ITV's rights for those Popstars/ Pop Idol shows have run out now.

There was something in the news a year or so ago. Another company has snapped them up. RTL?

BBC1 I heard. With Andrew Lloyd Webber as judge and of course Graham Norton hosting

I remember hearing that ITV execs were underwhelmed with Popstars' performance in autumn 2002. It was getting 6 to 7m a night. The first series was attracting 10m on a regular basis. It ended with 11.6m. The Rivals ended with just 8.4m.

As for Fame Academy, the thing that made it stand out as a flop, even though getting similar ratings as Big Brother for instance, was that it didn't benefit a lot from the strongest possible lead-in it could have - EastEnders. And the update shows were being battered by Emmerdale.

Don't give 'em ideas!

There was something on Teletext at the time, saying Pop Idol could end up on Channel Five, but nothing came of it.

I believe that Simon Fuller whose company 19 Entertainment was considering shopping it around the various channels with Sky1 and Five being the favourites but now that he has a stake in The X Factor, the idea of Pop Idol coming back is all but dead. Aside from Idol, he is also responsible for So You Think You Dance which has been a success in America and Australia and more international version are in the pipeline.

Thanks, Jonwo.

I guess it would also have been a very costly thing for Channel Five to make, and difficult to slot on Saturday nights. It doesn't really matter what time of year it is, there's usually a Saturday talent show on BBC One and/or ITV1, making it very difficult to find a window for it.

I agree and it would be difficult to schedule a third talent show on a Saturday especially against X Factor, Strictly or BGT and get decent ratings. I can imagine that Fuller would want to concentrate on getting SYTYCD to the UK rather than Idol.

Looking at the top few ratings for talent shows that rzt has just provided, I thought the final for Pop Idol (2002 with Will) was in the 12-13m mark.

Also... I think ITV will be disappointed for anything below 5/5.5m for Britannia High.

Cookalong's 2.5m is disappointing for Channel 4 after the 4.18m that the pilot managed back in January. Have I Got News For You and Little Britain: USA are not performing on Friday nights for BBC1.

Good ratings for XF and Strictly Come Dancing last night. Terrible for Channel 4 and Five is performing about average, however, considering these are all repeats it is holding up OK.

Brittania High has had a lot of promotion on ITV and commercial radio. It does not interest me and I hope it performs poorly.

I thought I would dislike Britannia High but I really enjoyed it so I hope it's done well in the ratings - 5 million + would be good.

I think the share of young people will be also important as well as the overall figure

I hope Britannia High has done great in the ratings and that people haven't been put off by the thought of it being another HSM because its not.
I think it will get about 5 to 6 million and probably keep or improve on its audience

After watching Britannia High it is actually very good and very well written. It definetely deserved the XF sandwich slot though, because it is wasted in the slot it is in and also I can just tell it will be a flop because people just think ITV, High School Musical rip off, Rock Rivals and don't bother, which is a shame.

Weren't there rumours that ITV were going to buy back the rights either to stop another channel from launching it against X Factor or to relaunch it in a Summer slot?

Nothing ever came of that anyway. I recall there being plans to have a celebrity version a couple of years ago but then they just ended up doing that with The X Factor (and that was dire).

Considering the opposition it may do ok - it wasn't up against much. Yes, the Antiques Roadshow does well but they're aimed at a compleetly different audience. I agree though, it'd have done a lot better if in The X Factor sandwich. I thought it was pretty good.

I didn't watch Britannia High, but it seems to have generally got a positive reaction on DS - and DS is usually a hard place to please! The general vibe is opposite of what happened after the first episodes of Echo Beach and Rock Rivals. So, it might turn out to be a hit for ITV.

Even if it doesn't rate particularly well in the UK, it looks like the sort of thing that will be snapped up by international broadcasters. I can even see it on ABC next Summer!

I only watched 30 minutes of Britannia High before leaving for a music lesson.

From what I saw, it was too formulaic. I think the writer has read too much high school novels or watched too many teen soaps, over analysed it perhaps. Because immediately you had the bitch, the outsider, the hearthrob, the wannabe who wanted to "it" but was very sad, so the plotline was quite crap. And I left at the end of the first proper song-off, between the bitch and the outsider, which I found quite funny, but not for the write reasons. And Gary Barlow is the main writer for these songs, and added with Arlene Phillips and you are bond to entertained with such tacky cheesy harmless fun!

I'll watch out of habit since nothing else is on.

Sorry, but I really cannot see that.

This is worse than Rock Rivals.

It was nowhere near as bad as Rock Rivals. Besides, they're both aimed at different audiences. The tweenagers and families that watch Britannia should be able to appreciate the cheesiness and poor writing!

As I said earlier in the thread this show is similar to Rebalde, a massive hit in the Spanish world as well as various other territories. You can see from High School Musical that the world is begging for this sort of stuff!

Fair enough, maybe I'm missing something, but I see something like HSM and although its not my thing I can see the attraction.

With this though there is just something missing, it was like a mis-match of too many cringeworthy, badly written scenes that didnt connect in any way.

From British School Musical straight into Heartbeat. Must have been absolutely seemless television.

I didn't witness the aforementioned transition myself but imagine it could be recreated any time by watching an hour of the CITV channel followed by an hour of ITV3.

Gotta love ITV though

They deserve praise just for having the guts to try it...despite the number of attempts they've failed at already.

From what I remember, Rock Rivals got a good reaction from DS after its first episode just like Britannia High is getting a good reception now.. I think the next few weeks will be a telling point for the show - whether it will remain popular or go downhill..

Merlin: Ratings