I actually love your ideas PJ (mainly because they involve BH getting a second series ) I do think that Pushing Daisies could do great business for Itv2 if advertised right; However i can't see Family Guy leaving the BBC as it is usually one of BBC3's highest rated shows.

Ladies and gentlemen I will hold my hands up. The Krypton Factor wasn't too bad at all and Ben Shepherd was....I can't believe I'm saying this....fine on the show.

ITV2 should commission their own shows, not take ITV1 failures. Britannia High is done, it flopped miserably and its best thrown away. They already have their own drama shows and are commissioning more which is the right approach for them.

And Pushing Daisies was axed by ABC anyway.

They've still got rights for the second series, and should use it to improve the reputation of ITV2.

Also, Britannia High is right for the ITV2 audience. It flopped in the schedule it was in, however it would not flop on ITV2. It's not an expensive show to make, the most expensive part was the endless advertising which did the show more harm than good.

I dont agree with the Ideas for ITV2...

It needs to get more American imports yes, but it should be selective.. Bionic woman did well for a reason, and there is nothing from this this season that stands out.. A couple of comedys would be good though, maybe ones off living/trouble like acording to jim or How i met your mother. As for home grown stuff, it does well TBH, as do the film repeats! however the soaps should be repeated in a block from 11-12 every night!

I think EastEnders always have two shows on New Years Day, or a one hour special.

Yes in those days you'd get shows at 7.40pm and finishing at 8.10pm so you'd have a 50 minute programme before The 9 O'Clock News. ITV was more likely to have their schedule on the hour and half hour than BBC1 during the weekdays.

It certainly did. Its highest rating was 22.6 million in 1979 though that was during an ITV strike. Other years saw it between 10 and 19 million presumably depending on where it was placed in the schedule. All in all a reliable draw.

And more often than not a recipe for disaster. The 9.00 news killed many a show following it. The move to 10.00 has been ITV's biggest headache.

I think they need their own Simpsons or Friends that they can put on in early peaktime and guarantee themselves some solid ratings. And I agree that they need a regular slot for the soap repeats.

Digital channels can make good, original shows that attract a young audience. E4 have done it 4 times this year with Skins, Dead Set, The Inbetweeners and Hollyoaks Later.

ITV2:
8pm - Sitcom Repeat
9pm - US Imports
10pm - Original UK Shows
11pm - Soap Repeats

Corrie should have a regular repeat slot at 11pm, but Emmerdale might be pushing it. I don't think it even gets a late night repeat atm, and I'm not sure there's any real requirement for one.

I am guessing we have to wait until tomorrow for NYE ratings?

I wouldn't bother with Emmerdale tbh, the ratings on ITV1 aren't great anymore

I think I may have over-predicted Jonathan Creek - it was a bit drawn out and although it got better as it went on, the first (and crucial) 15-20 mins was all over the place. Can see many floating viewers switching to Marple. I thought it was good for 8m+, I now think it will get something starting with a six.

Ominously the only other 2 hour episode, which also aired 9-11pm, got an official audience of just 7.64m.

The Wikipedia page for JC, btw, lists the official ratings for every show going back to the start in 1997:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Creek

ITV2 does well with its homegrown shows and US imports as well as films. I agree that the soaps needs a fixed slot either at 10 or 11pm although I think they would better on ITV3 in a fixed slot. They need to broaden the numbers of films they show rather than repeat the same ones over and over.

I'm a bit annoyed ITV haven't realised how they could restore Emmerdale to form, and instantaneously too:-

Sunday:

8:00pm Emmerdale (sandwiched in-between Dancing on Ice)
8:30pm Coronation Street

Monday:

7:00pm The Krypton Factor (no Emmerdale)
7:30pm Coronation Street

Tuesday:

7:00pm Emmerdale (no double Emmerdale, this would normally be Monday's episode)
7:30pm Here and Now (the new uniform current affairs show)

Wednesday:

7:00pm Emmerdale (the hour edition)
8:00pm Coronation Street
8:30pm The Bill
9:30pm Moving Wallpaper / Mumbai Calling / etc.

Thursday:

7:00pm Emmerdale
7:30pm House Guest (instead of Krypton Factor)

Friday:

7:00pm Emmerdale
7:30pm Coronation Street

That schedule looks good PJ.

Note: C4 Sales has not yet updated for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. If they don't update today, likelyhood is we could be waiting until Monday for ratings, unless someone posts them elsewhere.

The bonus here was Wogan because of course as a live show it could be extended or shortened depending on what was to follow - particularly useful if they were screening US imports. Wasn't the case after 1992 when more or less all the programmes were half an hour. Also, imports stopped working in prime time.

Of course, when the Nine O'Clock News moved to ten, the Beeb had problems for the first few months because all the dramas had been made to run for fifty minutes, so they either began at 9pm and had to be followed by fillers - lots of Castaway compilations - or began at 9.10pm and the programmes earlier in the evening, like Top of the Pops and Watchdog, were extended or shortened depending on what followed.

Well, that was the excuse, but this wasn't actually the case. The week of the move there was indeed a live Euro 96 match on Thursday, but the only other sport that summer that affected Thursday nights was the Olympics - which also affected Friday nights too, and in those weeks Pops was moved to BBC2. So it could happily have stayed on Thursdays, really. Presumably the ratings were falling - Emmerdale was in its pomp - so they experimented.

Of course, initially it wasn't opposite Corrie as it moved to 7pm on Fridays, where it was opposite Lucky Numbers. It didn't do very well there, though, and I recall The Sun running a story on it getting its lowest ever audience. That was when it on BBC2 though.

Presumably this convinced them that it was a waste of time moving it back, so Watchdog (which at the time was doing very well) moved from opposite EastEnders on Mondays to Thursdays, and Pops stayed on Fridays, but now at 7.25pm - The Muppets were at 7pm. When The Muppets finished, it moved to 7.30, losing any advantage it might have had over Corrie.

Regarding another question, Friday Corrie did indeed begin in October 1989. For what it's worth, the Sunday episode started in November 1996. The Monday 'stEnders started in April 1994 and the Friday one in August 2001.

And, if I recall, the Sunday night Corrie was beaten by Antiques Roadshow in the ratings, at least initially - AR getting a 15 min head start, the BBC having moved it to a 7.15pm start after running it in a 5.45pm or thereabouts Sunday teatime slot for all those years until then.

Looks like we're going to get a ratings blackout till Monday after doing so well with our daily updates all Christmas.

Media Guardian will probably update at some stage today.

Seeing as we are on about Euro 1996 and Olympics 1996, here was a typical BBC One schedule during the Games which were in Atlanta:

06:00 - Business Breakfast
07:00 - Olympic Breakfast
09:00 - News
09:05 - Olympic Grandstand
12:35 - Neighbours
13:00 - One O'Clock News
13:30 - Regional News And Weather
13:40 - Olympic Grandstand
17:35 - Neighbours
18:00 - Six O'Clock News
18:30 - Regional News Magazine
19:00 - The Essential Olympics
20:30 - EastEnders
21:00 - Nine O'Clock News
21:30 - Chicago Hope
22:20 - Olympic Grandstand
04:25 - "Random" Stuff

Yes I remember this - there was a similar issue when Holby City first started, as the the first few episodes were 50 minutes in length, so they had to follow each one with a 10-minute mini-episode of Paddington Green to fill the hour slot.

^ LOL at Chicago Hope on primetime BBC One.

I can see Creek getting 6.5 to 7 million, and Marple getting about 4.5 to 5 million. I think Creek has the edge over Marple as 'event TV' with it being the first episode for about 4 years.