I don't think you can fairly or reasonably blame C5 for PoI not catching on in the way that it ought to have done. That's not to say they haven't made mistakes with it, indeed they have and I've commented on them in here various times previously, but overall it's been well supported for both the launch and the relaunch and so I tend to think if the programme was destined to be a big hit it would have come through regardless.

Certainly it was given every chance in August when they gave it the CSI slot which to them was a big deal and it didn't really fire in the way they expected from there. Then they decided to have the hiatus (which I disagree with, I rather think it should have moved straight away to another slot that was less performance dependent) and now it's come back in another key timeslot for them only to underwhelm once again, leaving them little choice but to push it back. It is of course a great programme and this is reflected in the consolidated audiences of around 1.5m which unfortunately only tell half the story. I'd also suggest it wasn't helped by launching at 10pm and perhaps that got some into the habit of recording it very early on which they then persisted with, but their intentions were at least good leading out of a big CSI finale and IIRC they even removed the ad break between the two programmes to try and increase retention and ensure it made the best of that.

Anyway, I'd still like to think there's a future for it on 5USA if not on the main channel. But it's vulnerabilities have been exposed for all to see. C5 need to scan the datasheets thoroughly for slots where there's no obvious draws for young male audiences, a post-Top Gear slot might have sounded just right but C4 spoiled the party with a whole host of premieres geared towards this demographic. I think also a full rerun of Season 1 stripped every weeknight at 7pm could be worth a try. I know they had no joy when they tried that with Dallas, but if they go through the proper channels this time and advertise it in the TV listings then at worst it's not going to do much if any worse than their usual 7pm content and at best it might bring about some additional interest in the show ahead of Season 2, if they choose to continue with it.

I can see why Channel 5 put it on Sundays but it hasn't worked, I agree that 5USA would be good as a new home and imagine would do fairly well for them. I do think Sundays should remain home to movies, Channel 4 are stealing their thunder with premieres every week.

The Goonies did really well, Legally Blonde did good considering it was shown last week. They do need newer films to show, Channel 4 have got the likes of Narnia and The Kings Speech coming up.

I think perhaps they should make Saturday a film night and have the US imports showing after 10 during the week,

It's a great article, a must read!

Having been to Jay Hunt's 'Meet the Controller' session at last year's festival, she came across as quite a boring and arrogant individual. Her visions are very blurry and the troubles C4 have had in the last 6 months are no surprise.

Problems have been around for a lot longer than 6 months!

Well, this is the thing, they found Ricky Gervais on the 11 O'Clock Show, only offered him a rubbish spoof chat show and then he went and did The Office on the BBC and became famous. Could he have done that on C4? They didnt seem that bothered. Same with Simon Amstell, he was a C4 discovery on Popworld, they never bothered offering him any other stuff and then he went to the BBC and they gave him the right format and then let him do what he wanted to do. They don't offer the talent opportunities to shine.

This goes back a bit, though, the reason Reeves and Mortimer went to the BBC was because they wanted to do new things, including a series of The Weekenders, but C4 just wanted more Big Night Out.


Had a Radio 2 show, he gave it up a year or so ago. Alan Carr worked well enough on Saturday Night Takeaway and has a mainstream fanbase, I think - my mum likes him and he works well with people like Brucie (can someone tell me why Brucie has never been on The Graham Norton Show, I'd love to see him on there). In fact I think he's too mainstream for C4, to be honest.


I don't mean he's an idiot because of the jokes he tells, I means he comes across as an idiot moaning about nobody giving him creative freedom and then doing a load of rubbish sub-Jerry Sadowitz stuff. I hate Mock The Week but I could appreciate he could construct and deliver a joke but by the end of his time on there, because he had this persona every joke had to be accompanied by endless shots of the other panellists with their heads in their hands pretending to be offended, killing the gags stone dead. His reputation as the enfant terrible of comedy was getting in the way of the jokes.

No they will just flee the country for warmth elsewhere.

Emmerdale: 7.19m (32.0%)
Corrie: 9.77m (40.1%)
EastEnders: 7.73m (30.8%)
Corrie: 10.12m (39.3%)
Broadchurch: 6.88m (28.1%)

Boris on BBC2 had 2.39m (9.8%)

Brilliant for Boris.

Corrie on a roll, why have people suddenly started watching this in great numbers, or is it just down to the snow in its heartland areas of the north and Ulster?

Broadchurch underperformed given the lead in.

Broadchurch down half a million from last week, underperfomring compared to last Mondays episode and looks like some people who watched last week got bored of it.

Corrie has had two big storylines last week and this week.

Broadchurch averaged 7.2m with +1. Still a superb rating for a weeknight 9pm drama, and only 0.4m below last week.

To the people who say it is underperforming, I'd be fascinated to find out when the last new drama on BBC1 on a weeknight got an audience like that.

ITV2 Roman Inbetweeners - 840k
sorry I mean Plebs - 743k

Oh dear something went wrong

Last Tango in Halifax

erm Halifax

unless Beeb really did do a tv version of the Brando film

A great stat from TV Scoops here:

https://twitter.com/tvscoops/status/316486871876251648

'Broadchurch' official ratings so far are all 9m+ (inc+1), on course to become most watched 1st series of a new weeknight drama since 2004.

No it didn't. The overnights for that were nearly a million below what Broadchurch was getting and the officials were around 1.5m below.

Looks like a decent enough start for Plebs and it seems to have gone down fairly well. I notice they're repeating it after Celebrity Juice on Thursday so hopefully it'll pick up a few more there.

Broadchurch is underperforming? Who said that nonsense?
Last Tango In Halifax did well but it was getting over 7m in the finals, Broadchurch is getting over 8m in the finals rising to 9m with +1.

Robbie and Samuel both did just a few posts up. The most watched new weeknight drama since 2004 is clearly underperforming of course.

Laughable even for Robbie standards to state it is underperforming. Yeah, right.

Coro is the far superior soap, the ensemble cast that just seem to want to be there and masterful structuring and layering of storylines ... it's leagues away from EastEnders which is nearly a sitcom now with an increasingly unrecognisable cast. Shame as in 1998-2001 EastEnders was hallmark British TV.

Consider Corrie as Waitrose, and EastEnders as Lidl. I'm not sure EastEnders can ever recover actually unless it drops one or even two episodes a week. It started declining in 2006ish with a brief upsurge for its 25th.

And of course Corrie's had some storming plots lately, with the fire and this week the anticipated domestic abuse trial and exit of Krazy Kirsty. I don't think its current (outgoing) producer has taken his foot off the gas for much of his reign in terms of the show's plotting, cast (Sue Johnston is in it now FGS) and even cinematography and direction.

I've noticed they are building better cliffhangers into Monday's second episode now to hook viewers into Wednesday - it's a slick operation and a very enjoyable show. The best it's been since the early Noughties for sure.

As for Broadchurch, it's quite clear the old adage about overnights being irrelevant couldn't be truer here. I'm sure it'll time shift 2.5-3m.

A fantastic 2.67m watched Motorway Cops last night.......nearly bested by Boris

Eastenders is going through a persisent ratings rot for the last two years. Big major characters have left the soap and the replacements have been poor. Also there has been an increased emphasis on young teenage characters which is off putting for older or middle aged viewers. Coro St. has well loved characters of all ages and is something everyone can watch and a cosy soap. Eastenders on the other hand is cold on the surface and too many young characters who viewers dont care about. The writing and storylines in EE are also not good and go round in circles all the time.

Do we have ITV incl. +1 yet?

For the first time ever, I actually agree with you.

I really feel for EastEnders in a way. I actually don't know quite how I'd fix it!