It's on a voice like trajectory! Speaking of which, BBC1 supremo's must be getting a tad nervous about launching against SNT. Will they back their tanks up?

The lowest official rating is 5.29m for last year's fourth heat, and had an overnight of 5.08m (23.5%), so yes that is the lowest Let's Dance rating ever.

Ant and Dec will pose no threat to the voice by the time it launches if every episode is as insipid and mundane as last night's.

But inspid and mundane has worked for the last 2 weeks...

There isn't anything else of note on - of course it will thrive in the absence of competition - and I thought the general consensus was that the first show was a lot better - if the quality erodes from now then the ratings will.

Isn't the voice insipid and mundane too though.

It can only aspire to that level of excitement

Pointless rated better than it yesterday. Ant and Dec may find it difficult to keep up the momentum with SNT by the time the Voice comes around.

The voice gonna have to go some to achieve the ratings it did initially I think. How did pointless do? Ànd the cube?

Pointless 4.68m
The Cube (excl +1) 4.18m

Credit to The Cube there, in line with Take Me Out last week.

And that's it's highest overnight rating for over a year.

They've got what they deserved with Let's Dance, it shouldn't have been wheeled out every year. (Err, "Let's Dance for Sport Relief"?!!)

It's now a tired programme that people only watch if there isn't anything better on.

Good for SNT to be up on last week, against all odds. So there isn't always a drop to week two after all!

That must be The Cube's highest rating in a while. Maybe there is a bit more life in the series yet...

Pointless performing well as always, interested to see if In It To Win It was dented by the low lead-in from Let's Dance.

I do think that The Voice may struggle against SNT on its return. It ended series 1 on a low and I think the fact all the judges have been kept despite lacking chemistry on the live shows will hurt it. I predict a 7-8m start to TV, followed by small incremental drops. SNT should be able to maintain a 6m ish audience against it.

March 9th - Let's Dance final
March 16th - Six Nations conclusion
March 30th - Dr Who launches.

Do I take it that The Voice start on the 23rd? Last year it launched against Family Fortunes and TV Burp which were both under 4m in the officials that week. No way will SNT drop that low, so no way will The Voice launch as high as it did last year (9.44m official) [although I could be wrong]

Takeaway got 6.74m in the level playing field world.

I think Let's Dance still just about has the highest Saturday night overnight of 2013 (6.76m)...

It's not cool to admit you like Lorraine, but have to agree, she's far funnier away from all the sugar coated morning telly. She seems genuinely lovely and I was surprised there was no thread, as she turned out to be one of Piers' best guests so far imo. with a fair few laugh out loud moments.

Could the same apply to Ant and Dec too? And for that matter The Voice also?

I think Ant and Dec should only be one series a year.

SNT has generally always been one series a year

It's 1 every 4 years at the minute. About the same as World Cups. Lets Dance comes around as often as the League Cup

One problem with Let's Dance is that both its presenters are absolutely awful, neither has any charisma or personality and one appears to have an ego the size of Wembley Stadium.

Splash will end up with a higher series average

They had 2 in 2004.

I think a launch date of 30th March was announced.