David Tennnant brought a huge amount of charisma and presence to the role and MS is going to find that a huge hurdle to overcome, and the fact that not many will actually know who he is.

Absolute first impression is not positive, which is a bit unfair but I dont think I will be alone in that.

Not sure about the decision there - it'll get them a lot of publicity though.

Game never kicked off for second half until 18:30 - expect overrun for ITV then.

Well, we've got the predictible hysterics over on the Doctor Who forum - proclaiming the end of the universe as we know it. But I really don't think its that bad a choice. By going young, charismatic and energetic, they're clearly intending to continue in a similar style to Tennant - which has seen the shows best ever figures.

Far more important will be how the showrunner, Steven Moffat, uses him. Moffats scripts have always been the most highly acclaimed and his characters have been superb. Doctor Who is going nowhere with him at the helm - though he is less of a self-publicist than Russell T Davies, and we might see less of the stunt casting / comebacks that RTD has used to good effect ratings-wise.

ITV overrunning, as expected.

Not a good start for Demons.

Not all right by me. The intentional late running of BBC1's festive schedule, and the SCD/Outnumbered saga, were both criticised by me on this very thread. Not acceptable.


Well, they've already had to ditch the F1 coverage which was apparently so crucial to their strategy of targeting ABC1 males, and the football league/Carling Cup rights (and hallelujah for both of those), in order to win the England/FA Cup rights with Setanta (though with less games than the Beeb had), and I can see them having to ditch something else.




We were assured by the FA when the new rights deal was signed that ITV were going to give the viewer better coverage, including post-match analysis, than the Beeb had. We all knew that was laughable at the time, and so it has proved - again....

What we have just seen in terms of post-match round-up is embarrassing even by ITV Sport's shoddy and shambolic standards.

I agree with you, but I think we need to remember that the Matt Smith we saw in tonight's programme was very much the raw, unfinished product - I imagine he'll undergo something of a transformation to become the doctor. I'm still a little unsure as to the logic of revealing this so early - there's still probably a year (if DT regenerates at the end of the New Year's Day special) until his first appearance.

Yeah, it's been crap so far - it's all Steve Rider and sofa ads...

Total Wipeout was woeful, deserves to tank.

Agreed.

I loved it

Charlene was amazing

I have to disagree with you. I thought it was brilliant, i haven't laughed as much on a Saturday night at a gameshow for ages. But a little bit too long and miles far better than HITW. Also, all my mates got bored of the football, so i told them to put Total Wipeout on and they all loved it.

Total Wipeout was great. A bit of light hearted telly for a Saturday night. Hit the spot nicely in this household.

Total Wipeout is Saturday Night Entertainment?!

I've been switching between Your Country needs you and Demons. Neither have really caught my attention :yawn:

Maybe cause I'm wishing I had went out on the booze

will be interesting to see who wins between the two

Good ratings for CBB, I just hope it averages 3.5m+ at least.

Doubt it will get that tonight as it is just people going in and we saw that on the live show.

Well I know it'll get low ratings tonight, but I meant for the whole series.

And is it just me that thinks Richard Hammond is a really poor host?

I thought Demons was okay, better than expected, but has it hooked me for coming weeks? - no, probably not. I thought it tried too hard to tick all the required boxes laid down by the network rather than simply being the result of someone's creative vision. I think this is where ITV1 so often gets it wrong with new programmes.

And the less said about Gene Hunt's awful US accent the better. Why not just cast an American actor if that was so crucial to the plot?

I don't think it will be giving the BBC1 schedulers any nightmares - I can see it settling in the 4-5m bracket, and I think the Euro-song talent show will do okay against it and the TV Burp compilations for the next few weeks.

Didn't see much of the Euro thing but it seemed to follow the tried and tested singing competition/talent show blueprint that seems to work so well in ratings terms. Not my thing though.

Total Wipeout looked the best of tonight's new shows, but was on too long. At most, this should have been a 40 minute show with the opening round restricted to 10 mins of highlights of the 20 contestants' opening runs rather than a full half hour. The second half was much better, and sustained my interest more.

I think it will do OK in the ratings though, as there's nothing wrong with looking at some fit young bodies early on a Saturday evening as Gladiators and Baywatch proved in the early 90s, but I doubt it will have got great figures this week with the football opposite it.

Total Wipeout was brillant - had me and my flatmates in stiches. Much better than these long drawn out 'talent' contests.

As for today's big TV news story, I can't see why casting an unknown young actor in Doctor Who should be curtains for the series. Sure, David Tennant is perfect in the role and will be a hard act to follow (not that I watch it anyway), but I think the quality of the stories and the production overall are more important to sustaining viewers. If that is maintained, and the new actor brings something distinctive to the role, I can't seeing it making one iota of difference to the ratings.

Giving it a better slot in 2010 than running over the summer will have a bigger impact on the ratings, as the last 2 Christmas episodes, and the season finales, have shown the potential audience that is out there.

Wasn't Tennant a not-universally acclaimed choice anyway?

Have also posted this on the Wipeout thread, but did anyone else think the round where they stand on the pillars in a circle and have to jump the bar as it comes round would make a great new BBC1 ident?

Not that it means anything in ratings prediction terms, but as at 8.58pm, these are the post counts on the threads for the following 3 shows:

Total Wipeout - 278 (2 threads)
Eurovision - 49
Demons - 59

Much of the Eurovision chat has been happening in the actual ESC thread, though... which has several hundred pages!