Going back to the scheduling of comedy on BBC1, I think they're missing a trick with Wednesday nights.

OK, just give up on the Friday 8:30 slot and fill it with Question of Sport, DIY SOS and maybe another new quiz. You're going to struggle to beat Corrie no matter what you put against it.

On Wednesday's, they should move Watchdog - which is currently getting 5 MILLION against Corrie - into the 8pm slot and then a sitcom to follow at 8:30. Little Dorrit is currently taking up this slot, but it could start from the New Year, giving BBC One strong rating at 8pm every weeknight - Eastender Monday and Friday, Holby Tuesday, Watchdog Wednesday and Waterloo Road Thursday.

I notice that the new Jimmy Nail comedy 'Parents of the Band' is starting in a couple of weeks time in the Friday 8:30 slot. Unfortunately, due to Britian's addiction to these boring sopas, I can see it going the same way as After You've Gone, which despite it's detractors, had its fans.

Daniel wasn't really a big story like John was. Laura's elimination proved to be far more controversial. True, he was discussed as part of the overall look at viewers voting against the judges on reality television, but that was primarily about John - Daniel was just a handy comparison. He'd already been in the bottom two so there was no danger of him sticking around for much longer.

The fact this is such a big story is more than a little surreal though, I have to say.

IAC holding up very well for a Tuesday night. I hope the fact it isn't on tonight doesn't do too much damage.

Something tells me Seargent's Strictly quit-exit will have an opposite effect on SCD's ratings than what we might expect....

IAC is holding up amazingly up 1.3m on the same Tuesday last year! It also seemed wo boost WWTBAM which was up considerably. Interesting that IAC doesn't seem to be denting the other terrestrials at all-just more people watching TV and people watching terrestrials more. I'm not sure Trevor's exit from NaT tonight will pull in the figures ITV want as it starts at 10.10pm.

FIVE seem to be getting on track with their 1 million primetime bid with the only problem slots atm being Monday 9pm and Wednesday 9pm.

Also IAC was probably the most watched show of the day.

Good night for ITV1 with WWTBAM and IAC doing well, the fact that New Tricks only got 3.9m shows that viewers have clicked on that they are repeats which can only be a good thing. Five did well with CSI: Miami as did Channel 4 with Prince John documentary though BBAF did poorly in the 10pm slot.


The 1m target is slightly redundant IMO as most of their shows with some exceptions pull in over 1m, they should be aiming higher so that they can be on par with Channel 4 and BBC Two.

Australian Ratings Update

18:30 Neighbours (Ten) 848,000
19:00 Home and Away (Seven) 1,297,000
19:30 The Zoo (Seven) 1,707,000
20:00 Find My Family (Seven) 1,878,000
20:30 Packed to the Rafters (Seven) 2,013,000
21:30 All Saints (Seven) 1,404,000
22:30 Surgery Saved My Life (Seven) 533,000
22:30 Survivor: Micronesia (Nine) 508,000
22:30 Out of the Blue (Ten) 399,000

Out of the Blue is actually UP 28,000 on its premiere, but well behind Seven and Nine and still down on what the Ten Late News was getting.

The interesting thing is comparing the officials to the overnights.

The overnight ratings were:

Emmerdale- 6.4m (29.9%)
The One Show- 5.6m (25.9%)

Difference of 0.8m.

Further proof that The One Show's overnight ratings are very inaccurate as its not doing as well as the 5.6m suggested. Whereas Emmerdale, adds 0.5m to its figure.

BBC have got far more out of this than just a few extra viewers on a saturday night reality tv show. Listening to radio 5 he is being talked about as the new Humphrey Littleton. He is going to be the big winner out of this series & much bigger star than ever X-Factor is going to produce!! The danger is that staying on in the show could damage the national treasure status he now seems to have. Quitting supposedly under duress from the judges is a masterstroke. I could believe he had done it in conjunction with BBC but that would never happen would it!! Just waiting to hear what he is signed up to do next. Given the comment I wonder if it will be - Sorry I haven't a clue SCD is too big a franchise to suffer long term because of this.

BARB Official Ratings w/e 9/11/08
1. Coronation Street (Mon 2029) ITV1 – 10.83m
2. The X Factor (Sat 1919) ITV1 – 10.72m
3. Strictly Come Dancing (Sat 1759) BBC1 – 10.04m
4. Eastenders (Mon 2000) BBC1 – 9.94m
5. Antiques Roadshow (Sun 1914) BBC1 – 8.71m
6. Emmerdale (Mon 1902) ITV1 – 7.64m
7. Top Gear (Sun 2000) BBC2 – 7.57m
8. Silent Witness (Wed 2100) BBC1 – 6.70m
9. All Star Family Fortunes (Sat 2054) ITV1 – 6.89m
10. Stephen Fry In America (Sun 2059) BBC1 – 6.32m

BBC1 - 5 BBC2 - 1 ITV1 - 4

Other Points:

Just for Robbie, I took out “X Factor Results” which would have been 5th.
X Factor Results (Sat 2140) – 9.46m
Strictly Come Dancing (Sun 2014) – 8.98m

Most watched show on C4 was The Simpsons with 2.84m, followed by River Cottage Autumn on 2.83m. The top 5 was rounded out by 3 episodes of Deal or No Deal. The most watched show on Five was CSI: Miami with 2.34m followed by Paul Merton in India, Neighbours and CSI: NY.

The video premiere of the X Factor Finalists single, “Hero” on ITV1 made their top 30 with 3.5m viewers.

Shares:
BBC1 – 20.9%
BBC2 – 7.6%
ITV1 – 16.1%
Channel 4 – 6.5% (+1 - 0.8%)
Five – 4.5%

TOTAL Terrestrial – 55.5%

Weekly Reach:
BBC1 – 83.3%
BBC2 – 67.7%
ITV1 – 75.5%
Channel 4 – 65.4%
Five – 53.9%

They should rise this weekend, possibly breaking 10m? Probably go back to about 9.5m after that, though and stay like that until the final.

DS Ratings report: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1359...d-to-head.html

19.00- Emmerdale (ITV1): 6.22m (28.7%)
* head to head: Emmerdale: 5.6m (25.2%)
19.30- EastEnders (BBC1): 6.93m (31.1%)

Good to see Millionaire doing the business in the 8pm slot. You get the feeling that Holby is there for the taking. Casualty and now Holby are showing signs of weakness. If I was BBC1 Controller I'd be worried. Still I dont suppose they will take my advice.

Rumoured to be the next host of NewsKnight on ITV at one stage. All he needs is a knighthood. Although he is no great skakes on that Dave show.

You are preaching to the choir on this one Mr Roscoe

Just like what I've done.

I know i am, GeorgeS. Just wanted to get the facts across...

It's lovely to see News at Ten on ITV in the 3m+ range. Good to see Millionaire settling in to Tuesday 8pm, too. It's nice ITV1's doing the business in the 9pm slot, too.

I really hope Peter Fincham has some tricks up his sleeve and a proper plan for all the things in store for 09. We've got the week-long event Collision, new Hell's Kitchen (presumably for a stripped 9pm nightly run?) and of course all the dramas.

If he fixes the schedule ITV could be looking at 5m+ for shows like The Prisoner, Law & Order: UK and The Fixer in 2009. I should think Demons will do the business on Saturday nights too, getting between 5 and 6 million an episode, same with Primeval (which it should follow).

rzt - thanks for posting the news about After You've Gone and Harley Street.

This year, After You've Gone has been well down on what it has rated in previous clashes against Coronation Street, so it's a fair decision.

Also, a good victory for EastEnders over Emmerdale last night.

Hang on a second, as far as I can see there were only two media reported overnight ratings for The One Show for w/e 9/11/08:

Tuesday: 5.6m
Friday: 5.1m

And the officials:

Monday: 5.33m
Tuesday: 5.31m
Thursday: 5.26m
Friday: 5.17m

So a 0.29m drop and a 0.07m rise - suppose it's a matter of opinion but I wouldn't consider either "very inaccurate". It's a 5-6% difference at most.

I'm not surprised by the axings to be honest. IAC did well again last night and I can see Strictly getting its best ratings so far this series on Saturday, with the news that John quit today.

ITVP's holy grail is to develop a new reality format that sells overseas. Hells Kitchen, although not a huge sucess in the UK, brings in big royalty payments from overseas especially the US. So ITV are going to try at least 3 new reality pilots next year in the hope that at least 1 takes. Still IACGMOOH didnt transfer to the US despite being huge in the UK.

Usually I would say ITV are nuts for heading to reality tv, but it makes a lot of sense.

Hell's Kitchen, I'm a Celebrity, Britain's Got Talent all pitched above the slot averages.

I think they could probably do with another reality show or two running nightly for a week or two. With a Coronation St lead in on Monday and Friday, if you can get some famous people to compete it doesnt really matter what crap it is, it will get more than the weekly 9pm slot average, which is somewhere around 4.5m.

As long as they steer clear of Celebrity Love Island

They could bring back some kind of singing show. Celebrity X Factor, Stars In Their Eyes & SoapStar Superstar did ok for them. They would need to repackage it a bit though to make it seem original

Could they do that without putting the format(s) to air in this country? Surely, that way they could have the best of both worlds: eventually finding a format to sell overseas, without having to spend a fortune on making the UK versions.

I think ITV have enough reality and talent show formats for the UK audience. The priority for 9pm slots now, should be trying to find the next Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders etc, before the current crop of successful dramas come to the end of their natural life, leaving the drama cupboard bare.

Good god, no!