So what is coming back in February on BBC1? I'm assuming Ashes To Ashes is one of them.

The schedule has changed ITV1 are now showing the FA Cup replay, Southend v Chelsea.

Waterloo Road will probably do better against that than it would against The Bill.

So EE did indeed go up to 11.11 from the overnight of 9.9 on Xmas day.

I said this would happen and no one in this thread would have it.

Why does HHTB appear in the list twice?!

Would have prefered Corrie to be closer to 10m. Excellent for Emmerdale though that has been around the mid 6millions for months now. Now its nearly getting 8m.

Surprised to see how close DOI and SCD were in the top 10. Considering so many see DOI as a poor man's Strictly, it did pretty darn well last year.

Life Of Riley is awful! I can now see why After You've Gone was axed...it's virtually the same, but worse!! I can see ratings tanking after the first episode.

If Life of Riley is getting commisioned then surely After Youve Gone has to be brought back. LOF is the lowest of the low.

It is a poor mans Strictly, but that isnt going to stop the millions tuning in.

Superb for W&G. I never thaught we would see those figures listed for a TV show again.


The second EE went down though.

I agree. Maybe BBC should've held off another week and had the premiere against the football? Just promoted Hustle as their big drama for this week.


Will be interesting to see what happens next week when The One Show returns.


In a sense I'd argue it's the rich man's Strictly (and I love Strictly). With SCD the celebrities have to learn to dance. In DoI they often have to learn to skate first - another skill is placed into the equation. I have the feeling DoI may be slightly down on last year though. I think that SCD gave it a feelgood lead in in 2008, but this year that's somewhat lacking.

For last night - I think BBC have made a mistkae with Waterloo Road. The Bill's lead in coupled with it's shorter time frame and strong storyline dominated. Whether this'll be the same throughout the series is a moot point, but I can see The Bill having the upper hand for a while now. Especially as Waterloo Road can be watched on iplayer -much easier to access then ITV Catchup.

I agree with those who said Holby should've been given the 8pm Wednesday slot. Maybe with Life of Riley/Green Green Grass in it's slot on Tuesday and Waterloo Road staying in it's traditional Thursday slot. Especially as Tuesday is usually weak for ITV1 anyway.

Its taking a while for DS to post tuesdays ratings. I'm still waiting to find out how emmerdale and EE did

I watched a bit of Porridge, Steptoe and Son, Only Fools and Dads Army over Christmas and it is like a different reality compared to the vast majority of current comedy. Porridge is a masterclass in comedy.
As for LOR well, so far I agree with you. Its not as bad as Parents Of The Band but little could be.

So true, the funniest comedy on over Christmas were all repeats. Porridge in my opinion is the finest comedy ever made and pisses all over Life Of Reilly.
I'd rather watch After You've Gone than that crap. It looked wretched from the trailer. How do these things get commissioned in the first place? Did people honestly read the script, laugh and then give the go ahead?

BBC1 obviously watched it before scheduling it. Otherwise they wouldn't have put it up against The Bill.

Good point but in that case why did this get through and After You've Gone while not great did make me laugh a few times get the axe? It's like a woman dumping Brad Pitt for The Elephant Man, not exactly going for something better.

A real powerhouse night for CBS there! Stuff like NICS and the Mentalist won't win awards, but they'll well made populist dramas. Decent business for NBC for once as well.

Massive timeshifts for Wallace and Gromit and Doctor Who

I never thought I'd see a regular programme (ie, not live event or sport) pull those kind of numbers again. Amazing stuff.

A very strong Top 10 for 2008 there - and 12 shows over 10 million in total. It seems that even though the terrestrials continue to decline on a day-to-day basis and in overall share, their big 'event tv' moments - highly anticipates comedies, dramas and talent shows - still pull great figures.

EDIT: Just looking back through that list and the programmes I expected / didn't expect to be there and was compelled to comment on New Tricks. 9.36 million for a drama on a Tuesday night in the middle of August is arguably one of the single most impressive ratings on that list.

Yeah. I think I worded my original post wrong. I meant it seems as if AYG was axed just to pave way for this, as it is virtually the same, but worse. Even Teenage Kicks was better than this

Bit of a cheek of BARB putting these ratings out now - I haven't got round to watching a number of these shows yet...

Staggering figures for W&G - and considering we know another 7m+ tuned in to the repeat as well the following week. Looks like it's on course for a total festive audience of something close to 24m! Biggest show in years!

I hope ITV aren't beating a path to Nick Park's door bearing lots of cash to steal off with the biggest stars on British TV!


Don't think so, I thought BBC1 did better last year actually, but I suppose it depends whether you count some shows twice or not.

A nice symmetry to the top 10, 5 each and 2 each in the top 4, 3 each in the top 6. And to think only a couple of weeks ago, the ITV groupies on here were prematurely celebrating a clean sweep of the top slots.


That's encouraging for WR, the 5m who tuned in at the end. Otherwise, an inevitable drop given no EE lead in and change of night. But not the end of the world, and The Bill obviously did much better than would normally be expected.


I can't remember how well DOI's regular shows were, the figure in the Top 10 is obviously the final which I recall performed much better than expected. But I think SCD generally averages better over its run and over both main and results shows. Rzt will probably tell us if I'm wrong on that.

But yes, it is a poor man's Strictly. And I think people are getting fed up of this freezing winter, and the last thing they want is to see z-listers prancing round on a skating rink. More likely they will want to cosy up in front of Antiques Roadshow and Candleford, filmed under summer skies, and look forward to warmer days to come...

It wasn't awful, but wasn't great either. It took me 26 minutes to actually laugh.

It felt like an ITV1 version of My Family. Probably Caroline Quentin being in it that made me think it was an ITV show...

I read that the BBC showed ep2 of this first - obviously the opener was even worse, but will presumably have people scratching their heads if shown next week when they "introduce" the characters for the "first" time.

(EDIT: Can't believe my 2,000th post was a critique of a lame new sitcom, and the 1999th celebrated W&G's stellar ratings!)

It aired against the bill last year but on thursdays but i guess it has EE as a lead in!! I am disapointed with these ratings, however as it was a fantastic episode...

W&G doing well isn't really a surprise given that A Close Shave pulled in 10m on BBC Two and the fact that it was the first TV short for over a decade plus BBC One had showcasing them through the Christmas idents. Another TV short is likely but in 2010 rather than this year due to the time it takes to conceive and make W&G plus the fact I think that the BBC will want Doctor Who to be the top show at Christmas since it's David Tennant last appearance as the Doctor.


The Mentalist has really taken off and I think Five will want to capitalise on that when it airs in March. Scheduling wise, I think they will either pair it with House, pair with CSI (unlikely) or give it a midweek slot at 9pm.

Only you could comment on BBC1's new dire sitcom by getting a dig in against ITV1