first half of which will be secured at Wembley next week. As the world knows.
). Can't understand why Richard would be so reticent about that. That would be a decent figure for a new episode, especially against SNT and only 70,000 less than the Let's Dance final last week.
. That show is just phenomenal. It does show that critical reception does not make or break sucess. It gets some of the worst critical reception ever for a show but its ratings just keep going through the roof. I will admit though, unlike for dramas, it can be notoriously difficult to predict ratings for a comedy- it either works or not. Sometimes a comedy can get the best reviews ever but its just doesn't appeal to large audiences.
