I've always thought that with Big Bang at 9 and New Girl at 10, Channel 4 could build a successful comedy night. Would also work 8 Out Of 10 and Big Bang at 10. Two big anchor shows for a comedy night

Yes, ITV must be really disappointed to have the most watched scripted show in the overnights outside of soaps last night. They must really think BOAF is a turd!!! If it was on BBC1, this is the stance you would take, so how about some credible posting from you for a change.

Also, ITV must be really disappointed that they had 3 of the top 5 rated shows last night. BOAF beat SW (again) last night. Should the BBC pass on any further series of SW based on your really weird logic?

Unfortunately, it had to be recast because of his illness, so although he did some filming, it got reshot with another actor, and that has appeared on screen already.

That's a very good timeshift for a turd.

Ah that's a shame, I was out there and caught a glimpse of him filming at the time

Apart from when he describes the 6 million rating Birds of a Feather as turd of course.


Great start for Brookyln Nine-Nine.


In their defence they did try New Girl on the main channel and it was a disaster. Didn't they also try The Simpsons in prime time a few years back to less than stellar results.


I can't imagine they'd ever want to put New Girl back on the main channel after how badly the last stint went. When it comes to Big Bang I suppose its a debate about whether the damage that does to E4 is worth the potential improvements it could do for Channel 4. I think unless they have a new British comedy they love moving Big Bang is probably a bad idea.

New Girl isn't as funny as the pre-US broadcast reviews were making out IMO (obviously).

I don't think C4 did themselves any favours sticking the show on at 8.30pm. Traditionally 9pm has been the strong point of C4's Friday night line up and before that 10pm.

In all seriousness I don't really have anything against 8 out 10, I just wish some US sitcoms could have shared its slot (like the brilliant Happy Endings).

Excellent timeshift for Silent Witness, even more than it was adding last year. Great for BOAF as well.

such even handed comment has no place on this thread, what are you thinking?

The sporting calendar has worked out really well for BBC2 this year so far, with darts, snooker and bowls (the latter maybe not so exciting, but it's there) filling the DQF-shaped holes in daytime, and then a few weeks later the Winter Olympics for another fortnight. Means the schedule isn't full of repeats (interesting though many of those repeats are).


Yes, seems a bit of a bijou slot for an opening ceremony, 105 minutes, although of course there are fewer competitors in the Winter Olympics.


Yes, which did for Under The Hammer, the Richard Wilson-starring drama about antiques which was on ITV, although it was flopping before that. That was the only bit of the 1994 Winter Olympics that was shown on BBC1, it was the first year that they were mostly all confined to BBC2. I vividly remember watching the opening ceremony to the 1992 Games at my aunties' house on a Saturday afternoon. Can't remember which one was the "Here they are in their scarves and mittens, the talented athletes of Great Britain!" ceremony.

Course, the 2002 Games started on the day Princess Margaret died, the opening ceremony was live overnight with a rerun scheduled for 9am on BBC2, but when the death was announced at 8.30 they shunted The Saturday Show over for its first hour, then the repeat started at 10am, but they just didn't show the first hour and just started it from where it would have been at 10am.

The curling in 2002 was on a Thursday night, they showed it on BBC1 unscheduled at 10.30, dumping Question Time back to near midnight, with Dimblebot saying "Sorry if you're not very interested in curling!". And of course I have such fond memories of the 1998 Winter Olympics when I was at university and we stayed up until three in the morning every day. I hope today's students aren't boringly pragmatic and watch this year's games all day every day.


When they bought the rights to The Simpsons in 2004 they did indeed show them at 9pm, which was also the slot BBC2 showed it for a couple of weeks when it was doing brilliantly at teatime and they wanted to see if it could do even better in primetime. But it didn't, particularly, so both channels stopped bothering.


You could apply that argument to Downton Abbey vs By Any Means.

Channel 4 scheduled New Girl ridiculously. It should have been at 9pm instead of 8:30pm opposite Corrie.

Amanda Abbington from Sherlock (though talking about Mr Selfridge) was on This Morning today and confirmed that they are planning for Sherlock to be back filming this year. They need to get all the cast together at one time but seems to think it will happen. Looks as if the BBC are keen to have something of Sherlock on over the holidays this Christmas/New Year. Unsurprisingly.

Birds of a Feather's decline hasnt finished yet, mark my words. It will continue dropping until it is around the 5million level. 5million would good for a comedy in general but not for a massively hyped revival which started with 7.5million viewers. Outnumbered may never have got 6.2m for a regular episode but it is not a revival, it is a show which has always rated around the same sort of level [4-5.5million i think]. The expectations for BOAF are much higher due to its past ratings success on BBC1 and how its revival started on Itv a couple of weeks ago. Its ratings trajectory should be of concern, it has fallen 1.6m in 2 weeks and the slide is going to continue for the next few weeks. BOAF will continue dragging down Benidorm with it, which will settle in the low 4s [excluding repeats].

Birds of a Feather was always going to bottom out around 5 - 5.5 million. And, if it does, then ITV will be delighted. I expect a second series announcement soon.

Exactly the same downward trend would/will occur if Open All Hours goes to series. There is always a curiosity/nostalgia factor for the first episode or perhaps two. But a sitcom is rarely must watch as there is in general no ongoing plot to miss if you have better things to do one night.

Any sitcom that gets over 5 million per episode these days is a hit, whatever channel it is on. Or its history. Which can work against it as much as for it, as few under 25 will likely even recall it.

It has not been constantly repeated on the BBC since it aired, like, for instance, Only Fools, or The Vicar of Dibley, to alert those who missed it first time around. If you revived any similar show - such as Goodnight, Sweetheart (which I would love to see) I would expect a similar pattern and I think a similar audience. Which I suspect would please any channel these days.

Even Mrs Browns Boys, which is a huge hit, will one day start falling (though not in the next year or two I imagine) and that decline is being slowed by there being relatively few episodes a year.

According to the BBC web site it had been hoped he would take part in the OFAH sketch for Comic Relief in March but was too ill to appear. The way the story is written suggests it has already been recorded.

From my own research that I've done, Birds never rated as well as people are making out back in the 90's. Granted the 1992 and 93 Christmas specials got really high ratings but the regular series rated 9-12 million with occasional episodes rating 13-14 million. Still high but not spectacular.

The 1997 series was its lowest rated series with an average of around 8 million - quite low for 1997 I would say. I think Birds is rating well, at least we have a sitcom on our screens instead of heavy going drama! I think the revival will average at around 6.5 million (mark my words I may be wrong - sarcasm directed at Samuel there) which is pretty good for a sitcom. Plus timeshifting these days is immense! Who cares what channel it is on? As long as it makes people laugh then what's the problem?

Wow. Rant over!

Good for EastEnders, but I am really frustrated it's not getting above that 8m level, it really deserves it. But I know, I know, just give it time. It's odd, this time last year I was really wishing for the ratings to go down (as they did) just so TPTB would actually realise something was seriously wrong and sort stuff out at long last! Now they are and the turnaround is quite something. Come on viewers, come back!

The BBC have already confirmed they've asked the production company for a Sherlock special on Christmas Day 2014.

I think Neil made a little typo - it's actually scheduled 15:30-19:15.

The Snooker and Darts have pushed up BBC2's share a tad these last two weeks. It's also a nice side effect that these sports are getting more time on BBC2 following DQF. The Bowls next week for example is on air until 5.15 - coverage in 2012 finished at 3pm. The Snooker is on air until 6 all this week, when in 2012 it finished at 3.45 Mon-Wed and 4.30 Thu-Fri.

That's interesting - perhaps she'd like to tell her husband, who just yesterday claimed to know nothing about it!

Do we have a tape-checked rating for The One Show please ronant (or anyone)? For the full slot it had 4.70m (23%) but it finished early.

And sorry for that typo. I should have realised the Opening Ceremony would be longer than that.

Not baffling to me - I think its one of the better crime dramas. If you want achingly dull try Lewis IMO.

SW reaching into the 7millions from 5.2m overnight is tremendous as is BOAF timeshift.

I'd be surprised if they can pull everyone's schedules together to get an episode (let alone three) on air in the next 12 months. I don't doubt that they'll try and that the BBC will push for it but I'm not sure its possible looking at what everyone involved has lined up for the rest of the year.

EastEnders just needs that one moment to push it over 8m in the overnights. Might not happen until Stacey's return.