Confirmed schedules for Saturday 28th:

BBC One
17:30 - I Love My Country
18:15 - Pointless Celebrities
19:00 - Strictly Come Dancing
20:25 - Atlantis

ITV
18:20 - You've Been Framed and Famous!
19:20 - Stepping Out
20:20 - The X Factor
21:50 - Through the Keyhole

Looks like ITV blinked and pushed X Factor back. The week after will be interesting, will/can Strictly stay at 7 when the show is longer or start at 6.30 and end at the same time as the 28th? Stepping Out's rating won't be pretty, starting during Strictly, could be lower than the last clash.

Invalid comparison, considering ITV HD is on the up, but obviously we don't expect you to acknowledge that.

At least X Factor will be finished by 10pm. Through the Keyhole seems a bit late though.

I think its better for both shows - nothing to do with ITV conceding defeat. Really, it didn't do so well the last time the two of them clashed.

Interesting to see ILMC swapped around with Pointless Celebrities - is that the last in the series?

Another pilot! They must be in need of new LE formats!

Ken

Itv HD is barely up though. 9.3pct in 2012 to 10.7pct in 2013. It nowhere near compensates for the fall in Itv SD of 76pct to 67pct, and also take into account that many viewers of the Itv Hd reach would watch some of SD anyway so arent completely different viewers. Theres still been a substantial fall overall in just 48months.

That is great news for the BBC that Itv has already conceded defeat in the scheduling wars for XFactor and moved it back to 8.20pm. That means SCD will peak very highly between 8-8.20pm and automatically win the PR war with the higher peak. XF will peak around 9pm and then tail off after that when viewers start going out or it becomes a bit too late for older/younger viewers. SCD has the prime slot. I was slightly concerned Itv would move XFactor earlier, which would've harmed SCD's figures slightly y-o-y. But theyve gone the other way and given SCD a free slot to get some big audiences.

Obviously you don't think the Rugby World Cup had an effect on the last three days of that week which may have bought non ITV viewers to the channel...

Stepping Out has one less pair of contestants due to "injury" so there was room for manouvre for ITV. What it does confirm is that ITV are indeed setting out to please Simon Cowell and to prevent his toys from being thrown from the pram!

Airing 10 minutes of the lottery and the news barely counts as airing an additional programme on a Saturday night. The BBC can air more because they don't show adverts, so the same schedule on ITV wouldn't fit in. SCD would be on until 8.45pm, Atlantis until 9.50pm etc. And if the news counts as a programme, then ITV air 4, and on the 28th (when SCD returns) they begin a film before 11pm, so by technicality they are airing 5.

There's also the argument that are the 6-8m people watching the rest of BBCs output also the same people as the 9m watching SCD? The chances are the majority probably will be, just as the 5m who watch Through the Keyhole are probably in the 9m who watched X Factor. The BBC have a much wider reach because there are certain parts of the audience that it isn't worth ITV chasing (over 65s for example, which BBC1 is very popular amongst).

X Factor uses up the bulk of the autumn hours because its the most successful show, and particularly amongst ABC1 and 16-34 audiences, which ITV poorly targets for the rest of the week and the rest of the year. They do air other things around it and if Through the Keyhole or Stepping Out beat X Factor then I'm sure they would be in the 8pm slot next year. It makes absolutely no business sense to shunt X Factor to 6pm so they can experiment more with the 8pm slot.

Yes it is. So Strictly will probably move earlier the week after, but ending around about the same time, and Pointless will air were ILMC is. Unless they have something else that can go there.

This trend isnt just for that week. It is something similar for almost every week this year so far, even when Rugby world cup wasnt on.

The BBC pilot hosted by Davina McCall at Media City is In-Sync and see couples competing for prizes

Poor form from ITV to shunt Through the Keyhole into a late night slot. Production team will rightly be furious. Bondafide hit in its own right and didn't deserve this. But protecting the show with its best years behind it comes first apparently.

It does seem to have found its audience - a solid 4m. Will they stick with it if it starts just before 10pm? We'll see.

Not good for ITV. Bang goes a little bit of extra income which could go on new programming which people are seemingly crying out for. Swings and roundabouts...

Decent night for BBC One and ITV last night. Great British Bake Off did very well once again. Celebrity Super Spa is dead.

SCD will likely air earlier on the 5th and 12th October because there will be The National Lottery: 49 to 1. This is a two part series that "celebrates" the relaunch of the £2 Lotto game where 49 members of the public will represent a number between 1 and 49. Their photos will be linked to a lotto ball and when their face is revealed (i.e their number is drawn), they win a cash prize sum. There is also a guaranteed jackpot of £10,000,000 on those two nights and there will be 1000 raffle winners of a guaranteed £10,000. This show is 25 minutes long.

I don't think a 'bonafide hit' is just over 4m when it has a lead in of around 8.5m. Don't get me wrong, it's doing reasonably well but it's nothing compared to protecting The X Factor, which has seemingly stabilised this series around 8m-9m.

It's only 50 minutes later

Finishing at 22:50 which is rather late for this kind of show.

Which is ONLY 50 minutes after it has been finishing.

wow looks like a monster schedule for the bbc on saturday- looking forward to SCD and atlantis has been getting really good reviews- wonder how ITV will fare??????? Plus isn't that week the bootcamp stages....

ITV are going to have to be a bit bolder than that come 5th October. XF should be set at 8pm really.

SCD is surely going to have a marathon show on 5th Oct to fit all the couples in, so will have to start earlier. If there really is a 25 minute lottery show it might be something like this :

18:30 Strictly Come Dancing
20:15 Atlantis
21:05 The National Lottery
21:30 Casualty
22:20 BBC News

At that time of night there is a big difference between 10pm and 10.50pm.

ITV's move is understandable, though. BBC One has become competitive with Strictly and The X Factor isn't really in the position to hold up opposite it. They either throw away revenue by pitching them head-to-head or protect it risking the late finish.

I think they were in a lose-lose position to be honest. Whatever they did would be wrong.

Only because you're looking out for them. Nearly every week on every channel is an All3Media week but that's not quite as fun a conversation, I guess.

Syco will do about 75 hours on ITV1 this year. That's not an insane amount. Consider that Fremantle are co-producers on 66 of those hours and also make Take Me Out, All Star Family Fortunes and Through The Keyhole. ITV Studios entertainment department also does more. They've also commissioned big Saturday night series from TwoFour and Endemol this year.

What's remarkable about those 66 hours is that they rate so well and not only that but they (and 45 hours in particular) skew strongly to the younger demos making them so valuable.

So to some extent, yes they are reliant on Cowell. Realistically he's not going to quit TV and he seems content to keep working with ITV, what they're really reliant on is his (and his teams) ability to continue producing successful television. But that's a nice problem to have and one which has been suggested as having carried them through near financial ruin in 2009. If they had Strictly and The Voice instead... things might not be so rosy.

Ultimately, it's far far more positive than negative. It's nearly 13 years since Cowell sat down in an ITV office and they have built the most lucrative production and talent relationship of the 21st century so far. Which is really what commissioning is all about.. it's not like they've been passing over on hit formats in that period.

Samuel, if you read this post, did you have a view on all the positive reviews? And there have been plenty.