If I have to see his face in every newspaper, on every trailer twice a year from next year I may need to restart my counselling sessions!

I will explain in detail why Whitechapel has rated badly so far:

1. First and foremost, the loss of the Coro St lead in is very damaging. Dont underestimate the power of the Coro St lead in on a Monday, it can boost programs ratings by a million or more and turn cancellation-worthy shows to decent raters. Having a lead in of just 3.5million doesnt help matters.

2. Trailing of Whitechapel was done during a period when only 58pct of the population tuned into Itv any time that week. That is a poor weekly reach and bound to impact exposure of the trails and therefore ratings. Last series of Whitechapel was trailed during weeks when 75pct of the population tuned into Itv. That is a significant difference.

3. The actual promos of the new season made it look like a dark, murky, horror type of drama. Whitechapel has always had gothic undertones but this particular series, according to its director, has even more horror elements than usual. For the OAP hardcore Itv crime drama fan, that's not going to appeal very much to them. They like it easy going, simple to follow storylines, with nice sceneries and the countryside kind of dramas. Going overboard with the whole gothic tone thing has put off the Itv heartland demographic, especially the female oap/housewive type.

4. An unbelievable premise which has taken it one season too far. How many copycat crime dramas can there really be in a little town in London? Theyve had 3 seasons so far but it's quite unbelievable and unrealistic, something which can be looked over for a while, but viewers eventually get tired of that kind of that.

5. The popularity of Ripper Street - another crime drama based on the Ripper - has made viewers realise that there is no need to really watch both shows. Ripper Street got about 7million viewers consolidated earlier this year, many of whom Im sure were fellow whitechapel viewers. But having witnessed quality such as Ripper st, they may have decided theres no point switching back to watching Whitechapel which may be perceived as stale in comparison.

6. Itv launched 10 programs in a single week at the start of September, an utterly stupid strategy in this day and age. With so many shows starting that particular week, Whitechapel got lost among the pack. Viewers cant committ to so many new shows and Whitechapel wouldve had a better chance of rating well if it had launched in October during a week when it had been the prime focus of promotions.

7. Wednesday night dramas for Itv generally have been a bit of a disaster: mrs biggs, lightfields, love and marriage have all flopped with under 4million. The signs were there when Lightfields was only getting 3million in comparison to its prequel Marchlands which got 6million. And even returning 'hits' like Scott and bailey were only getting 4.5m instead of 6.5million. It just proves that the Wednesday night drama strategy is very flawed and not working. Thursday night dramas at 9pm in 2010-2011 was a much better strategy as those dramas followed Coro St which used to be shown on 8.30pm. Moving Coro St back to Wednesday 7.30pm has caused a lot of damage to the 9pm slot and not really resulted in any entertainment hits at 8pm anyway.

You know how much XF like to hype things up, imagine the second coming of God!

Umm, why is it bad news for Fox if the show is bombing, and they've been left with a massive hole in the schedule because they bowed down to a massive egotist. Getting rid of him may staunch the blood.

I won't be watching X-factor, so it makes little difference to me if he comes back, this is just funny because of his massive ego being pricked. If his presence on british TV killed the Voice it would be good too, one less irritating karaoke show.

Oh and if it does carry on going wrong state-side, not really going to help the new uk x-factor groups make a break-through, without the platform of american TV.

It was somebody from EastEnders last week on Who Do You Think You Are. People aren't interested in EastEnders! This show seems to do better with bigger stars that wasn't always the case. I have no idea what's going on with Whitechapel. It's collapsed!

You can imagine the taglines:

HE CAN WALK ON WATER

HE CAN TURN HIS PISS INTO WINE

HE IS THE MESSIAH OF ITV

HE IS OUR LORD AND MASTER

BORN TO SAVE HIMSELF

YOU WILL LOVE HIM

YOU WILL WORSHIP HIM

YOU WILL OFFER GIFTS OF POUNDS DOLLARS AND CENTS!

IT'S SIMON COWELL, AND THIS IS THE X FACTOR!

There is a long running thread about Sarah on here. I wouldn't say I was a massive fan, she tends to on a bit too much about sex, but she's not bad and is a reasonably good host of TOS. She was actually born two miles from me.

Uhh, have you watched series 3 and the first couple episodes of this current series?

It's not a copycat premise anymore, but they look into history to solve the crimes.

I do agree with your other points though, one other I'd add is probably lack of publicity. Most didn't know it was on until the cast rpenryj or PhilDavis6 tweeted about it.

it's definitely losing appeal of women (who are the target demographic due to RPJ) due to its excessive gore. I read a comment by someone who said the appeal of Whitechapel was mainly the characterisation but this series has gone overboard with the horror genre it's become unwatchable. Some would enjoy it though but September is not a good time to air it. It was far more successful when it was aired earlier in the year.

Wolfblood was getting 400k in the finals. What were the overnight ratings like? With the BBC3 repeats they were just there and with no promotion, rating around 100k I believe.

Well considering all the fuss that has just occurred with Kylie joining The Voice, you can expect if Simon did return to TXF, it would make slightly more headlines.

It's an interesting thought that a show Simon Cowell has judged on for many years drops in the ratings as he leaves. But, it's not all about that - it's the fact the shows fail to keep up the interest. XF UK for example.

The BGT 2011 auditions deteriorated a little, hovering mainly around 8-9m, but they rose a bit when it came to the semi-finals. The first semi-final, which included Cowell's return and also fell on a bank holiday, pulled in 10.9m (42%) / 11.3m (43%) for the main show and 10m (38%) / 10.2m (39%) for the results. The performance shows stayed above 9m, and results also in the 9m range, falling below it only twice.

Still, that series averaged ~10.4m in the official figures, better than series 1, 2, 6 & 7 (the latter two had better audition figures than series 5, but worse live show figures).

There are numerous reasons why I think BGT isn't reaching it's full potential, but I'll only go into that if anyone wants to hear it.

Slightly lower. The first show got 244k in the officials, so the overnight must have been just slightly lower.

It ended on a high of 540k, the overnight figure will have been in the 400k range.

Well I personally think that if ITV want to keep viewers interested in both BGT and XF for years to come, I would alternate them each year. One year XF, one year BGT.

I think it needs a strong lead in, it is a bold pickup by Channel 4 and Showtime but im unsure how it would fare beyond one season.

Ratings for Millican's own show aren't always spectacular, but I think she's an engaging enough personality for people to want to see her on WDYTYA last night. Also I think some of the Whitechapel crowd might have switched over after not liking last week's story.

In hindsight, maybe The Guilty should have taken Sunday for ITV, Whitechapel Monday, Vera Wednesday and Doc Martin Thursday. Though Doc Martin seemingly needs all the Coronation Street support it can get.

Whitechapel's figure is really disappointing, which is a shame. The other channels did very well, though, and maybe that explains the dip slightly. I wonder how many people are buying the episodes online? I can't imagine it being many.

The ITV soaps did very well as they're both lurching to concluding a massive storyline. EastEnders performed reasonably but didn't exactly stand out; especially considering the lead in and lack of competition. Big Star, Little Star didn't do too badly considering.

Into America and The X Factor US needs to find some momentum and fast. That's a very poor start for it.

Peggy's episode sounds awful. Completely pointless her coming back for just one outing. Nevertheless there should be SOME uplift I would have thought.

Simon's return and, of course, it being soon after Cheryl's sacking on The X Factor US. If I remember correctly, Ant and Dec asked live on air whether their jobs were safe as he had a sudden penchant for axing Geordies.

I can remember Dec saying to Simon on the first show "Simon, can you understand my accent?" and as for their jobs, Simon mentioned on BGMT during the week that there was going to be an announcement (which turned out to be an act being brought back for the semis, and getting voted out again).

Yes, in hindsight that does seem better. If I were ITV I would only use Wednesday for the 2hr dramas, Midsomer, Vera etc. Momentum is lost in the 8pm hour for 9pm dramas on a Wednesday.

I want to hear!

BGT is holding up very well. Not sure it'll ever see another super SuBo powered series. That series just worked perfectly with the perfect storm of everything going right for it.

Having both shows on worked in 2008 & 9 - there was this idea that Britain's Got Talent's success earlier in the year boosted X Factor. BGT fell away in 2010 but X Factor kept on growing.

I've seen many people label BGT the more superior show to X Factor, but the former doesn't attract as much interest as the latter. Also, with BGT, there are a number of winning formulas which they should not have messed with.

These including upping the number of people put through to the semis and the split results shows. Quite likely the main reasons why the semi-finals haven't rated very well in comparison to the auditions.

I've had this idea floating around in my brain () - they could go back to 40 acts in the semi-finals, and have 3 acts from each semi-final going through to a 'final showdown' (as with Australia's Got Talent), where another public vote decides a final 10. I don't think delaying the final to the next week worked very well - the momentum may well have been lost with the show being on virtually every day of the week, but ITV could have made a bit of an effort to gain it again - a press conference, home visits etc (ala X Factor) could have done it.

Mentioned a few things in my last post.

I think a BGT Xmas special would put the show back into people's brains, remind them of what they loved about it. It's an idea that's been suggested for a long while - why haven't ITV seen sense and capitalize on the success of the show?

I liked the old live show set - the studio looked huge and there was a real atmosphere in there. They've lost that now, and a good atmosphere is what you need for a live show.

David Walliams could have gone about actually judging the acts in the lives - he just went about praising them, however shite they were . The interesting bit of the semi-finals is when an act is buzzed off - that was quite common in the first three series but since then, has only happened once.

BGT shouldn't need a 'Susan Boyle moment' to get huge ratings - it needs interest around the acts like it did that year (the said audition bought a lot of publicity to the show).

The format is slightly flawed - they tell the acts they are through to the "next round" but there is no next round. They call the acts back to tell them if they are in the live shows or not - that's all. The acts may not have performed to their potential in the audition, or they may not be as good as they were made out to be in the audition, so it makes sense for the acts to perform again and then the judges choosing. They can get rid of the mediocre singers this way, for a start.

Sorry for rambling on, again.

I think the EastEnders bounce was the 7m it got. Don't think they promoted the Wednesday episode much either. Wow Lorraine Newman truly left it in a dire state!


Seems like it has turned off many of the fans. It has changed but it's still a well made show. Such a shame.


Will it stop sliding? That's the question.

4.5m is not the general population, it's the default BBC1 audience.

Maybe if the programme had gotten 8m you would have a point.

And only a few people really don't like S Millican, they are very loud about it however.