Also it is REALLY REALLY bad, it debuted in Ireland and Northern Ireland on Monday to universal bad reviews. It makes Big Top look highbrow.

And now it's officially official - @bbcpress: Neil Pearson and Nicola Stephenson join the cast of Waterloo Road for series 10 http://t.co/kfbXXx28U1 @BBCOne

Does anyone know what Animal Maternity (C5, 8pm) got last night?

Many thanks!

Apart from the obvious fact that WR should have finished 2 years ago and cant justify its existence on recent ratings - why are so many good actors signing up for this crap? I mean they must have seen the program,the ratings and worst of all the scripts - just why?

They need the money. Why else would anyone take on any job?

Around 1m according to a post earlier.

BBC Programme information for 5th - 11th October: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/pro...earweek=201341

Only one drama listed, Truckers, but I think The Paradise will be added later on with possibly one other (The Escape Artist, promos pics have been released).

I think Truckers could go on Tuesdays, 11 weeks before Christmas Eve and 11 episodes of Truckers and Last Tango. The Paradise on Sunday at 8, and possibly Escape Artist on Monday going against the last 3 episodes of Doc Martin (with Ripper Street airing once both have finished), if they are added. It's either that or Truckers on Monday and Paradise on Tuesday, which is a bit dull and much more likely, I'd prefer my schedule tbh

As for ITV, Breathless should be starting that week as well (the Thursday), with a trailer apparently airing during The Guilty tonight. Does anyone know what ITV could have lined up for after Doc Martin? I think there's three weeks before I'm a Celeb starts.

Oh yes! I must have glanced right over it!

That 4.1m figure you seem to be quoting - that wasn't the average. It started with 4.1m at the start of the half hour, and finished with 2.8m.

The official rating for that first episode was 2.72m (and an official share of 18.8%).

Do we still not have any soap ratings for last night?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3...wednesday.html

Soap ratings only get mentioned on this thread on EE days

And I think that's why they chose him. He's a great storyteller and storylines or lack of have probably been EE's greatest problem.
RE the writers: most of them are more than capable but the material hasn't been there for them. Chris Reason has been writing for the show since 1996 and he wrote the 'snake' episode in June. (less said about that the better) He himself has voiced his concerns on twitter saying there wasn't much he could do and that working on EE was like working in a war zone at the mo.
Daran Little has also returned to the writing team (before DTC took office). He has written big Corrie/Hollyoaks/EE episodes in the past. (as well as The Road to Corrie)


BIB agree.


I hope it gets one last series. The characters are great and last night's was an improvement because it focused more on them. The stories are letting it down, it jumped the shark a bit this series.


Dire. Seldom do I turn off a programme half way through. Jason Byrne isn't good enough to play a lead character and it wasn't very funny either.


**coughs Pat & Cabbage ***


Well ITV caters for the stay at home mums and unemployed. I don't see anything wrong with the Beeb providing an alternative for the elderly. People are capable of turning the channel and lots of people are home from work/school/college by the time Pointless airs.

Not everybody at home is unemployed or stay at home mums,not everyone works 9 till 5.

Corrie 7.73m (37.1%) +1 451k
EM 6.92m (36.2%) +1 329k

So everything even the soaps seems to be down a little last night - I wonder why?

Still dire for Whitechapel - maybe they should start an investigation to find out where their audience has disappeared to?

Too morose/serious coming off the back of Stephen Mulhern's Big Star... perhaps? Might have fared better coming off the back of a soap - might have been better keeping it on a Monday and having Doc Martin on the Wednesday.

It was the battle of the reality shows last night in the US with the premiere of Survivor, the finales of America's Got Talent and Big Brother and a 2 hour X Factor all airing in the US. The results were:

Survivor - 2.6 (9.52m)
America's Got Talent - 2.5 (11.34m)
Big Brother - 2.4 (6.73m)
The X Factor - 2.2 (6.56m)

None of them really came out smelling of roses to be honest. Survivor had an OK premiere but it was down on last year's 3.2 and was its lowest ever Fall premiere. AGT was up very slightly on last year's finale, but last year's finale was considered a poor result so it isn't as good as it seems. It's a reasonable enough result but I'd have expected more around a 2.8. The season overall has averaged a 2.5, down a bit on last year's 2.8, although compared to some of the other declines we've seen it isn't that bad. It's still a strong show for the Summer, but isn't quite what it was. Big Brother did fairly well and was only 0.1 down on last year's finale. I'd have expected a little higher again given it got a 2.3 last week and other episodes in the season have done better but it isn't a bad result. Poor for X Factor yet again. I know it isn't any lower but it's a pretty awful result really given how it normally drops over the season. It was also down a whopping 39% on the same episode last year (which got a 3.6). This will surely be its last series.

Cue the return of Cowell to the UK show! Barlow, Sharon & Louis will all be away after this series so there will be plenty of changes on the judges panel next year.

Louis has already backtracked on that and said he'll come back if Cowell does. Barlow will probably be out as you've said with Cowell in instead. What Sharon says and what she does 6 months down the line are often very different things and given how well her return has gone down I can see them bending over backwards to get her back again. Not sure about Nicole, if she wants to come back I'm sure they'll have her, but if they doesn't I bet Cowell will try and bring Demi Lovato onto the UK show to replace her, with the US one axed.

Interesting - thanks for that info/insight.

What was Simon thinking when he decided to launch XF over there, though?

The UK version is far from finishing with the current ratings - him returning could inject a bit of life into it again however. I think Mr Cowell should only focus on XF UK and BGT. The latter needs fixing for many reasons I mentioned last week.

WDYTYA has slumped a bit as the series has gone on. I think 10 weeks is too long a run for a show that is very dependent on the appeal of the person of the week (this week's Marianne Faithful will have not resonated much with a lot of the audience under 60 I expect - though her story was quite poignant).

As we know it is coming back in 2014 for 10 more episodes and it tends to start off around 5 million then tail off I think there should be reason to suggest running the series in two halves six months apart. I suspect that would garner a stronger average for all 10 episodes than in one long run where you can tire of this kind of commitment after a couple of months.

Excellent episodes of New Tricks (lovely how they used Jack's ghost!) and East Enders (Jean's departure was handled brilliantly and had me crying for all the right reasons instead of crying at the turgid scripts they have churned out of late). Shame they planned both these episodes against football so they achieved nothing like the ratings deserved,

Schedulers possibly need to pay more attention to when key episodes of iconic series are coming up and tweek things to ensure these get the best opportunity. With foresight (a necessity on any schedulers CV I would have thought) you can map out and avoid things like this clash, Though I guess they will both make up the numbers in the final figures and on the BBC these matter more than on a commercial channel.

Its been a difficult year for new comedy, no stand-out hits amongst the new stuff. At least Vicious has a second chance and I think the same should apply to Big School.

Reviving old formats seems the fashion, and so its probably as well that Birds of a Feather is back next year. It stands a better chance than anything else with an already established following who will be more willing to give it a go.

If Birds has a Spring launch I doubt it will be part of any 'comedy block'. Benidorm should air January, and I read that Vicious won't record until next Autumn. I reckon Birds of a Feather might follow BGT on Saturday nights.

I used the word 'lots' and regarding the first part of your post, that seems to be the groups that most of ITV's daytime schedule are aimed at. Although I suspect Midsomer Murders skews old.

Don't quiz shows in general do better among the older demos?

The Great Irish Bake-Off premieres on TV3 tonight at 9pm. (with Anna Nolan) Strange slot IMO, they should've launched it off the back of last night's Corrie.

Ben Frow's attempts at recreating the Celeb Salon (which has been a success on TV3) don't seem to have worked. Lesson learned I guess.

It will be interesting to see how the ratings develop for the XF over the coming weeks/months. I agree I don't think it's finished yet, and if Cowell returns next year yes that could give it a boost.

Money? Worldwide glory? He got one of them whatever happens.