with autumn telly coming up (finally) what are people looking forward to most and what do we think the ratings stand out dramas will be? Personally, looking forward to by any means (heard great things about it) and bbc1's what remains should be do well.

Did anyone else's Digiguide not update this evening ?

Normally comes through just before 6pm for the week commencing in 11 days time but still nothing.

Applause Store saying the first episode of Stepping Out is being recorded on Sunday 25th August. Based on the 16:00 doors open time I'm guessing its a pilot/test-run. Suggests that the show itself will start on Saturday 31st alongside XF though.

Xtra Factor: Rewind is down for Saturday 24th August at 9pm, so the main show will be back on the 31st

Mine appears to have updated: it's showing programmes in the week starting Sat 24 August, although there are still some TBAs.

BBC One has updated.

Sun 25th Aug

20:00 Antiques Roadshow
21:00 What Remains

Bank Hol Mon 26th Aug

16:00 Doctor Who at the Proms

18:30 The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

21:00 Ultimate Swarms

Been looking at the performances of the commercial PSB channels (ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) to see their performances over the first 7 months of 2013.

ITV have done very well. Should the performance of the main channel remain flat for the remainder of 2013 (excluding +1), there will be no change. Including +1, if it stays flat, the channel will be up 0.6%.

Channel 4 have come out the worst. Should the main channel be flat (which I doubt because there is no Paralympics), C4 will be down 7.1% excluding +1 and 7.7% including +1. They need to increase their audience, on average, by around 18% excluding +1, and 17% including +1 to keep the averages of last year. The damage may already have been done.

Channel 5 has decreased, but nowhere near the levels of C4. If August to December is flat, then the main channel will be down 2.4% excluding +1 and 2.2% including +1. The average increase needed is 4.9% excluding +1 and 2.3% including +1 to maintain last year's averages.

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ITV is balancing itself out well. Where there is a decrease in 1 month, there is a sizeable increase in another. The summer has been pretty decent for them so far and with things like The X Factor, I'm A Celebrity, Downton, Vera, Benidorm, Doc Martin etc.., it looks like there in for a strong Autumn season. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a year on year increase.

The damage has been done by C4 already. The weak start to the year means that they will have to have their strongest autumn since 2009 to balance themselves out, which does look improbable. Channel 4 has an ok looking Autumn slate, with Grand Designs and Homeland the two standout pieces. Location is back next Thursday (22nd August) and the sequel to Educating Essex (Educating Yorkshire) might pull people in. Big cloud over C4.

Channel 5 look pretty strong with Celeb BB and Under the Dome. They have a decent looking factual slate, and CSI:NY in its last series might do well. The problem will be can they keep up the strong performances of the last few months. If they can bag the Ashes highlights for the tests Down Under then that would be a coup and a half. If they focus enough, they might keep performing well.

Digiguide update just about through now although ITV still has TBA's. Some new C5 airdates and times:

Wentworth Prison starts Wednesday, August 28 at 10pm after Celebrity Big Brother: Live Eviction
Construction Squad: Operation Homefront starts Thursday, August 29 at 8pm
The Railway: First Great Western starts Friday, August 30 at 8pm.

C5 have an obsession with animals

The following airing w/c 24 August

World's Most Pampered Pets
World's Biggest Pets
World's Scariest Animal Attacks
Britains Strangest Pets
Animal A & E

So Quirke doesn't start on the 25th.

No maybe the following Monday ?

Seems the BBC don't want to start a new drama on Bank Holiday Monday.

Programmes about animals are a part of their history though, from the early days; Zoo Days, Animal Rescue Squad, Zoo Babies...

I like that they are paying attention to this genre, although like you said, it's a bit much for consecutive weeks. Hopefully, these won't all be airing in one week!

I'm definitely looking forward to their what could be stand-out animal factual of all time: Animal Maternity. Looks very interesting. Dancc, will this air in the autumn or in 2014?

How has Animal A & E been holding up in the 6pm and 1.15pm slots? If anyone has its ratings so far, thank you in advance.

Isn't much of that down to it being a "non Olympic" year? How does the comparison look against 2011?

K

Filler for Bank Holiday Monday.

The reason BBC One isn't doing well on Saturday evenings is because hits like The Great British Bake Off are not experimented with into other more high profile areas. Theres no reason a live celebrity version of it could not be made actually and watch them sink or swim live in the kitchen during an hour.

The show could easily be a spin off from the original in January to March

On ITV, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince airs from 19:00 to 22:00 on Saturday 24th. That'll be its third showing; it premiered on NYD 2012 and was repeated on 1 April 2012. Both showings got a little over 4m (inc +1) in overnights.

The NYD premiere consolidated to no more than 4.6m (inc +1) and was pounded by EE (10.7m consolidated), Sherlock (10.7m) and AbFab (8.0m) which aired against it. At least ITV made an effort on a holiday, though.

I'm not sure that's "the reason" or even a reason...

And I'm not mad about the idea of spinning off successful formats because a) it just feels like overkill and/or like they're milking a hit show dry and b) they tend to miss the point of why the original show was so successful in the first place. See also: 'Young Apprentice'.

Tee hee. Now Eastenders couldn't pound it's way out of a wet paper bag. How times change!

I'm not sure there is enough experimenting with other things. Im nit sure that viewers want the 21st century version of The Muppets. They worked because they were radically different and original and it perhaps should be a schedule that surprises viewers

OK Bake Off may not be quite right but to rehash the X Factor or Muppet Show or Noels House Party isn't going to intice viewers. They kinda need to think of a completely unusual schedule.

You're in good spirits, George.

We've yet to see how EE performs on a proper, cold Bank Holiday, with hopefully some semblance of a storyline.

Exactly. "Celebrity Great British Bake Off Live" is not Great Britihs Bake Off - it's a completely different show.

Shows have a place in the schedule and scheduling is everything. A show that's a hit on BBC2 on Tuesday evenings isn't by definition a hit Saturday night format for BBC1. All this stupid discussion is really showing is how poor Saturday nights are on BBC1 for three quarters of the year when people are so desperate to suggest a show like Bake Off in the schedules.

This is BBC One's idea of a Bank Holiday Monday centrepiece. Sounds ominously like another lightweight wildlife doc narrated by Richard Hammond. I suppose a proper David Attenborough one is too much to hope for?

ITV is TBA up against it. They may clean up with a decent drama.

Will ITV really premiere Deathly Hallows the next week though? It will give X Factor a well-needed boost for it's launch show if they do so (with Stepping Out following on from X Factor perhaps).

When is Citizen Khan back? It launched on Bank Holiday Monday last year (27th August).

Comedy.co.uk says it's expected to start in September.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=2908

Change to the 9pm schedule on ITV - Secret Life of Dogs replaces On the Run.