I'd like to repeat this question, where have people got this xmas takeaway idea from? Can't see any source for it online, Applause Store is advertising for next year's shows but nothing about Christmas.

Quite interesting looking at these figures. X-Factor still seems so far ahead of everything else in the key demographic, despite the huge drops in ratings in recent years. I would imagine Eastenders and Doctor Who would be the nearest challengers for the 18-49 top spot.

I've thought about this in the past but I've concluded it may be unwise.

Soap viewers in particular are creatures of habit and don't respond well to change, as recent history tells us. Moving the EastEnders repeat was a bold move that allowed BBC Three more freedom with their scheduling, but it had a disastrous effect on viewing figures for the soap's second viewing window as long term viewing habits were broken. It still to this day hasn't fully recovered and never looks likely to.

Many Neighbours viewers may already be in a routine of watching the show at 5:30pm followed by News at Six. The same applies here in it being dangerous to break this habit as News at Six is one of the day's most important and most watched broadcasts and regular viewers are most unlikely to drop it.

Now let's consider the effect Pointless and The Chase is having on Neighbours at 5:30pm. Those viewers have already changed their routines and it'll be far harder to tempt those viewers back than a timeslot change. It's considerably easier to lose viewers than it is to make gains.

What's really needed is more emphasis on Home & Away's 6pm screening. I would go as far as dropping both the lunchtime showing and the 5* first look. 5*'s share of viewing does not fall off a cliff in the summer without it, despite it being by far the channel's most watched programme. And with the main channel forced to air low-rated news and current affairs content in the slot, it shouldn't be that hard for 5* (or indeed 5USA) to score above average ratings with something else in that slot.

Charlotte Moore was lying when she said BBC1's Christmas schedule is now finally complete...

It should never have been commissioned.

I think this would be a thermo-nuclear BBC1 Christmas Day schedule:

3.10 Film premiere: Toy Story 3 (or whatever)
4.30 News
4.40 Pointless Celebrities at Christmas
5.25 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special
6.30 EastEnders
7.00 Doctor Who
8.00 Call the Midwife
9.00 EastEnders
9.30 Still Open All Hours [if it's any cop!]
10.00 Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special
10.30 Catherine Tate: Nan
11.10 News

It would also be unique in scheduling terms to have one show which disparagingly, yet accurately, describes the next show that follows it.

Meanwhile, ITV could go with:

3.10 Harry Potter, Again
5.50 News (the news is: SCD's on the other side, grandma)
6.00 Emmerdale - animals
6.30 Paul O'Grady's Dogs hit at Christmas)
7.30 More Emmerdale
8.00 Corrie, obviously
9.00 Downton Abbey with impressive Christmas tree
11.05 News - controversially bumped after impressing in the ratings last year...

One of the above schedules required a good 4 minutes of thought. The other 44 seconds...

[oops missed a bracket off - Dogs (hit at Christmas), I meant... ]

I expect a good night for Channel 4 tonight with 999 What's Your Emergency (that rated well last series didn't it?) and Sexbot. I can see 999 at 2.5m and Sexbot over 2m.

Great final figure for the last episode of Dexter.

There's the question of cost, though: I suspect Channel 5's deal gives them a certain number of showings for each episode of Home and Away bundled into the price. This effectively fills half an hour of daytime on the main channel and half an hour in the evening on 5* for no extra charge. Those slots would have to be filled by something else which would cost money.

Downton's been getting an average audience of 160m per episode in China since it launched there recently.

Hopefully we have now put to bed whether it is more popular than By Any Means.

Sex Box was a new low point in British TV, and final proof that C4 has completely run out of ideas. I truly hope it tanks.

I bet that includes +1 doesn't it?!

Actually, do they have more than one channel in China yet?

You may win Christmas, but itv have Chinese New Year locked up.

Over the weekend we learned via Sky's Stuart Murphy on Twitter that The Blacklist became Sky Living's most watched series launch ever on Friday.

What we didn't know then but we do now, was the all important numbers. ITV Media reports an overnight of 572k (2.7%) which will rocket with catchup viewing added.

It looks to be the most savvy acquisition of the new season so far so well done to Stuart and the team.

Either I've been drinking too much, or Newsnight's Emily Maitlis interviewed the Cookie Monster. No, it really did happen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgaLn...ature=youtu.be

because he's coming to Cbeebies...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24426915

Actually, as we're all getting increasingly excited about Christmas schedules (or if we're not, we're talking about Chinese telly...), I found the following in a 20 year old copy of The Mary Whitehouse Experience book I found in a clear out at the weekend:




That's not a bad evening line up actually, though I imagine GeorgeS would want to see that Panorama special at 9pm, for PSB reasons, obviously...

Schoolboy mistake to put the Bond film on BBC1, of course.

Bit OTT. They've been doing this kind of thing for years. At least this one didn't try to be titillating. Was it remotely interesting or worth watching? Of course not. But then neither was The Fried Chicken Shop last week. C4 is carving out a niche for itself on Monday nights with simple, undemanding and ultimately pointless programmes.

I'm more concerned that by having all these sex themed shows airing at the same time they are doing their glossy new import Masters of Sex more harm than good as it doesn't stand out in the schedule in the way that it should. And that can't be good for ratings.

That's an excellent commission for Cbeebies.


Should we maybe wait to see how good (or not) Birds of a Feather is before making the judgment? It was never exactly brilliant to begin with and it didn't age well first time around.

The Open All Hours special is a weird one though. It feels a bit like a pilot for a new series (which is basically what the BBC would have wanted from Birds of a Feather). Be interesting to see who they get to play opposite David Jason in the younger role.

Hollyoaks to kill off 7 characters in the next two weeks (2 on Hollyoaks Later, 5 on the main soap)...

http://hollyoaksofficial.tumblr.com/

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s1...torylines.html

I wonder if the BBC will make one of their programs 75mins in length again to throw ITV into disarray. I don't think Call the Midwife will go out again on Christmas Day though. It rated poorly for some of the slot and only managed respectable numbers last year due to being boosted up in the final 15mins against ITV news. Also, been mentioned before but ITV have the rights to Toy Story 3.

I'd like another one of those Wallace and Gromit's to be commissioned, that would definitely pull in big ratings and have great repeat value too.

The bigger question is how the devil did the embittered and socially inept loser Granville, constantly under his uncle's thumb, ever manage to sire a child?

Surely not with Barbara Flynn's sexy milkwoman?

Or maybe it was Mrs F-f-f-f-f-f-f-featherstone's?

It seems like a pointless show, but it may rate quite high because it was over some newspapers.

Too late in the year to commission a new Wallace & Gromit for Christmas 2013 unfortunately (unless they've done it incredibly quietly) although we're surely overdue one. I've said it before but I'd quite like the BBC (or anyone really) to take a look at adapting some of Roald Dahl's work for a big Christmas special or two. And presumably given the big names now attached Richard Curtis' Esio Trot that's being lined up for Christmas 2014 so we might finally get some more of those if it works.

I suspect if anything gets an extended running time on BBC1 this year though it'll be Doctor Who. Coming off the Anniversary and with the regeneration it should be in for a big Christmas rating this year. I'd also agree that Call the Midwife would probably be better served as a star attraction on Christmas Eve or maybe Boxing Day. That would give them a big ratings banker to build another night around. In an ideal world if the BBC had the comedy options on the bench I'd probably suggest Call the Midwife as the centrepiece of Christmas Eve, Doctor Who as the big Christmas Day attraction and then Mrs Brown's Boys on Boxing Day. That would give them three big and fairly diverse nights.

Was it really that bad? I mean obviously it was bad and just someone somewhere sticking the word sex into a format idea to sell it but a new low point in British TV bad? We've sunk pretty far before...

To be fair, we knew he had had sex in the original series because in one episode he feared he had fathered a child.

I can't believe I'm sitting up at 1.30 in the morning discussing a make believe character's sex life.

I wonder if Georges Marvellous Medicine The BFG could be done as live action specials, most of the more famous Dahl books have already been done, the BFG was done as an animated TV film years ago by ITV but it would be ripe for live action. The Twits is another one although I think it might be in development as a film.

I'm surprised the BBC don't acquire more specials or shorts from Disney and Dreamworks like Toy Story of Terror which Sky picked up or Prep and Landing, they could easily fill in the running time with some of the Disney and Pixar shorts.