That 9.50m for Blind Auditions 4 was a bit of an outlier last year though in terms of timeshift: the overnight was -50k lower than for Blind Auditions 5, yet it ended up +430k higher than Blind Auditions 5 in the officials. (Number 4 was the auditions show starting latest at night - at 20:20 - which might have been a factor)

In any case, the first six Blind Auditions shows this year have averaged 9.11m consolidated, up from 8.45m last year. And don't forget it started on 31 March last year, so the weather probably wasn't vastly more clement during most of the blinds than it has been this series. It is in the later stages that the weather, and more-stable scheduling, will probably come into play in the year-on-year comparisons (we were down to the 6s, 5s and 4s officially in June last year with hot weather and a crazy Friday outing opposite the soaps).

I can see the final in early April surpassing 9.50m actually, which would be a nice way to end the series.

This is where am getting confused.

Well, you've got a 8m+ average!

The post-auditions episodes last year averaged 5.9m overnight: surely to goodness they will do better than that this year. It will still drop a bit though over the less-popular stages, I'm sure (as is the case all over the world) with a rebound for the final.

My current guesstimate (based on SamuelW's date for the first live show as 22 March) indicates that yorkie100 is correct.

There are only two battle shows but they are scheduled to take up considerably more airtime (4 hours 25 minutes) than the three battle shows which aired in 2013 (3 hours 25 minutes). They did seem a little rushed in places last year but I'm not sure that devoting another whole hour to them, and compressing three episodes into two bloated ones, is the answer. Maybe pushing them up to and a little beyond 21:00 is actually ratings genius as SamuelW contends. We shall see.

I'm guessing the knockouts will be done over one weekend as per last year.

They did 4 hours 25 minutes of battles last year too. 1 x 75 min show, 1 x 60 min show and 1 x 130 min show. This year it seems we're getting 2 x 130 minute shows.

As for the blinds, last year we got:

2 x 95 min shows
1 x 90 min show
2 x 80 min shows
1 x 65 min show

That's 6 shows that came to a total of 505 mins (or 8 hours 25 mins). This year we had:

2 x 90 min shows
3 x 80 min shows
2 x 75 min shows

So 7 shows and a total of 570 mins (or 9 hours 30 mins). So this year we got an extra 65 mins of blind auditions. Looking ahead it does seem they'll do the knockouts across one weekend (although I think the episodes might be longer than last year where they were 75 mins each). The live shows will then presumably run for 3 weeks again.

Thanks Score, I miscalculated there. The battles will be just as rushed in places then, probably.

I'll be intrigued to see how these battle bloat-a-thons do over the next two weeks. Probably will benefit hugely from post-SNT switchers and facing the struggling Cube.

I wonder if they cut some bits out of The Musketeers in post-production to make the episodes flow better. Seems odd the premiere would be 60mins and then the rest 55mins otherwise. Possibly commercial networks are expected to edit the episodes down further and 55mins was thought a good compromise run-time for BBC1.
Hoping it can hold steady on the last rating, as I thought tonight’s episode was good. If it stabilizes in the high 4millions that's not too bad in general for a drama, however it will have to prove itself without the Midwife lead-in.

ITV commissioning another series of The Cube is an absolute joke. It doesn't rate well and slap bang in the middle of primetime next week will give TVUK a nice boost as viewers switchover to avoid it. If they are keeping it going to keep Philip sweet now that DOI is being axed, the forget it just axe it. I hope it drops really low (although 2.6m with a Takeaway lead in is poor anyway) as an incentive to cancel it.

It's a shame, though. The Cube is a relatively original concept and, for me, is entertaining so it's sad to see it go so low. As crime appears to have taken over drama (not exclusively) maybe quiz shows have taken over 'second tier' light entertainment.

Should please a few in this thread: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/new...ree-years.html

It does seem a little strange although I suppose it has been a solid performer up to now. It remains to be seen whether last Saturdays low was just a blip or not but if it has dropped to those levels then they have a problem.

Cheers for the solid facts and figures its interesting to see how one series is doing against another. And last year series high was actually an unusual timeshift rating and based on a later timeslot. I also think if it had been a snow filled couple of months all ratings would have been inflated overall, but there isn't all that much difference with the colder weather in January as there is in March and there was no real fluctuation in ratings. However its good that its in that winter slot though as pitching it in June out of its regular slot against the soaps just looked as if the had decided that there wasn't gonna be another series.

ITV is casting Driving with the Stars in which celebrities teach members of the public to drive (could this be the original car crash TV ?) Names rumoured to be involved are Jim Davidson,Joey Essex, Amy Childs.

- The Sun

They just dont know where to stop with all this rubbish do they.

The Rugby World Cup was held in Britain in 1991, 1999 and partly in 2007 and it certainly didn't have all the matches shown on ITV1 in those days. Indeed in 1999 the secondary matches were shown on ITV2 when all of three people had it. People can see rugby being played in Britain every single year, there was some on this weekend.


I doubt they're actually going to be filmed in the regions, just set there.


They showed the Mr Bean animated series (the same one?) on Saturday teatimes in 2002 but only did it for about three weeks before abandoning it. And that was just about when Mr Bean itself was a regular on primetime ITV.


A load of rubbish posted in this thread in the last 24 hours. No, England's group isn't very interesting but given they were top seeds they were never going to get Italy, Spain or Germany. They might have got a home nation but it was an outside chance. And England's groups always have plenty of dull matches. In the qualifiying for the 2010 World Cup, the first one ITV had the rights to, England played Kazahkstan, Belarus and Andorra, in the qualifying for Euro 2004 they played Macedonia, Leichtenstein and Slovakia. What's the difference? People will still want to watch England play, you only have to look at the million complaining threads whenever there's an England match on. And they're still playing friendlies.

As for the scheduling, there's nothing to be said from them being at various times because England matches happen so rarely viewers aren't used to them being at a particular time. If you were to go on the street and ask when England matches are played now, hardly anyone would be able to tell you.

And the suggestion ITV's autumn is ruined because they have to show an England match on Monday 8th September really is the silliest suggestion in the history of this thread. Even worse than bringing back Eldorado or putting regional political programmes at 7pm. You may as well argue that ITV should abandon their news operations so when the Queen dies they won't have to reschedule things. Ridiculous.

Seems to be a worrying number of fantasy schedules here at the moment, too. And none of them have Bullseye in them, so what's the point.

*cough*
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2783797.stm

Is it safe to come in? Decided to sit out The Voice v Takeaway discussion yesterday for the benefit of my sanity.
People watch England qualifiers. Could and will give a nice boost to ITV.

Just as bad and the fact that I had never heard of it proves how good it must have been.

It wasnt that bad yesterday but a certain posters 'smug mode' was cranked up to 10.

I'm the glad held up well as it was fun watching people not believe the news on Twitter. Bigger test is when the Blind Auditions end. I've enjoyed this series and would like it to continue to rate well.

Takeaway did well. It never rates as highly as the big Saturday shows but it does its job. Last year Takeaway launched against easier competition so not surprising to see it start slightly lower than last year.

Overnights.tv ‏@overnightstv 5s
#TheMusketeers battled #MrSelfrdige and both won half 9-10pm slot: former averaged 4.5m/19.4%, latter 4.4m/18.8% http://www.overnights.tv

Overnights.tv ‏@overnightstv 1m
RT @overnightstv: #callthemidwife delivered once again, with slot-winning 8.8m/31.8% on BBC1 at 8pm http://www.overnights.tv

Is this a joke?

Both The Musketeers and Mr Selfridge aren't doing well enough.

Imagine where Musketeers would be without the CTM lead-in?

I'd hardly call ITV at 9.50pm on a Saturday peak time heh

Musketeers has time shifted very well so far and it's already recommissioned so they don't have to worry too much. It'll be a matter of listening to feedback and making improvements next year (for me a stronger villain would help enormously).