Although you could say that they cant think of any new formats that work. I am sure when the inevitable happens and BBC start reviving old formats thats exactly what they will be accused of.

Not until 2020 at best.

That's a huge rating for "The Great British Bake Off" Mary Berry and Hollywood are BBC Two's Ant and Dec!

Phil Davies interviewed on "This Morning" for "Whitechapel" so perhaps itv are beginning to plug more of their evening drama as ratings wobble. Davies looking at another next series but says"if we go again on Whitechapel five? I hope we do"

Stonking rating for The Great British Bake Off! Amazing stuff.

I'm not sure if plugging will bring it back to above 4m, but if it works, it works. it does lack a dedicated audience at the moment which won't help it in the long term.

They where some fantastic figures for both Corri and EE. And as you say I really can't see them being beaten.

Over in the US AMC look to be on the verge of a ratings windfall when Breaking Bad wraps its series in two weeks time. Sunday's episode hit another series high for the show with 6.4 million viewers and a 3.2 in the demo. That's an incredibly young skew as well. Breaking Bad is actually quite an interesting ratings story as it appears to be the first show to get a 'Netflix bounce' The final episode of last years batch of episodes had 2.7 million and a 1.3 in the demo so that's some truly spectacular growth in the space of a year. Hell last weeks episode had 5.1 million viewers and a 2.2 in the demo so its pretty incredible growth in the space of a week. It'll be interesting to see how big the final ever episode can go.

Good to see TXF flat week-on-week. Yes it didn't go up - but more importantly, it didn't go down. The current overnight series average is 8.8m (inc +1: 9.3m). Last years 7 audition shows averaged 8.2m (inc +1: 8.7m). Although, I appreciate its hard to draw comparisons due to launching later and the different scheduling of it this year.

Overall though a good night for ITV and the BBC, with the BBC as solid as ever and Surprise Surprise putting in a very impressive 5.3m (inc +1) rating. Should hold up nicely against SCD. Possibly 4m with +1.

Some evenings actually seem like they need old products to bolster the audience share. "Surprise Surprise" did a more solid job than "Tipping Point" for itv. I can now see the attraction of saying we will have 6 weeks of "The Generation Game" before "The Voice"because its name would guareentee an audience before a new show. Whether that looses the channel crediabilty in the long term I dont know.

Last year it usually managed to get over 4million often 4.5million inc+1 against Strictly.

Did anyone mention TXF getting 950k for the 5pm itv2 repeat on Sunday afternoon? With the itv earlier repeat getting probably another million, this idea of a dedicated X Factor channel might not be a bad idea.

LWT used to create some good entertainment cop shows which I kinda think in 2013 should be reworked and brought back by either itv or BBC One. I think a parnership cop show after "Strictly Come Dancing" could compete very well in the audience shares."Cagney and Lacey" "Dempsey and Makepeace" " Starsky and Hutch" "Charlies Angels" "The Professionals" couldn't something new be created from those templates for a series.

I remain surprised that the BBC haven't tried a Generation Game revival before now to be honest. Although I have vague memories of a version with Graham Norton being thrown around a few years ago. Its a format that worked for decades and with multiple hosts so it would seem like a fairly strong contender to be revived. It certainly strikes me as odd that Superstars has come back multiple times yet this hasn't.

Isn't that what Scott & Bailey is supposed to be on ITV (Cagney and Lacey)? It should of course be noted that half the shows you mentioned there were imports. I also don't think post-Strictly is the spot for that kind of drama. Well maybe something along the lines of Charlie's Angels could work there I suppose but the others don't really feel like they fit the 'family entertainment' vibe the BBC tend to go for around Strictly. Something like that out of The Voice in Q1 could possibly work though especially as The Voice is likely to finish later at night than Strictly. But it would mean bumping Casualty (does that air in Q1?).

A very good night for ITV. Surprise Surprise doing very well there - although the continued success of revivals isn't exactly inspiring stuff.

Good for Holly as well - with SS on an extended run I don't think she'd even need to go back to DOI as part of an ITV exclusive. With a presence on ITV2, ITV daytime and ITV primetime she's covering all the bases already! I think the question with her will be what's the next project for her on ITV. And looking at her successes on the main channel, I do wonder if they'd be looking at her for something like Long Lost Family rather than shiny floor entertainment.


The stand out for me wasn't the X Factor repeat, but the Xtra Factor repeat. Saturdays first run got 860,000 (4.1%) at 9pm right after X Factor finished on ITV but the Sunday repeat at 6pm managed 821,000 (4.3%).

With Surprise, Surprise doing well she may not need another project on ITV for a while. As you say she's already got all the bases covered so I'm not sure she or ITV would need to take the risk of overexposure or putting her in the middle of s sinking format. It might be better for her and them to wait for the right format to come along for her rather than seek it out. Unless Surprise, Surprise completely crumbles against Strictly in a few weeks of course.

I think 10m would be great but I think 8-9m is more likely. Still incredible and AMC has become a real force in cable. Wonder if Mad Men will see a bump.

I'm not sure AMC is a force in cable.

They have The Walking Dead and obviously having the biggest show on television on your network is a huge thing for any network but away from The Walking Dead the cupboard is pretty bare. Breaking Bad is performing very well for these final episodes but they are the final episodes and it remains to be seen if spin-off Better Call Saul can maintain this momentum. For all the praise Mad Men doesn't usually a break a 1 in the demo. Low Winter Sun is getting a great lead-in from Breaking Bad but struggling to break a 0.5 in the demo. They've somewhat oddly buried Hell on Wheels' third season on a Saturday and just cancelled The Killing (again). They desperately need a new hit. Although they have just announced a Walking Dead spin-off so I guess there's that...

I also don't think Mad Men is likely to see much of a bump next year. It won't get the final season bump and the growing critical consensus seems to be that its best days are behind it which isn't great for these kind of shows.

Yes I think of "Scott and Bailey" as a bit of a British version of "Cagney and Lacey". But I find the idea of "Atlantis" not the best alternative to "The X Factor" and dont quite see how it is going to connect with the audience. "Merlin" had a cult following whereas "Atlantis" seems to be a poor carry on from that series. I think they should have gone for something different like a cop show but I guess you alienate the family audience if its way too violent. But I was thinking more "Dempsey and Makepeace" than anything heavy weight considering it would follow an entertainment show.

Hell on Wheels has done good on Saturdays and will likely be renewed, Turn and Halt and Catch Fire sounds promising. Every cable has its best performer, for HBO its GoT and True Blood, Showtime its Dexter, Homeland and Shameless and FX its Sons of Anarchy and its sometime there is a halo effect but as we've seen in the past, shows sometime don't click with viewers.

It'll be interesting how Homeland and Masters of Sex do especially as they face Breaking Bad. I imagine Homeland will be fine but Masters of Sex does appear to be a risk. Showtime has got Penny Dreadful coming up which I imagine will air in the Spring unless they want to save it and pair with Ray Donovan in the summer.

With 48 episodes in the current run, I expect Casualty will only be breaking for a couple of weeks at Christmas and maybe a couple of weeks during the World Cup.


Through the Keyhole depressing the first showing of Xtra Factor , I presume.

I can't say I share your confidence about Hell on Wheels. Undoubtedly it has done surprisingly well on Saturday night but that AMC put it there in the first place isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of their confidence or faith in it especially as its not exactly cheap to produce.

It should be noted that while other cable networks have big hitters or a flagship they don't tend to have quite as empty a cupboard as AMC does. Alongside Sons of Anarchy for example FX also has American Horror Story and Justified which are reliable performers not to mention comedies like Archer, Always Sunny and The League although they've shipped Sunny and The League off to FXX now. The same is true of the premium networks like HBO and Showtime which aren't as concerned with ratings performance.

Speaking of the premium networks Showtime's Masters of Sex is brilliant. Its very different to most of their drama output (particularly recent drama output) but that appears to be a conscious choice. They're one of the leading advocates of the argument that basing a show around a dark anti-hero has had its day which is somewhat ironic given how well Ray Donovan just launched for them. I think Masters of Sex has the potential to do very well for them. Critics seem to love it which will almost certainly get it a second season.

I think the dark anti hero has been common on a lot of cable drama but it does do well and a lead character who has very few problems is probably more difficult to do. I like the look of Masters of Sex but I wonder how they'll stretch it out beyond 2-3 seasons. It'd be interesting to see a premium drama or comedy where there isn't much swearing, violence or nudity/sex but I guess all three sell and gives a reason for people to subscribe.

Penny Dreadful sounds promising and Showtime must have faith to give a straight to series order. I'm looking forward to Outlander which is going be on Starz in 2014

Masters of Sex has the potential to become a very strong and fun character drama away from the initial sex study hook. Although in theory part of the joy of doing a series on premium cable is that you don't have to run forever if you don't want to. If you only have three seasons of story you can do three seasons and sail off into the sunset. That's the theory anyway...

While I think there's still an audience for the right show(s) built around the 'dark anti-hero' I also think its become a bit of a cliché at this point and it certainly isn't a strong enough concept to carry an entire show or as the central focus of a pitch. As much as I sort of dismissed Ray Donovan that show has a lot going for it away from the dark anti-hero lead. It is essentially a dark family drama and it is very good. The general point a lot of network executives are making these days though is that with Dexter, Breaking Bad, House and to a lesser extent Mad Men reaching their natural end and all around the same time the anti-hero thing seems to have reached its natural end as well. For better or worse those were really the four shows that defined the troubled/dark anti-hero across television as a whole so it feels right to move on now they are. Its not a bad call. The problem is they don't really seem to have anything else on the go although I guess this reinvented fantasy thing is getting a lot of traction.