Saturday night. If the results show stays on Sunday, it won't be pushed unduly early. Something like 6.50, 6.55 or 7pm will be the earliest start. Might even stay in its usual slot.

The 7pm start for Saturday 28th September is confirmed.

Mindy's a goner, I imagine Us and Them and Surviving Jack will end up replacing it at midseason.

I think the earliest it's gone is 6.45, I hope they won't keep moving it around this year, it was pushed early too many times last year. The results shows were down 0.61m yoy because of it, despite the performance shows being up 0.2m.

My response was about content of the channels, in response to the claim that Cowell shows run throughout the year, making for a less varied schedule. Which is clearly nonsense.

I'd be slightly surprised if it lasts that long to be honest. They've got Raising Hope sat on Friday night and Enlisted must have episodes ready to go given the decision to push its debut to January was made last minute (presumably in anticipation of it and/or Raising Hope needing to switch to Tuesday night). Fox aren't short of comedy options and probably need to be ruthless with this block this season. They tried being nice and patient last year and the result was them now being stuck with season two of The Mindy Project.

I think this would be a good test to see if XF can hold its own with a SCD overlap.

If it proves to be a bit of a hindrance (I.e XF down to 7m again) then its best they stay away from each other (on the basis that XF isn't finishing later than 10pm).

Looks like BBC Three & ITV3 beat C5 at 9pm last night.

C5- Celebrity Super-Spa - 512k (2.2%) (109k/0.7% +1)
ITV3 - Midsomer Murders - 714k (3% inc +1)
BBC Three - Don't Tell the Bride - 699k (3%)

Does anyone know what the last in the series of Born to Kill? (C5, 8pm) got last night?

Many thanks!

In fairness about half of ITV's year has a Cowell produced show running during it. The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent run for a combined 25 or so weeks this year and I really don't want to work out how many combined hours they produce.

In addition to that there's the point that while shows like Dancing on Ice and Splash aren't actually produced by Cowell they sure as hell aren't that different to his productions. And when you look at Dancing on Ice, Splash, Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor that pretty much does cover the entire year on ITV.

Not to mention that Cookery show earlier this year and of course Red or Black last year. There is an awful lot of Cowell weeks on ITV if you add up all the weeks his shows take up.

Those shows are in ITV's DNA, light entertainment always has been. If it wasn't for the Cowell formats, there would be other big light entertainment in their place. The Cowell productions are not making for a less varied schedule.

25x2 is too hard a sum to do? Is this really what we have come to!

And counting all the things that aren't the same but feel the same to you!

Completely forgot about that. Food Glorious Food ran for 9 (long) weeks so that takes us up to 34 weeks total for 2013.


Those light entertainment wouldn't all be reality talent competitions though would they. And that's the point.

Are you suggesting that 25 weeks isn't almost half of the year? Or are you ridiculously suggesting that Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor only produce 1 hour per week each?


Although it is perfectly fair to point out that these shows are all essentially the same and dramatically undercut the argument that ITV has an incredibly varied schedule. How many weekends this year haven't featured at least one phone vote driven talent contest on ITV?

What's with Simon Cowell & ITV? So what if he produces several shows and ITV screen them - shows that in the main have been very successful & gotten millions of viewers. Some haven't worked as well - Red Or Black, Food Glorious Food - IMO he is no different from a very successful producer that could be on any channel, even the BBC.

As usual, the point of ITV aiming to survive and prosper as a commercial broadcaster in a multi channel age always seems to escape the ITV/Cowell bashers who conveniently default to the position of forgetting that Auntie has the luxury of a licence fee.

That has changed now in the final schedules. There's now a three night special NCIS event airing October 2, October 3 and October 4. This will be a rerun of the exciting climax to Season 8 (episodes 22, 23 and 24).

C5 not giving up on the idea of stripping shows at 9pm despite this week's disaster. But they have at least identified that stuff like Hens Behaving Badly is not going to cut it at 9pm. Indeed looking a lot more drama focussed as we head into October, but shh, they only air trash as per Ratings Thread mantra.

For the record I'm not suggesting they shouldn't make these shows but equally people shouldn't pretend they don't. And people shouldn't pretend that there aren't inherent dangers of being overly reliant on one particular producer and one specific genre.

That's just the way things have evolved, the big BBC light entertainment formats are reality talent as well.

God don't tell the bride is a bit low atm isn't it ?

That's what I thought. Wasn't Don't Tell the Bride getting 1m+ a year or so ago? has it declined due to viewer fatigue? I caught a few episodes of it a few years ago and I can see why viewers would get bored quickly... once you've seen a few episodes, you've seen them all.

Rubbish. It's not about Cowell/ITV bashing at all. It just highlights the problem that ITV would be facing if Cowell was no longer involved in TV production. In the main, ITV's LE formats outside of the Cowell Factory have largely been mediocre successes or total failures. The very fact ITV rely solely on Cowells shows for high ad revenue is what is the issue. Not Cowell or ITV themselves. Admittedly the BBC are even worse when it comes to LE. But it's all very well harking on about the Licence Fee, but since this has been frozen since 2011 and will be until 2016, the BBC will have far more difficulty in creating huge LE shows. Both networks have serious productivity issues to address.

Really don't think that is valid argument. Virtually every programme on TV increases its audience into the Autumn. EastEnders is just following the same trend - except it is behind the programme it should be ahead.

Simon cowell has stifled the creativity at Itv. Because XFactor airs in the plum 8pm slot, all other entertainment shows on Saturdays in the autumn have to be aired either before it up against Strictly or after it when it's too late to get a big audience. Either way, new shows on Saturday nights in the Autumn are just not given a chance of succeeding due to Simon Cowell's show using up all the best slots. In isolation, XFactor and BGT ratings might look big, but Cowell's influence on Itv has progressed the channel's decline because theyre way too reliant on him and dont give other shows a chance to thrive. There are 60million+ people in the population, 9million watch XF/BGT, the same 9million every week for many hours of the year. That means 51m+ are being ignored by the public and due to this, Itv's weekly reach has been declining hugely - only 67pct latest week on BARB where as two years ago it was 77pct. The Cowell overload has let to this major weekly reach decline and impacted on other shows. Cowell is also a liar and a cheat, not someone you'd want to trust. Just ask Andrew Silverman.

Have to say I agree with most of what you have said and I see you have rattled the some of the usual suspects - they really cant take any criticism of ITV can they?

Indeed. Some take constructive criticism so personally they become blinkered.