ITV can't just always put dramas on Sunday or Monday, they have to be realistic and schedule it on another day. At the moment they have DA and Doc Martin on the Sunday/Monday so they are out of bounds. However BBC could have scheduled Truckers on any day realistically except from Tuesday.

To slag it off, I'll watch the first one I may be pleasantly suprised!

I think that the continual poor competition on main channels on Thursdays has made Thursday a big night multi-channel night.
Shows on E4, BBC3, More4, and Sky1, ITV2 have been performing well on this night for the last couple of years, it will be hard to claw those audiences back.

Women Behind Bars could be higher next week, its currently No1 on ITV Player. This happened last time with Trever McDonalds last prison doc.

I meant in overnight. I know last weekends episode will top 11million, perhaps even 11.5million+.

I will watch both the new dramas as I always do - but cant say I have any positive expectations of either.

The last time Trevor Macdonalds had a prison program, the ratings went down for episode 2. The same thing will probably happen this time too.

Would not Tuesday have been the best day for it though - no opposition. Even Frankie got 4.5m in that slot.

Well yes, but New Tricks is in that slot at the moment.

I expect the first episodes of Breathless will get around 5.1million inc+1 and Truckers to be round 4.3million

My American sources say that Big Bang Theory opened to around 18million viewers, its best season premiere ever. And that The Crazy Ones starring Robin Williams debuted big with about 15million which should equate to approximately 5.0 in the demo. The Michael J Fox Show on NBC got around 8million viewers, an expected skew should ensure a 3.0-3.5 demo rating. Confirmation in 2.5hours time.

Thanks, and a peak of 949k (4.6%) at 20:45, I see. Not bad at all for a 8-0 drubbing by our girls. On to Wales next month!

How come the bbc never repeat stricly in the week for those that have missed it?

^^^^

I agree absolutely. I think it's a really great drama - I actively look forward to watching it, which isn't true for many dramas or any sort of programme. I'm really sorry it doesn't seem to have clicked in the public imagination. I wonder why? Is there anything BBC2 could do to promote it? I was thinking last night that it is so good, it should be on BBC1, but perhaps it would be thought to be too violent. As it is, it seems to fall down the crack between popular (BBC1) and 'cultural' (?BBC4)

Such a shame, it's a fantastic piece of work, and as you say, Cillian Murphy is just riveting, and sooooo hot

I agree - its such an obvious thing to do, which is why the plums at BBC scheduling cant think of it.

By not having any repeats, the BBC are encouraging viewers to watch the one and only showing of Strictly Come Dancing or to record it, which means that its rating is maximised. If BBC repeated SCD a lot of times during the week, some viewers would end up watching the repeat instead of the main showing and that would reduce the rating for the main showing.

Well they might want to consider dropping the EastEnders repeats then

They probably think thats why they invented the Iplayer.

But XF gets a repeat and gets good ratings for it dont they? If it works for XF it would surely work for SCD too.

Exactly, I'd sooner see an afternoon repeat of SCD then endless antiques and property programmes

Same could be said for EastEnders and Doctor Who

They could repeat it on BBC3 like they do the voice and The Apprentice..

Are you going to keep adding 'my sources' to things you pull from the internet?

Also you can't really translate the early metered markets into demo numbers particularly not for a new series. A 5 for The Crazy Ones is incredibly optimistic to say the least. And Big Bang Theory appears to be around 19-20 million in the 8:30 slot at least.

Big Bang is a beast! If it was at 9pm, it would be getting 20m+ easily! very good also for The Crazy Ones and Michael J Fox.


The rest test will be when The Millers joins the lineup as that may end up hurting The Crazy Ones if it flops. Like with the Monday lineup, CBS do have backups in case there is a flop.

I wouldn't say that's a disaster for Women Behind Bars but it does seem a bit on the low side.


Prison documentary isn't a genre anyway. If it was the highest rated show of the slot then I don't see why we're complaining much.


He always expects ratings to increase, basically. ITV's in crisis if they don't.


You think they're both really bad? We haven't even seen them yet...


18 million in the US should nail it down for about 3 million when it premieres on E4 in a few months time.


Next thing you know, we'll be seeing the "SCD vs XF repeat ratings battle".

Would be a nice change but SCD has the benefit of iPlayer - and it timeshifts by a million regularly. I'm not sure if an afternoon repeat would benefit it. I don't think many people actually use ITV Player on the subject of X Factor.

Youre right. Crazy Ones and Michael J Fox Show both skewed older than expected.

Crazy Ones - 4.0
Michael J Fox Show - 2.1

Both skewing less 38pct into the 18/49 range.