Depends on when The BBC's schedules it, Call the Midwife will almost certainly be back in January and that's an 8 part series so if Musketeers is aiming for Sundays at 8 then it would have to wait until late February/March. A Voice/Musketeers/Casualty/Creek Saturday might be a bit drama heavy for viewers which is why I think either Creek or Musketeers will end up on Sunday.

Splash will be just fine. The Voice still hasn't addressed its fundamental flaw - nobody cares about the contestants or who wins the thing. Everything else is just dazzle dazzle and hype, which is ironic when you hear how much they deride TXF.

Take Me Out would be hurt as much if not more by The Voice UK than Strictly as The Voice UK skews younger.

IMO, ITV made a massive mistake with The X Factor when the US version started. IMO, they should have rescheduled the show so the lives were in January, with the auditions etc. running up to Christmas. Now they definitely cannot do that.

There are only three Jonathan Creek episodes. I think they will either air after The Voice so that Splash is dented on the day it launches, so by the time episode 4 of Splash is on hardly anyone is watching it. Or, it would air on the three Sundays in January before Call The Midwife. I guess it could air on Mondays but it wouldn't feel right. If The Musketeers are ten parts I can see it being:

Sundays in January:

7.00pm Countryfile
8.00pm Call The Midwife
9.00 The Musketeers

Yeah. Splash will be just fine with its 3 million viewers!

Saturday
18.25 The Voice
19.40 Musketeers
20.30 National Lottery: In It To Win It
21.20 Casualty

Sunday
19.00 Countryfile
20.00 Call the Midwife
21.00 Jonathan Creek

Except that would have left all of September and October exposed, and with Strictly in the schedule, lower ratings are even more obvious, than at other times of year when it is a million here and a million there.

I thought The Muskeeters was a family drama akin to Atlantis. Wouldn't 9pm be too late?

And you know that for certain do you?

Isn't it funny how "rip off" shows suddenly get lots of support from certain people here, when it is the BBC broadcasting it.

I'd be tempted to move Britain's Got Talent to run from late August to mid October to fill the gap - admittedly that would leave spring looking pretty empty though Saturday Night Takeaway would have been able to hold an end up there. In hindsight.

Good schedules but Musketeers is 10x60 minutes. Also, don't forget there are 6 nations Rugby matches from early February. To have The Voice and Musketters regularly and Casualty and In It To Win It would be difficult.

Very unlikely, When was the last time BBC1 scheduled a proper drama series, that wasn't Casualty at 8:30pm on a Saturday?

The Musketeers is an hour but you could have The Voice at 18.15 and have Musketeers at 1930 thus keeping the rest of the schedule intact.

Isn't Sherlock returning in January? Its only 3 episodes so Creek could start the last week of January.

For some reason, to me, Merlin never came across as strongly sci-fi as Doctor Who does.

And I agree with the rest of what you say. I just think the likes of Merlin would appeal to a non-X Factor audience more than Doctor Who; I can see more people watching X Factor as a default opposite Who than Merlin.

BGT can't run at that point as Ant & Dec's schedules wouldn't fit. They start preparing for IAC about a month before. They never present anything live in October.

Nothing changes. One mention of Voice, and the Ratings Thread gets its tits in a tangle for the rest of the day!

Indeed. Suddenly it's public service. The talent show where no one watches to the end. I'm looking forward to Kylies master call in miming to a track on tv.

Not really. The BBC reported that The Voice is going to air in January with a major female pop star as a judge and we're responding that for once the BBC are learning from thewir scheduling cock ups. Whether or not The Voice is a rip off is irrelevant.

It seems to me that you're bricking it now because until today it seemed the BBC had another lacklustre Q1 lined up. They haven't now. And you don't like it.

Merlin. 13th October 2012.

Itv aren't going to waste their biggest shows in the dead month of January. The ad revenue isn't there. The days of chasing vanity ratings are gone given the budget restrictions for programming.

I've been banging on and on about Q1 Saturdays for about as long as I can remember. I honestly don't know what I'm going to talk about anymore. It's always been an act of utter stupidity for BBC One to launch major 10-12 week entertainment or drama series at Easter. Sure, it looks good on Easter Weekend, but before you know it, they're bouncing around the schedules like mad and getting crushed by BGT, Eurovision, FA Cup, Champions League and good weather.

I'm not saying The Voice doesn't have it's flaws - it has many - but it's scheduling has also been an utter mess for two years, which can't help. I'm sure it'll still decline, maybe sharply, after the audition stages are over, but it's unlikely to hit the nadirs the last two series have suffered. All in all, it's just common sense.


Not sure if this is brave or stupid. I'm leaning towards the latter, especially when you throw Homeland into the mix. If it was a limited run serial, then I could understand. But a returnable, Tony Jordan-penned, populist crime drama. Don't really see how the BBC though this was the best slot for it.


I doubt Creek will air in Q1 (if it does, it'll be Sunday at 9 after Midwives) and it's only three episodes anyway. Musketeers does look likely to partner The Voice on Saturdays, though.

Yeah, for one episode. And really that was a shade too late for a family drama like Merlin. But its average start time was much earlier.

Maybe they'd need to cut the Lottery down to a ten minute show and air Pointless Celebrities between Six Nation games? Though there could be a case of overkill there.


I'm sure they could cope with one week of live shows if required.

Why do you think that?