Huge XF ratings! It really benefitted from not going up against SCD. SCD also seemed to benefit slightly, but XF gave it an absolute thrashing!

Merlin and Harry Hill both held up incredibly well against very strong opposition.

Thanks Neil.

I thought the NTA might help Strictly to pull ahead of The X Factor but clearly not. SCD was spanked.

BBC1 just gift ratings to ITV and putting Strictly on so early doesn't help BBC1 later in the evening.

BBC1
6.05PM Strictly Come Dancing 9.36 (40%) Peak (7.20pm) 10.5
7.30PM Merlin 5.75 (23%)
8.15PM Lotto 4.53
9.05PM Casualty 5.64


ITV1

6PM You've Been Framed! 5.12
7PM Harry Hills TV Burp 5.98
7.30PM The X Factor 10.94 (43.3%) Peak (8.15pm) 12.06
9.05PM All Star Family Fortunes 6.36
9.50PM The X Factor Results 8.67 (38%)

ITV2

9.05PM The Xtra Factor 832,000
10.35PM The Xtra Factor 837,000

But Strictly and Merlin both improved their ratings, so it did help them. Who Dares Wins is a turkey and will be one wherever they put it. Casualty, however, had a direct head to head with Family Fortunes and was comfortably beaten, which may be worrying for BBC1.

Saturday
BBC1
18.05- Strictly Come Dancing: 9.36m (40%) * peak: 10.5m (41.8%) at 19.20
19.30- Merlin: 5.75m (22.9%)
20.15- Who Dares Wins: 4.53m (17.9%)
21.05- Casualty: 5.64m (23.2%)

BBC2
19.15- Stephen Fry in America: 1.77m (7.1%)
20.15- Timewatch: WWI: 2.54m (10.1%)
21.15- Have I Got More News For You: 2.52m (10.4%)
21.55- Heat: 1.08m (7.3%)

ITV1
18.00- You've Been Framed!: 5.12m (22.7%)
19.00- Harry Hill's TV Burp: 5.98m (24.3%)
19.30- The X Factor: 10.94m (43.3%) * peak: 12.06m (48%) at 20.15
21.05- All Star Family Fortunes: 6.36m (26.1%)
21.50- The X Factor Results: 8.67m (38.7%)

C4
19.05- River Cottage Autumn: 820,000 (3.3%)
20.05- Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong: 510,000 (2%)
21.05- Recount: 460,000 (2.2%)

Five
20.00- NCIS: 1.06m (4.2%)
21.00- NCIS: 1.51m (6.2%)
22.00- CSI: 1.39m (6.6%)

Multichannel
21.05- Xtra Factor (ITV2): 832,000 (3.9%)
22.35- Xtra Factor Results (ITV2): 837,000 (5.5%)

Primetime shares:
ITV1: 34.3% (last week: 34.2%), BBC1: 23.9% (25.6%), BBC2: 8% (6%), Five: 5.2% (5.5%), C4: 2.4% (3.6%)

Source: Digital Spy

Absolutely terrible for C4. Huge primetime share and XF share for ITV1. The peak was massive, whilst Xtra Factor continued to perform steadily and BBC2 put in a good night. Merlin up 0.27m on last week.

Brilliant ratings there for ITV! Neil, what did the F1 get?

Amazing rating for The X Factor. Strictly did well as well for its early slot and Merlin improved. I think the XF final might get over the 13.1m that the BGT Final got, which would be phenominal.

Casualty is not the ratings force it once was it's not special because it's on every week. TXF and SCD have more of an event feel to them because they're on for 16/20 weeks and then that's it.

Five beat C4!

Five: 5.2% (5.5%), C4: 2.4%

Here are Friday's ratings:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1343...un-on-45m.html

I don't intend to turn this into an F1 thread, but should the expected happen, Britannia High and the programmes after will be delayed:

http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/60

TXF is unstoppable this yr (albeit not in awards shows). The final will be huge . Is it on it's way to becoming the most watched reality series ever?

Strictly did quite well share wise, in contrast to TXF's share. Although TXF 's 10.9m has probably cemented the weekend victory on average, I cant see it getting 10m least not up against TG.

Fantastic night for ITV1, yet again. The XF continues to increase and I can easily see the final getting BGT style figures now. Harry Hill held up extremely well with his 2 shows and FF held up very well despite Casualty starting right after the XF. This is quite worrying though for BBC1 that Casualty can only pick up 5.6m against Family Fortunes and it is showing signs of decreasing now. Hopefully it will start increasing once the XF finishes, but I doubt it'll be reaching the 7.5m/8m it was reaching at the beginning of the year.

BBC1 has excellent performances with SCD and Merlin (despite being up against XF), but after then everything tails off without the SCD results show, but the SCD Results show does heavily boost the Sunday schedule so it's swings and roundabouts.

I didn't think CH4's Saturday performance could actually get worse but a 2.4% is awful-it would be awful for FIVE, but for CH4 to only get 0.5m from 8pm onwards is quite shocking!

----

Regarding Friday ratings a low night all around for Halloween it seems, but ITV2 getting 1 million for a Bond repeat is great, considering everything on terrestrial was down!

I don't think Clarkson is too happy with SCD and TG against each other after his comment at the NTA's about it only probably getting 7 viewers up against SCD.

Friday
BBC1
20.00- EastEnders: 8.34m (39.1%)
20.30- After You've Gone: 3.16m (14.3%)
21.00- Have I Got News For You: 5.07m (23.4%)
21.30- Little Britain USA: 3.21m (15.7%)

BBC2
20.00- Mastermind: 2.24m (10.5%)
20.30- Gardeners' World: 2.01m (9.1%)
21.00- The American Future: A History: 1.65m (7.8%)

ITV1
19.00- Emmerdale: 6.49m (33.7%)
19.30- Coronation Street: 8.6m (41.6%)
20.00- Tonight: 3.31m (15.5%)
20.30- Coronation Street: 8.38m (38%)
21.00- Wire In The Blood: 4.47m (21.2%)
* series average: 4.81m (22.4%)

C4
18.30- Hollyoaks: 1.56m (8.2%) [ +96,000 (0.5%) : C4+1 ]
20.00- A Place In The Sun: 1.15m (5.3%)
21.00- Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong Live: 1.91m (9%)

Five
20.00- Police Interceptors: 1.33m (6.1%)
21.00- NCIS: 1.13m (5.4%)

Multichannel
20.00- Most Haunted Live: 497,000 (3.2%)
* Halloween series average: 372,000 (2.3%) [ 69,000 (0.6%) : Living+1 ]
21.00- Die Another Day (ITV2): 988,000 (6.6%) [ +153,000 (1.4%) : ITV2+1 ]
22.00- Dead Set: 515,000 (3.1%) [ +137,000 (1.3%) : E4+1 ]
* series average: 826,000 (5.2%)

Primetime shares:
ITV1: 25.3% (last week: 25.4%), BBC1: 21.3% (22%), BBC2: 8.6% (8.3%), C4: 6.4% (6.9%), Five: 5% (5.3%)

Source: Digital Spy

There were 25m+ people watching television last night! I'm sure there hasn't been that many people watching on a Saturday night in years.

Not good for Friday's Dead Set (although understandable and I bet E4 are pleased with 0.6m). Great series though with a great average for E4.

X Factor did brilliantly yet again, even on disco week, the week everyone hates

Even stranger considering there were many firework displays on last night...obviously the cold weather kept people inside.

Still chugging along nicely for Five. Has this actually lost any viewers from the first episode? I seem to remember it getting 1.3m for the first one.

I thought that would happen, airing it on Halloween was a nice gesture but foolish in terms of ratings.

The shows half hour average (doubling episode 1) was over 1 million.

Question for Neil: Do you know what the ratings were for the feature length airing of Dead Set on E4 last night at 10pm?

As for Saturday night... incredible ratings for XF ! 10.9m is the kind of rating that BGT was getting in its semi-final week, IIRC. It could beat its finale audience. The results improved as well in the better slot and could top 9m next week as the slot is even better. And a 43% audience share with strong competition is hugely impressive.

Strictly seemed to benefit as well and with the darker nights, being on around 6pm isn't a big difference. It's doing brilliantly as well.

Merlin held up well, although ITV will be pleased that they had 4 of the top 5 shows on TV last night. BBC1 need to get a new Lottery game and Casualty did worse than I thought. I expected it to be getting 6m without any XF overlap and a head-to-head with Family Fortunes.

Top 20 Shows

1)CSI CBS 19,492m

2)DANCING WITH THE STARS ABC 18,497m

3)NCIS CBS 17,226m

4)DANCING W/STARS RESULTS ABC 16,350m

5)DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES ABC 15,953m

6)FOX WORLD SERIES GAME 4(S) FOX 15,479m

7)MENTALIST, THE CBS 15,282m

8)CRIMINAL MINDS CBS 15,012m

9)FOX WORLD SERIES GAME 1(S) FOX 14,634m

10)TWO AND A HALF MEN CBS 14,630m

11)GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM ABC 14,451m

12)CSI: NY CBS 14,390m

13) CSI: MIAMI CBS 13,505m

14) SURVIVOR: GABON CBS 13,309m

15) OT, THE FOX 13,277m

16) HOUSE FOX 13,085m

17) FOX WORLD SERIES GM4-PRE(S) FOX 13,059m

18) 60 MINUTES CBS 12,816m

19) FOX WORLD SERIES GAME 2(S) FOX 12,777m

20) EXTREME MAKEOVER:HM ED-8P ABC 12,257m

ABC=5
CBS=9
NBC=0
FOX=6

Police Interceptors (Five)
31/10/08- 1.33m (6.1%)
24/10/08- 1.43m (6.4%)
17/10/08- 1.36m (6.0%)
10/10/08- 1.67m (7.4%)

Series average: 1.45m (6.5%)

I was out last night for friend's birthday/halloween party. And I noticed there lots of people out last night on "late" Halloween parties last night, and there weren't many people out on Friday. Nobody I know went out on Friday night either. And there was none of the banging on the door business too.