Nobody "has to" do anything. Its a gentlemans agreement AFAIK which was put in place to serve the viewer better. Welcome to the weird world of television where competitors arent really what they seem & sometimes collude with each other.

In any other business this would be the subject of dawn raids.

What is the gentlemans agreement though?

I'm not suggesting BBC1 do anything nasty.

Just ignore their commercial rival's schedule and put together whatever they like.

The agreement as far as I understood was that they dont schedule the soaps against each other. I agree they should both do what ever they feel best for their audiences. After all the soap convention is dying now with Emmerdale & Eastenders on head to head each week. Personally I say get the soaps over & done with by scheduling them all at the same time.

Er, they ARE doing that again this year. And in 2007 Coronation Street defeated Strictly Come Dancing in the ratings. Besides, BBC'll never dare air EastEnders against Coronation Street. While the former will probably win, it won't hit the heights of last year against Coronation Street. The Emmerdale clashes have shown that a part of EastEnders' audience is somewhat easy come easy go. Though I acknowledge Christmas is different.

I wonder whether people keep forgetting I'm A Celebrity starts at 8.30pm this week. I do, so always miss a bit. It is strange the ratings seem *slightly* lower than last week. Survivors took an unsurprising hit. I think BBC need to stop swicthing shows from a Sunday launch to Tuesday. Start as they mean to go on. Channel 4's Behind the Scenes show did really well, though.

I always forget it starts at 8:30! ITV should advertise the time change better!

also just seen the xmas BBC one movie advert very good!

Official Top 10 Programmes for w/e 23 Nov 08
1 - 11.77m - THE X FACTOR (SAT 1925) - ITV1
2 - 10.75m - STRICTLY COME DANCING (SAT 1819) - BBC1
3 - 10.14m - CORONATION STREET (MON 2029) - ITV1
4 - 9.75m - EASTENDERS (MON 2000) - BBC1
5 - 9.40m - I'M A CELEBRITY - GET ME OUT OF HERE! (SAT 2054) - ITV1
6 - 8.77m - ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (SUN 1915) - BBC1
7 - 7.38m - EMMERDALE (WED 1900) - ITV1
8 - 7.25m - INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL: ENG V GER (WED 1928) - ITV1
9 - 7.15m - TOP GEAR (SUN 2000) - BBC2
10 - 7.03m - MERLIN (SAT 1926) - BBC1

The X Factor tops the weekly ratings once again. Good to see a non-BBC1/ITV1 show in there with Top Gear. Also fantastic to see Merlin in the Top 10 of that week, especially since it's up against The X Factor.

Latest Update: Official Top 20 most watched programmes of 2008
01 - 13.88m - BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT (31/05/08) - ITV1
02 - 13.02m - CORONATION STREET (18/01/08) - ITV1
03 - 12.08m - DANCING ON ICE (16/03/08) - ITV1
04 - 11.77m - THE X FACTOR (22/11/08) - ITV1
05 - 11.73m - EASTENDERS (24/03/08) - BBC1
06 - 10.75m - STRICTLY COME DANCING (22/11/08) BBC1
07 - 10.57m - DOCTOR WHO (05/07/08) - BBC1
08 - 10.11m - ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (09/11/08) - BBC1
09 - 10.05m - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Man Utd v Chelsea (21/05/08) - ITV1
10 - 9.83m - CHILDREN IN NEED (14/11/08) - BBC1

11 - 9.40m - I'M A CELEBRITY - GET ME OUT OF HERE! (22/11/08) - ITV1
12 - 9.36m - NEW TRICKS (18/08/08) - BBC1
13 - 9.29m - THE APPRENTICE (11/06/08) - BBC1
14 - 9.18m - MATCH OF THE DAY LIVE: England v Switzerland (06/02/08) - BBC1
15 - 9.08m - BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX (02/11/08) - ITV1
16 - 8.90m - LEWIS (24/02/08) - ITV1
17 - 8.85m - EMMERDALE (02/01/08) - ITV1
18 - 8.84m - EURO 2008: MATCH OF THE DAY LIVE: Germany v Spain (29/06/08) - BBC1
19 - 8.80m - WIMBLEDON 2008 (30/06/08) - BBC1
20 - 8.59m - WILD AT HEART (02/03/08) - ITV1

- New/updated entries in bold
- Multiple entries of the same programme not allowed

The X Factor overtake EastEnders in the chart. Strictly improves from 10th to 6th. I'm a Celebrity improves on its previous high rating by 0.02m, but remains in 11th place.

Current official yearly/series averages of some on-going programmes:
10.11m - THE X FACTOR
9.53m - CORONATION STREET
9.25m - STRICTLY COME DANCING
8.37m - EASTENDERS
6.94m - EMMERDALE

Compared to the 2007 yearly/series average at same stage last year, this is how the 2008 yearly/series averages compare:
- The X Factor UP 1.9m (+23.5%)
- Coronation Street DOWN 562,000 (-5.6%)
- Strictly Come Dancing UP 0.6m (+7.4%)
- EastEnders DOWN 376,000 (-4.3%)
- Emmerdale DOWN 504,000 (-6.8%)

The X Factor has seen a massive increase- nearly 2m. Also Strictly has seen a nice 0.6m increase, and both shows are getting their highest ratings ever. All the soaps down, especially Emmerdale which is suffering up against an improving One Show.

They've missed out the second 'stEnders there which was indeed at 8.30. Somewhere I've got some clippings from the papers from that December because the rumours were that Corrie and 'stEnders were going head to head, but they never did. For what it's worth, the ITV schedule in 1995 was...

5.00pm The Wind In The Willows
6.30pm Coronation Street
7.30pm Robson and Jerome Christmas Special
8.00pm Sister Act
9.55pm News
10.00pm Outside Edge

That R&J special wasn't the Audience With you may have thought but just a dull interview with the pair interspersed with their videos. Outside Edge was the cricket sitcom that ran for a few years.

It is funny to see the 'stEnders omnibus on Christmas Day 1994, but they did the same in 1988 as well. Neighbours was an odd one as they only ran it on Christmas Day in 1992 and 1995. That said, in 1980 and 1981 the Beeb showed a completely unfestive episode of Dallas on Christmas Night.

That awful ITV 1993 Christmas Day schedule was the worst for this, the morning was the service followed by What's Up Doc at 10.30am, The Chart Show at 11.30am and at 12.30pm... Movies Games and Videos! On Christmas Day!

For anyone interested BARB have revamped there website and are now giving out more info

IAC did good again but I agree that the earlier start time is lowering its ratings plus stronger competition in general. Channel 4 did well with its Coronation documentary denting both Horizon and CSI: Miami. Special Forces Heroes did well and I wouldn't be surprised if it is recomissioned.

The 8.30pm start seems to be a bit misjudged. It'll work well tonight because it has a Corrie lead-in, but last night it was starting halfway through Holby with WWTBAM acting as it's lead-in.

They could have condensed it into 60 minutes anyway. Some parts did start to lag last night, especially with the big characters now going they may struggle with 90 minutes.

They are doing well holding onto the viewers they have as this series is very mediocre. I haven't bothered for last couple of nights as it is a bit like groundhog day but will no doubt watch the final.

Yeah, i agree. A Corrie lead in always benefits the show. 7.4m is still a good rating, but its worth pointing out that last nights episode was the least watched episode of the series so far...

Tonight has the Corrie lead in so i'd expect around 8.4m.

The current series average is 8.2m. Highest rating is 9.6m, lowest is 7.4m.

Watch TXF race to the top of the chart once we have the Live Final official ratings.

Yeh most likely will happen. I wonder if Strictly will break the 13m barrier?

Personally I don't think it will, but its been getting record ratings too so anything is possible i guess.

Eastenders at 8 and 9?

No wonder people are starting to go off Christmas

What a disappointment!

Yeah, there was a lot of filler last night actually.

Personally all the 90 minute IAC's that I've been watching are far too stretched out and aren't needed, 60 minutes is plenty of time to fit everything in and this reflected in the ratings.

No real surprise Emmerdale won the hour overall considering the high profile storyline and ITV's advertising.

I am surprised that the IAC ratings are still holding up well. I haven't watched it for a good few nights as it's the same thing day in day out and all the big characters are starting to leave - it must obviously still please the majority though and ITV should be happy with its ratings. Despite the WWTBAM lead in and the start time of 8:30, it still got a decent rating even if it's the lowest of the series so far.

The BBC Christmas Night line up looks fantastic

Mind you - this show is only as good as it is due to Ant & Dec. The filler is often better than the actual celebs!!

http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/progr...n/default.html

ITV's Christmas Lineup is still begin finalised, I'm getting several errors for programmes scheduled for 22nd Dec & Xmas Eve.

The final week shows are always 90 minutes long

It depends what you call filler, the 60 min shows have seemed quite rushed as once you get the bushtucker trial, celebrity chest and eviction out of the way there is very little time to show what is going on in the camp, meaning evictees' highlights packages are showing clips that we've never seen before

More people watch EastEnders at Christmas than anything else. If people are so fed up they should probably stop tuning in....

Besides, BBC One after The Queen on Christmas Day consists of 3 hours of family movies, an hour of family drama, 1/2 hour of family comedy, an hour of entertainment, an hour of more mature comedy and an hour of documentary,

...and yes, an hour of soap too.

Seems like a fairly balanced line up if you ask me.

http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/Danci...s/default.html

"Strictly embargoed until 00.01 on Tuesday December 9, 2008 "

Uh?