It might not tank as badly as you think. Good for at 3-3.5m.

It's a pretty good comedy, as well. You ever watched it?

Remember Blackpool Lights being mentioned a few weeks ago, the programme that Channel 5 thought was that awful they dumped it at 3am?

Well, here it is... http://www.channel5.com/shows/blackp.../episode-2-558

It does seem the BBC and the press don't really like Mrs Browns Boys - and sadly despite proving it deserved the slot last year I suspect it ended up on Christmas Day this year more out of necessity than because it deserved it.

Even stranger though is The Sun going with the EE peak figure (which almost certainly belongs to Dr Who) as suggesting millions tuned in to watch EE, rather than going with the fact that it's the least watched Christmas Day episode ever. Then again I shouldn't be surprised the tabloids are going with spin over fact.

I'm expecting 3-3.7million, which would indeed be poor for a Christmas sitcom special [like I said about Citizen Khan last week].

If it was a good comedy, why did it lose viewers 4 weeks in a row from a high of 5.6m down to 2.4m - less than half its launch audience? I watched the first two episodes, it wasnt funny. The Telegraph called it the "least funny new comedy in recent memory".

I stopped watching Vicious after the first episode but I'll give it a watch tonight because it seems much better going by the trailer. Hopefully it's not misleading.

I wouldn't expect much. Reviews for this xmas special have also been negative:

Mind you they have had a very good Christmas and Boxing Day, but bear in mind ITV are at their strongest in November/ early December when IAC( the show that defies all odds) and TXF are together, and IAC is preceded by the very big hitting DA.
ITV seems to go into a lull between the end of TXF and the start of SNT, DOI is waning now and Splash and TMO, while reasonable enough hits, aren't massive ratings successes. BBC One did have two real howlers- RHSS and AA- last January that sank, but now have moved TV back to a January start which should guarantee them around 7 million viewers.

Exactly. To lead with an image of the second rated show with that particular headline is, in my view, disingenuous. Then to cover yourself in paragraph 2 smacks of bending the truth to breaking point.

Who cares about reviews? Mrs Brown's Boys gets awful reviews yet look at the ratings. As far as comedy goes I wouldn't go with the critics.

That's not to say Vicious will be good tonight, but I wouldn't take the critics word for it.

Not sure how pre-watershed safe Vicious is but it would probably rate better in the middle of the Corrie sandwich tonight rather than being served up afterwards.

Doctor Who "The Time of the Doctor" sets a new ratings record in America.

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethe...c-america.html

Mrs Brown's Boys however rose in the ratings for every episode during its first series from 2.8m for its first episode to 4.1m for the last. The viewers were clearly at odds to the critics and that was proven in the ratings. It seems like viewers and critics alike have a similar opinion of Vicious, which lost 50pct of its audience during its first series. This Xmas special probably wouldnt even have been commissioned had Itv not greenlit it before the ratings were in and was filmed before they could see the criticism the main series got - so it's likely to be a very similar quality to the first series with no major changes to it.

The first schedule of Season 25 has been published and can be found HERE. Like the Christmas schedule it comprises of 45 programmes so get predicting!

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the DSRPG this season!

Think of the slot, Samuel...

What do you mean? MBB was in the 22.35-23.05 slot for all of its first series, with the same News at Ten lead-in for all episodes and the ratings rose organically throughout:

Episode 1: 2.8m
Episode 2: 3.2m
Episode 3: 3.5m
Episode 4: 3.9m
Episode 5: 3.9m
Episode 6: 4.1m

Vicious went the other way (overnights):

Episode 1: 5.5m
Episode 2: 3.5m
Episode 3: 2.7m
Episode 4: 2.6m
Episode 5: 2.4m
Episode 6: 2.8m (vs BBC1 PSB documentary)

I personally don't think you can compare Casualty to Waterloo Road in this respect. Although Casualty has not been faring well in the overnights of late (though still consolidating to 4-5m, so it shouldn't be completely dismissed), it has done a heck of a lot better than Waterloo Road - the latter has been going for only 7 years and is now fading rapidly, not helped by "jump the shark" moments galore. Casualty is now in its 28th year / season and has, I think, earned the right to be labelled "Britain's favourite contemporary medical drama" in that time.

HOWEVER, I do think that the show has been in a bit of a state of late and is in desperate need of attention. I would agree with suggestions posted a few days ago on this thread that 48 weeks is far far too bloated for a series. The number of episodes must be culled - I would love the series to return to 24 weeks or, better still, 13 week runs (as they did in the eighties). Casualty during the summer has never worked for me. Just as important is a need for the producers and the BBC to ask themselves what Casualty is these days. Is it a soap? Is it a serious medical drama with something to say about the society in which we live? The latter is how the show started out and it has been saddening to see recent producers going against that in favour of soft, unchallenging soap.

You are right in that Casualty is not in a good place at the moment but I am hoping that the new look in January is a sign that the BBC are making a bit more of an effort with it.

Actually I think Waterloo Road is less popular than Balamory!! I'd also have Holby down as more favoured than Casualty.

Scarily it might yet see the light of day in primetime. An episode of Celebrity Wedding Planner will be shown first at 3:05am on New Year's Day, and then repeated on Monday 6th January at 10pm. A few one-off celeb-led docs that are yet to air in primetime will also be shown there.

Not really sure what Five are playing at here. Maybe they are using that 3am slot to test stuff out, they only claimed it back from Supercasino recently. But the sample must be too tiny to be able to come to any meaningful conclusions about how said programming might perform in primetime, so I don't get the point of it.

According to the production company it's 2 one off slots ahead of prime time debut this year

The Mirror's headline for their Christmas Day ratings article is "Mrs Brown's Joys" and comes complete with a very big picture of Brendan O'Carroll as Mrs Brown, so their readers will be in no doubt as to what topped the Christmas Day ratings (at least in the overnights).

And Rory Cowan, who plays Rory, observes how much higher Mrs Brown's ratings were than Eastenders and how that means people will switching on especially to see the comedy. Same applied to Still Open All Hours on Boxing Day.

But I know that already cos that's what I did. You won't catch me watching a dreary soap opera (and here I'm referring to all of them. Yuk!)

Local rag article seeming to confirm mine and Dancc posts (though their source seems to be one of the ahem 'stars')

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/wh...ghts-1-6334967

I saw a trailer of Two Doors Down yesterday, the episode is actually set on New Years Eve so must've been planned for ages for it to air then. Also it is about a Scottish family. I remember reading that Scots watch BBC1 much more on New Years Eve than the rest of the nation with up to 90% watching Hogmanay. So it might work having this Scottish based comedy just before the New year celebrations.

The main reason I mentioned the Welsh thing was due to High Hopes, being similar to Mrs Browns Boys, and that it could have been shown nationally given the lack of decent comedies on BBC at the moment.

Certainly Torchwood was centred on Cardiff a lot, unfortunately, but how many episodes was the time rift actually mentioned, not that many in Doctor Who, with the exception of Boom Town which was a dreadful episode anyway. Quite frankly the less coverage that Cardiff gets in Doctor Who the better.

I think the BBC have bowed to the inevitable, The Royle Family had become worn out and last year's was unpleasant to watch, so they promoted a far newer sitcom that has been the big success of the last few years. MBB is capable of 9 million on a good day, is outrageous and mercifully totally un PC, and deserves the biggest slot and rating of the year. I think this will probably reappear for the next few Christmases.
Also once I Player figures are taken into account, I think DW could win the day and get an average of 10.5 million. This was Matt Smith's finest episode and the action and the story were first rate.

You've conveniently ignored the slot Vicious was in. Much more competitive, and you've said yourself, comedies can organically grow more outside of primetime and build an audience.



Wow, I didn't realise that! Really odd, and strange to be honest.