I do like Jonathan Ross but he's not worth £18 million because look at what he's getting the money for. A once a week radio show, some specials here and there and a chatshow that gets 3/4 million. I'm not the greatest fan of Simon Cowell and Ant & Dec but at least they can say they justify their salaries as their shows deliver the ratings. I'd also say that Chris Moyles and Terry Wogan are worth the money for being the ratings leaders on their respective stations, and they would be paid more on commercial radio.

It's incredible to think that these stars nowadays with lesser ratings are getting more than The Two Ronnies, Morecambe & Wise and Mike Yarwood were getting at the peak of their popularity.

An interesting chat from Nigel Lythgoe recently:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...012980,00.html


I could see Ant and Dec maybe getting a cut, their particular "brand" has been severely damaged and shows like "Duel" and "Beat The Star" haven't set the world alight and their US career hasn't taken off. But since the last negotiations with Cowell, X Factor ratings have risen substantially and more importantly, he has launched Britain's Got Talent. I doubt he'll be taking any pay cut. Particularly as the period will cover the end of his Idol contract, the possibility of a US X Factor opens up from either 2010 or 2011 or just judging on America's Got Talent.

Also some of these figures are mistakenly reported. It's not £20m a year, but about £6.6m (still not bad!) and also includes things like first look at Syco TV projects... in other words, part of it pays for ITV to get Got Talent before BBC1, even if they sit on their arses for 2 years slowing it down!

(Some of the money flying around is huge, Carphone Warehouse alone pay £7 million a year to sponsor X Factor!)

Jonathan Ross as well is probably getting some of that because he doesn't just appear on the shows, but his company, Hot Sauce, makes them as well because his fee possibly seems a bit steep for his presenting work (although it was driven up by C4, I suppose). In tough times, a hit becomes more valuable than ever.

And speaking of hits, Peter Kay must be C4's most watched show of the year? And possibly their best peaktime performance as well.

Oh 'The sun' said it was disappointing, 'clearly' it must be true then.


.

Phenominal ratings for Peter Kay, and great to see Channel 4 find a big hit - it badly needs them. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the series plays out. I've not seen it so can't pass judgement but I wonder whether the ruse (spoofing talent shows) might not become tired quite quickly?

Not surprised to see that ITV want to cut down the 'talent' costs. I'd be very surprised if we don't see reductions across the board - particularly at the BBC. I can't see them paying another £18 million for Jonathan Ross - the outcry would be deafening.

It was in this case. A poor show but good ratings.

It was meant to be a three part series, but they ran it all last night like an X Factor final. So that is it over.


My first guess would be that Grade was just spouting that to appease the unions as ITV are laying off so many staff. Now he can say that everyone is suffering but when it actually comes to the negotiations over the next year, will he actually follow through? Will he even be able to? I think it's more the media game than anything. Jonathan Ross... well he's another matter. As I said above, the £4.5m a year does seem a bit steep for his presenting, so I can only assume that it includes the various BBC3/4 documentaries that he is producing as well?

Sun am 0.98m (48.4%)
Sun pm 2.36m (19.6%)

Sat am 0.37m (26%)
Sat pm 1.39m (15.9%)

Neil

It's certainly divided opinion. I personally thought it was excellent - a very well observed comedy.

One hell of a ratings performance by Peter Kay, against very strong opposition. I feared it would be an awful clunker of a show and at 2 hours long, I chose to record it and whizz through it later. Seems to have got some pretty awful reviews so I'm not holding out much hope.

He does seem to be ratings gold though, shame he can't come up with anything to match his early creative peak.

Meanwhile, I just spotted this ratings-buster coming up on ITV this Sunday:


Hard to believe this is from the network that once brought us Brideshead Revisited, World in Action and This Week.

Is Alan Partridge now in charge of commissioning at ITV1? When does Monkey Tennis start?

Before I thought this was a spoof but I realise now that I'm Alan Partridge was a prophecy of TV to come. These sound like BBC Three ideas now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEwZ-...eature=related

I'm still not convinced this isn't a great wind-up by DigiGuide.

Surely ITV aren't actually going to show this?

I watched it twice - first time by myself and i thought it was ok.

Second time I watched it with my family and seeing it again I had missed so many jokes the first time round and I couldn't stop laughing.

Saw the video on Lorraine - I wonder who will get Number 1 - Leon or Geraldine?

Brilliant ratings for BGTPF, I expected it to do well but the ratings were a surprise, BBC One and ITV1 had a good night with ATOF and Stephen Fry in America doing quite well. Surprisely despite the heavy competition, BBC Two and Five remained on par with what they got last week.

Out of all the travel shows that launched last week, Paul Merton in India was my favourite and certainly the most interesting.

It was a different world when WIA and TW were at their peak and we wont see anything approaching Brideshead proportions from ITV again.
Personally I think ITV is a shadow of its former self, but half of the reason is the pressure placed on it by the endless multitude of other commercial channels. I can see a time when ITV has ditched news and has repositioned itself completely to entertainment, which, because you cannot fill the screens with BGT XF or DOI continuously (any more initials anyone?) will involve a raft of shows which will end up with "The best of the worst of the best of the worst".

This is why we need the BBC.

Channel 4 Network Sunday:

Channel 4
18.30 - Dr Doolittle 2 - 2.096m
20.00 - Peter Kay's Got the Pop Factor... - 6m
21.15 - Peter Kay 180 - 2.774m
22.15 - Peter Kay's Got the Pop Factor Results - 3.164m

E4
22.00 - Desperate Housewives - 477900


Channel 4 also had the largest share across all channels with 24%

If anyones interested the Winners song is currently in the top 40 of Itunes. Leon is #5 and the Saturdays just out of the Top 10, could be an interesting Sunday chart

OK ratings - I'm guessing the race re-run (Sun pm) rating would have been higher had Hamilton performed better.

Very strong ratings last night and a huge amount of people watching TV.

I'm extremely shocked by the Peter Kay ratings-I expected 3/4m but never 6m!! However I am pleased because imo it was the best TV programme I have watched this year. Plenty of LOL moments! A well deserved great night for CH4.

Also a great night for all the other terrestrials, albeit TOF is a little on the low side compared to past performances.

Yeah, I believe the Ross deal covers all the work he and his company do at the BBC.

I do think all broadcasters can be quite tough on their existing 'talent' because the market, certainly for the main broadcasters is just not as competetive anymore. We won't be seeing the kind of bidding war which built between C4 and the BBC for Jonathan Ross again.

And I'm not sure where Cowell would defect to if he were to leave ITV. C4 haven't got the money, the BBC could never justify it, and moving to pay TV wouldn't give the kind of exposure the talent shows need. If he's got the stomach for it, Grade could well play hardball and push the price down. Whether he does, or he's just paying lip service to the unions, who knows?

The success of BGTPF on Channel 4 shows how rare is it for the smaller terrestrials to get figures that BBC One and ITV1 can command. For this year, BBC Two has scored 5m for Masterchef, 5.8m for Louis Theroux and Top Gear which is the only BBC Two series that can attract between 5-6m. Channel 4 has attracted 5m+ for episodes of Grand Designs and Big Brother attract big ratings for the first and final episodes and on occasion where there has been controversty.

TBH, the next time we will figures like this for a smaller terrestrial will be either for CBB or more likely when Top Gear returns.

Brilliant ratings for Channel 4, I only expected 4m max. But I found that when people were speaking about it today they were saying it was quite disappointing and too real. That was the whole point, but I think you have to know about how contrieved X Factor is ... people on here liked it anyway and thats my explanation

This is an article from Mediaweek talking about how well CBS are doing in the US ratings.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_...a6ac90bc09808f

If Cowell thinks Michael Grade is remotely serious, just wait for the inevitable Max Clifford press release:




I always find it quite amusing that Simon has been "set to scale back his workload" for years, usually just when some contract needs negotiated!

If you hype something enough viewers will flock Channel 4 know this hence why the E4 showings of skins and C4's showing of big brother 5 did so well. I don't care how good they were, without that level of promotion, they'd of done no better than the usual stuff (as much as I love BB5). If only channel 4 would go back to doing this for big brother and Endemol would go back to making it good, the ratings would improve.

I wish Simon Cowell would permanantly f**k off to L.A. lol. Would improve my Saturdays no end, plus I wouldn't have to put up with him putting down his birth country every episode by belittling it saying "your possibly the one of the best acts I've ever seen in the U.K.", when the singer is no more than average. He loves L.A. so much, he won't be missed.