Doubt it. It was several times, but all between the 80s and early 00s in Richard and Judy days.

I was simply 'discretely' (too discretely, it seems) suggesting possible ownership of the nameless RT person on that amusing spoof phone call to the BBC posted yesterday regarding the scheduling of That Puppet Game Show.

Nobody had worked out the identity of the thread member who was reminding that they had been a guest on This Morning! That was all.

No idea if it was even meant to be me. But I wanted to remind puzzled thread members that.....

well you get the idea!

Mind you, if it were intended because I might be perceived as anti BBC and pro ITV then it would be wrong. I have worked for both channels and the only oprogrammes I have written have been on the beeb. So I have no favourites.

Never underestimate the ability of Arsenal to balls things up.

Indeed, I have said before that it is very surprising that no US channel has attempted to translate it over there. You could get a dream line up with people like James Spader as Brian, William Shatner as Gerry or the likes of Tom Selleck etc in other roles.

Is it simply too British an idea to translate or would so many oldies at once turn advertisers and networks off before it started?

Perhaps it can only ever work on a non ratings dependent channel like the BBC,.

But given how popular it has been it is odd that nobody has at least tried to translate the magic. Especially if these wholesale cast changes reveals the show can survive even that.

Might reveal a fundamental difference still left between US and UK TV. As I doubt even ITV here would have ever commissioned it in the original format for fear of its lack of a younger audience.

So what did each show average minus ads? (Preferrably, if you have them, with and without +1)

Just a thought - if the BBC were to move The Voice to Q1 next year (which they should do), wouldn't they have started filming the blind auditions round about now?

Thought I'd link this in here: http://lives.itvmedia.co.uk/

A lot of interesting demographic information and statistics in there.

Nicer? Must be lovely for the singers to be singing to the backs of chairs where the judges - oops, sorry COACHES are seated.







Undemanding fare from C4, but an interesting documentary nonetheless.

Yet old skewing dramas with ageing cops like Taggart and Frost always did well for ITV. However, round about 2004 they were developing this obsession with chasing the under 35 female market which would have meant New Tricks would never have happened for them. Maybe could have been done now as Vera isn't that young.

Cannot see the point of having CBB directly following BB. It's hard work to watch another series after 10 weeks of regular one. It would make more sense to do it the other way round like they did the first year.

SCD & XF clash already !

Saturday 7 September

BBC One

18:05 Pointless Celebs
19:00 Strictly Come Dancing
20:10 National Lottery: Break the Safe
21:00 BBC News
21:20 Last Night of the Proms

ITV

18:00 New You've Been Framed
18:30 Stepping Out
20:00 X Factor
21:00 Through the Keyhole
22:00 ITV News

Interesting to see that despite the Glasgow cop being sold to the network, the 30th Anniversay special (how ridiculous is that? - given it's not been produced for 3 years and STV has no present plans to bring it back) only airs on STV next Friday night (ITV screens England v Moldova):-

8.30pm Thirty Years Of Taggart on TV - Favourite moments from 3 decades of the drama.

9pm Taggart - Full episode (The Ends Of Justice, rpt).

Ironic that both Drama & True Entertainment are showing reruns!

On the night, Big Brother definitely helped Under the Dome. As Dancc said, there was no way UTD would have got 2.03m (inc +1) overnight in isolation, away from a BB sandwich. The first part of BB averaged 2.10m (inc +1) overnight, and clearly a sizeable chunk of its audience gave UTD a try while waiting for the second BB instalment.

With consolidated data you're obviously bringing in people watching later in the week, either on PVR or on demand via the TV - ideal for a show such as UTD.

The BB final however, being a live event, added only about +90k in pure timeshift on days 2-8 for the first part, according to Dancc's figures. The second part, being on so late, added around +270k in pure timeshift. UTD added a massive +720k in pure timeshift, a boost of +35% from the overnight figure.


Dancc will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we'll have to wait until Monday for the fully-consolidated figures.

Not sure. The deadline for applications was the end of June, with closed auditions and call-backs to be held in July and early August. That in itself pointed towards blinds in September or early October - although given that the coaching panel for Series 3 is currently undecided, I'd say it's now fairly unlikely that the cameras will roll on the Blinds before October.

BTW for reference BGT usually film their auditions in about March - though obviously, given that they don't bother coaching the acts or having any elimination rounds before the live shows, they can edit the audition shows far closer to the air dates.

Only a clash of 10 minutes if this sticks come tomorrow's confirmed schedule, and The X Factor will enjoy two Strictly-free weekends after that, but it will be interesting as an indicator. You would expect Strictly, as the earlier show (albeit just a preview show), to win the clash period.

Liking that aggressive scheduling from the BBC. The SCD preview is normally shown at 6pm or 6.30pm so this must be the latest time its ever been shown. This is to maximise its ratings, to ensure not a single minute of Stepping Out is given a free run and then to possibly hurt the first 10mins of XFactor which will give Scd/BBC a lot of good PR the following day. Great scheduling once again from bbc1. Stepping Out hasn't got a hope in hell.

Except the first 30 minutes of Stepping Out has a free run.

And a 10 minute overlap is nothing. And will anyone care about the result of it? Nobody cared about the 10 minute overlaps between BGT and The Voice earlier in the year.

Stepping Out does have it very tough though I agree.

US CBS Sweeps Week press release
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...-25-54/199628/

NBC
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...-19-25/199626/

Meanwhile if the BBC were airing that schedule this weekend and next and then ITV launched Stepping Out and X Factor the following week, your post would be very different.

10 minute overlap will mean nothing and SCD will win that anyway, purely because it will be the end of the programme and X Factor will be at the start. Both programmes tend to grow throughout. I imagine many of those watching both will simply Sky+ X Factor and watch it on a sight delay, eventually catching up, even though all X Factor will be showing during that time is the judges in helicopters and saying how many records Nicole Scherzinger has sold.

Other scheduling news:
New BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders begins Thursday 12th September 9pm. One off drama The Wipers Times airs on Wednesday 11th September 9pm. One hour of EastEnders on Wednesday at 8pm. The National Lottery Awards relegated to Wednesday at 10.35 this year. Motorway Cops Monday at 9, Crimewatch on Thursday, Miranda repeat Friday at 8.30.

Also each episode of Bad Education will premiere on iPlayer after the BBC3 screening. Which is quite different to what I thought they were doing - that the whole series would be available for 7 days, then it all taken off when the series begins on BBC3.

I really can't see a whole lot of point in just premiering one episode at a time on iPlayer? I thought the whole point was letting people 'binge' on the whole series if that's what they wanted, rather than wait a week.

You think C5 are bad for rolling CBB two days after BB?

Well here's a fun fact:

In Germany, for the fifth season which ran for 365 days (yes, that is correct) and aired its 4 hour finale on 1 March 2005, the station RTL II decided to roll out the sixth season (intended to last longer, lasted 363 days) that very same night!

Doesn't seem so bad now, does it?

So six episodes of EastEnders that week, then. Or 4x30" and 1x60" whichever way you look at it.

Not against brand-new Pointless Celebrities. With a head-start and not beginning until 18:05, it has a good chance of rating 4m+ and winning its slot, I'd say.

Stepping Out is a complete wild-card really. It has a headstart on Strictly, but I can't help but think that people will treat it as a flimsy warm-up and switch over at 19:00.

C5 looking to improve their performance in the 7pm hour? Hustling America, which I've previewed and looks promising, premieres Monday September 9 at 19:00 before All New Police Interceptors at 20:00.

Celebrity Super Spa, which is now being trailed on air, begins Friday September 13 at 22:00 after part 1 of the Celebrity Big Brother final, with part 2 following at 23:00. So that type of scheduling appears to be here to stay on finale nights.

The strange world of STV, on that reckoning 2 years ago, they could have shown a tribute to Take The High Road, even though it was cancelled in 2002. However, I suppose the way STV is thinking is Taggart is their most durable brand, had a huge following in both England and Scotland for years and an England football match, just like showing a Scotland match on ITV in England, would be of limited interest.