Words fail me! Waterloo Road is a primetime lemon. It doesn't rate well so what If it gets decent young demos , it doesn't get many other demos and that's the problem. Put it on BBC2 at 6pm on a weeknight. Make it their Hollyoaks. That's what the BBC should do with it if they insist on making it endlessly! Idiots!

That's her claim to hitting the big time? A film review show nobody actually watches not co-hosting Strictly results show?


I have the provisos because without them she wouldn't be in the position she's in now.


Clare Balding is a somewhat unique event given that she broke through as the stand out presenter of the BBC's coverage of a home Olympics. That's not a circumstance that seems likely to repeat. And her attempt to transfer that popularity to prime time BBC1 didn't end well. And sports broadcasting in general tends to have slightly different rules to entertainment.

Why exactly should a show that's popular with young viewers be shunted to a different channel and time slot? Is there some part of the BBC remit that I've missed that says they're not allowed to appeal to young viewers in prime time on BBC1?

It didn't fall that much this week despite the worst possible lead-in it could have had. I appreciate how displeasing this must be to our friend GoshBagosh, who has relished every viewer lost since its promising premiere 4 weeks ago.

I think ratings are more or less stabilising now.. With +1 it's still over 1m and matching Ramsay, which is good enough for C5 at 10pm. And it's adding a lot of viewers on 5USA and timeshift as well which must be taken into account.

It's been reported today that Lovefilm have acquired the on demand rights here in the UK. But it won't appear on there until early next year.

A better idea would be to show Waterloo Road on BBC3 at 10pm on Wednesdays and Fridays in a half-hour slot. The post-watershed slot would enable WR to push the boundaries and explore gritty storylines while the serialised format may enable WR to flourish. Plus, WR could provide the EE rerun on Friday with a decent lead in.

For the same reason That Puppet Show was moved to an earlier slot. It's not performing well enough where it is. It's Waterloo Road a primetime drama on BBC1 not a Panorama special on depleted rainforests. It should be doing much better than it is. 3m isn't good enough for a drama in that timeslot anybody that thinks otherwise is a BBC scheduler.

Actually, you raise some good points. I think I agree with you.

I like watching Under The Dome it's well made and for me entertaining fluff I want it to do well. Looks like We should keep an eye on Sleepy Hollow.

@TVMoJoe: SLEEPY HOLLOW was the No. 1 entertainment show on Monday, beating the finale of UNDER THE DOME [2.8]

Waterloo Road could have an early evening BBC2 run and a Hollyoaks later type special run of episodes on BBC3.

BBC1 needs a more vaired schedhule other then The One Show, filler and soaps

A 3.4 in the demo and just over 10 million viewers for Sleepy Hollow. We'll see how it holds up when The Voice and CBS comedies are back next week but that's a great start.

It's a flagship show, I don't really know what to say if you don't rate it, I don't watch it myself, but I never watched Ross but knew he was doing it.

Yes, but you could do provisos for every person working in showbiz. An awful lot of ITV successes are based on Simon Cowell liking them.

Again, Balding another unique circumstance. I'm not really sure where we're going here, all I'm saying is it's not that odd anymore.

Just looking at the motley prime-times shows last weekend, we have Bruce, Logan, Macall, Bradbury and Harrison hosting, none of them in their first flush of youth.

Gone to Universal Channel over here. At the time tvwise.co.uk suggested there had been interest from Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and I forget who else for the rights. Stretches belief that Universal beat those kind of channels, but could be a shrewd acquisition based on the pilot performance.

I think Channel 5 need a big new procedural to fill the CSI void. They need to keep a close eye on CBS.

It does have a varied schedule. Remember, a lot of the "filler" is PBS content so is required in the schedule.

BBC1 could get younger demos watching and with a more popular show if they tried something different. BBC1 need several shows that do that. The much maligned Voice gets a shedload of younger viewers and with better ratings. Waterloo Road seems to be made constantly as it's relatively cheap and gets an unspetacular regular audience of around 4m.

BBC1 and all channels should sometimes aspire to mixing it up a bit and trying something a bit different. Too many shows are in the schedule that are perhaps waaaaaay past their sell by dates but they plod along.

Waterloo Road would be perfect for BBC2 at 6pm. It's a channel that hardly has any appeal for younger people anymore. Channel 4 bought The Simpsons, BBC2 reduced imports. The 6pm hour could be so much more than Eggheads and It Takes Two when Strictly is on. ITV moved The Job Lot which had a fair few younger people watching to a channel better suited to it. WR has had a charmed life, it doesn't help BBC1 on the night as much as it could. It COULD benefit BBC2. I think it's a perfect move.

Which is a fine argument to make but the BBC (and BBC1) have a duty to appeal to a diverse and wide ranging audience. Does the BBC have anything else that they can schedule regularly on BBC1 that appeals to the same demographics as Waterloo Road? If not they run the risk of losing the show and that particular demographic.

Although again I ask the question of just how popular is it with younger viewers?

Well, they COULD actually make new programmes to fill the WR slot. By shifting WR to BBC2 doesn't damage their diverse appeal quota.

CBS got it right with Under The Dome by making it a Summer show. Sleepy Hollow could suffer for the reasons you just mentioned.

Do you have access to the overnights?

What's an artical?

Don't know how old you are, but that shouldn't be hard to spell correctly.

Yes, it hasn't been confirmed yet.

Personally, I don't think that's -worthy. The concept is horrid.

The One show and programmes like rip off britain are not PBS. The schedule was a lot more vaired weekdays with programmes like Holiday and Telly Addicts.

What has the general response been towards it?

Hassan will you please get off your high horse. It's not my fault my iPad decides it wants to fill in my words.

Film 2013 is absolutely not a flagship BBC show.

Its also worth mentioning that many of the older presenters you mention are already well established and not just starting to breakout. Davina McCall has been working steadily for a couple of decades at this point and Fiona Bruce isn't exactly hosting a shiny floor entertainment format. Its Antiques Roadshow.


There was popular consensus within the US that Sleepy Hollow wasn't going to last and that Fox were fairly convinced of that fact as well so I imagine a lot of the bigger channels probably backed away after assessing the situation. Plus Channel 4 probably spent a bomb on Agents of SHIELD and didn't have the spare cash for Sleepy Hollow or much else.

Also worth mentioning that CBS only have one new procedural this year (Intelligence) and it doesn't start until 2014 but is unsold so far.

Procedural wise this year there's Killer Women and Mind Games on ABC both scheduled for 2014 and both unsold. Fox have Almost Human and Rake which are both basically procedurals albeit Almost Human has a pretty strong sci-fi bent. Both are unsold and Almost Human is set to begin later this year after the World Series I think. That might change if Sleepy Hollow holds well though. NBC have Blacklist and Ironside. Blacklist would have been perfect for Five but Sky Living beat them to it and Ironside which is unsold could work well for them. I guess there's Chicago PD as well which will have procedural elements but given that its a spin-off of Chicago Fire its appeal is likely limited.


That's incredibly easy to say and incredibly difficult to do. As many shows can demonstrate grabbing a young audience isn't as easy as you think.