No, it's not. I think the Friday night slot does it no favours, but it does have a fairly decent inheritance from QI, so a "comedy" audience is already there on BBC1.

I think people have just decided to give it a miss. Which is a shame, because it's by far the funniest thing on telly and Friday's episode was hilarious at times.

At the moment, BBC1 has a reasonable comedy line-up with Not Going Out and The Old Guys, the fair-to-middling Life of Riley, along with Outnumbered, My Family, and Green Green Grass past its best but still a reasonable watch. Plus the prospect of more Royle Family after its Christmas triumph.

But the ratings aren't there - only the Royles and to a lesser extent My Family can be said to be ratings winners. It's a shame, they all deserve much better audiences. Perhaps viewers really don't want sitcom anymore, they'd rather watch crime drama and reality formats?

I really want to see BBC1 try comedy on Sunday nights. I'm sure they would do well there.

Seem to be a few scoring problems on Tits on Ice tonight.

Yet another component that DoI has shamelessly nicked from Strictly?

Two of my favourite comedies at the moment aren't getting the ratings I think they deserve. Plus One on Channel 4 and Not Going Out on BBC1 should rate higher in my view. The problem with several sitcoms on BBC1 is that they could be scheduled better. I would put The Green Green Grass on after EastEnders, I'd try Not Going Out on a different night as well, and Outnumbered was shoved against The X Factor for most of its run. When Outnumbered went out after the Strictly Come Dancing final and not opposite The X Factor it was discovered and the people that never saw it before said how much they liked it. Some of these BBC sitcoms need to be discovered but they never will be because of where they are placed in the schedule.

ITV advertised Piers Morgan's Life Stories earlier, so it must be airing in the next few weeks. I only saw the end of the advert, and the guests I saw were:

Sharon Osbourne
Katie Price
Richard Branson

Did they show any of the other guests earlier in the trailer?

The fact that, apart from The Royle Family, BBC1 only cater for middle class PC families, with silly jokes, really answers the whole ratings question.

The best sitcoms currently in production are The Royle Family and Benidorm, both depicting the working class.

How many editions are there in the new series of Saturday Night Takeaway? With In It To Win It finishing ITV could do very well on Saturdays. But nothing is really getting that blockbuster 9 or 10 million audience on Saturdays on either of the main channels.

Two weeks tonight at 10pm, I believe.


Not sure I entirely buy the class thing. Look at, say, One Foot in the Grave, arguably the most popular sitcom of the modern age, which was solidly Middle England.

BBC1 has had masses of fantastic hit sitcoms over the past 30 years and I can only really think of stuff like Open All Hours, Steptoe or Fools and Horses that were particularly working class (off the top of my head). The vast majority of hits have been "middle class" comedies.

I think viewers quickly decide whether they like the sound of the "sit", who is in it, what it's called, and how good the trailer looks. Not whether it looks "too middle class".

Cheers for this. It'll probably do well there, with a Tits on Ice lead in.

You're absolutely right Robbie. The failure of sitcoms these days isn't down to the class they portray but the lack of jokes. There have been many successful middle class sitcoms like The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin, One Foot In The Grave, 2Point4 Children, Ever Decreasing Circles or Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads. We've had working class shows like Steptoe & Son and Only Fools and Horses, then there was the very upper class To The Manor Born. and you could say the ruling class with Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister. It doesn't matter where a sitcom is set or how it's filmed (single camera or multi-camera studio based), what matters most is if it makes the audience laugh.

Saturday Night ratings wise and BBC One did well with Six Nation, Total Wipeout, IITWI, Casualty with the Old Guy down from last week, ITV1 did okay with YBH, TV Burp and the Midsomer repeat although I dont expect Demons to get a second series, BBC Two did well with its factual shows, Channel 4 did okay business with the Grand Designs repeat and The Italian Job and CSI:NY did well for Five as did the repeat of NCIS.

I wonder if the BAFTAs will put a big dent in DOI's ratings tonight.

I actually forgot the BAFTAs were on

I doubt it, the BAFTAs only ever get about 3m.

Ah ok.

Film award shows like The BAFTAs, Oscars and The Golden Globes don't ever seem to pull in the viewers and I think it is the choice of films that are nominated and win which unless it's a film like Slumdog Millionaire, Titanic or Lord of the Rings most people have not seen the films. The Emmys in America tend to nominate shows like Mad Men, Damages and 30 Rock which are critically acclaimed but they don't draw in viewers compared to CSI or NCIS which is why ratings are down year on year.

Lol.

Pushing Daises should be axed. I expected at least 2m, replace it with a filler that would get double that figure.

Although the biggest tit on the show has just been voted off I see.

"We're so desperately sorry to see you go" said Pip Schofield. Hm, I bet Grade and Fincham are thinking the same thing, in ratings terms...

They've had their fun. It would have been worse if he'd ended up still in it towards the end which would have provided the same logistical problems as SCD and possibly damaged the show if he'd won

The Twitter tubetalk has said that Law & Order: UK will air on the 23rd February after Whitechapel has finished its run. I expect the promotions will starting very shortly and considering L&O is a known brand both here and worldwide, I have high hopes for it and I expect 5-6m for the first episode at least.

That would seemingly sort out Monday nights until the end of May then, providing they are showing all 13 in one block.

Any news on The Prisoner ?

Richard Branson is a good one, I think. But I'm just not sure this show is primetime material with it focussing on just one person for the whole hour. It's going to be a proper interview show and I have little doubt his interviews will be good. But as primetime entertainment?

JR and Norton have multiple guests and the focus is on them instead of the guests anyway which is why they work to a mass audience, IMO.

Also:
Mumbai Calling, a new sitcom from Sanjeev Bhaskar, is due on ITV Q1-Q2 and scheduled for late peak. Possibly Saturday nights after BGT? Not sure where else it could go and be "late peak".

From the sound of the overused canned laughter on The Old Guys, I think it's fair to say that's one programme which is struggling to do just that.

The trailer was enough to put me off, there wasn't one joke in it.

Just a word about Neighbours's australian ratings...

With it being summer there its usually quite low, but its maintained a stready 750-850k in recent weeks, well up on last year. And its been tying 1st in its demo.

Apparently the promotion has been stepped up a gear on Ten and the storylines are quite compelling. The actor who plays Karl says its been his favourite ever storyline. Could see it within an earshot of the 1m mark soon as the nights start to draw in if they keep this up.

I'm surprised that Pushing Daisies is doing as much as 1.66 when you consider its position

I can see them showing all 13 in one.

As for The Prisoner, I think it might have been delayed until the Autumn.


I think Piers Morgan will get a decent audience in the Sunday 10pm slot, his 10.35pm BBC1 shows always got 2.5-3m, and I can see it doing even better in a more high profile slot after DOI.

As for Mumbai Calling, I think either Saturday after BGT or Sunday at 10pm is looking likely. I wonder where Moving Wallpaper will go?