Surely such a show would move to BBC2 in that slot?

Amazing for ITV, I am seriously shocked how well all their shows did last night
The Finale of X Factor will surely be rate higher than BGT

Looks like Channel 4 are trying make up lost ground on Sunday by scheduling films like Five have been doing for the last few weeks with some success. Channel 4 are showing The Parent Trap this week and Miracle on 34th Street next week while Five have RV and Spider-Man and next week is Home Alone followed by the terrestrial premiere of The Pink Panther.

Seeing as IAC got 8.7m on Wednesday and 7.4m on Thursday, I reckon...

Monday: 2.84m
Tuesday: 1.90m
Wednesday: 3.8m-4.2m - possibly one of NaT's best figures?
Thursday: 3.4m-3.8m

I think ITV will have another good Saturday, Harry Hill sandwiched between two X Factors, the results show going out earlier so a good chance of getting a high audience and The Comedy Awards will have a big lead-in with no real competition from BBC1. Apart from Strictly it'll be another bad night for BBC1.

Outnumbered is a good show that should go out on a different day, and Casualty needs to be rested I can't tell you the last time I watched it.

Absolutely incredible for The X Factor! The 3rd most watched show of 2008 too! Viewers must really be tuning in now the competition is getting serious. I think the final could reach ratings that would place The X Factor as being the top rated talent show of the century. I can really see it beating BGT's final now.

Merlin also did exceptionally well. Its ratings are unaffected considering the surge of viewers that the X Factor got.

XF actually has a little history of sharp drops for the semi finals for some reason. I think last year was the first time to buck the trend.

It will still be above 10m, though.

Last night was a great show for the finale, it turned everything on its head. It was very clever and well done, so nobody really knows how the final will go.

The ratings are quite tremendous for XF though I think a number of factors are aiding it this year. At the end of the day XF (and IAC) are not presenting anything different at all from last year.

More younger people Im presuming are choosing to have their Saturday nights in rather than out(and probably saving about £60.00 in the process) and XF is a natural destination for them.

SCD is not being scheduled against XF allowing a portion of the SCD audience to get into XF more this year. The BBC will no doubt use this approach as an example that they are not ratings obsessed.

BBC later shows excepting Merlin are looking very tired and to be honest there is not much point in trying anything valuable against such a juggernaut. The Lottery Show has been postponed and so the opposition is shovelling new interest onto ITV1.

IAC which is also benefiting from the Credit Crunch is also boosting XF.

A final point-it has been a little overlooked that SCD is scoring its highest ratings ever and some of the peaks hugely impressive also.

The Beeb will breathe a sigh of relief that there are only two more weeks of XF to go.

C4 first need to get above a million in all primetime slots on Saturdays. They should start the evening with a family film at 7, followed by some repeats of established shows such as Friends, Scrubs, Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace for example.

Easier said than dne when theirs a callaborated 16m+ stronghold watching BBC 1/ITV 1.

I was expecting TXF to edge 12m with all the Britney hype but still an outstanding figure.

Friday's ratings must be very worrying for FIVE with Home & Away not even able to make the 1m mark now and the 2nd episode didn't help being up against Hollyoaks. Also quite a poor start for Super Series. Though they made up for it at 9pm with a NCIS repeat coming 3rd!

Hollyoaks Later suffered from being on Friday when most of its core audience are out and EE's BBC3 repeat is lower than usual, probably due to IAC taking the majority of the 10pm audience.

Fantastic for TOF repeat on ITV3, ending on what has been a fantastic week for ITV3 winning the multichannel all hours some days.

Five are almost reaching a million in all their slots week after week on Saturdays, and the channel is considered the 'least watched' of the five terrestrials.

I really hope the last X Factor beats BGT's 14m.

It will be hard, but Strictly moving its results will give them a helping hand as BBC1 will have 9m people with nothing else to watch just as the final X Factor results are starting.

Also, I think even if you dont watch these shows sometimes you see its the final show in the EPG and you watch it just for the sake of it to see whos won.

I mainly want it to do better than BGT because smug Piers Morgan claimed X Factor would never get that many viewers and Simon told him to wait and see.

Neighbours is also suffering. Five really needs to sort out its soaps.

Then the BBC have to worry about Sunday nights and Dancing on Ice when that returns. They've been doing well with Strictly/Antiques Road Show on a Sunday but its going to be very interesting to see how it rates in the new year.

You werent wrong!

I'm impressed that NCIS does really well in repeats against heavy competition like IAC and X Factor/SCD. I wonder if it could get 2.5-3m when the new series debuts as it has a loyal audience.

The problem for Channel 4 is that aside from films, they can't really compete with the alternative that BBC Two and Five offer on a Saturday with BBC Two showing factual like Timewatch and repeats of comedies while Five has US dramas which can attract good ratings with new episodes as well as repeats.

WOW! ITV did so well last night with Xfactor and Im a celeb!!
and harry hill :P

BBC did well though still

On the plus side next week Harry Hill is looking at getting his highest audience ever for TV Burp, possibly 8m which will be great and good promotion for him. On the negative side both SCD and XF will be dented from the partial clash and I can see XF results rating higher than the main show. Comedy Awards have an XF lead in so should start strongly with around 6/7m and fall to about 4m by the end with no real competition from BBC1.

ITV won't have as good a night as last night, but it will be strong nevertheless.


Here's what I would do on a CH4 Saturday night:

4pm-Film (R)
6pm-News
6.15-DOND (NEW)
7pm-CDWM(R)
8pm-The Simpsons(R)
8.30pm-The Simpsons(R)
9pm- My Name Is Earl (NEW)
9.30pm- My Name Is Earl (NEW)
10pm-Stand Up Comedy (NEW)
11pm-8 Out Of 10 Cats/Friday Night Project etc (R)

Established CH4 show repeats would be shown in the 7pm slot across the year.

Various comedies would alternate from 8-10pm across the year.

Stand Up Comedy would air in the 10pm slot occasionally with room for some changes for some big films which could air 8-10pm some weekends.

wow at those ratings.

I was out last night, and the city was quiet, was more like a Wednesday night than a Saturday. Now i know where everyone was

There doesn't appear to be significantly more people watching TV though. Last year there were 24.4 million in the XF slot, this year there were 25.7m (approx). And that's about a million higher than the past few weeks which have been about 24m.

I think it's more likely that it's the low feeling created by the credit crunch causing people to watch lighter TV.

It isn't offering anything new, but it is offering something alot better, IMO. At each and every stage, the show has been better than last year.

Decent schedule and an improvement on what Channel 4 have at the moment though I would have The Big Bang Theory in the 9pm or 9.30pm rather than Earl.

AR I think will still get about 7 million as it has a large loyal viewership . But its swings and roundabouts -Saturday will become more of a battleground again. Personally I have thought BBC1 should run Dr Who from Christmas until March to take advantage of the dark nights which is where it really belongs(obviously its not in production for this year). However the BBC needs another high profile entertainment format-the various attempts at talent shows(excepting to a certain extent the Lloyd Webber shows) have been an embarrassment. Its hard to know where its coming from as light entertainment stars are so few in number and mostly at ITV.

Perhaps a rebirth of Opportunity Knocks which last ran on BBC1 in the late eighties. Perhaps a summer run of Fame Academy. The trouble is that Simon Cowell has effectively cornered the market here and I think he has designs on ruling the world as well.

Strange that today a tv "star" can be someone who doesnt dance, sing, tell jokes, carry a large emu or have a skill in interviewing-in that way tv is a universe away for the seventies and eighties.

Yeah the comedies could alternate and it would be a good place to showcase some E4 comedies. Also new Jamie At Home could air in the 7pm hour. Hopefully that schedule would provide an alternative to other terrestrials which CH4 is struggling to do at the minute with BBC2 and FIVE sorted with their factual and US imports.

People that say terrestrial television is dead are usually producers who make poor ratings shows or bosses that commission poor rating shows. For too long terrestrial channels have made a majority of shows that drive people to multi-channel viewing. But I'm a great believer in if you make the shows the people will watch. The fact that BBC1 & ITV between them had a huge share of the Saturday night audience proves this.