It's blatently obvious what he is doing, downplaying it as being an unknown force.

Had Atlantis been coming soon to ITV, it'd be the next massive drama since Downton Abbey with a rating of 10m being expected.

Yep, the fact is they'd have been better never cancelling Hole in The Wall, no matter how dire that was, it did okay in that slot.

How did Pointless do, talking of cheap and cheerful?

Er no. I wouldn't put it like that. I'm interested in C5's performance (and to a lesser extent multichannel) more than the other networks and I've outlined why this is in the past.

The difference is, people rush to Samuel's defence the minute anybody says anything remotely dubious about him, whereas I cop a ton of abuse for absolutely no reason on a regular basis and nobody says anything. Not that I give two hoots!!

The thing is I don't think anyone expects Atlantis to be a massive success this year. Probably not even the BBC. Those who loved Merlin for some they won't watch because it isn't Merlin. For others they will watch because there is no longer Merlin. It will attract casual viewers who like the trailers and who don't want to watch XF. That's why I believe this year it will be a moderate success, garnering around 4.5 - 5m viewers but enough to commission a second series by which time, like Merlin, the show will slowly become more popular. No one expects it to "smash XF out of the water". The only person who seems to be talking it down as if it will flop is Samuel. Most of us are surely more realistic about where it will end up!

Not that surprised TXF was down. My Mum for one (and she's an outstanding judge) didn't like the new format of switching backwards and forwards. Obviously that wouldn't be reflected in the viewing figures until week 2, although tonight might confirm either way. Still early days of course but that's quite a hefty drop week-on-week and I stand by my prediction that it will be consistently down year-on-year when the live shows start.

Great figures for Through the Keyhole and Strictly Come Dancing. Always amazed at how well the latter does just for a preview show.

What, just because ITV's Strictly ripoff isn't working, opposite, err, Strictly?

Be fair. Davina had sod all to do with it.

I like Davina. She's a really enthusiastic presenter. Trouble is she keeps being given crap shows to present!

She's been choosing much better projects in recent years. A rare miss for our Davina.

Has Got to Dance been renewed by Sky. It didn't rate to well IIRC earlier this year, and I'm surprised she'd agree to host this if GTD is returning.

Nah, Samuel is in a league of his own IMO. I don't think there's anyone else quite like him on this thread. I find it quite amusing how people always stick up for him yet someone like Andy23 is considered fair game. I don't think I've ever seen anyone stick up for Andy on here when people have a go at him in the way some of you do for Samuel...

The X Factor was always going to suffer a drop though I didn't expect it to be quite so heavy. It'll be interesting to see a five minute breakdown to see how much Strictly hurt it - didn't a fifteen minute clash in 2011 (when The X Factor was at it's peak) see the ITV show fall to the 5m range? Saying that, it peaked at 8.6m (exc.+1) which isn't much above average.

If someone can ask Mike Teevee for a five minute breakdown across the evening if he comes on tomorrow I'd be very grateful.

The show is still at a level where it can record a small decline and still be worthwhile but it needs to stabilise.

Strictly itself picked up an excellent figure and it is the number one entertainment format. Last Night of the Proms performed well and seemingly dented Through the Keyhole which still did alright. Stepping Out collapsed completely but may bounce back slightly next week though they need to consider switching the final to Sunday so it avoids Strictly's launch weekend. The other three 'terrestrial' networks had quiet evenings.

Regarding ITV's autumn launches, on the face of it it looks very unspectacular but I think the only show they'll be overly disappointed with is Whitechapel. Pat and Cabbage was always a risk and the resulting issue would be it's impact on The Guilty. The football was a mere formality and they're utterly clueless on Tuesday's. They might be looking at Doc Martin's figure with slight concern but I think they'll be confident that it can grow. Their biggest issue is stabilising The X Factor and tomorrow and next weekend's figures are key - it has to find it's footing over the next couple of weekends before Strictly returns.

I only come to Samuels defense when people are slagging him off when he hasn't posted anything to warrant it. I believe posters that write things that are in effect ammunition, they should suffer the consequences. But when posters are slagged off for the sake of it I will stick up for them. Samuel, Andy and George. My goodness me and George have had some battles but I won't slate him unless its directly responding to a post of his!

Soap Ratings For Friday:

Emmerdale 6.2m (33%) 157k (0.7%)

EastEnders 5.7m (26%) 8pm 570k (3.7%) BBC Three.

Hollyoaks 940,000 (5.4%) v6.30pm on Channel 4 and topped the 1m mark when combined with those watching on Channel 4 +1 (150k/0.8%).

An audience of 580k (3%) caught the first-look Hollyoaks on E4 at 7pm (86k/0.4% on +1).

Neighbours 853k (6%) at 5.30pm (37k/0.2% on +1).

Doctors 1.5m (20.5%) at 1.45pm.

I think you and Samuel get a lot of abuse from some quarters personally. I was replying to Ambassador about if Samuel worked for the BBC and why he was such a fan. He likes the BBC, you follow Sky and Georges & Andy23 follow ITV.

You'll at least say when a programme on another channel gets a good rating

I wouldn't just call it a preview show, though, there is obvious value of an introduction to the whole thing. If you were just to start it with a normal episode you'd have to dart through the introduction to the contestants and the new dancers, so it would have to go on for ages. It's very much like the auditions shows for The X Factor, so when it starts live you know who everyone is and who you're looking out for.

It's like how the Christmas special has value as closure to the whole thing, I know it's recorded before they do the final but it's a chance to say goodbye to everyone and reflect on it which you can't do on the final when it's all a bit frantic.

A few weeks after the first series of Pop Idol they did a show called Will Young - Pop Idol on a Saturday night which interviewed him and he sung a few songs and they got some of the other contestants on as well, and it worked quite well because otherwise the show ends with just the announcement "And the winner is Will", and there's no time to reflect on it. Same with the I'm A Celebrity Coming Out things, you want a bit of time for the format to breathe.


Do keep us informed with what Samuel says, or what you think he might say. We all love his posts so it's a valuable service.

Catching up on Strictly now the cricket's as good as over - it really is splendid entertainment. Only been on five minutes and we've had an 85-year-old man doing circus acrobatics. Great stuff.

I think there's a different between praising/defending or constructively criticising a channel's figures and actively gloating when a show/channel fails. The former shouldn't get any criticism whatsoever but I can see why the latter would get people's backs up.

I'm not for a moment saying either you or Dancc actively gloat, just to make that clear.

I say SCD should go head on with more X Factor clashing, Would be also good for Atlantis too:

BBC1:
7PM: Atlantis
7:45PM: SCD

ITV:

20:00: X Factor

With of course a late change if ITV decides to move The X Factor

-----------------

X Factor gone down in the ratings so lets take advantage, Happy for SCD ratings this week.

Interesting move by BBC One in the provisional schedule for 21st September - I Love My Country has been moved forward to 6.45pm with a seemingly normal episode of Pointless airing between 7.35pm and 8.25pm.

Now, I think in it's current state The X Factor could be dented by Pointless but didn't someone mention that BBC One would be airing a special on Bruce Forsyth on 21st September? If so, I'm wondering whether it will take the Pointless slot and the latter is being used as a placeholder for now.

Sunday's X Factor tends to do better as there are more available viewers. I was surprised at the lack of activity in some threads and on Twitter regarding X Factor yesterday. Made me think there could be a dip in ratings.

Does that mean the BARB system is now one that works and you'll be the first to defend it?

Deleted.

Interesting, looks like the Bruce forsyth special may well air in pretty much the slot I talked about yesterday. What I also like about the BBC [and Channel5] is that whenever they have low ratings flops, they're quick to get rid of them from the schedules or reschedule them so they dont have a negative impact on the channel's ratings performances. It's brave to do that but well worth doing because moving low rating flops away from the peak time schedules means that replacements can come in and be watched by more viewers at home, thus the bbc are doing a good public service for them. Some other channels just leave the terrible flops in place week after week for no reason at all which just stinks up the entire schedule.

Firstly, the BBC is not there to destroy commercial opposition, no matter what some posts on this thread or decisions that the BBC have made in the past suggest.

On a further note, the Strictly results show is recorded. Therefore, they need to film the live performance show and pre-recorded results show on the same evening. If they hold back the main show until 7.45pm then lines won't open until around 9.15pm at the earliest and you need to give people time to vote and film the results. They would run out of time. I think they pushed the show to the limit last year with the scheduling; they can't really run it any later.

I think Saturday primetime runs between 6pm and 10pm with 7pm-9pm being the optimum hours. For a while, both channels seemed to have an unwritten agreement not to clash though both have now proven this incorrect. IMO I see no reason why Strictly can't air up to 8pm (taking the optimum 7pm hour) and The X Factor can't air from 8pm (taking the optimum 8pm hour) but that would open a whole can of worms - especially on here!

-----