There was.Christmas Day 2009, which was a Friday that had this schedule:

6.00pm Emmerdale
7.00pm Coronation Street
8.00 All Star Mr and Mrs Christmas Special
9.00 Poirot: Appointment with Death

But it didn't fare at all well in the overall ratings. I seem to recall a total of just over 5 million in the finals for Poirot. Mind you, it was up against this on BBC1:

5.30pm The Gruffalo
6.00 Doctor Who: End of Time Part one
7.00 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special
8.00 EastEnders
9.00 The Royle Family: The Golden Egg Cup
10.00 Gavin and Stacey
10.30 Catherine Tate: Nan's Christmas Carol

It isn't rocket science to work out which schedule is the strongest.

Incidentally, the BBC have asked Catherine Tate if she would consider reprising some of her characters for a Christmas Night special. Not sure if she agreed though.

Only at the moment we need to see if it can carry on after this story has finished. Although the fact that the climax to the killer being revealed was beaten by a regular episode of EE is not good.

But ITV can't put all their new dramas on Sunday and Monday can they as there just isn't enough space for everything to go on just those two days, so some programmes will have to go on other days. I think Breathless will start reasonably well (4.5m +) but it will depend on how good it is whether it holds onto that audience or not.

What is BBC1 airing on that day?

Not too sure. Truckers is starting that week with Stephen Tompkinson, though I think that will go on Tuesdays at 9pm once New Tricks has finished (there's only two episodes left of NT)

Just saw that Christmas Day 2009 schedule... how festive to see a Poirot Appointment with Death on at 9pm

Edit: Just seen that The Wrong Mans is airing on BBC2 on Tuesdays at 9pm, so maybe BBC1 will shift Truckers to 9pm Thursday to directly face Breathless.

Bloody Hell !!!! Get the flag out fast!!

So a pretty consistent week for EE. The "Old Girl" is not totally done for.

Ken

Miranda has got a live tour in 2014 so I imagine Series 4 or a special is on hold. I think they probably regret not ordering a new Royle Family even though the last special was pants. I think if James Corden and Ruth Jones are up for it, a Gavin and Stacey Christmas special would be good for 2014 or reviving something like Men Behaving Badly.

The illiterate and the innumerate are teaming up to defend Eastenders. It must be in more trouble than I thought!

The BBC were relying on a Birds of a Feather Christmas special this year. But their offer of a Xmas special was improved upon by ITV! So the beeb were left with a Christmas Box with nowt in it!

As I've said in the soap forum, Eastenders will turn the corner. But those who suggest everything will be rosy once a new EP comes are living in denial. There is no consistency with the quality of episodes for one, that'll probably take months to get right. So what you'll get is fluctuating ratings; I don't think viewers are prepared to watch EE religiously anymore, just bits and pieces now. I gave up watching full time this summer, only see the occasional episode once or twice a fortnight.

The decline in the last 12-24 months has shades of Brookside. And just because it has been going on for 28 years doesn't mean it has to continue.

Are you seriously arguing that in October and with the aid of promotion during the soaps, The X Factor and two of television's biggest dramas ITV can't successfully launch a big new drama? Keep in mind that according to your own figures earlier this year in May and June respectively ITV managed to launch Murder on the Home Front and Love & Marriage with 4.5 million. If ITV can't get Breathless to debut above 5 million in October then they should probably just give up.

As for airing it on a Sunday when do you advise they do that? Downton has that slot booked for the next 8 weeks taking us through to November 8 when presumably I'm A Celebrity will take the slot until the beginning of December. Are you suggesting they launch Breathless in December? Only they can't really do that since they won't be able to get it off the air in time for the return of Mr Selfridge which I assume will be in the New Year. None of that deals with the fact that BBC1 will presumably be airing drama on Sunday nights for the foreseeable future including presumably the third series of Sherlock. Do you honestly think ITV should risk Breathless against that? Monday night is perhaps more viable after Doc Martin ends although presumably BBC1 will want drama in that slot as well. And as others have said ITV can't just air every show Monday and Sunday night at 9PM. There are another five days to fill.

With no big comedy offering I'm sure Mrs Brown will air on Christmas day. Suspect though they were planning to air it on Boxing day like previous years

Or they could focus on developing new comedy rather than endlessly reviving old ones for not very good Christmas specials.


Yes how terrible for the BBC that the only things they have to offer on Christmas Day this year are a Christmas special of the biggest comedy show on British television and a regeneration on Doctor Who. How will they survive...

Itv should've launched Breathless in the Sunday slot after XFactor on 1st September. Shown 3 episodes on Sunday [1, 8 and 15 september] and 3 episodes on Monday [2, 9 and 16 sep]. Then have Doc Martin launching Monday 23 Sep and airing for the 8 weeks until Iac returns.

Vera would've had to be shown at another time of the year on Sunday, there were slots available a few months back. Vera barely benefitted from the xf lead in anyway because its finishing too late at 11pm. Its overnights this series are about the same as last series which aired in the better 8-10pm slot for 2 hour dramas.

With that kind of schedule, Breathless wouldve got the best slots possible with lead ins of 8m on sun/mon, Doc Martin would've retained its Monday 9pm slot and Vera would've aired in a similar slot to its previous series and got about the same kind of ratings it got the last few weeks.

Yes AlexIR, I honestly do believe Breathless wont get those 5million+ for its launch, that youre expecting. As I identifiied in my last post with the necessary stats, plenty of dramas have been trailed during XF and Downton, but without that all important Coro St lead in, they struggled. Yes, they pretty much should give up showing dramas on Thursdays, it hasnt worked for any drama on their channel for the best part of the last decade. Im not the sort of person to say "I told you so" but you will see in a few weeks when Breathless is getting underwhelming ratings.

You are of course correct in pointing out that the close proximity of the ratings between the two now is a new situation - despite the fact that its because EE has dropped rather than EM actually catching up.

Surely Mrs Brown is their big comedy offering and for me better than the usual revivals - even though I think Birds might be quite good.

I fully expect Truckers to launch on Thursday October 10th. I also expect The Paradise will return on Tuesday 8th. It performed well on a Tuesday 9pm slot last year and I see no reason why it shouldn't again. With Panorama moving to 10.35pm, I foresee George Gently returning on October 7th or indeed Quirke debuting at 8.30pm - 10.00pm.

Is that scheduling a joke? You think launching the show in October on a Thursday night is going to be a disaster but see no problem with switching the show to a completely different night half way through its run?


Your post demonstrated that in May and June they launched two new dramas at 4.5 million without the aid of a Coronation Street lead-in and without the aid of promotion during The X Factor and two of the biggest dramas on television. There's absolutely no reason that ITV can't launch Breathless above 5 million on a Thursday night in October. They're going to have huge promotional opportunities not only with The X Factor, Downton and Doc Martin but also the soaps which seem to be doing pretty well at the moment. If that kind of promotional leverage can't get them an additional half a million viewers on where Murder on the Home Front and Love & Marriage launched in the first half of the year then they shouldn't be giving up on launching drama on Thursday nights they should be giving up on launching new drama full stop.

Ouch for Emmerdale. Wasn't that the climax of the serial killer storyline which has been building up since the live episode last year?

Alex, he was suggesting it aired on Sundays and Mondays on consecutive evenings. He just over complicated his wording!

Has anyone got the ratings for Bates Motel on Universal?

That scheduling I said wouldnt have switched Breathless to a different night half way through its run. Did you read the dates I posted properly?? Airing 2 episodes per week is something which many dramas have done for years, it is quite simple effective scheduling. I know for a fact, that for an Itv or BBC1 program, airing on Sunday & Monday is in 90pct of cases better than that Thursday night slot.


Murders on the Home Front is a perfect Itv heartland aiming drama. A crime drama based in the period setting, you couldnt get a drama more focussed towards drawing in the Itv main stream audience. And yet that just about got 4.5million, on a Monday night it probably wouldve breached 6million based on how these kind of crime dramas do. Breathless doesnt have the same instant appeal to the heart land Itv audience because although it is in a period setting, it's no a whodunnit crime drama sort. So just because Moth got 4.5million in May [with plenty of promotion during BGT and the soaps], theres no guarantee that a drama from a different genre can get 5million+ on a Thursday night. Murder on the Homefront, by the way, had a 4.5m lead in from paul ogradys Dogs, not 2.5m from one of the biggest sitcom flops of the year. Love and Marriage launched with 4.5million with a lead in from mr and mrs' 4.5m and that had a heavy number of promos during BGT's live week the previous week. That done quite well for its first episode but it is just one example you focussed on where as theres about 6 other dramas which havent done well in that slot over the last 18 months. Breathless may just about scrape 5m [inc +1] for its launch but it's a write off in that Thursday slot and will under-deliver compared to the potential it could've had. Truckers will be a write off for BBC1 too if that's shown on Thursdays.

Indeed and I think it unlikely that Birds of feather would have even got a Christmas Day slot anyway given that no one at the BBC was that keen on it in the first place.

With Big School sadly tanking, perhaps she might be tempted?

Would match up nicely with EE and Mrs Brown for a good old mucky post watershed Christmas Night, after we've all downed one too many Bailey's.

So much better than nodding off to Downtime Abbey on the other side after one too many Bailey's....

Although it might upset the puritans. Talking of whom...


The innumerate? So speaks a double-counter, lining up to talk it down...

Catherine Tate is recording a special episode of her 'Nan' character. This will be shown over Christmas.