Naturally. Can you imagine if ITV1 had dared to air such programmes as Hole in the Wall and Total Wipeout? People would be saying ITV had reached a new low, no way out, airing cast offs from other countries, what's happened to this great channel etc. etc. And it would have got about 3m. In comparison Demons would've hit around 8m.

What do people on here have against Total Wipeout? There is a point to it, unlike Hole in the Wall. And I found it to be very watchable myself.

Nothing against Total Wipeout per se. More that it clearly shows the imbalance between BBC and ITV1. Even though Total Wipeout seems to be liked, can you see the uproar if ITV had commissioned it (before it was aired) and what ratings it would've received?

I think Total Wipeout would have done fine in the ratings on ITV. Doesn't crap like You've been Framed still do well in the ratings for ITV?

You've Been Framed was established in ITV1's heyday though, so it's a slightly different argument to how a new commission would do.

Why would there be uproar over ITV buying the rights to make a UK version of a show that's been very popular around the world?

Better than simply ripping off another broadcaster's show with a piss-poor imitation...

True. Its just a modern version of Its a Knockout - not the death knell of modern civilisation. Its definately better than Hole in the Wall which was done no favours by their insistence on using z-list celebrities rather than normal people.

I do get the point about the criticism it would be recieving on ITV vice versa for Demons on BBC. But I think thats really to do with expectations and reputations. Demons would have premiered better on the BBC, but thats because the BBC has built a strong reputation for family drama with Doctor Who, Robin Hood, and Merlin.

ITV's family drama reputation is more hit and miss. People are generally more weary of ITV programming and less inclined to give it a chance. Thats just the lasting damage done to ITV's image from the celebrity-obsessed years, and the more recent drama flops like Brittania High. Success breeds success and its a tough road to win back confidences.

The Wipeout format has been a huge success scoring high ratings in the US during the summer and is becoming Endemol's best selling format. I think it would have done well on either ITV1 or BBC One. The format isn't perfect but it's great to watch.

Speaking of format, I read ages ago that Five have commisioned The Farmer Wants a Wife which ITV1 showed in 2001 and is apparently a huge hit in countries like Netherlands and Australia. Whether it will be successful in the UK remains to be seen but it shows how different formats success vary from country to country.

Considering what the basis of Total Wipeout is and what ITV1 have been ripped to shreds about before...I think they would've been slated. I may be wrong, admittedly, but personally I think it would've been seen as a move of desperation and appealing to the lowest common denominator by the broadcaster.

EDIT: I'm not denoucning the standard of Total Wipeout. I just think it's (rightly) been given a chance on BBC1, whereas if it'd been on ITV1 it would've been dismissed out of hand as an It's a Knockout spin off.

As a FYI, Demons is being repeated tonight at 8pm on ITV2. Be interesting to see what the ratings are for the repeat.

According to the ITV Media website, they were projecting about 4.6 million adults to watch Demons.

The premiere was probably watched by about 0.8-1m kids (based on previous Kids ratings available to us). So, the number of adults watching was about the same,or slightly above, the projection.

But I think that projection was probably for the entire series. Next week, will no doubt fall below that. So I think it looks like ITV were expecting a higher rating than 5.7m based on this and it's underperformed.

I agree entirely especially about Hole in the Wall, what with that containing Z list celebs that are on 'every programme' on ITV

Sunday 4th January 2009
Channel 4
17:40 - Time Team - 2.54m
19:10 - FILM: Cheaper By The Dozen 2 - 1.65m
21:00 - Celebrity Big Brother - 3.26m
22:00 - The Sunday Night Project - 1.69m

E4
21:00 - FILM: Get Over It - 250,000

Film4
18:45 - FILM: Young Sherlock Holmes - 170,000
21:00 - FILM: Independence Day - 420,000

All-Day Shares
BBC One - 19%
ITV1 - 18.1%
BBC Two - 7.8%
Channel 4 - 7.7% (inc. +1)
five - 4.3%
Multichannel - 43.1%

New Year's Eve - All-Day Shares
BBC One - 20.8%
ITV1 - 17.3%
BBC Two - 11.8%
Channel 4 - 7.7% (inc. +1)
five - 4.2%
Multichannel - 38.2%

New Year's Day - All-Day Shares
BBC One - 24.7%
ITV1 - 14.4%
BBC Two - 9.4%
Channel 4 - 6.1% (inc. +1)
five - 4.1%
Multichannel - 41.3%

Friday 2nd January 2009 - All-Day Shares
ITV1 - 20.2%
BBC One - 16.3%
Channel 4 - 10.5% (inc. +1)
BBC Two - 8.2%
five - 3.8%
Multichannel - 41%

Saturday 3rd January 2009 - All-Day Shares
BBC One - 21.7%
ITV1 - 15.9%
Channel 4 - 6.4% (inc. +1)
BBC Two - 6.2%
five - 4.8%
Multichannel - 45%

Source: C4 Sales

6.8m for Above Suspiscion! Very good for Itv! Glad that Demons got ITV2's highest ratings for the day as well.

Very good ratings for Above Suspicion, bodes well for a full series.

Harry Hill did very well considering the slot and that it was a clips show. Antiques Roadshow does seem to have found new viewers, though.

I've only just seen the ratings for the last week or so, so here are some of my views:

The 39 Steps did very well, but Affinity did abysmally. Millionaire beating Superman was a bit of a surprise, and I think ITV should try more 9pm Millionaires. Jonathan Creek did fantastically well against a poor show from Marple. The Krypton Factor did better than I expected, as did Celebrity BB's launch. Demons did pretty well, and ITV will be relieved that it didn't tank, unlike most of their recent dramas. Total Wipeout doing so well was a real shock!

Is there anything on last nights Gladiators on Sky 1? It will be interesting to see how that rates given the high profile changes.

Overnight Ratings: Sunday 4th January 2009

BBC1:
7.00pm – Antiques Roadshow - 7.87m (31.3%)
8.00pm – Lark Rise to Candleford – 6.29m (23.8%)
9.00pm – Swarm: Nature’s Incredible Invasions – 4.96m (19.3%)

BBC2:
8.00pm – Best of Top Gear – 3.11m (11.8%)
9.00pm – The Antiques Rogue Show – 2.23m (8.7%)
10.00pm – Kinky Boots – 1.4m (9.1%)

ITV1:
7.30pm – Harry Hill’s TV Burp – 5.47m (21.2%)
8.00pm – The Royal – 5.36m (20.3%)
9.00pm – Above Suspicion – 6.76m (27.7%)

Channel 4:
9.00pm – Celebrity Big Brother – 2.85m (11.1%) +374,000 (2.2%) on C4+1
10.00pm – The Sunday Night Project – 1.41m (7.9%)

Five:
9.00pm – FILM: Eraser – 1.15m (5.4%)

More4:
6.55pm – Come Dine With Me – 891k (4%)

ITV2:
8.00pm – Demons – 633k (2.7%)

Sky1:
6.00pm – Gladiators – 695k (3.4%)

Source: DS

Yes, the news specials would be the last minute changes, but originally scheduled would be a You've Been Framed hour special, which is easily give or take.

Well, I would've not scheduled Demons at that point anyway. I would've waited until 31 January to show the drama because:-

A) Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway should've been put in the schedules first starting on Saturday 17 January from an early time of 7pm, with You've Been Framed at 6pm and Harry Hill at 6:30pm, with fillers like Family Fortunes & Who Wants to be a Millionaire? after the launch of Takeaway

B) Demons should be scheduled, in my opinion, regularly. And there will be an evening kick-off on the 24 January, probably Liverpool v Everton OR Man Utd v Tottenham

In this case, the schedule would be:-

5:00pm The Big Match Live: Liverpool v Everton
7:15pm You've Been Framed
7:45pm Harry Hill's TV Burp
8:15pm Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
9:30pm News & Weather
9:45pm FA Cup 4th Round Highlights [heavily advertised]

This week wouldn't cost ITV much, with You've Been Framed a repeat, and Harry Hill a 'compilation' special. Perhaps I've made a mistake by putting the news quite early, but I feel the highlights could get a good audience scheduled at 9:45pm, don't know particularly why, just a hunch.

Then from the 31 January, a fixed schedule consisting of:-

6:15pm You've Been Framed
6:45pm Harry Hill's TV Burp
7:15pm Demons (6 parts) / Primeval (10 parts)
8:15pm Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (10 parts) / Beat the Star (10 parts)
9:30pm Al Murray's Happy Hour (12 parts) / Piers Morgan
10:30pm The Late News
10:45pm Movie Premiere / FA Cup Highlights

That's just my idea of how ITV could perhaps beat BBC1 on Saturday nights, because lets face it, for some reason BBC1 aren't as strong as usual.

And Above Suspicion deserved it too. I've always said that if an ITV drama looks good people will give it a chance.

Ouch for Celebrity Big Brother, but at least it should get 10% all the time, which should make January a better month for C4 than last year.

ITV had a good Sunday, which was of course expected, with the FA Cup, which I am interested to see the figures. The all-day share should be around 20% but I still doubt it. It was around the expectations for Above Suspicion, might have been more with a Corrie lead in, I don't know. I think it might even clear the deck tonight more so than it did last night.

BBC1 held up very well, as per. It's Sunday offerings are becoming sacred to TV watchers, with Antiques Roadshow right at the heart. Lark Rise fits right in there, and with Countryfile and Last of the Summer Wine to come later in the year, the trend should continue.

It's funny because, people always want ITV to restore soaps on Sunday's as they think that's the ONLY way ITV can make it better. I disagree, even though I still think soaps should be restored to Sunday's. BBC1 doesn't have any soaps and they have similar programming to ITV.

It's been a scheduling problem in 2008 that ITV need to get right in 2009. The Royal has been able to build, and had a good audience last night with the lack of Top Gear.

It's early, but CBB seems to be failing to capture the public imagination, unlike I'm A Celeb which improved on it's viewing figures last year.

The Saturday and Sunday episodes are only 0.1m down on the CBB5 equivalents ...

Its too early to judge yet, anything could happen.

Above Suspicion is really well which is unsurprising since LaPlante penned dramas seem to do well for ITV1. I think it will hold up well tonight and I wouldn't be surprised if a series is already on the cards. BBC One did alright with Swarm, BBC Two did good with Best of Top Gear and The Antique Rogue Show, Channel 4 did good with CBB and SNP while Eraser did okay for Five.

Yeah, La Plante dramas do usually do well, which bodes well for Trial and Retribution on Friday. I wonder how Unforgiven will do next Monday, 5-6m hopefully, as it sounds good.

I expect that Demons will dip to the late 4's next week, before gradually climbing back up to the early to mid 5's as the series progresses.

Good ratings for 'Above Suspicion' on ITV1. It always looked like it could be a ratings banker - being from a reliable writer and of a conventional and successful genre - and so it has proved. The Royal was satisfyingly up on last week, when it was buried by the 39 Steps and Top Gear - though I don't know whether it and Heartbeat will ever fully recover from the screwing over they've recieved from ITV in 2008!

BBC One looks like it has a strong 2 hours with the ever reliable Antiques Roadshow leading into Lark Rise to Candleford. It will be interesting to see how these shows put up with Dancing on Ice and Wild at Heart when they return next week. I'd expect them to take a small hit but will probably still break 6 and 5 million, respectively - which would be a very good performance, considering the circumstances.

Top Gear never ceases to amaze me with even its re-packaged repeats topping 3 million on BBC2 and being one of their highest rated programmes of the week. Its also a great launching pad for new programming in the 9pm slot, as was proven by the good performance of 'The Antiques Rogue Show'.