The BBC won't see that it's rubbish and give it 3 years! It's Robin Hood all over again potentially.

And the big thing at MIPCOM was... another talent show with a gimmick. This time it's Rising Star from Israel, now sold to major channels in France, Russia and Germany.


Yes, it's a John De Mol show (hosted by his wife) which is most likely why the BBC had to show it.

It's raining where I am - I don't think that applies to the rest of the country unless you're advising him to get soaked.

I could conjure up a list of how X Factor can turn things around like people have done with EE (and people have dismissed it, saying that it won't go back up), but only if anyone is actually interested.

So in spite of last night's ratings

* SCD went up, as many expected
* Atlantis slightly down, but not out.
* XF down from last week, which I don't think many expected given that it was a live show. It should be much higher tonight.
* Jonathan Ross got off to a good start but that's down to the fact it didn't have to face MOTD. I doubt it'll be that high next week.
* The Chase slightly up on last week but I can't help thinking it's not going to do good business if it stays in that slot for 10 weeks.

Ah yes I heard about Rising Star, the show where singers are faced with a wall as they perform. Viewers in both the audience and at home go online via all sorts of social media to vote for it, if it gets enough votes (70%+), the wall comes down and the singer can finish their performance facing the audience and the judges. The viewers count for 72% of final votes, with one judges vote to count for 7%, making it harder for judges. It sounds good.

Alternatively, it may be better described here: video included. http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/10/...big-thing.html

The show managed a 49% prime time share in Israel!

Ive not heard about this one. Could you please give a description and maybe a youtube link of what Rising Star is? Thanks.

See above, I just explained.

BBC1 protect Strictly by starting it at 6.30pm. The early starts meant lower averages and killed its ratings.

BBC1 and ITV are one show channels on Saturday. Strictly and X Factor get massive ratings while everything around them falter. The reason why The Chase gets 3m opposite Strictly is because Strictly is so popular and the same thing would happen to Off Their Rockers probably. Likewise with Casualty getting 4m against The X Factor.

It's difficult to do well against ratings juggernauts as BBC1 sees on Sunday nights.

Thank you. It got a 45pct share in Israel for its first episode and then its gone up since then to 49pct share ! This may well be the Next Big Thing. I wonder if the BBC will be interested or if they'll consider it too similar to The Voice? Itv and Channel4 will probably be favourites to get it, C4 really need a big hit.

Don't worry about it. To be honest, it sounds very Channel 4. It's innovative and that's why they intend to be. I don't think the BBC would buy it, as they have The Voice like you said. I can't see it airing on C5, though it might have a shot on ITV as well.

In fact, Sky1 it could work very well for too ~ they are my best bet to get it. Anyway, we shall see.

The only problem for whoever gets it is what time of the year should they air it? In Autumn, there's the X Factor. The first few months of the year there's THE Voice. Then in Spring theres Britains got Talent. What time of the year could Rising Star air without there being too many singing/talent shows on air?

What's stopping Rising Star from descending into just another singing competition by the time it ends?

Judges. People voting. Singers getting knocked out, eventual winner. Same old.

The voting system sounds very good, but then The Voice was good for its gimmicks for a while until that particular novelty wore off.

Saying that, I did mention a while ago that with a shortage of big hitters and thus no foreseeable X Factor replacement, the easy option might be another singing show for ITV that could pull in big numbers in its place, but they'd have to trial it somewhere first. And then that means THREE big singing shows on air in the year...

It's a nice twist on the genre, but it's nothing too exciting. I can imagine Sky getting this or someone..

You are right that Merlin did never drop to this level in the overnights (Merlin was the unsung hero of Saturday night ratings, really), but overnights were more important 5 years ago, and quality wise Atlantis is stronger than Merlin was in its firs series, so I can see potential for growth in the overnights.

Summer as a trial if on the main 2.

Whoever gets this, it's not going to be good news for X Factor OR The Voice. Even if it's on Sky1. Even if it rates badly. Because it'll just help saturate the market...

Is Atlantis considerably more expensive than Merlin? Because that might make some difference as to whether its ratings are satisfactory being on a Merlin level or not...

Cracking rating for Strictly. Always seems pretty difficult to deduce particular trends for that show - always modestly up or down, always in about the same ballpark as the previous year. Impressive stuff.

Disappointing for TXF, no doubt about it. Probably a million or slightly more behind where they'd like to be considering that he show has held with its year-to-year comparisons so far. Last year the show was completely devoid of its traditional growth into Christmas - the main aim this year will be to rediscover at least a semblance of that. Very good rating for Jonathan Ross though. The sort of number ITV might have expected when they took him on and some way above his very average contributions over the past couple of years.


Give it time, for goodness sake. It's a 13 part series in a genre that is very used to big rises and falls over the course of a run. Wait for the consolidated figures (still over 6m, I bet) and let the series play out then they'll make a decision further down the line. There's nothing to be gained from a knee-jerk panic. Especially as I'm pretty sure Merlin wasn't immune to uninspiring overnights at points in its early years too - even when time shifting was much lower than today.

And I don't wish to be the forum police here, but you've posted 35 times in the last 3 and a half hours, Samuel. The thread is too big for one person to try and dominate all lines of conversation. I think everyone knows your viewpoints, so coming in with a rebuttal to every point made only serves to stifle discussion a little bit. You'd do yourself a huge favour by showing a little bit of restraint.

Heres a video clip from an episode of Rising STar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT50VM76dkE

It appears they have a normal auditions round before the gimmick round, which looks like the old Pop Idol auditions in a hotel room. The gimmick round has some dodgy graphic on the side which is quite distracting. But overall, there is potential.

Similar budget for location filming, fixed sets and CGI I'd say.

That's tricky. I reckon it could air in any quarter, and depending on the channel, anything is possible.

Merlin's first three episodes' overnight ratings in Sep/Oct 2008 [consolidated in square brackets]:

Ep 1 - 19:35 - 6.6m (30%) [7.15m]
* almost-full clash with X Factor (9.3m/42% inc +1), which started at 19:30
* aired after first live Strictly (8.0m/43%), which started at 18:10

Ep 2 - 18:00 - 4.9m (31%) [5.40m]
* no clash with X Factor
* aired before Strictly (8.7m/41%), which started at 18:45

Ep 3 - 18:00 - 5.8m (29%) [6.30m]
* no clash with X Factor
* aired before Strictly (9.2m/40%), which started at 18:45

These figures are from MediaGuardian - the figures or shares look slightly off, as they indicate a +4m surge in TV viewing in Merlin's slot between weeks 2 and 3.

Atlantis:

Ep 1 - 20:30 - 5.62m (25.3%) [7.36m]
* full clash with X Factor (7.6m/34.6% / 7.84m/35.7%), which started at 20:20
* aired after Strictly (9.11m/43.4%), which started at 19:00

Ep 2 - 20:25 - 5.06m (21.4%) [?? - 6m+]
* full clash with X Factor (8.18m/34.8% / 8.48m/36.1%), which started at 20:00
* aired after Strictly (9.25m/42.1%), which started at 18:20

Ep 3 - 20:30 - 4.66m (19.9%) [??]
* full clash with X Factor (7.82m/33.3% / 8.10m/34.5%), which started at 20:00
* aired after Strictly (9.82m/43.1%), which started at 18:30

It certainly is in the same league as Merlin if you look at the consolidated figures we have so far, which is what the BBC will be interested in (along with their Live+7 stats). Even the latest overnight is creditable. 20% share against X Factor's 33% (exc +1) is good in these more multichannel times; viewing has fragmented a great deal since 2008.


But X Factor has dropped almost -400k, for the first live show compared with Judges' Houses! (Almost unprecendented from what I've read). Not really stable.
Last edited by NeilVW : 13-10-2013 at 13:34

It is engaging, potential most definitely. How did that girl only get 66% votes from viewers? What do Israel expect??

We'll know when TXF is struggling is when The Sun stops featuring it on its front page and when the television critic starts rubbishing it, in the same way they decided to turn on BB

Well it's nice that it's more interactive. But it's also completely derivative. Not feeling it overall. That viewer interaction is probably a key part in the future of some entertainment shows, but I'd rather it wasn't a singing one.

Not distinctive enough to air on BBC/ITV/Four/Five whilst The Voice and X factor stick around. But as a replacement for X Factor, maybe.

I like him, although I stopped watching a few years before he left the BBC, even before the press and Sachs stirred up all that nonsense, but he seems to be having trouble finding a good line up of guests for most of his ITV shows (I know they made a better effort last night), and the set is awful.

His show just doesn't seem as good anymore.

Towards the end Friday Night with Jonathan Ross felt tired. His ITV show has re-energized him. He was suffering from not getting good guests as Carr & Norton got them but last night was a great show. Norton's is the best in my opinion though.