4.66m for Atlantis is fine, I'm getting into it by the looks of peoples comments they are as well so I don't think it will fall much more. It's bang on what Merlin was in the 1st series.

Anyway I'm actually going to do something serious now. Casualty seems to get stick on here for being in decline and boring so I thought I'd compare it's monthly average ratings in the officials.


2013
Jan-5.99
Feb-6.09
Mar-5.67
Apr-5.73
May-5.54
Jun-4.93
Jul-5.06
Aug-5.18
Sep-4.98

Overall-5.46m

2012
Jan-6.66
Feb-6.37
Mar-5.88
Apr-5.65
May-4.81
Jun-5.62-Euro 2012
Jul-5.15
Aug-5.18-Olympics 2012
Sep-5.07

Overall-5.60m

So it's down about 0.14m on last year. Could be worse.

I might continue this each month to see how it goes because I think we forget about this old war horse and it put's in good numbers week in week out.

That's my serious contribution to this thread today!

Ken

Why?

Coronation Street was on Sunday nights for over a decade before ITV decided, in their wisdom, to move it and I still think that was a mistake.

Whilst I understood the idea behind why they did it, in reality the Sunday night schedule has been left feeling barren in the months between Dancing on Ice finishing and The X Factor starting, and with the former on its way out it's going to look even worse. And as easy as it is to say that ITV just need to find more 'hits' we know that they struggle in that department. At least Corrie would help anchor the Sunday night schedule and give ITV a bit more leverage against BBC1's hugely reliable line-up.

More viewers on Sunday and not facing Strictly means The X Factor will do well.

I hated it on Sundays then too along with Emmerdale. I like the weekend free from soap. I want sitcoms, drama and entertainment. ITV didn't need soap on the weekend before as their development slate delivered other hits. Every extra episode of a soap means failure for other departments to come up with good shows.

It may well be above the 9m mark again, but Corrie facing Strictly may not do that well - unless it's been promoted in some way.

It has been promoted this week but I still expect Strictly to beat it tonight.

The X Factor clashed with Strictly for the same amount of time last week yet recorded a better figure. There is no way the first live show should see a dip compared to the Judges House episode. I think the producers made a mistake not putting Joseph Whelan and Melanie McCabe through as the viewers could relate to them and their back story.

I guess it says a lot for The X Factor's peak that it has lost so many viewers in such a short space of time yet is still comfortably ahead of any other show on the night (other than Strictly). It's lost 4.4m viewers between the first live show in 2010 and now which is staggering; albeit the 2010 live show came off the perfect storm of controversy. They don't need any of those viewers back as long as they can retain what they have but can they? Now, I'm not so sure. If it loses any viewers next week it will have to be a minimal decline at worst.

Strictly Come Dancing put in another strong performance but Atlantis suffered another hit; it looks like The Adjustment Bureau and A Fistful of Dollars might have taken a few viewers away from The X Factor as both shows were up (by 0.3m each) on last weeks fare at 9pm.

Britney at the time had been plastered over the media and it was effectively a "come back". But yes, she would still garner interest. Cher is a good act to have paired with Ellie Goulding. It's certainly better than some Sundays in recent years. They really ought to get Britney on there this year to do "Work". They need to get Lady Gaga this year again too, Adele would be amazing if she had new material out

Atlantis with 4.66m?

I'll be honest and say the trailer didn't inspire me: characters in a bullring?

Apparently next week's story is about a baby.

Hardly enticing sfx eh?

When was the last time Coronation Street managed 8m for a Sunday episode? The recent ones have been at about 6-7m.

Corrie starts 20 minutes before Strictly but Strictly is a results show. Both will be down. I think next Sunday will be interesting to see what happens with The Paradise.

So from GMTV to GMUK?

Well done, ITV.


I've seen trailers for the Sunday episode which is unusual; they usually don't bother with it but I suppose it is the start of a big week for both.

There was no episode on Friday and the continuity announcer immediately promoted an hour long explosive episode on Sunday, so yes they did promote it.

And there's also been a trailer airing for a few days now which aired twice during XF specifically saying Sunday.

People will expect a misplaced episode due to the football Friday. I expect Corrie to rate between 8 and 9 million tonight. Probably 8.0m average (+1: 450,000). The last hour-long Sunday episode in September got 7.42m (+1: 427,000).

Would like it higher though as it's a big story. And as I've repeatedly said if Corrie were to permanently return to Sundays ITV would have a guaranteed 7-9 million tuning in across the whole year leading into the 8pm junction.

Corrie has a big storyline this week like Emmerdale. The schedule is:

Sunday (Today)
7.00 Coronation Street (hour-long)

Monday/Friday
7.00 Emmerdale
7.30 Coronation Street
8.30 Coronation Street

Tuesday/Thursday
7.00 Emmerdale

Wednesday
7.00 Emmerdale (hour-long)
8.00 Coronation Street (hour-long)
* Expect high, high figures on this night

Thursday
8.00 Emmerdale

These factors, among others, make last night's figure look worse. Traditionally, the second week sees a decline.

I don't think the choice of acts turned people off - they certainly didn't in 2010 and 'Gamu-gate' was a lot larger than the controversy with Melanie/Paul being voted off. So maybe the flash vote, or the choice of songs turned viewers off?

That said, XF needs a bit of momentum, which should bring the Saturday shows back to 2008 levels.

When ITV had good shows following Corrie it was great. Downton and X Factor get bigger ratings on Sunday compared to the soaps. One soap episode doesn't help a night unless the shows following it are strong too.

X Factor is fine on Sundays anyway. If that changes when The Paradise starts that's when the panic button will be hit.

To be honest I'm not sure getting big performers on will boost the results show by that much, because they do tend to attract big names most weeks now. Before it was a bit of a rarity to have a big name on.

If they want to see a ratings boost from a guest performer then they need to do a bit of stunt casting and get Miley Cyrus on. Stunt casting has worked in the past with Britney Spears and Whitney Houston. It's the panto aspect and car crash element of X Factor that people used to love, but that has been lacking for years.


When TVAM launched the first programe aired was called Daybreak. It flopped and was replaced with Good Morning Britain. It's happening allover again.

I also fail to see how changing the presenters, the content and the set before changing the name (and then doing that afterwards) will help things. It would be better just to axe Daybreak and start fresh with Good Morning UK. With the speed that the new boss is working at I'd expect this on air in January. And there may not be anything in it but Helen Fospero recently tweeted she was going for a meeting with ITV. Shes been in the running numerous times to take the lead job.

The baby is of significance to Greek mythology.

But it's a two way thing; I think people won't come in the first place if the schedule looks like a graveyard. Some common consistency with Corrie at 7.30pm would provide that stability the BBC has with Countryfile.

It's half an hour. It would definitely help ITV. And it would give them the confidence to launch more 8pm formats thanks to the "trusted" lead-in.

And because it isn't normally on Sunday now, so there's added need for promotion.

I hated soap on a weekend too. I understood it's point but it always felt too easy and utterly lazy. In the case of Emmerdale it meant it was on 6 days a week which was just horrible - at least the double Thursday episode feels like the one "session", the same as Corrie's double bills. I hope ITV never go back to it and manage to find other things to prop up the schedule.

Still don't understand why they don't get some kind of gentle early evening drama to go there against Countryfile and the like. It would probably skew old but if done right could rate well and support the evening.

Just confirmed on points of View:

A Question of Sport will start in its new regular slot at 8.30pm Monday October 21st.

What happens on Friday?

I suppose it has been promoted. 8m would be a nice figure leading into X Factor - better than the 6m a non-promoted Corrie would get. The higher the audience, the higher portion of its audience would stick around for XF.


When you say "high, high", could we be looking at at least 10m for Corrie? If it does get that, it could be great for 'The One & Only Cilla' which follows on from that.

Monday/Friday are same as indicated in the post.

Deleted.

I think Corrie could well crack 10 million on Wednesday, yes, including +1 anyhow.

Tonight's hour-long and tomorrow's double appear to lead to a huge cliffhanger into the Wednesday hour-long which is the episode where shit hits the fan big time in a storyline that's been running for well over a year. Plus there's the return of Liz McDonald and Roy and Hayley's Blackpool trip.

So yeah, think it'll be mid-9s without +1 and crack the 10m mark including +1.