I don't know. The Doctor Who special should get a big audience this year given that its a regeneration episode and presumably the BBC will be using that to anchor the night again this year so the question is can whatever combination of soaps ITV churn out be enough to get people to switch over.


Or they could go for an hour on Christmas Day.

Presumably though the tentative plan is to pair it with the previously announced Citizen Khan Christmas special. Although that could change depending on how Khan does for its second series in a few weeks.


That's a incredibly unfair to DreamWorks Animation and frankly a little generous to Disney/Pixar.

I'll point out that a factor people are overlooking in regard to this DreamWorks Animation deal is that since 2010 and the release of Toy Story 3 Pixar have released three films (none of which were especially good and one of which was utterly terrible) while DreamWorks have released 7 (at least five of which were quite good). If you're a broadcaster that has limited funds to play with for films which of those companies are you going to make a deal with? The DreamWorks deal makes much more sense for the BBC than a Pixar one does especially since Pixar's quality has taken a nose dive since Toy Story 3. Seriously the magic of Toy Story 3 was followed up with the utterly terrible Cars 2 and then the so-so mediocrity of both Brave and Monsters University. In that same time period DreamWorks has released:

Megamind (very underrated)
Kung-Fu Panda 2 (very good)
Puss in Boots (surprisingly good)
Madagascar 3 (a lot of fun)
Rise of the Guardians (a fantastic film)
The Croods (so-so)
Turbo (not good)

Toy Story 3 is really the only first run Pixar offering that makes a Pixar deal palatable at this point. We'll see if any of their future offerings change that although since those have been delayed its entirely possible this current ITV will have expired by then anyway.

Also presumably this DreamWorks Animation deal also gives the BBC access to DreamWorks excellent collection of shorts? That gives them some great seasonal specials year round and so solid family filler year round as well.


Maybe don't expect to see Mars Needs Moms on BBC1 given that its unimaginably terrible and slightly unsettling. Or at least hope we don't see it on BBC1.

We're messing up the Father Figure ratings by showing it at 11.35pm next week.

Strictly two-stepped all over Stepping Out and edged out The X Factor in the overnights.....as for the finals!

Barbara Windsor slating EastEnders (isn't everybody?), Emmerdale pusing it into 3rd place, the collapse of Whitechapel. There's loads going on.

So do we know for sure if toy story 3 is gonna be itv then, my heart dropped when I first read it on here months ago, but I still have some hope it'll be on bbc one,absolutely no way the second series of citizen khan will rate well enough for an Xmas day slot, I personally would have aired series 2 at 10.35, then give it a Xmas eve slot if rates well. I think this series will not rate so well and end up on a Friday before Xmas slot. It's a shame about there being no news this year, if bbc 1 had toy story it could push their earlier shows later, leaving less of a massive royle family sized gap!

ITV showed Toy Story and 2 on ITV2 earlier this year which rated around 1.4million single showing. Toy Story is the best chance for ITV to dominate the early evening on Xmas Day, so i imagine ITV will bend over backwards to keep old of the rights to Toy Story 3

Really and truly though if they do have the rights it would make more sense to show it in the run up than it does on the day itself.

Higher viewing figures + more ad revenue > ratings vanity ("ooh look, we actually competed for once on the big day!")

Dreamworks has gotten better especially with films like Rise of the Guardians which unperformed due to awful marketing but they've had to up their game since CG is no longer a novelty and rival studios are making hit films for less than what Dreamworks and Disney/Pixar spend on films, Despiscable Me 2 will be the highest grossing animated film and its from Universal and it cost less than $100m.

Disney has been producing great films like Wreck it Ralph and has the upcoming Frozen coming in December which will no doubt be a hit, it'll be interesting how Big Hero 6 does since its a collaboration with Marvel.

If itv show Toy story as the late afternoon film then I can them winning Christmas day, as people tend to stick to one channel on Christmas day.

The beeb must be worried, EastEnders under performing and no big comedy to go with Mrs Brown

Did they have the production company reedit it an episode shorter, or did they just skip an episode and leave it in the can?

The celebrities chosen for WDYTYA seemed to have affected ratings. It was doing better last year as was ITV in the Wednesday 9pm slot with Mrs Biggs. BBC1 are treading water with WDYTYA and perhaps an earlier time as you say, or different day would help.

Saturday night could be better next year in terms of L.E. than the turgid, stuff that has been given to us this year on BBC1. A succession of underperforming embarrassments.

Let's Dance really does need to go and I wouldn't bring Britain's Dullest back at anytime of year.

Is there any reason they need to have an entertainment format linked to Comic Relief/Sports Relief? Its not as if people aren't going to know they're happening without Let's Dance on the air and they could link the phone vote on The Voice to Comic Relief/Sports Relief this year (isn't that what they do with Strictly?).

The BBC also did it with the Indiana Jones movies and it worked for them so they do know - why they dont do more films on Saturday evenings or even on Sundays at 9pm seems a bit mystifying. They could at least try it when the cupboard is bare - as it often seems to be these days.

Cabbage and Pat dropped down to 2.2million, one of the biggest scripted flops of the year, alongside Vicious.

And Big School then clearly given that it and Vicious are getting about the same audience.

Dreadful for Pat & Cabbage. I haven't watched it, is it that bad?

Also it was 2.4m with +1. Still awful and worse than the cheap filler shows were doing.

Cabbage and Pat has been getting off lightly with all the Father Figure hate. It's atrocious! Beaten by The Wonder Of Dogs on BBC2 with 2.7m.

Seriously BBC? Copying Paul O'Grady's For The Love Of Dogs? Come on now!

Educating Yorkshire 3.2m.

Vicious had a Coro St. lead in, aired on a Monday night and was much more hyped than Big School. It also averaged less than Big School with most its episodes rating below 2.9million.

Big School had a fair bit of hype and an all star cast! And Vicious' final 4 episodes all rated between 2.6-2.9m. Big School has settled at 2.9m. That qualifies as "about the same."

Not that it matters as I think Big School should get a second series like Vicious is. Sitcoms are so hard to launch these days that I think BBC1 and ITV have to show a bit of faith sometimes and stick with things. Pat & Cabbage has got to go though!

Whats the point of sticking with Vicious and Big School. Both series lost a significant chunk of their audiences. Giving shows like this a second chance never works these days in terms of ratings going up. The ratings mostly ever go up for sitcoms which rated low the first series but were steady throughout or even showed signs of increasing. Neither Vicious nor Big school have shown any signs of increasing. The next series of Vicious and big school will probably start with about 3-3.5million due to the way the first series tailed off.

Do ITV have the Copyright to showing dogs on TV because I didn't realise heh

'EastEnders' is top Thursday soap with Sam health shock http://dspy.me/18GKxWd

This was a nice surprise considering ED had the climax to its killer storyline. Well done EE.

top 25 for yesterday, ITV does include HD

plus

Nice to see WR back over 3million.

I love the BBC but also love television. We have to be fair. We can't criticise ITV for doing a substandard copy of Strictly with Stepping Out, then turn a blind eye when the BBC do something inspired by another channel's success. Maybe it's the natural extension of The Secret Life Of The Cat, but it feels like a it was given the go ahead very quickly due to ITV's success.

But the 2 shows aren't remotely similar.