Maybe they can pay the staff in magic beans?

Well, top 8 anyway...


Blimey, one ITV1 drama bucks the "declining audience over each part" trend, and I'm a blithering idiot....

Maybe there was a glitch in BARB's system last night?





BBC1 should have a good 2009 now it's won the F1 back at weekends, assuming most coverage does end up there. In fact, they could probably do BBC1 and BBC2 a favour by having live races on BBC1 and practice, qualifying and highlights on BBC2.


The way things are going they might soon have to...

Thanks.

Friends is quite a phenomenon, that one episode yesterday got 886,000 viewers in total. Buying the repeat rights to that must be one of the best decisions Channel 4 ever made.

The Commander added viewers across its 3 night run in November. The Children held its audience at 5.20m (officials) on all 3 episodes. Above Suspicion added 700,000 and hit 8m viewers in the officials for its final part.

The main word from the F1 Coverage thread is that all live coverage will be on BBC One and BBC Red Button - Qualifying and Race on BBC One, with Practice (and possibly Support Races) on Red Button.

On the Red Button four feeds will be available: World Feed; Onboard; Highlights and Live Timing. There's also plans penned in for a BBC Three show every night (Thursday to Sunday), which will be repeated on BBC One later in the evening.

Thread: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=965927

I think E4 should try and get reruns and possibly first run rights to How I Met Your Mother which IMO is the closest thing to a Friends successor and its compatible to with the E4 audience.

It will be interesting whether the Five US rebrand to Five USA pays off as the channel has been doing well but its been stuck in a rut with the CSI and Numb3rs reruns as well as films so to get new shows like The Beast, the Shield etc is a good thing as it will allow to grow its audience.

Really?

Are you sure these weren't BBC1 shows?

Four examples then...

It could get a trial run in the 7.30pm slot? Or else at 6pm because Scrubs does seem to be the weak link there (whereas MNIE at 7.30pm is doing pretty well). I think the problem with How I Met Your Mother might be that it has never been properly launched in the UK so they would need to do a first run before moving onto repeats, IMO.


I think Five moved too quickly. One digital channel would have been fine for a while and with Home and Away/Neighbours in early-peak and CSI repeats later, it might have been quite strong.


Yes, really! And I'm sure if I missed any other strong performing drama's out of my list, George will remind you tomorrow!

Didn't Family Guy take off on BBC Three due to the late night repeats that were shown daily. I think HIMYM would do well in the 7.30pm slot to bridge the gap between Hollyoaks and Friends. First run episodes would do well if teamed up with The Big Bang Theory and/or Samantha Who?

Glad to see this news coming out of Channel 4:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1447...lood-kill.html

Due to the proliferation of digital TV in the last five years, it's been a case of not getting many American imports on terrestrial TV. Damages on BBC One, Heroes (although it is getting worse with each season) on BBC Two, Dexter on ITV and Desperate Housewives on Channel 4.

Channel 4 used to be the home of US drama on British TV, but then they insisted on dropping them or shuffing them to grave yard slots and replacing them with documentaries along the lines of "I'm fat - help me!!!".

Looking forward to True Blood most as it's been getting a good write up in the US. Not too sure about Generation Kill - didn't get a good write up in the Indy today.

Though I think what PJ Millar means is they shouldn't keep chasing demographics for demographics sake. The likes of Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Unforgiven, Above Suspicion, Trial and Retribution etc. aren't/weren't purely marketed towards the 16-34s yet I'm sure did better in that demographic number wise than Rock Rivals, Brittania High, Honest, The Palace which obviously were.

Yeah, they certainly appealed to a very narrow demographic, which was the problem right from the start (not to mention they were dire). Look at The X Factor - it works because it appeals to both young and old, and manages to attract a large chunk of the 16-34 audience.

Same with Britain's Got Talent and to a lesser extent Dancing on Ice - they appeal to a family audience and therefore find it easier to draw in people from every group.

If ITV stopped treating 16-34s like they enjoy trash TV (in fairness they appear to be doing this now) they may get more joy ratings wise. Same with all channels TBF, though BBC won't be chasing the 16-34s as much as the commercial networks.

I asked for these ratings as well but my post must have been lost in the numerous ratings posts. Thank you very much!

I think they need to make good TV first and foremost. But in the same way that certain shows are directed at an older audience just by their premise, others will be more targetted towards a young audience.

I tend to find that the US drama's always get solid numbers from the 16-34's. Perhaps if ITV started trying to make something like Heroes or Desperate Housewives instead of Rock Rivals they might get somewhere.

I think alot would come down to perceptions of a channel. Only 33% of the audience for CSI were ABC1, yet 44% of the audience for the CBB final were upmarket... now I've been a fan of CBB since 2000, but BB isn't the kind of show you would associate with being more "upmarket" than CSI. So ITV need to make some steps on that front, but that is as much a publicity thing as programming.

Ratings News... Kind Of

In a move that shouldn't be too surprising, ITV have axed Heartbeat and The Royal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...The-Royal.html

Its not altogether surprising if that is the case - given the serious ratings declines both have suffered from their irregular scheduling and increased opposition. The programmes themselves have certainly seen better days.

Mind you, it leaves a whole lot of slots open on Sunday nights - its a very big gap to fill. I guess it means the soaps won't be returning - as such a move would automatically boost the ratings for TR and HB. So what are we going to be getting instead - more talent shows and light entertainment?

Anyone mind if I put that in a new thread?

Just seems like big news.

Go ahead. Very big news.

Thought I'd post my views over Heartbeat & The Royal in this thread, seeing this is where most of the conversation over its ratings go. First of all I'm quite shocked!! Just heard this on the News and thought they were talking about the tractor accident, but apparently not.

It seems what everyone thought was true-ITV DID try and kill off the 2 shows by removing the Corrie lead in and scheduling them whenever. However I can see how both shows are unappealing to ITV now with a high proportion of older viewers & it costing a lot to make.

ITV seem to be in quite a bit of trouble, axing 2 of their most shows and axing an episode of one of their longest running dramas. I don't think any soap episodes will be axed now because if they're producing 4/5 an extra one won't make that much difference, surely?

Now what I'd be interested in is what the hell ITV are going to do with Sundays-when they were pulling in 10% shares for a few weeks the highest rated programme was usually HB/TR but now ITV could be seeing 2/3m across the night with no safe bankers!!

You could just tell HB & TR were getting in the way of ITV's schedules, but with The Bill having drastic changes and now this I think ITV could be heading for a complete revamp of their schedule with virtually no 8pm shows which perform well left!

Yes, and they're actually killing the series now. I might be going a bit too far, but by airing the Skate-Off episode at 9:30pm in an attempt to narrow down their primetime so they don't need a drama at 9pm.

Also, by having the first Dancing on Ice episode at 7pm is getting more ad revenue obviously, but at a cost.

It's not getting as many viewers, and ITV aren't looking towards the future at all. Last year, ITV couldn't air as many ads in those Sunday slots, but they need to realise, by getting those 8m+ ratings (with Lewis & Wild at Heart) is, if anything, showing that these programmes can continue to bring these ratings in over many years and large quantities of profit will come as a result, but in time. With ITV's 'live now, pay later' strategy, they won't.

Yes, ordinarily this would be cause for celebration, Heartbeat is long past it's sell by date really. I think the broadcaster themselves had lost interest in it given the appalling scheduling.

However if just symptomatic of the credit crunch affecting the commercial television sector, then more concerning. We keep hearing things about individual programmes, however have ITV made any announcements about a reduction in their £1bn programme budget ?

ITV seem keen on celebrity authored journeys at the moment, I can see the likes of Martin Clunes Islands of Britain and Billy Connolly Journey to the Edge of the World featuring in the Sunday 8pm slots. It was reported also that they wanted to bring back Survival with Ray Mears as presenter.

But they'll need something else, probably more light entertainment, we've seem them testing the waters with this in the Autumn, however scheduling the likes of Divas and Take That Come to Town against Strictly wasn't a wise move.

Any idea how many more episodes of Heartbeat / The Royal are left in the can ? Obviously they were still filming yesterday so probably enough to stay on screen until the end of the year ?

Wow. Peter Fincham's really starting to make big changes now. First the transformation of The Bill into a weekly 9pm drama, then the axing of two shows that have been lynchpins of ITV in the last decade! Shocking isn't it, when Heartbeat used to pick up 7-8 million airing in its regular 8pm slot after Corrie.

I really hope Peter Fincham knows what he's doing. If he scales back soaps a bit now too and neatens up their schedules, I will commend his bravery, especially in these difficult times. Perhaps he's seeing a "bigger picture" and has a firm plan. We'll see!

This move wipes out 8pm high-performers ... just what will replace them?

He is certainly freeing up a lot of the budget.

I suppose they cant have been making a lot of money - 4m for an expensive drama with an older audience is not great, but it is their own fault for removing Coronation St.

I'm split on moving the soaps. I think its a good idea in principle to clear Sunday for younger, family entertainment viewing. But the problem is that after Dancing on Ice ends there is nothing else to put on that night.

Well, I think this was a big mistake personally. It was obvious that ITV wanted rid of Heartbeat and The Royal, by taking it on and off air all the time, confusing viewers in the process. Both shows weren't everyone's cup of tea but they are two shows heavily associated with ITV and they were capable of still bringing in around 6 million viewers if it stayed in a consistent slot and had a Corrie lead in.

It only started getting 4-5 million viewers because of ITV's decision to air 4 episodes, take it off air for a few months, then air another few episodes etc. Its random scheduling deserted some of the shows' most loyal viewers.

Hearing the news did make me sad though. I used to watch Heartbeat religiously as a child, it used to be a treat to stay up until 9pm every Sunday night watching the show

Just another bleak Tuesday for ITV1 :

Trinny & Susannah Meet Their Match - 2.3m (10%)

Total Emergency - 2.7m (12%)

Goodbye Trinny & Susannah !