An extremely good rating for Ice Age 2 The Meltdown. Maybe ITV should consider airing popular films just before DOI starts as I think it would do good business for ITV.

The first showing of DOI was up on last week, and rightly so. The 9 million figure is something I was expecting for the show. I don't understand the harsh drop for the skate off though.. why won't people stick around for the results show?

Wild at Heart did well and I thought Hunter pulled in a good figure, despite the strong competition from ITV.

That's because no one has reported it. Besides, it'd probably only be around 200,000 viewers.

Decent ratings for Hunter against some strong competition from ITV1, it will be interesting whether it holds up tonight as it has the potential to become a series though with Hugh Bonnerville starring in Legally Mad on NBC, it may be unlikely. DoI did very well as did WAH on ITV1, snooker did decently for BBC Two, Channel 4 did alright with CBB and SNP and Five was on par with last week with IRT and Payback.

Ice Age 2 did very well for ITV1 though it was surprising to see it on there as I thought Channel 4 had the rights to the 20th Century Fox films.

Although Dancing on Ice did well, the Skate-Off is on at 9:30pm which is mad scheduling for a Sunday night, as its a family show.

Last year, viewers were with ITV from around 6pm till 9pm in higher numbers, probably averaging around 8m over the three hours for ten weeks, which is brilliant.

As much as Dancing on Ice gives Wild at Heart a boost, the show is on too late too. Last year's 7:30pm slot was perfect, and why change a winning formula.

Perhaps they felt they didn't have any 9pm shows worth showing. Well, they should show repeat dramas then?

As much as I hate to say it (because I think DOI on Sunday adds a bit of spice), ITV will probably reinstate DOI to the Saturday night schedule for 2010.

This means: nearly a whole year of Saturday night reality shows, as well as FA Cup alongside it. This means we won't be seeing as many Saturday night commissions. Just how will they fit Primeval, Demons, Saturday Night Takeaway, Mr & Mrs, Beat the Star, Family Fortunes, The Wish List into a schedule which will have Harry Hill & You've Been Framed in an hours block.

Simon Cowell has worked wonders with his programmes simply because he chops and changes every year. By updating the format with new faces (Cheryl Cole X Factor), it gets more viewers hooked. And it's easy to get hooked to a reality show. Hence the BGT appointment.

I feel ITV's shows need to be allowed to change:-

Beat the Star - Presented by Dermot O'Leary for 10 episodes a year, with a grand finale. It will be HIS big show.

Mr & Mrs - A normal version of the gameshow with Richard & Judy presenting, airing around 8 times a year, with All Star Mr & Mrs only returning at Xmas.

The Wish List - Amanda Holden is not a face that I immediately thought would be good on this show, but it's perfect for that 6pm slot. I hear loads of people recalling watching Blind Date before going out on the razz, and I think this happy go lucky programme can do the same

Family Fortunes - Vernon Kay will continue to present this, but to normal families in an EARLIER Saturday night slot. Less gloss and more entertainment, with All Star version airing over Xmas.

Primeval - it needs to be kept the same but with a more gripping finale, perhaps in two parts.

Demons - Needs better writing, and a clear plotline. Needs a unique feature. It can't be Buffy.

So, a Saturday night schedule could look like this from January onwards next year:-

6:00pm You've Been Framed
6:30pm Dancing on Ice
8:00pm Mr & Mrs [emphasis on family viewing]
8:45pm Dancing on Ice: The Skate Off
-9:15pm

6:00pm Family Fortunes
6:45pm You've Been Framed
7:15pm Harry Hill's TV Burp [much shorter series]
7:45pm Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway / Beat the Star
-9pm

6:00pm The Wish List
7:00pm Britain's Got Talent
8:15pm Demons [warrants a later slot with better writing]
-9:15pm
And so on...

Good night for ITV, quite bad for BB ... hopefully its going to make them do changes for this summer.

Ice Age did well- ITV should consider more terrestrial premieres in the future.

Well maybe, maybe not. But its needs to be highlighted if you are published the total combined viewing audience (excluding timeshift of course, which was 520,000 on the first ITV1 screening).

Total viewers of Ep 1 incl timeshift was 7.168m (excl WEdnesday repeat) versus overnights of 6.483m

It seems like you are trying to make some particular point about this show.

Dancing On Ice adding nearly a million to it's figures is fantastic.

But the Skate off Really isn't pulling in the viewers.

Wild at Heart held its audience from last week but it should be getting 8m.

Lark Rise to Candelford is doing very well for BBC1.

It's a great series.

Hunter did reasonably well with the competition.

ITV1's drama tonight at 9pm should make another 7m easily.

With Coronation Street's two episodes making close to 10m.

Emmerdale will hopefully make close to 8m

and Their Rival BBC1 Soap EastEnders will hopefully make around 9.8m

No, I just think it's interesting, that's all.

Is there anything for last nights Gladiators? (Sky1, 6pm)

The poor Skate Off rating is because it doesn't begin until 9.30pm, it was an hour earlier last year.

The performance show seemed to benefit from the later slot, though, as it didn't get as high as 9.2m at all last year (excluding the final).

Hunter did well, as did Ice Age. Family film premieres should be shown in that slot more often.

BB's ratings are going to be low tonight with it being up against the soaps at 8pm.

Does anybody have a rating for last night's Gladiators? I'm sure if it was known, it would have been posted, but I thought I'd ask. Ta.

channel4 are going to kill the BB franchise this week, the series has already failed to capture the publics interest, and as you say they are ludicrously putting it up against corrie and eastenders this evening. I also wonder how edited and beeped out it will be at 8pm!

they have tried to give it a twist (surprise eviction) but its a week too late for this twist to make the series exciting again.

other fantastic C4 scheduling this week will include the final going up against Jonathan Ross' high profile comeback with Tom Cruise.

I think I might watch Jonathan Ross instead.

On the flip side it stands to achieve it's highest ever C4+1 rating tonight, probably C4+1's highest ever rating full stop, even with BB's current ratings slump.

So will I.

Whoever thought they'd keep the BB audience when Jonathan Ross was returning to BBC1 has made a big mistake.

same here

Sunday 18th January 2009

7:00 p.m.
ABC – America’s Funniest Home Videos
Viewers: 5.82 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 40.93 million
NBC – Dateline
Viewers: 5.39 million
Fox – Hole in the Wall (return, new time period)
Viewers: 3.52 million
CW – Jericho (R)
Viewers: 702,000

7:30 p.m.
ABC – America’s Funniest Home Videos
Viewers: 7.49 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 37.94 million
NBC – Dateline
Viewers: 6.08 million
Fox – Hole in the Wall
Viewers: 3.24 million
CW – Jericho (R)
Viewers: 766,000

8:00 p.m.
ABC – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Viewers: 7.98 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 39.34 million
NBC – Dateline
Viewers: 5.73 million
Fox – The Simpsons (R)
Viewers: 3.84 million
CW – Movie: Mr. Mom (R)
Viewers: 1.03 million

8:30 p.m.
ABC – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Viewers: 9.25 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 33.82 million
NBC – Dateline
Viewers: 5.95 million
Fox – The Simpsons (R)
Viewers: 4.85 million
CW – Movie: Mr. Mom (R)
Viewers: 1.28 million

9:00 p.m.
ABC – Desperate Housewives (100th episode)
Viewers: 12.88 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 36.08 million
NBC – SNL Presidential Bash (R)
Viewers: 5.13 million
Fox – Family Guy (R)
Viewers: 4.75 million
CW – Movie: Mr. Mom (R)
Viewers: 1.33 million

9:30 p.m.
ABC – Desperate Housewives (100th episode)
Viewers: 13.13 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 34.34 million
NBC – SNL Presidential Bash (R)
Viewers: 4.49 million
Fox – Family Guy (R)
Viewers: 4.97 million
CW – Movie: Mr. Mom (R)
Viewers: 1.33 million

10:00 p.m.
ABC – Brothers & Sisters
Viewers: 9.03 million
CBS – AFC Championship: Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Viewers: 31.91 million
NBC – SNL Presidential Bash (R)
Viewers: 4.79 million

10:30 p.m.
ABC – Brothers & Sisters
Viewers: 8.85 million
CBS – The Mentalist
Viewers: 15.06 million
NBC – SNL Presidential Bash (R)
Viewers: 5.03 million
[LIST][*]FOX ran repeats and NBC aired two hours of Dateline followed by a rerun of the Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash.
[*]Desperate Housewives averaged just 13.01 million
[*]The Mentalist only aired for about 15 minutes in prime time on the East Coast (from roughly 10:45p-11p)[/LIST]
ABC looks like their in trouble with two of their highest rated shows getting down to just 13 million. (DH and GA)
It will be interesting to see how LOST premiers on Thursday.


PS. Sorry for the way it's laid out.
I laid it out how I normally do it, but I accidently deleted it all. So I couldn't be bothered to do it all again.

Already?!

ITV schedulers - even when they have a good opportunity to create a top Sunday schedule they still manage to muck it up somehow. What was the problem with last year's:

6.00 Dancing on Ice
7.30 Wild at Heart
8.30 Dancing on Ice: The Skate Off
9.00 Lewis

Why muck about with it?

They couldn't have ads in Lewis as they used them all earlier in the evening.

They can now?

So cut down Dancing on Ice slightly instead of having an ad every other dance. I know ITV are an advertisement based company first and foremost but I'm not sure what was longer yesterday - Dancing on Ice or the adverts in between.

Absolutely.

I'm tempted to watch JR myself. I'll only stick with BB out of loyalty.

I don't know exactly what the rules are, but I know that when they had big shows (DOI, WAH, Lewis) all in one five hour period, they couldn't have the usual amount of ads in all of them as there would be too many in one night. I'd imagine it would be the same now, which is probably why they've only gone for three hours of big hitters rather than five (although Ice Age did very well).


I don't think Dancing on Ice was this long (80 mins for 6 couples) last year (I think the 6 couples show was 60-65 mins). They've clearly done it to maximise their ad revenue, and I suppose it makes sense.