That still dosent change the fact that without SNT it would have been higher. Even though it had an hour against the cube SNT would still have dented the average. Last year it had no competition and still rated lower. So personal I think the Voice did ok.

The real issue for The Voice is that for the third year in a row it's ending on a complete whimper. Where have the 3 million viewers who tuned in for the auditions gone?

The chart success of the acts this year has also be woeful and once again it's the acts who have been voted out that are doing well.

I think a very apt comment from Danny O'Donoghue in The Sun today about why The Voice has struggled against The X Factor: “That’s the difference between a television company running a music show and a record company running a television show."

I'll let someone else point out the flaw in this statement.

Proud though I am of this line, it's hardly the kind of thing only I could come up with. Mark Jones is a very good and generous writer.


I've not been so eager for a show to do as well as The Guess List since Ten O'Clock Live although obviously that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. But Rob is such a great choice of host and I'm really hopeful for this, it seems to me exactly what we should be having on a Saturday night.


Of course, comparing the big three soaps now with 2000, they've only added one additional episode each, but they do seem to be on far more frequently and I'm certain that's because of the scheduling. Mondays and Fridays are a case in point, by the time Emmerdale and Corrie are over it's nine o'clock and now we have the News at Ten and ITV don't show anything new at 10.35, they dominate the night to a ludicrous extent. I also think it's hard with the scheduling like this for genuinely big episodes to stand out. In fact this week's Heat says of Thursday's Emmerdale, "Tonight's is an hour-long episode which can only mean one thing - major drama". Well, no, because it's an hour every Thursday. I think only 'stEnders now stands out with a big episode because they're not doing double bills or hour-long episodes every five minutes.

And yet, of course, with all this cramming in, on other nights there's nothing at all. And to my mind, the way to solve at least some of the problem is simple - put Emmerdale and Corrie back on Sunday.

In other news, though I said here the Law and Order repeat was outrageous scheduling, my mum missed the end of it on Wednesday because her recording messed up, so I'm not thinking this was inspired scheduling. For this week.

Have had very limited access to the internet this week but here's my take on the soap ratings:

The Corrie ratings are very poor indeed. No doubt about that at all. The Friday numbers are truly awful. 2013 both Corrie and Emmerdale posted y-o-y increases for the yearly average - but this year has seem all the soaps slump quite badly for what are supposed to be well rated months. The y-o-y comparisons for Corrie are really bad although last year a lot of good stuff was happening around this time compared to this year.

Looking back at Friday's 20.30 Corrie rating from 14th March. The overnight rating was 6.8m. That was a full-slot rating (no tape-checking adjustment was required). The official rating was 8.13m. So a nice jump in the final numbers of around 1.3m which makes for better reading. The equivalent episode in 2013 also scored 8.13m in the officials. Very strange both episodes scored an exact identical rating.

IMO all the soaps are pretty bad at the moment with the exception of Hollyoaks which seems to be posting some very good ratings with a strong 1m+ on the C4 and some very good first look ratings over on E4. Not sure what the quality is like as I don't watch it but it seems to be doing very well at the moment. Also no idea how it compares to last year as I don't track HO ratings.

Moving back to Corrie. Something has to be done. I don't buy that if it jumps back to 8m on Monday then everything is OK. That makes no sense whatsoever. Corrie is always higher on a Monday and trails off towards the end of the week - but it shouldn't be going that low. I do think creatively speaking the show is abit of a mess at the moment and as some others have said, I do think Stuart Blackburn has a lot to answer for with regards to the shows current form. When he was in charge of Emmerdale is became just like Corrie is now. They need to get rid of him and put someone in charge that understands the show and the characters because watching it at the moment its like no one understands any of this and thus causing some pretty bad damage to the shows ratings. Surely ITV cannot be happy about this.

Trying to put a bit of perspective on that TVUK is also higher than all ITV LE other than the big 3. Sounds pretty successful to me.

The answer is simple, it's on too much and standards are dropping. Also demographically, both Coronation St and Emmerdale fare badly among the vital ABC1 and male viewers. However, I have seen a sea change in the last few years where entertainment shows now outrate soaps, so I wonder if the soaps are in some slow, terminal decline now. I wouldn't be surprised in the next decade, as happened in America, they're shunted into daytime.

Good post, completely agree. Corrie is the backbone of my TV viewing and I'm on the verge of giving up watching. Each episode irritates me, in terms of poor storylines, poor writing and poor characterization. ITV need to act soon or Stuart Blackburn will permanently damage Corrie for the foreseeable.

Brilliant to see The Voice winning the Saturday night battle again. Its should be told to stop using +1 as well! It's cheating!

Except this is a bought in format, not a self created.

I swear the +1 argument has ruined this thread like no other.

You assume stuff isn't being debated behind the scenes, as the producer of one of ITV's biggest shows, you'd expect he'd have regular meetings up the hierarchy of command. Just because made up stories aren't being splashed across the tabloids doesn't mean it isn't being noticed.

To me it's only the Tina storyline, and the current way it keeps playing out identically every episode (umpteen secret liaisons in the ginnel) that is annoying me.

Are you robbiesykes?

PMSL

Why do grown up people get so worked up over some stupid rating....+1 or not lol

Amen!!

So what? So was the Generation Game, so was Stars In Their Eyes, so was You've Been Framed. And in any case, you can hardly say that it takes no effort to buy something in as we've seen many examples of programmes that have been hugely successful in other nations flopping badly in the UK, and vice versa.

The answer isn't 'its on too much', (although that is a minor factor), the producer at the moment hasn't got a clue and seems to think c**p storylines are the way forward. Last year it was doing perfectly well with Phil Collinson in charge. Emmerdale is suffering from viewers deserting Corrie and slow storylines. EastEnders is just trying to recover from its slump, but struggling in the process to bring back old viewers. All the soaps will have some diabolical figures this Summer being that they are all performing poorly now. I wouldn't be surprised to see Emmerdale below 5million, EastEnders below 6million and Corrie below 7million for mid Summer.

So what? I dont see that has any relevance at all.

The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent are bought in from Syco too.

Coronation Street is below 7m for some episodes now.

I will assume that if Rising Star does well next year, it too will be poo-pooed as being a bought-in format.

It might sound like the unthinkable, but have these shows had their day now? I notice none of these shows are talked about as much as they used to be and had they been as rating as low as this in the eighties, then it would be curtains.

We've just come off a strong year for Corrie and Emmerdale. Their ratings seem to be poor this year, although this is against a backdrop of generally poor numbers across the board at the moment. Two of the supposedly bigger entertainment formats failed to clear 6m last night. On Friday night at 9pm the two biggest channels had about 4.5m between them. And across the week only one show at 9pm managed more than 4.5m.

The situation pre-watershed is no better. So until there's any sign of something that might come close to the soaps ratings and cover 350 hours a year, then they've certainly not had their day. And I say that as someone who never watches and wishes they'd all go away.

It looks good, judging by the trail. I just hope it won't be dragged out to 50 minutes or an hour. 30-35 minutes would be ideal.

So what that dosent make a difference.

There is a viewer-ship that won't sit and watch any old rubbish now, It something doesn't entertain them, They switch off.

Also I think the British Touring Cars Championships need more promotion, Its one of the best things I seen on the ITV channels in a while.