Yeah, Celeb Chase is 12 episodes. They ordered 24 celeb episodes to air over 2 years, so I assume it'll be 12 this Autumn.

So I guess it would be 8th September-24th November, or they may start it a bit later to ensure that it finishes on the night of the XF final.

In that case, I think Surprise, Surprise will most definitely end up on Wednesdays.

I think Celeb Chase is 3x8. I still think considering ITV rarely show ads in the 6pm hour during the autumn that they should go for family movies from 6-7.30pm and air them ad free, making a big deal about it. Family films do really well on Sundays for C4 and C5 in the run up to Christmas and they're perfect anti-Strictly fodder IMO - get the kids to force their parents to skip Strictly.


Which makes it even more ridiculous how obsessed TV is with Twitter.

To be fair though That Pupper Game Show and I Love My Country are just two terrible shows, and not because Twitter said so. Look back at the comments in this thread when both are announced and I'm sure the concensus here would have been they'll turn out pretty much like they have.

It was truly bad last night with Jack Dee and Alex Jones as guests. She didn't even know who the current US president is but she knew the members of Girls Aloud. Lol. I do like I love my country and last nights show was actually entertaining. I think it is a grower.

You may be right. STV's 60second Autumn season trailer didnt make a single mention of Take Me out. They mentioned Celebrity Chase, Surprise Surprise etc. Surprise surprise is back on Sundays soon based on this report.

Putting TMO against SCD harmed this show. It really needs to be kept away from it as without Brucie on its back, it can rate 5 million easily. Also I like both shows and it makes life hard.

Good night in all for ITV. Hopefully they are saving the Deathly Hallows for two consecutive nights.

Would make so much sense instead of going back in chronological order, like the Beeb did with the whole Who Shot Mr Burns calamity...

Social media does have effect. And I think there is a small army of people who just seem to revel in being destructive. I think Eastenders lull has been made worse because of it with people joining a trend saying its bad even when they don't watch it.
However if we look at:
Secret Service
Animal Antics
Don't Scare the Hare
I love My Country
That Puppet Game Show.

Even if we say that two or three million viewers might be just acceptable for summer early evening, these shows aren't convincing me that BBC LE is in great health. The Beeb need to approach LE from a different angle-ie finding talent and promoting it. If we remove Strictly and TVUK(for the moment) then the rest is mainly is just bad low budget ideas and Lottery quizzes. No-one can say that's great.

Its true that there is no pool of iconic entertainers who came through the variety circuit as per yesteryear. Ant and Dec are like gold dust as they are the only true double act whose name makes people tune in ( I doubt they have ever played a club in their lives and are a one-off in todays tv lanscape ). However the BBC should be more proactive in trying to break new talent imo and have far more zest when it comes to format creation. Its like they have been asleep for 20 years.

I think that That Puppet Game Show will barely be pulling in 2 million next week. Won't be renewed.

The BBC are sat on a massive pool of talent across TV and radio. Out of all the broadcasters, it should not have a problem identifying and nurturing new presenting talent. The usual problem for them is once establishing it, keeping it, as the commerical broadcasters usually comes in with the chequebook.

There has been plenty of opportunity to create doube acts, they've had JK & Joel, Sam & Mark, Dick & Dom - all of which appear to have come to nothing.

The fashion now seems to be using Radio 1 talent. Scott Mills ought to have been better utilise outside of the Lottery really. Greg James and Nick Grimshaw seem to be flavour of the month and then there's Reggie Yates.

Imagine Nick Knowles's House Party or Blind Date with Alex Jones. Who are the great light entertainment presenters now outside of Ant & Dec and Graham Norton?

Rylan Clark ?

Dougie Colon ?

"Blind Date with Alex Jones" would be banned under human rights laws I'm sure.

Fearne Cotton at one point seemed to be everywhere. Her only TV venture now is Celebrity Juice.

As has been alluded to, there really are plenty of perfectly adequate 'entertainment' presenters that the BBC have at their disposal if they want them - just off the top of my head there's Matt Baker, Chris Evans, Scott Mills, Graham Norton, Edith Bowman, Claire Balding*, Reggie Yates, Tess Daly, Gabby Logan, Vernon Kay*, Greg James, Steve Jones, Richard Bacon and Zoe Ball under various contracts within the corporation. They could also bring people in from the cold like Konnie Huq and Chris Moyles if they really wanted to. It's a mystery to me why Nick Knowles is used on almost everything at the moment but it's not as if the BBC are being forced into that.

*Vernon recently left Radio 1 so not sure where he stands with the BBC at the moment. Likewise Claire Balding seems to be doing lots of work for C4 and BT at the moment.
Well she's on maternity leave at the moment. She'll be back soon enough - though maybe not as prominently as before the furore about the Jubille Pageant.
Last edited by Zac Quinn : 25-08-2013 at 14:45

Cheers for that (although the first link doesn't work). Yep, I expect Surprise Surprise will be back on Sunday 15th September then (there will be another hour long Corrie on the 8th). It has a 10 week run this year so should end on 24th November (as I believe there will be another hour long Corrie one week in October).

Looks like Celeb Chase will have to go elsewhere then, and possibly on Saturdays. I wonder if they'll do what they did in 2011 and air it around 6pm to get a headstart on Strictly, as it got around 4 million there in 2011, and The Chase has become more popular since then. Something like:

5.45 You've Been Framed
6.15 Celebrity Chase
7.15 Catchphrase
8.00 The X Factor
9.30 Jonathan Ross or I'm A Celebrity

Could work quite well, and dent Strictly a little bit. Fool Britannia could go on Sundays at 6.30pm, out of the way.

That would be a good line up, and theoretically the audience would build over the evening, thus denting Strictly a bit unitil The X Factor starts when the audience spikes.

Call The Midwife hardly trends on Twitter compared to other programmes but still gets 10m viewers, Mrs Brown's Boys gets slated on Twitter but the ratings are huge. TV's obsession with Twitter will be its undoing. Idiot department heads thinking Twitter is to blame, it's a small loud voice but not the only voice.

How do we think the two dramas will do tonight?

I think both will rate well, What Remains has a AR lead in, that has a CF lead in which will dent Vera slightly tus leading to an overnight of 5.7million (inc +1) finals as 6.8million. What Remains will rate similar to AR, around 5-5.4million and finals of 7million.

That was the 3rd showing of Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince last night on ITV, and its biggest audience yet (4.28m/22.6%).

(Based on NeilVW's table)

Including +1 it averaged a very solid 4.77m/25.2%, and NeilVW's table includes +1, so it was actually nicely ahead of the first two screenings.

I actually think it could work, but will Catchphrase be on in the autumn?

DS ratings round-up

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...n-bbc-one.html

Possibly. They're filming it in a couple of weeks so it'll be ready, so they could air it there if they want to.

They are filming 3 celeb editions of Catchphrase, so I'll get in early and suggest one of these might go out on Christmas Day