This won't really make much difference though as all the contestants will be in next Saturdays show which means they can mix things up a bit more.

Don't worry nothing can compare to Xfactors joke acts.

Im not convinced by "Strictly Come Dancing" celebrity line up yet. Alot of the celebrities just seem a bit dull maybe it will take a few weeks to warm up. Im not keen on who they have chosen this year and not sure if it can reach the heights of last years ratings. The show itself it more tighly put together. Sharper intros and the professional dance routines really spectacular. The production looks slick.

Why don't they scrap it altogether and just have TXF as a singing contest? This sub BB thing bores a lot of fans and surely the show, which still does well in the ratings, wouldn't miss it. After all, New Faces and Op Knocks never needed this reality twist and TXF could do well without it.

It would never work.

Alright calm down

I must credit Samuel for his intellectual trolling of theXF thread.

Good to know his loyalty to Auntie isn't limited to one thread

Am right though

It was the least BB it's been for years. A couple of years ago they were sticking them in a hotel and plying them with alcohol and focusing on who stayed up all night drinking and who stayed up all night practicing.

Tonight's show was almost all front of stage, with very brief glimpses of the contestants waiting background and little in terms of interviews both pre and post performance compared to usual.

In all honestly, the X factor and Strictly were not really as good as they used to be tonight. I don't think either show will reach the ratings figures that they had in years past. Both are feeling a little stale at this stage. Time for some new shows

You are becoming the new prime ITVista, well done

Nah, just freshen Strictly up by pairing the celebs with their real life partners, the pros taking a backseat. And change X Factor so the audition rounds the judges have their backs to the acts. Job done.

6.6m/30% for Merlin v 9.3m/42% (inc +1) for The X Factor, on 20 September 2008.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/200...ngs.television

There are cheap versions of Strictly and the X factor but the main shows are just tired now and could get good ratings again, if they are rested for a few years. I am sure there must be some new ideas out there for entertainment shows on a Saturday night. I do enjoy Ant and Dec and maybe BBC could do something similar

They've tried many times and like most of their light entertainment output it's failed dismally. Strictly is a shining light in a very dark room. I guess Chris Evans could come up with something like that at his best but not sure people could stomach his ego anymore (especially when compared to Ant & Dec).

They still get good ratings lol. If they are rested the new shows might not get the good ratings these 2 main shows are getting at the moment

Where are these ideas, though? Both BBC and ITV have thrown a lot of light entertainment at Saturday night in recent years and most of it has flopped. Before The Voice took off (a rip off of Pop Idol/The X Factor) the last show to become a success was Britain's Got Talent (a rip off of New Faces/Opportunity Knocks/The Gong Show) and that was stripped nightly for the first (two?) series.

Both shows are on a slippery slope, especially the X factor. What was on TV before these shows and did they rate as well?

That's was for its first episode wow. Can't see Atlantis getting that.

Decent start for Strictly. Can't help thinking ITV have missed a trick by not having an hour of Factor next Friday at 9pm, then they could have avoided it getting knocked by Strictly on Sat and Sun by running 8.20-10pm on Saturday and 8-9pm on Sunday.

Well obviously Pop Idol was the precursor to X Factor. ITV also had Saturday Night Takeaway, Stars in their Eyes, Millionaire, maybe even Blind Date in the mix too. They'd all rate good but the landscape has changed a lot since. What they got would be amazing by today's standards (well Takeaway still does about the same actually).

The BBC..erm...Dog eat Dog?

Everyone remember ITV's brilliant Premiership show at 7pm of a Saturday night?

I was never really sure the premise of Atlantis was enough to fill the Merlin void, and from the half hour of it I watched tonight, I think I was right.

Much of it was dull, some of it had the most corny and contrived scripting you could imagine, and some of the acting was terribly hammy.

It's an easy pun to say it will sink without trace, but I think that might be right. I could see it getting over 5m tonight, but it's going to get trounced by TXF week in week out - and I agree with Sam that it's going to help TXF stage a resurgence in numbers over the coming Saturdays. I reckon Atlantis is going to settle with overnights of around 4m, and less than that if they have to burn it off in a teatime slot before Strictly on Saturdays.

I doubt Sky's scheduling had any impact on the Channel 4 scheduling.

It makes very little sense to put SHIELD post-watershed where it would likely loose a large chunk of its potential audience out of the gate. You only have to listen to Marvel or anyone involved in the show talking about it to know that it was being pitched as a big pre-watershed drama. Kids and families are a huge part of the success of the Marvel brand. SHIELD was always going to be pre-watershed. It wouldn't have felt right in a 9PM slot which is part of the reason I struggle to identify a better slot for it.


I really liked the idea of pairing it with Homeland on Sunday nights and that's originally where I thought they'd put it. The obvious problem with that scheduling is that 8PM on Sunday puts it head-to-head with The X Factor and there will be overlap between the audiences for the two shows. We saw how strong the younger audience for SHIELD was last night putting it up against X Factor would have been a terrible decision. The decision to fast track the show really only leaves Channel 4 with Friday night.


Its perhaps worth mentioning at this point that the US networks are making greater efforts to try and avoid this kind of stop-start scheduling. ABC for example have announced that some of their biggest shows will air in two (largely) interrupted blocks this season. Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Once Upon A Time and Revenge are all being lined up to air without repeats this year (excluding major holidays). Its entirely possible that ABC intends to air Agents of SHIELD in this way as well. NBC aired Revolution in this pattern last season and will likely do the same with The Blacklist this year.

A large part of the reason the networks are starting to make big pushes into mini-series/limited event series again is because they want short order shows that can air in place of repeats. They're slowly but surely starting to adapt to the reality that they no longer have a strangle hold on the audience and as a result can't expect them to keep turning up for weeks and weeks of repeats. In theory this style of scheduling makes life a lot easier for international broadcasters as well which certainly won't hurt the chances of it sticking.


Corny old rubbish could quite easily have described Merlin.


Somewhat ironic that its a format point clearly 'inspired' by The Voice though.

Jury is still out. Despite being the same story every week for five series, Merlin created a true bond with its audience. Atlantis will have a decent curious audience tonight, the BBC will be hoping they have the patience to stick around for a few episodes and that the early storylines and scene setting have enough to hold them. Its touch and go really.

Like Samuel you are playing down expectations, however i really don't think his is going to flop, it got a Strictly lead in of a potential 10million. Most of Strictly's audience i doubt watch XF and therefore Atlantis will have 5-7million floating audience.