Hope it was a fluke and not a sign of more decreases. Admittedly, I have only watched hollyoaks and 1 episode of EE this week but I've been busy.

If Emmerdale's rating is around 6.6/7m then yes that'd prove that the Rugby dented everything as Emmerdale didn't clash with it, but if it about 6.2m then it would just be clashed as a low night all round.

Yes, I am sure that these are correct, as sonny2001 has posted accurate data here before.

Thanks sonny2001.

Back on to the actual ratings, if the ITV 9pm comedies were this low, I dread to think how low Pushing Daisies was.

The soaps will rebound for sure. Besides Friday's tend to rate lower than other days.


Maybe 1m flat from 21:00 to 23:00?

The primetime and all-day shares will be very interesting reading. If its like that next week, I won't be surprised if all three get wiped, and a Midsomer repeat is put in from 21:00 to 23:00 which could easily get 3/4m.

If these figures are true:

BBC2 getting roughly double what it normally does in this Friday slot. EE and Corrie down about 1m on the previous so the figures would tally.

I would assume the rugby would fare better against the comedies than the soaps. 4.5 or 5m for the 9pm hour? That would be about 3 times what Around The World In 80 Faiths was getting. BBC2 nabbing the viewers denied their Friday night crime drama by ITV1.

ITV will probably HAVE to do this in the end:-

7:00pm Emmerdale
7:30pm Coronation Street
8:00pm Tonight
8:30pm Coronation Street
9:00pm Taggart
10:00pm News at Ten
10:30pm Moving Wallpaper
11:00pm Multiple Personality Disorder
11:30pm Pushing Daisies

Except that ITV1 are supposed to be reviving News At Ten on a Friday shortly. They might as well just introduce News At Nine on Friday and run it for two hours.

(Two hours of ITV news. )

MOVING WALLPAPER - OVERNIGHT RATINGS
Series 1
Ep 1: 10/01/08 - 4,983,000 (21.41%)
Ep 2: 11/01/08 - 3,843,000 (15.79%)
Ep 3: 18/01/08 - 3,475,000 (14.51%)
Ep 4: 25/01/08 - 3,154,000 (13.69%)
Ep 5: 01/02/08 - 2,789,000 (11.58%)
Ep 6: 08/02/08 - 2,672,000 (11.43%)
Ep 7: 15/02/08 - 2,356,000 (10.26%)
Ep 8: 22/02/08 - 2,462,000 (10.62%)
Ep 9: 29/02/08 - 2,674,000 (11.95%)
Ep 10: 07/03/08 - 2,729,000 (12.20%)
Ep 11: 14/03/08 - 1,674,000 (07.40%) **clashed with Sport Relief**
Ep 12: 21/03/08 - 2,300,000 (09.75%)

Series 2 (so far - will update every Saturday)
Ep 1: 27/02/08 - 2,120,000 (09.20%)

I won't be surprised if they pull them on Comic Relief night and run with PJ's schedule for the rest of the run.

Actually, come to think of it, MW could do reasonably in that slot, as the first series was recommissioned for pulling strong 16-34 numbers, which last night probably also did, so it could do well with 16-34s at 10.35pm, which might be worth another shot from ITV (I can't imagine it's too expensive).

Problem is in that slot you've then got a clash with Jonathan Ross.

How Did You manage to find out it's figure for last night ?

Very true, I didn't think of that.

Maybe Thursday at 10.35pm, then. Do they have a repeat at any point this week? It could slot into the repeat slot if they do, which could help.

What low figures Really wasn't expecting everything to be so down. Corrie usually manages to hit almost 10 million in its 7:30 slot!

I had a bad feeling MW and Al Murray's new show would flop. However, I was hoping for MW in particular to hit 3 million as I think that would have been regarded a success. ITV really should have stuck to showing crime drama in that slot, but MW is a really funny show so it's such a shame that it hasn't done well

Yes, I agree, it really is a shame.

Moving Wallpaper feels more like a Channel 4 show, though, so it was never going to get a huge audience, but I was hoping for more than what it got, and it was great last night. Al Murray's show was dreadful, though, so it deserved to do badly.

I know the ratings are in now, so this is in hindsight, but perhaps the best thing to do would have been this:

9.00pm Blue Murder
10.00pm Moving Wallpaper (avoiding Jonathan Ross)
10.30pm Multiple Personality Disorder
11.00pm The Late News
11.40pm Pushing Daisies

That would have worked better, looking at the figures, but nobody knew what the figures would be like, really, when the shows were scheduled, so I can't say that they should have done that.

If those are the launch ratings for a series (MW and Al Murray), they are going to decrease over time. Then in 2 weeks time when its Comic Relief, I dread to think what the News at Ten ratings are going to be when it returns on a Friday, it may be sub 1m

The thing about people comparing MW with Benidorm is that Benidorm has a very broad appeal because there is humour on loads of different levels. When that returns I expect it to do much better than MW is.

I like that schedule Score and think it could have worked. The comedy at 10pm would have provided a good alternative to the news on BBC1, so it could have possibly picked up more viewers. Also, the 9pm slot would get more viewers for ITV if another crime drama was put there. I can see ITV maybe adopting a similar schedule to yours or PJ Millar's idea in the next couple of weeks.

However, I do think MW has a poor reputation after it was attached to the atrocious Echo Beach last year, so to be honest I can't see it picking up more viewers no matter where ITV put it. Also MW had the best possible lead in, with Corrie airing just before. If it aired after a crime drama with less viewers (around 5 million) I could just see it performing worse.

However, I wouldn't like to see Pushing Daisies on so late and agree with others that it should be moved to ITV2 if it carries on getting less than 2 million in its current 10pm slot.

Emmerdale was 6.49m, 32%. Not sure if that helps either way!

A low-ish night all round, then, but the rugby put a dent in everything, too.

Do you have the Pushing Daisies rating, sonny?

Cheers.

Regarding the showing of Torchwood, it could still fit in at the end of March/start of April.

Nature's Great Events finishes on 18 March.
Mistress finishes on 24 March.
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency start week of the 14 - 20 March, but this is likely to go in Sunday 9pm slot

Therefore, they could take advantage of these series finishing by running Torchwood Monday 30 March til Friday 3 April.

Then the week after you could have the return of The Apprentice, Ashes to Ashes and possibly Waking the Dead, but that might be kept until a few weeks after Easter.

What do you think?

There is no way anybody can spin those ratings for Moving Wallpaper and Al Murray as successful. I thought that BBC1's comedies weren't doing well but compared to ITV these shows have ratings like The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Shows of the seventies!

And the rugby on BBC2 dragging down the soaps is very impressive.

Pushing Daisies did 1.2m / 6.8% share...

Cheers.

It wasn't really harmed by the lead-in, and it seems to have a core audience of 1-1.2m now.

LOL.

I mean, another way of improving ratings might be to put MW, MPD and PD in a block on ITV2, with a two hour drama on ITV.

It's a shame there's not much confidence in anything brave ITV decides to commission, e.g. Moving Wallpaper

Won't happen. When the trailer got released last month they said it'd start 'later in the year'. Which says to me, summer at the earliest. Plus JB himself said it wouldn't be on till around then.

Those figures for a France/Wales rugby match on BBC2 are really amazing. I expected a decent audience for the second half once the competition from Eastenders/Corrie was over, but the soaps were dented too. I would love to see the breakdown of the rugby figures over the whole game.

ITV needs to accept that it has a certain type of audience which just doesn't want to watch programmes like MW and Pushing Daisies, however much some of us may love them. Leave them to BBC2/Channel 4 and concentrate on what your audience is looking for.