This is a particularly idiotic comparison. You take a week when ITV1 has 9pm stripped programming & high impact long duration weekend shows and you only pick one episode of those. But yet you include both the Six O'Clock & Ten O'Clock News on the grounds that they are different

It might just be a cock-up, though, as the other week in Broadcast, the weather after the Ten O'Clock News one day got in their Top 100 - all ninety seconds of it - but none of the other weather forecasts featured.

Technically though the Six and Ten are different shows. It's like saying why Coronation Street and Emmerdale are in the charts when they're both soaps?

I will say though that BBC1 doesn't really have much to boast about, if some of your highest rating shows of the week are news programmes, it doesn't say much about the other programmes the channel offers.

Police, Camera, Action: Drink Driving Special - 3.7m (ITV Media)

The Royal Variety Performance was watched by 7.5 million last night!!

From Media Week

It got 7.4m overnight last year, so I'm not sure why the ?

I'm just surprised that people still watch it in fairly large numbers, the line up looked poor to me. No really big stars just endless reality stars.

BBC1
19.30- The Royal Variety Performance 2008: 7.5m (31.5%)

BBC2
21.00- Heroes: 1.8m (7.4%)

ITV1
21.00- Police, Camera, Action: 3.7m (15.6%)

C4
20.00- Christmas at River Cottage: 2.1m (8.6%)
21.00- Willie's Perfect Chocolate Factory: 1.6m (6.6%)

Five
19.30- UEFA Cup Live: 1.2m (5.2%)

No real surprises last night-I expected the Royal Variety to be a big draw with shows like XF and BGT up this year. Though I think it could have topped 8m on Sunday night BBC1.

Ratings from Media Guardian. ITV got similar ratings to what they get most Wednesdays.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ngs-television

Coronation Street: 8.5m
The Bill: 4.9m

Wednesday 17th December 2008
BBC One
19:30 - The Royal Variety Performance 2008 - 7.5m (31.5%)

BBC Two
21:00 - Heroes - 1.8m (7.4%)

ITV1
19:30 - Coronation Street - 8.5m
20:00 - The Bill - 4.9m (20%)
21:00 - Police, Camera, Action: Drink Driving Special - 3.7m (15.6%)

Channel 4
20:00 - Christmas at River Cottage - 2.1m (8.6%) [+1: 300,000]
21:00 - Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas - 1.6m (6.6%) [+1: 100,000]

five
19:30 - Uefa Cup - 1.2m (5.2%)

Source: MediaWeek, MG

Hopefully some more ratings come out later.

Great ratings for RVP though it was in line with it has gotten in previous years, ITV1 did alright with The Bill and PCA as did Five with football and Channel 4 had a decent night with River Cottage and Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas.

American Overnights: Tuesday 16th December
8:00
CBS NCIS 19.86
NBC Biggest Loser: Families 10.53
ABC Charlie Brown Christmas 8.31
FOX House(R) 6.37
UNI Cuidado con el Angel 4.66
CW 90210 (R) 1.13

9:00
CBS The Mentalist 19.33
NBC Biggest Loser: Families 12.77
ABC According to Jim 5.13
FOX Fringe (R) 4.88
UNI Fuego en la Sangre 4.72
CW Privileged (R) 1.01

9:30 ABC According to Jim (R) 4.50

10:00
CBS Without a Trace 14.49
NBC Momma’s Boys 6.07
ABC Eli Stone 5.00
UNI Aqui y Ahora 2.94

10:00 NBC Momma’s Boys 6.41
10:30 NBC Momma’s Boys 5.73

Very strong night for CBS- the largest primetime audience for CBS since 1995. Highest audience for NCIS and The Mentalist ever, and season high for Without a Trace.

NCIS and The Mentalist have become huge hits for CBS especially NCIS which has really taken off in the last few years. Five should definetly take advantage of this when NCIS returns in January and promote it non stop and/ repeat it on Five US.

ITV Press Centre confirm Sunday 11th January 2009.

19:00 Dancing on Ice
20:30 Wild at Heart

Interesting that they're not having a drama after Dancing on Ice's results (which I imagine will air at 9.30pm) like they did last year.

Also, isn't Dancing on Ice's first show usually 2 hours?

Strong performance for the Royal Variety Performance, though considering the slating it gets on the forums, I've no idea who's tuning in!

Coronation Street looks like it took a hit and is struggling a bit as we head into the Christmas holidays? I know its a pattern that repeated every year, but is there any particular reason EastEnders benefits from a Christmas boost and not the ITV soaps? Obviously, I understand on Christmas Day itself, the other programmes scheduled and the traditions of BBC One Christmasses play a big part - but it shouldn't be making a difference now?

----

On the American ratings, some astonishing success from CBS - its been utterly dominant this Autumn. How ironic that 'Biggest Loser' looks like being NBC's biggest hit Its outrating pretty much anything else they've aired all season - including the much hyped dramas.

Australian Ratings: Wednesday 17th December 2008 (Non Ratings Period)

ABC
18:30 Nigella Express 344,000
19:00 ABC News 919,000
19:30 The 7.30 Report 715,000
20:00 My Family 782,000
20:30 Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (R) 674,000
21:00 Grumpy Old Women (R) 631,000

Seven
17:30 Deal or No Deal (R) 620,000
18:00 Seven News 1,264,000
18:30 Today Tonight 1,405,000
19:00 How I Met Your Mother (R) 905,000
19:30 Air Crash Investigations 824,000
20:30 Las Vegas 696,000
21:30 AC/DC, Legends of Rock 675,000
22:00 The Unit 524,000
23:00 Prison Break 310,000

Nine
18:00 Nine News 1,172,000
18:30 Cricket: First Test - Australia v South Africa 728,000
20:30 CSl: Miami (R) 1,082,000
21:30 ER 843,000
22:30 Gossip Girl 441,000

Ten
19:30 The Simpsons (R) 650,000
20:00 Rules of Engagement (R) 652,000
20:30 House (R) 738,000
21:30 Rush (R) 518,000
22:30 Out of the Blue 287,000

SBS
19:30 Food Safari 325,000
20:00 The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World 278,000
20:30 Long Way Down 390,000

Evening Shares
Nine: 31.7%
Seven: 26.3%
TEN: 17.6%
ABC: 17.3%
SBS: 7.1%

Looks like My Family may have won its slot, depending on how Seven did during that half-hour.

Oztam

So, ITV1 has their best two primetime weeks of the year so far (last week of Nov/1st week of Dec) with IAC and XF yet they still can't beat BBC1's all-hours share for the week:

Nov24-30
BBC1: 20.5%
ITV1: 20.3%

Dec1-7
BBC1:20.6%
ITV1:20.2%

But do they care - or is it all about overnight primetime for ITV1?

K

edit: sorry, ITV1 were further behind last year so they've closed up a bit but still not won.

Very strong schedule and as Score says interesting they're leaving the 9pm dramas for now. Though I'm sure something new will return at Sunday 9pm soon because it is one of ITV's best slots of the week and they have a lot of good programmes which could potentially air in that slot! No surprise they've taken The Royal off again, but it would have been interesting to see it in a DOI sandwich and get a boost.


I think ITV care more about the overnight primetime figures more than anything else, but also it's worth noting without Sunday ITV would add on about 1% to those weekly shares.

But whatever they might add to Sunday's figures would have to come off somewhere else, surely? (e.g. switching an XF results show to Sunday)

K

True, but I just think Sunday has been scheduled wrong e.g moving Britannia High to Saturday and Family Fortunes would have been a good idea.

NCIS is one of the stories of the year, six years in and yet it is getting its highest ratings ever. And The Mentalist is a huge hit, even bigger than I think CBS expected. In fact I don't think that CBS expected The Mentalist and NCIS to be their biggest shows most weeks.

Autumn shares (1 Sept - 15 Dec) per Broadcast magazine (hard copy, not online):

PEAKTIME:

BBC1 - 23.9% (down 2.5%)
BBC2 - 8.9% (down 3.2%)
ITV1 - 24.0% (down 5.5%)
C4 (inc +1) - 7.7% (unchanged)
Five - 4.8% (down 2.0%)

So despite the success of IAC and XF, ITV1 suffers the largest peak-time decline.

ALL HOURS:

BBC1 - 21.2% (down 4.9%)
BBC2 - 7.8% (down 4.8%)
ITV1 - 19.2% (down 4.8%)
C4 (inc +1) - 7.8% (down 3.4%)
Five - 5.0% (up 2.5%)

The remorseless decline of the terrestrial channels continues.