No Robbie - we know you only underpredict BBC1 shows and over predict ITV shows, though in this case you were spot on with Doc Martin - which of course means it actually exceeded expectations.

There is absolutely no excuse for BBC1 showing Motorway Cops on a Monday night - indeed any night at 9pm. That sort of shit belongs on Pick TV.

They haven't switched sides though, they've switched off.

It wouldn't really be worth trailing the series anyway, I'm sure Paul O'Grady is due to start in a few weeks. They'll get viewer habits and them break them more or less straight away.

Paul O'Grady isnt due to start until December, revealed by Chaser Mark Labbett on his twitter feed.

Don't you mean XF will get a good lead-in from it? It looks to go before X Factor on a Saturday.

Celebrity Chase was pulling in 4m in Sep-Oct last year, against Strictly so I don't think it'll have anything to fear.

BBC One's Father Figure buried at 10.35pm on Wednesday 18 September. Why so late ?

Ronnie's Animal Crackers (whiffs of Paul O'Grady dogs to me ) starts 7.30pm on Friday 19 September.

*Early schedules, might change tomorrow.

Take on the Twisters was so desperately unpopular viewers were avoiding it like the plague and missed The Chase. It's surely only a matter of time until The Chase is back on top and reasserts superiority over Pointless.

When do the kids go back, tomorrow? That will surely help as HWC etc get back into their usual routines.

Nice linkup between Channel 5 and digital spinoff 5* on September 14. The main channel will show live boxing between 8pm and 10pm, then viewers will be invited to turn over to 5* for mixed martial arts action via BAMMA. That's a neat bit of scheduling which they haven't tried before but could pay off.

Also World's Strongest Man showing in the schedule for September 20. Surely a repeat ? Seems too early for it to be a new series. Unless they are showing the qualifers in advance of the finals this year.

You can't seriously suggest they should have The Chase on year-round. Viewers aren't going to instantly return, seeing as presumably ITV was below a million in the 5pm slot last week with TOTT.

First "no one's reported the ratings - has X Factor already rated badly", "people are losing interest [in Doc Martin]"because it launched slightly below last series despite almost 3 million less people watching last night compared to Doc Martin's launch night last year and now this - Samuel, don't you realise these kind of comments kind of make you look a bit daft?

It's either absolutely shit or they are trying to build it into a hit without just sacrificing it in a prime time slot. Perhaps it's the new Mrs Browns' Boys and Citizen Khan.

Haven't noticed a tweet from either today about yesterday's figures.

Demographic Information for BBC1 and ITV for Monday 26th August to Sunday 1st September: http://postimg.org/image/rmacsoov3/full/

Top programmes for the week among 18-49 year olds from that list (excludes soaps, news and repeats) were:

1. The X Factor (Sun): 16.8
2. Through The Keyhole: 9.4
3. Celebrity MasterChef (Thu): 6.6
4. New Tricks: 5.4
5. Match Of The Day: 4.8
6. UEFA Super Cup: Chelsea v Bayern Munich: 4.8
7. Stepping Out: 4.6
8. Vera: 4.4
9. UCL: Arsenal v Fenerbahce: 4.1
10. Big School: 4.1

Note: Each number indicates the % of the UK 18-49 population. For e.g. 16.8% of 18-49 year olds living in the UK watched TXF (Sun)

Really disappointed with BBC1's line up last night:-

One Show (magazine), Inside Out (Current Affairs), Eastenders (fair enough), Fightback Britain (consumer/magazine), Motorway Cops (cheap documentary).

An unbelievably dull line up with too many progs. of a similar ilk.

Roll on Saturday & SCD!

It should pay-off. Even if it doesn't we should be seeing more moves like this. 5* feels to me in need of an identity at the moment. It looks 'fun' so why not make it so? I think they should pick up rights to The Carrie Diaries. No one has yet and it has got a second season in the US. To me that's the sort of stuff they should be going for. I do like their Friday Films mind you and The Walking Dead is always must-see.

Masterchef and Holby are also on BBC1 tonight

Masterchef is on tomorrow (Wed) - great show , Holby as you say screens tonight at 8pm (10.35pm Scotland).

Celebrity Masterchef... seriously.
New Tricks... seriously.

Quite surprised at those two being so high, and Vera and Stepping Out also being in the list.


They've never quite known what 5* is - mixed martial arts doesn't seem the sort of thing the channel is for, though it's always good for channels to air something you don't expect every now and again. I think though C5 would have been best off airing it on their main channel after the boxing.

I am sure everbody would agree that the BBC line up this week is pretty bad. Why they could not have started a few new shows this week and last? They deserve the ratings they are going to get. Scheduling at the BBC seems to done by morons - they have no idea even how to get the best out of what they have got (not that they have got much this week).

Agree. The BBC schedulers seem to be the ones who bring BBC1 in particular down. They seem to have been saying "Oh let's give ITV a free run for a month!" It really is baffling. The BBC are going to be very strong come October and through to Christmas though. ITV gets weaker once Celebrity is finished.

Any ratings for Newsroom last night on Sky Atlantic

I saw a rating of 2.9m for Pointless and 2m for The Chase yesterday. Not sure how true that is though.

BroadcastNow:

"The return of Doc Martin to ITV trounced all-comers in the 9pm slot - despite recording its lowest ever series opener on Monday."

They are forgetting that it launched with 7.67m (30.4%) in 2009, and with +1 included it's ahead of that (and we know that Broadcast's figures always include +1).

Who composes the DS ratings articles though? Whoever does is making them increasingly irrelevant - "Doc Martin down 3m on last year".

Don't worry The Chase will go back up, Pointless is a tired show compare to the fun show of The Chase

Yes I think Samuel is being a little premature in writing its obituary.

DS US ratings
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/new...ome-rises.html

I like both. Pointless and The Chase rule!