I can't think of a better example of general family entertainment than Saturday Night Takeaway that is on tv at the minute, have you actually watched the show? And around 13 million people are watching TvUK and SNT so they must be doing something right.

Overnights for 2013 series of Saturday Night Takeaway

Episode 1 - 6.46m (28.3%) [+1 610k]
Episode 2 - 6.74m (30.1%) [+1 430k]
Episode 3 - 6.48m (29.6%) [+1 255k]
Episode 4 - 6.69m (29.4%) [+1 269k]
Episode 5 - 7.33m (31.7%) [+1 421k]

Episode 6 - 6.7m (28.7%) [+1 ~ 0.5m]
------* vs The Voice average of 6.24m

Episode 7 - 6.76m (30.3%) [+1 541k]
------* vs The Voice average of 6.43m (28.5%)



Overnights for 2014 series of Saturday Night Takeaway

Episode 1 - 6.05m (25.9%) [+1 430k]
------* vs The Voice average of 7.25m (31.2%)

Episode 2 - 6.41m (27.8%) [+1 456k]
------* vs The Voice average of 6.95m (30.4%)

Episode 3 - 6..65m (28.9%) [+1 360k]
------* vs The Voice average of 6.70m (29.3%)

Episode 4 - 6.5m (28.7%) [+1 532k]
------* vs The Voice average of 6.70m (29.2%)

Episode 5 - 6.17m (26.9%) [+1 316k]
------* vs The Voice average of 6.21m (27.6%)




Overnight ratings are for the main ITV showing and exclude +1.
+1 rating listed separately in brackets.
The Voice ratings are the overnight average for the entire episode.

A gap of 0.04k between SNT and The Voice this week when +1 is excluded. Both down on last week but the gap is the narrowest it's been so far. SNT could edge ahead next week, with ratings then picking up again in 2 weeks time for the The Voice final. The benefit of 3 live shows - you don't have to wait long for the series finale boost.

Takeaway is down over a million year-on-year and down over half a million against the episodes which aired against The Voice in 2013 so are they doing something right?

Saying that I thought last night's show was brilliant but the decline is there for all to see.

I don't think its to do with singing competitions. Both The Voice and X Factor start high but tail off a bit after a few weeks. The problem with The Voice is that its just 'there'. Everyone knows what X Factor is and what its capable of. Its just a huge panto that, when they get it right, becomes a great talking point. BGT and SCD are, as you say, great entertainment value as the focus is on the acts. For The Voice, they can't decide if to have an act focus or a judge focus, and end up with neither. The acts aren't that great either because most of the "talent" (if you can call it that) tend to go for the Cowell shows due to greater exposure and better prospects afterwards. Each of these shows has its own USP, but once The Voice is past the blind auditions then it does just become a second rate X Factor because the production of the live shows is pretty poor, and for that reason it will always be to X Factor what Dancing on Ice was to SCD. All of that said, the figures for it last night are fine given the time of year and how low it has gone in the past.

There was a major snow event this time last year so the stand out rating last year isn't really comparable.

In general for the series it's still in the same ball park as last year

A lot of things seem to be down yoy though, like you said earlier it will be interesting to see how BGT holds up this year. Not sure why we saw such a big dip for SNT last night, hopefully it rises next week, but will still be the highest show on ITV bar the soaps this week by a long chalk.

Over 55m watch TV per week and if the two main channels can only muster 13m viewers for their biggest shows of the week it doesn't say a lot for them.

No doubt many watched both so that dilutes the figures even more.

Not everybody likes either SNT or TVUK though. I dont watch either and there were 40+% of the available audience last night who did not either.

So far this series of Takeaway is averaging 6.8m. Last year the first 5 episodes averaged 7.1m. Considering this year it's faced The Voice every week (and a stronger Voice than the 2 episodes last year faced) whereas last year at this point it had only faced Let's Dance and Pointless, I'd say its held up pretty damn well. A 0.3m decline is nothing, especially when the competition has been much stiffer. Episode 5 last year fell on a snow day when everything was a bit inflated so you can't read much into that. It's timeshifting more than last year too so in the officials it's probably about level.

Last night's episode rated a bit lower than I'd have hoped for, and I'm not entirely sure why (maybe it was because The Voice had a headstart?) but it's doing absolutely fine. The Cube's holding up OK too against The Voice, surprisingly. Dreadful for The Americans though. Makes The Jonathan Ross Show's ratings look like I'm A Celebrity.

Saturday 15th March 2014 - Consolidated Ratings
1 - Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway - 8.09m (7.53m excl. +1)
* live rating: 5.77m (5.31m excl. +1)
2 - The Voice UK - 7.56m
* live rating: 5.35m

Thanks DMN.

Interesting to see the live rating as well. This shows why some programmes are effective lead-ins. As popular as Doctor Who is the live rating is around 3m, so it doesn't bring viewers in for the rest of the night.

Just caught up with SNT. It's good family entertainment but what a rip of Noel's House Party eh?

Noel should sue them, or better still make a bid to take it over, he has all his cash in a box.

All he needs to do is to check with his banker to see if the bid would work.

Next week Ant and aded introduce a character called Mr Blubber.

A couple of features are blatant rip offs what's with this singalong live?


A.D.P I spat out my coffee - Mr Blubber

Takeaway down a bit, but I imagine it was dented by an earlier starting TVUK. It topped the night with +1 and excluding +1 if you take the adverts decreasing the average into consideration.

I find it silly that ITV put a strong programme out like SNT then schedule weak programmes around it. Surely it would be better to put out stronger programmes throughout the night and increase the chances of higher ratings and more ad revenue. Through The Keyhole would have got 4m at 9:30m and knocked Casualty below 5million, but instead even when last year The Americans dropped below 1million they still scheduled it at 9;30pm - who actually runs this channel?

And btw Icedragon SNT gets a lead in of sub 3million every week from YBF and yet still runs TVUK close.

I no. I just meant last night the Voice had a really low lead in compared to what it has had. Plus with the early start it could have hurt it a bit. As I said some posters on the episode didn't realise it started early last night.

So nearly 50% watching BBC1 and ITV1 = 12m, so way less people watching Saturday nght TV compared to the Autumn?

Are there many ads during The Americans (last year there were practically none) or have they used up the bulk of their allowance earlier in the evening?

Peter Fincham runs the channel. He's been responsible for major flops including Titanic, Food Glorious Food, The Prisoner, Breathless, Red or Black etc. And was responsible for commissioning Davina's chat show on BBC1, one of the biggest flops ever on the channel. He has never commissioned a 7m+ light entertainment show in the last 10 years.

I watch the Americans and last night I don't think there was a single add in the three add breaks. The breaks were filled entirely with trailers.

The Prisoner will have been commissioned before he arrived there. It's easy to reel off his flops, but you aren't ultimately remembered for your flops, you're remembered for your hits, and Fincham has been responsible for Downton Abbey, Broadchurch, Long Lost Family, Scott & Bailey, Endeavour, Birds of A Feather, Off Their Rockers, The Chase and several more, and many of those came with a fair bit of risk attached. He has also managed to turn I'm A Celebrity from a dying show (the series before he joined ITV only averaged 6.9m) into the #1 series of the year, and did the rare thing of reversing the axe when he brought Foyle's War back after the previous controller axed it. He's not done a bad job overall.

Great figure for Casualty there - probably the rating of the night. The Voice just about breaking 6m then - great in any other circumstances but the bar for that genre has been set so high they are a good couple of million away from where it should be even though it's still their most successful Saturday night entertainment format other than Strictly in the last decade. It just doesn't feel like it.

2006. Two years before Fincham arrived. Was originally for Sky 1, but they pulled out.

The ITV primetime schedule across the year does seem to take much more risks than that of BBC1 - though of course that's partly as a consequence of not having shows nailed down in slots throughout the week throughout the year, so giving them a lot of airtime to play with. BBC1 though always seem to just throw a repeat of New Tricks in rather than actually commission something, though of course we know their wings have been severely clipped over the last couple of years - and I guess anything slightly risky gets bounced to BBC2 or further down the chain instead.