I'm surprised TV Burp isn't on directly before A&D, but apart from that as expected. I don't know what ITV could fill the 9pm slot with because a lot of their stuff shouts out as pre watershed to me.

I expect that it will be, and DOI will shift half an hour earlier. Remember that these schedules aren't completely confirmed until tomorrow.

The Colour of Money might take that 9pm slot, or they may be lazy and stick on another Midsomer repeat.

Wow.
I'm actually more impressed by some of the daytime TV ratings which are in their millions too.

I think that this might suggest that today's audience isn't distracted away from television by 'other things' because 'there's more things to do' like watching DVDs and playing computer games.
Because if they're in the house they'll tend to watch TV.

It's probably simple. Generally speaking if there's something good on they'll watch TV.
If there's nothing on they're down the pub.
Because here we're seeing that if people are stuck in the house then they'll opt to watch TV.
I've never been convinced by this excuse which regularly gets reeled out after poor ratings that nowadays in the modern world there's more things to do and that's why people don't watch television as much anymore. Here we're seeing that when people are forced to stay in they watch television.

Make better programmes without having to rely on the weather to keep people in the house and people will watch television.
These latest ratings really do imply that if people are in the house then they'll tend to watch television.

Yes, but do they "tend to" watch television as much as they used to?

Monday 2nd February 2009

8:00
FOX House 14.75m
CBS The Big Bang Theory 10.89m
ABC The Bachelor 10.52m
NBC Chuck 8.35m
CW Gossip Girl 2.27m

8:30
CBS How I Met Your Mother 10.18m

9:00
CBS Two and a Half Men 16.52m
ABC The Bachelor 11.46m
FOX 24 11.28m
NBC Heroes 8.45m
CW One Tree Hill 2.60m

9:30
CBS Worst Week 10.04m

10:00
CBS CSI: Miami 15.99m
NBC Medium 8.53m
ABC True Beauty 6.82m

Looking at the weather picture for the next few days, ratings wise I think ratings will be a tiny bit up tonight and Wednesday, but nothing as much as last night.

Thursday and Friday ratings will probably be up due to more snow, but again, not as much as yesterday.

Chuck did well in the US, i'm sure it wasn't doing that well before the break.
I think the weather could really benefit Kitchen Nightmares US on Friday

An excellent set of ratings for yesterday!

I can't believe nearly 33million viewers were watching TV at 9pm last night.

Some very good performances from the 3 main soaps. I wonder how EE and Emmerdale will fair tonight during the clash.

A wonderful snow-boost for yesterday's ratings!

WOW at the ratings, there are to many good ratings to talk about!

As for the American ratings, NBC did better then i thought they would!

Right now, no.
But that's my point. If the programmes were better in general, and consistently good, then maybe they might do.

But going by these figures I think it suggests that a captive audience generally isn't playing computer games, watching DVDs, or on the Internet, instead of watching television. Which is what we are usually told by television spokespeople.

We just found out that there was a potential audience of 33 million watching television last night.
If programme makers can make good enough TV programmes then that's a large potential audience to tap into.
Some of the old excuses for poor ratings of 1-3 million or something just aren't going to cut it with me as much anymore. Sometimes poor quality programmes just happen to be the reason why a show isn't getting good enough ratings, they can't make excuses for everything.

House is really an asset to FOX and has boosted its Monday lineup, 24 isn't doing as well but i'm sure FOX is fine with the ratings. CBS is coping well against with its comedies and CSI:Miami and it will rate higher when RoE returns. NBC did okay considering the heavy competition with a 8m audience throughout the night and The Bachelor is doing wonders for ABC.

I have to admit GeorgeS that is a brilliant line!!

Well where to start. That is a seriously impressive set of ratings through the day for both channels. Whitechapel did very well beating an established show on BBC1 ITV's Monday night thriller strand is doing very well. I said in the Autumn that ITV's drama slate looked stronger than BBC1's and it has been better scheduled as well. So much for ITV's drama reputation being tarnished. If you put on a good show they'll watch. The BBC's news bulletins did very well, 5 million for The One O'Clock News!!

The BBC's local news bulletins collectively getting 9 million!!

The Six and Ten O'Clock News getting over 7 million!!

And if The One Show ends up with 6 million after the officials come out that will be amazing.

What a surreal day weather wise and ratings wise.

Proving your points, let's not forget that the delightful New Tricks was attracting audiences of around nine million last year at the height of summer.

When ITV launched in 1955 it blew the complacent BBC out of the water because it was run by people, like Lord Lew Grade, who had a natural feel for popular and populist programming.

Despite still producing a number of big successes, the large number of utter disasters the channel has had in recent years suggest that the current shower running ITV just don't have a clue how to relate to today's audiences.

I don't think the claim has often been made that less people are watching television, at least not by the industry themselves - they'd be mad to say that because:

a) It's not true
and
b) You wouoldn't want the advertising industy to think that

The reason raitings are in decline is mainly because there's so much competition within the television marketplace itself.

That's why "poor" ratings of 3m have started cropping up on BBC1, and less on Channel 4 and BBC2 - because even with 30m+ viewers watching television on a Monday evening, there's so much good content out there that viewing is split.

There was a report last week which found that TV viewing was at the joint highest level ever in 2008.

The issue with falling terrestrial ratings is more to do with the volume of options through multi-channel.

Steady on chaps, it was obviously boosted by people being stuck in their homes, rather than people deciding that they absolutely must stay in and see it. It might well get less than 6m next week, perhaps not much more than 5m.

Swiftly changing my tune , congratulations to The One Show, not just squeaking through the 6m barrier but heading towards the 7m mark. If only it had snowed 24 hrs later, it could have been tonight's show getting the boost and it being Tuesday, as GeorgeS keeps telling us, TOS would get its EastEnders 'pre'-inheritence and could have smashed 7m.

Perhaps it will anyway?

Commiserations George - but well done for taking it like a man. Now we can look forward to it some day getting 7m and/or beating Emmerdale. If it won new viewers last night, perhaps it can do one or both of those in 2009?

WDYTYA could do better next week with the delectable Fiona Bruce a bigger draw than Bremner. She took Antiques Roadshow through the 10m barrier , she might work some more magic with WDYTYA...


Impressive news ratings all round, for obvious reasons, but no recent records broken - except possibly the regional news. I've said this many times, but BARB really should include the Regional News as one programme, it is billed in RT and TV guides/EPGs as "BBC Regional News" and so what if each region obviously has its own show?

I actually expected higher ratings for the Six and Ten in the circumstances, with something in the region of 9-10m for the Ten. Perhaps it started with that then drifted off - would be interesting to see what the peak audience was for the Ten. I suppose with so many off work, they'd probably had their fill of "snow news" by 10pm.

The One o'Clock has had higher ratings than that, I'm sure. On 7/7 and/or the day of the Olympics announcement, I'm sure 6-7m watched it. There might be other examples.

Agree with all of that. Unbelievable news ratings-the BBC regional news figures are astonishing(given the raves about DOI's figure-theres not that much difference) and Watchdog goes on proving its a popular alternative to the soaps.
Personally I think Panorama has been a spent force for many years. When I was a child the word "Panorama" meant 50 minutes of mind numbing excrutiating boredom, and I would imagine for alot of adults that pain is remembered today.
Message to BBC-ditch the name and start with something fresh!

When you look at the list of series averages (on page 339) it is quite clear that ITV can appeal to a mass audience. But I'd say they had 4 main problems in 2008:
1. They have highly rated crime drama's. But they struggled with their attempts at other genres.
2. The summer schedule... partly the olympics but also just a lack of effort.
3. Factual shows are trailing behind and often promote the tacky image.
4. They consistently trail BBC1 outside primetime (daytime/news) particularly at weekends.

The good news so far in 2009:
Their Thursday night authored journeys got off to a surprisingly good start with Piers Morgan On...
Excellent ratings from the Monday night thrillers strand.
Their soaps and entertainment formats continue to beat BBC1's offerings.

The bad news so far in 2009:
Their only non-crime drama, Demons, has flopped.
Some strange scheduling which has hindered Saturday nights.
Football prevents long running drama series being run on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
The Feelgood Factor, Trinny and Susannah and some awful 9pm docs have flopped and sound trashy.

Just checked with BARB and the One on 7/7/05 got 4.3m. No entry for the Olympics announcement day the previous day. Not as high as I remembered but still high.

I'm sure the One got higher figures for something in the past couple of years, but can't think for what...


Agreed. I think part of the decline may be down to BBC1's success in establishing a nightly current affairs show at 7pm, which also pulls the ratings too. No need for a weekly one too...

What D.M.N. is asking is were the ITV dramas going out now on Monday nights dramas that were made and held back for quite a few months or did they always plan to show them like this?

Some dramas on ITV last year were made quite some time beforehand, but were just sitting on the shelf for an eternity.

I wonder what that show might be!

One of the joys of this thread is the tennis match involving the ..........(an increasingly popular television show at 7pm weekdays on BBC1)

Using your Whitechapel logic (and bearing in mind that WDYTYA? is not a new drama), that means that WDYTYA? should be under 5m next week.

And The One Show should be back to its usual 5m or so Monday audience.

In honesty though, I can see Whitechapel getting just below 7m next week, putting it about a million ahead of WDYTYA?

I have never really watched TOS because I don't generally get in from work before 7.30, but I watched it all yesterday and I cannot honestly see why people gripe about it. Totally watchable, entertaining and informative, this is surely the sort of show BBC1 should be putting out?

Because of the early-ish slot, millions of potential viewers don't get the chance to see it. Although it is doing an increasingly good job in kicking Emmerdale on the shins, there might be a case for putting it out at 8pm, or perhaps repeating it later on BBC1 or BBC3?

Or perhaps BBC4?

No, because the "declining audience over multi-part ITV1 drama serial" rule only works for multi-part ITV1 drama serials.

(And is in tatters anyway in 2009... )