I thought it was boring, too long and it couldn't really grab my attention. It was like a poor rip-off of Deal or No Deal. Didn't like the sob stories in it either.

Best thing about it was Millie Clode... hopefully we'll see more of her in primetime tv .

Well, it's almost double what it got on BBC2.

We know that it is capable of getting 4.5-5m on BBC1. Just needs a better slot and/or less competition - which it gets from this Friday...

With QI XL and the midweek repeat, I reckon QI is getting a total of about 7m a week. Not bad for a highbrow quiz pitched at a ABC1 'broadsheet' audience.

Alot less, partly because its ITV and partly because it wouldn't have the Comic Relief name in it which allows you to get away with a lot ("I know it's crap, but it's for charity!"). Still, ITV screwed it up for themselves with the dreadfully produced Colour of Money.

But it means more dancing shows on BBC1 in the future, I think. Whenever So You Think You Can Dance? is mentioned, it's always with regard to ITV... yet BBC1 would seem its natural home.

BBC1 Saturdays in 2010 - "So You Think You're A Celebrity That Can Dance For Sport Relief?"

Hosted by Dale Winton.
Judges - John Barrowman, Myleene Klass and Anton Du Beke.

They need to get rid of the QI repeats for next series - they just eat away at the audience for the main show.

I predicted Let's Dance would beat Colour of Money and Ant and Dec would beat Casualty, but I never expected Let's Dance to average higher than Ant and Dec.

If it keeps this up what will the BBC do with it? It's their best rated new live entertainment format since Maria. They surely wont keep it for Comic Relief every 2 years?

Maybe extend it and use it for Sport Relief too? It could run January - March every year. Even if it drops to 5m, or high 4ms, its still better than Eurovision was managing. It's a least worth a shot until they can come up with some good original formats.

Surgery is going to be required for ITV's Saturday Nights. Colour of Money did terribly considering the prime slot it was afforded, and given the majority of the reactions to it, I can see it falling further.

Lets Dance did significantly better than I was expecting, and impressively, peaked at the very end while opposite Ant and Dec. I posed the question yesterday whether they were going to ramp up the silliness, or be serious. Clearly, they chose the former and its worked for them.

(Robert Webb is my new idol - to do that in front of 7 million people - well, it takes balls. And we know - we could see them )

Next week, Lets Dance clashes more directly with Ant and Dec. I was expecting Ant and Dec to take that contest by a reasonably comfortable measure, but I'm not sure now. Lets Dance has a 20 minute head start with decent Rugby lead-in, against the flopping COM - Ant and Dec could be staring defeat in the face, and that dosen't happen very often.

As for Friday nights - the trend of drama on ITV trimuphing over comedy on BBC continues. All of which makes ITV's decision to switch to a comedy double next week all the more bewildering. BBC One may well see a slight recovery - though I think overall, are going to have to start thinking about investing in some alternative programming for Friday's and alternative slots for the comedies.

I reckon that SYTYCD would be a hit show (particularly in the summer), so I've been surprised neither broadcaster has picked up the rights.

Maybe ITV haven't picked it up because they don't want to saturate their Saturday schedules with reality tv. But I definitely think it could rate really well on the BBC, which currently doesn't have that many light entertainment shows.

Out of all the comparisons that could be made - certainly wasn't expecting that one! Interesting though.

I think you're right in that Deal or No Deal and Weakest Link are successful due to their simple but strong formats and the fact they are not overproduced which was the impression I got from my brief and rather forgettable glimpse of CoM yesterday.

I suppose you could say DOND goes down the sob story route to an extent with its Christmas Star specials each year, but these did not start until long after the show had established itself and built up an audience, and feel a hell of a lot more 'real' to me than what I saw last night. At least with DOND Christmas Star, they don't attempt to hide the fact that all the contestants have been picked specifically due to their backgrounds.

I think So You Think You Can Dance is a weak format.

I dont think it could do any better than Strictly Dance Fever or Dance X.

God bless Google. I think I see what you mean

DonD doesn't do sob-stories, but it does do stories. You get to know a contestant's life story during the time they are on the show

Problem is now ITV's have a very mediocre Saturday, with Saturday Night Takeaway their only big draw, compared with several big shows on BBC One.

BTW, does anyone know whether England's friendly on March 28th against Slovakia from Wembley is live on ITV1?

SYTYCD is still a bit different from those 2 shows you've mentioned. It's more like The X Factor of dancing, with auditions etc. I haven't watched it much to say whether it's a strong or weak format, but the basic idea sounds like quite a good one.


That match will be on Setanta, who have the rights to home friendlies.

Yes but it's all done in a rather dignified and sophisticated manner, and doesn't verge into full blown exploitation.

I just can't see it myself. I could see the auditions rating well but dropping off after that. Then again we haven't really seen anything that focuses on serious modern dancing so it could be a ratings surprise. Mind you, DanceX mixed elements of this with The X Factor (well, ish) and we all know how that went.

Problem is, what makes the show appealing is the connection to Comic Relief. It's the fact its so lighthearted and plainly done to generate laughs. At times last night, it was almost like Peter Kay's spoof a few months back - with the overhyped into sequences and stuff. That won't work without the Comic Relief banner (or perhaps the Sport Relief one) and I think would quickly get old after more than three or four weeks.

Plus, no celebrity of any calibre whatsoever would appear on it if it wasn't for Comic Relief. I know last night collection were hardly glittering stars, but someone like Robert Webb wouldn't be there. You'd be talking Hole in the Wall-standard zelebs.

Actually, this format reminds me a bit of what Bruce Forsyth said he had imagined SCD was going top be. Celebrities embarassing themselves dancing in a bit of a Generation Game-style. As it happened, the quality of performance on SCD was a lot better and it turned out to be a serious competition.

Ah, OK. I'm just wondering what is going to be on ITV's on Saturdays (and Sundays I guess) when Saturday Night Takeaway and Dancing on Ice both finish.

For Saturday, I'm guessing Primeval, but for Sunday I'm not too sure, apart from The Royal possibly.

Saturday, Primeval. For Sunday, Beat the Star.

She looked better last night than she ever has on Sky Sports News where it tends to be suits. Last night was a very fetching LBD. In the show thread last night, she was the second biggest topic of conversation... the most talked about was how bad the show was. I don't really think anyone was paying attention to the game which sums up the whole mess, IMO.

Sky Sports News might have found a few new fans, though!

Yeah, I was just about to post something similar. She looked great last night on TCOM - better than I've ever seen her on Sky Sports News .

I was hoping that in the bits she was talking last night, they would actually show her for a longer time instead of showing a dull screen with stats . Maybe they can improve that in the editing for future shows .

Do we think ITV1 might screen the new episodes of Lewis in an 8pm slot rather than a 9pm one to spread their dramas out more?

What chance COM gets ousted from its Saturday slot early and replaced by Primeval? Maybe after Let's Dance finishes as I think that might be replaced by that new John Barrowman-hosted show that's being planned, and that looks like a flop in the making.

Tbh, with every attempt, it seems like BBC1 really could show anything on a Saturday night and get 5m viewers. Compared to some of their outlandish ideas, So You Think... is quite obvious.

Dance X may be the exception to the rule, of course! I always thought it could have been a bit more subtle with the fact that it was based on X Factor. Fair enough if it wants to draw inspiration from X Factor, but don't make it so blatant with the name as well!

And remember, DanceX also mixed the elements of "Ben Shephard" and "TV" and we all know how that is bound to end. :yawn::sleep:

BBC One did well last night. Let's Dance did very well and Comic Relief looks like it could pull in 8-10m !

On the bright side, considering even Demons did better than COM, maybe ITV will think about doing a second series of it now (shut up everyone! I liked two of the characters okay and want to see it have another chance! My guilty pleasure )

Let's Dance could very well profit ratings wise from the word of mouth spreading about Robert Webb's performance. People tuning in to see what else we might get.

I think a split screen is required!

Not that I would expect the people that made the show to have such a good (and maybe slightly chauvenistic!) idea. The whole thing screamed of desperation and trying too hard.


I think they have to start burning off episodes of The Royal and Heartbeat at 8pm. So we'll get that muddled schedule with Beat The Star at 7pm leading into something like Heartbeat and Lewis.


I don't think it will be replaced and I expect they want Primeval running alongside BGT this year. But it might find itself gradually moving later and later in the schedule. Swapping slots with A&D seems certain.

I think Friday night is still a good night for comedy (with Channel 4 now having given up on Friday nights) but it needs to be the right kind of comedy.

Firstly, don't be wasting your potential hits on Saturday nights - The Old Guys, Outnumbered, and to an extent, Love Soup from last year, should not be left wandering about the Saturday night schedule (see my proposed Saturday night schedule a few pages back).

Secondly, at 9, I'd upgrade Mock the Week from BBC2 and have HIGNFY and MTW running start of September til the end of May. That's about 40 weeks of the year - each of them could easily to two, ten week runs. Satire is what PSB should be about and these shows do it brillantly. Or maybe even take a risk and do something along the lines of the Daily Show all year.

Thirdly, sort out the lead in. I hope Jay Hunt has something up here sleeves, as these Sky Cops repeats simply aren't cutting it. I'd put QoS in there (I think it was getting about 4m last January when it was promoted at the last minute due to ITV1's Corrie switch). Also, I'd bring Mastermind over from BBC2. It was getting good figures for the Celebrity editions over New Year, and I think it's a good enough format to hold up.

Oh, and of course the comedy they're doing has to be half decent - no more Life of Reily or Green Green Grass.

So, what do you think?