I think we can expect at least one more showing of Loaf and Death in 2009, and probably more bumper ratings.

It's bound to be on next Christmas, if not before.

I'd like to know how the repeats of the other W&G adventures have been faring this week, too.

Yep, Wogan could regularly be anything between 30 and 45 minutes.

I remember the problems in late 2000/early 2001. It saw a few episodes of EastEnders starting at 7.35pm.

Nothing wrong with ep1, but ep2 under-performed. And it's more likely that BBC2 dented it, not ITV1 - Three Men in a Boat got a very healthy 3.5m compared to 1.9m watching BBC2 in the previous hour. And The Bill got fewer viewers than The Krypton Factor.

BBC1 would have been much better off running EE for an hour at 8pm I think.

I remember thinking it was rather a flimsy excuse at the time. Also that summer (1996) CBBC's afternoon shows were moved to BBC Two for the whole summer. On afternoons when BBC one had no sport, they showed things like Lovejoy and Perry Mason.

Indeed it did - the first series did really well because it was something a bit different and sparky, and had some very interesting stories (remember Jackie the transexual prostitute?), but it gave rise to various imitators and the participants became less engaging with every series.

The previous year saw it going out at around 9.15 on Saturday nights!

Someone made a good point. Even if BARB combined ratings, like before, Wallace and Gromit would not have officially got a combined figure of 20m+. That's because the two showings were in separate weeks.

Wednesday 31st December 2008 Overnights
BBC One
19.00- Celebrity Mastermind: 5.1m (24%)
19.30- Last of the Summer Wine: 3.9m (18%)
20.00- The Weakest Link: 4.1m (21%)
21.00- Meet the Fockers: n/a
22.50- New Year Live: 6.1m (38%)
* peak: 10.0m (59%) at 00:00
* peak was 0.8m up on last year's peak

BBC Two
22.55- Jool’s Annual Hootenanny: 2.7m (20%)

ITV1
19.00- Emmerdale: 6.5m (31%)
19.30- Coronation Street: 7.8m (37%)
20.00- The Bill: 4.4m (23%)
21.00- The Man Who Lost His Head: 2.8m (16%)
23.15- Elton’s New Year’s Eve Party: 1.9m (13%)

Channel 4
21.00- Tony Robinson and The Medieval Reincarnation: 1.2m (7%)
22.00- Big Fat Quiz of The Year 2008: 0.9m (6%)

Five
21.00- An Audience with Bruce Forsyth: 1.4m (8%)
22.10- Bruce Forsyth’s Comedy Heroes: 0.9m (6%)
23.10- Greatest Movie Love Scenes: 0.3m (2%)

Source: MG

It shouldn't be sacrified against a soap, put it between 8 and 9pm and it'd get an audience.

The only thing that surprises me is the success of Jonathon Creek. It seems that people are cash strapped and staying in more leading to higher figures all round (maybe the cold is a factor as well).

Pleased that the Krypton Factor did fairly well too. Does it get a narrative repeat later this week?

Cant believe BBC1s NY Eve party would win the ratings battle. Must have been all Robbie's grannies tuning in!

Impressive ratings all round for New Year's Day. W&G's total is amazing getting the day's 5th highest rating. BBC2 did get another high rating, 2.2m (10.3%) for Von Ryan's Express at 5pm, it's 2nd highest of the day.

It follows News at Ten on Tuesday, gets a Wednesday primetime slot on ITV4 and a Thursday daytime repeat (ITV4). Evidently episode 2 gets a Sunday repeat too on ITV1.

Poor night for C4, and not particularly good for Five with just one show above a million. Elton's New Year's Eve Party flopped as did ITV's 9pm drama repeat. Jools could have expected a little more but BBC1 takes the spoils. Low ratings everywhere really, as to be expected.

Uh oh. Die Hard repeat next year, anyone? Lol.

On the night that gets the lowest ratings of the year, for Summer Wine to get 4m viewers against 8m for Corrie, on a Wednesday night not Sunday teatime, is really quite good.

I assume Meet the Fockers won the 9pm slot - any figures? (EDIT: I see you've now put N/A in)

Good ratings for New Year Live and over a longer slot too (10.50pm). As a pub quiz trivia point, it's the first show of 2009 to hit a peak of 10m viewers too. And the last one of 2008 to do it...

I bet ITV's Elton party got better ratings for its daytime repeat yesterday. We had it on, and I know a couple of others who watched it whilst nursing hangovers.

Jools Holland goes from strength to strength too - even though his show on NYE was bloated to 2 hrs 20 mins this year, it still sustained an average of nearly 3m - an exceptional performance, and presumably the most-watched show once BBC1's festivities finished at 12.15?

Interesting.





Perhaps the autumn episodes will now have to get thrown to the lions against The X Factor?

Worth making a mental note of that 59% share for New Year Live as 2009 started.

When The X Factor Final results peaked at 61%, one or two people asked if that broke any records for share. It didn't, but to get anything around the 60% mark is exceptional and the 59% share for BBC1 as the year commenced certainly sets a high standard for everything else that follows in 2009, TXF and BGT included.

9 million for Jonathan Creek! I was expecting 8 million for it at most. I really hope this prompts David Renwick to write more episodes for the BBC.

Brilliant repeat rating for W&G too. BBC1 had a very good day yesterday!

I've only just noticed how well Celebrity Mastermind did on New Year's Day!!! Nearly 7 million!!

It had 0.9m 10.3%. Jump In! on BBC1 had 1m.

Last night's Jonathan Creek rating would slot into 18th place in the top rated shows of 2008 for its overnight, possibly rising to 13th/14th in the officials. This might suggest a higher average rating for the top 20 in 2009!

A brilliant night for BBC One all round. The episode of Jonathan Creek has been highly anticipated so I expected it to do well but it really crushed Marple on ITV. 9 million is amazing and I dare say the BBC will be begging Renwick for a new series.

Wallace and Gromit also did really well - I'm so pleased its had such success this Christmas, and hopefully it means we'll be seeing much more of them in the future. Mastermind also performed superbly in the EastEnders sandwich, which actually tops off whats been a very nicely rating run. EastEnders was the only dissapointment, with people not returning for the extra 8.30 episode. Unlike Christmas Day, it seems viewers on New Years Day appreciate programmes on at their regular times.

Thankfully for ITV, the Krypton Factor wasn't forgotten despite BBC One's dominance, and hopefully with figures like that it'll find itself a more suitable slot sometime soon.

Do you happen to have the ratings for Wallace and Gromit repeats over the past few days? Tues 4.30pm & Weds 5.05pm.

BBC1 held up better than I thought on New Years Eve with Mastermind clearing 5m and Weakest Link clearing 4m. Also 4m for LOTSW against Corrie is pretty good on the lowest rated day of the year (as Robbie pointed out).

The Bill held up decently, as a 23% share is pretty in line with what it usually gets. I think on NYE shares are a better representation trying to compare to shat the shows would get on a normal day.

ITV didn't do too well in the 9pm slot, but why show anything new when it will just flop? But saying that it still performed better than Rock Rivals, Echo Beach, Moving Wallpaper, Britannia High & Harley Street

Decent ratings for the Bruce Forsyth shows with An Audience.. beating CH4.

As opposed to all those hip youngsters tuning in to 'Jools Holland' and 'Elton John'?

On a serious note, I think most people tune in to BBC One for New Year because they want to see the Big Ben bongs and the fireworks display at the London Eye which has become a big national event in recent years.