I much prefer ITV news to the BBC. Though it's probably just what I'm used to - my family have always had ITV on by default and only switch to the BBC for specific programmes.

So The Voice is down y-o-y by 0.3m even in this plumb February slot in the complete depths of Winter compared to Spring last year. Did not see that coming. I'm a bit bored of the show now. I watched it last night and it's just such a drag.

The fact the Samuel is saying SNT is favourite to win in the ratings next weekend it quite frankly laughable. The Voice is currently averaging 8.1m in the overnights this year so to suggest SNT is going to win next week makes no sense whatsoever. SNT was never close to 8m last year so why suggest it will win The Voice? The Voice has the momentum and is BBC1's biggest show on a Saturday night after Strictly.

Also where has this 6m target come from? To suggest a target of 6m as acceptable from a level of 8m+ would be a disaster. Predictions are been lowered on purpose. A fall of 2m viewers week-on-week would be a massive fail for the final auditions show.

Ofcourse Sam would predict SNT will win... its so this time next week he can heap all the praise on TV for taking on such a mamomoth and winning. Its a tactic well used by certain ITV & BBC fanboys when they see some competition which *might* prove to cause an upset. In all honesty both shows will probably be slightly lower than usual.

That doesn't make any sense, if ITV were trying to cut costs and save cash they'd demand that all their dramas were potential long-runners and at least six parts to justify the cost of setting them up. There's more to the cost of a show than the number of hours it fills up, long-running dramas are in terms of cost per hour substantially cheaper. And ITV have always done one-off dramas and mini-series and always will.


Well, BBC4 didn't invent the biopic, ITV have done plenty over the years. I remember they did a drama about Pat Phoenix about fifteen years ago, and one of the most watched programmes of the last decade was their 2000 drama Seeing Red with Sarah Lancashire as Coral Atkins. The based-on-a-true-story thing we're getting here is a staple of drama going back decades. The Cilla story has obvious appeal in terms of nostalgia.


Thought True Grit might have done a bit better than that, it seemed quite an appealing premiere and in a decent slot. Never mind. You would have to say that if Splash and Take Me Out perform poorly in terms of ratings (and they do), they certainly do the business in terms of demosgraphics and on Twitter on a Saturday my Twitter feed is certainly full of Take Me Out this, Splash that, even though the former is being absolutely thrashed by Who Dares Wins. That never gets the credit it deserves either, and it's certainly nothing to do with the lottery itself propping it up because the lottery on its own rates very poorly. It's a good format and a very well-made show, the kind of amiable quiz that Saturday nights have always welcomed (and Samuel may be interested to know that Secret Fortune was axed about eighteen months ago).

Not very good for Jonathan Ross given there was no Match of the Day competition, especially compared to Graham Norton 24 hours earlier, and the guests list didn't appear particularly worse.


I think all channels would be doing better if Britain was doing better, because for Britain to do much better we'd have to be undergoing some kind of ice age.


That is poor, but the break didn't help, though BBC1 clearly knew it'd be flunga round from pillar to post when they scheduled it for early evening in Q1. And the gaps in the run didn't hurt Total Wipeout when that was regularly scheduled in similar slots.


Sorry, there's absolutely nothing to be gained from a lead-in at 6am, because it's 6am. If people are up at 6am they're not doing so in order to watch TV. If anything you would assume that the ending of the 5.30am news would be an advantage for Daybreak because if you'd watched the 5.30 news you didn't then need to watch Daybreak doing the exact same thing.


When all else fails, blame the adverts. Never seemed to be a problem for GMTV or News at Ten in their pomp.

REQUEST: Does anyone have the consolidated rating (exc/inc +1) for the episode of Emmerdale shown on Tuesday 7th January please?

Not sure if I missed that one when there been posted on here.

Thanks

I think this says it all. The Voice is doing well this series. It may not be hitting 10M, but 9.4M is not to be sniffed at. It's also bolstering the rest of BBC1's Saturday, helping the channel to a great primetime share.

Will it dip against SNT? Yes, of course. But even if SNT beats it in the overnights, it's not the end of the world. It will still be the second best LE programme the BBC has. I reckon it is pretty much doing all that BBC1 can ask of it.

I did wonder whether the Lottery quizzes would be an answer to BBC One's 8pm problems on Wednesday; extend it to an hour (I'm sure an extra round wouldn't hurt the show) and cut the Saturday draw down to ten minutes either before or after the news. Obviously they've fell on Waterloo Road to help there instead.

7.63m / 7.92m

Well, they don't do the lottery quizzes every week, as we know. They did a series of Jet Set on a Wednesday and it flopped massively, I don't think these shows would work away from a Saturday.

Based on its 16-34 audience posted earlier in the week, my thought is that TMO's natural home is opposite Strictly on a Saturday night. There, it wouldn't be expected to pull a big audience but if that audience has a high percentage of the valuable 16-34 audience, who are not as in to Strictly as they are to the likes of X Factor and I'm A Celebrity, then ITV would probably be quite pleased.

I feel Celebrity Chase was wasted opposite Saturday Strictly. It might fare better against Sunday Strictly although Surprise Surprise has that slot and does okay. They could try the Chase on Wednesdays at 8pm. It would be interesting to see how it might do on Tuesdays at 8pm opposite Holby (although it probably wouldn't do much better than the current Tuesday night offerings.)

I also think its ridiculous that Take Me Out ended up after ten o'clock last night, I think that's appalling scheduling given, as we know, it has such a young-skewing audience. And we shouldn't be having flimsy light entertainment running that late either.

Thanks D.M.N.

That was Jet Set Departure Lounge. It was a ten minute format to set up contestants for the Saturday show. All the lottery shows on Wednesdays were failures because they followed the 8pm show which in those days were 50 minutes long. The Wednesday "show" formats died out once the Wednesday draw moved to 10.35pm.

Wasn't the Jet Set attempt opposite The Bill? Plus it would have a lead in from The One Show to give it a boost of sorts. Game shows haven't disgraced themselves in that slot on ITV albeit with a Coronation Street lead in.


I'm not sure whether ITV should try starting their 8pm shows at 7.30pm on Tuesday and attempt to take advantage of the Emmerdale lead in rather than letting viewers drift off during the EastEnders filler. Yes, it would then face half of EastEnders but could it really do any worse than it is at the moment?

No, they did a full series on Wednesdays and it bombed in the ratings and that was the end of Jet Set.

FA Cup Quarter Final Draw
Arsenal or Liverpool v Everton
Brighton or Hull v Sunderland
Sheffield United or Nottingham Forest v Sheffield Wednesday or Charlton Athletic
Manchester City v Wigan Athletic

ITV will probably take the Arsenal/Liverpool v Everton match and after that... BT take Sunderland's game with ITV selecting the FA Cup final repeat from last year?

With this talk of Wednesday game shows...maybe bring back Total Wipeout for the 8pm slot. Also, Pointless Celebrities moving to Wednesday instead of Saturday?

Indeed. Samuel's "vision" of what television should be is quite depressing. As long as something won its slot Samuel would commission it to run all year long no matter how bland or uninspiring the programming was.

It should be noted that reports suggest she won't be fronting Daybreak but (another) brand new breakfast show potentially titled Good Morning Britain.


The choice of name interests me to some extent. I'm wondering if they're finally going to pull the trigger on producing something similar to the American morning shows – ABC's show is called Good Morning America. I've been saying for a while that they might be better off looking at that kind of show which would put a bit more clear ground between them and the BBC.

I dont often agree with Samuel but his assertion certainly is not laughable at all. You seem to completely ignore the fact that SNT , I believe beat TVUK head to head every week last year. SNT is very popular and always hits TVUK ratings.

She cant do any worse than the last defector can she?

Never say never and all that.

What's the difference between Good Morning America and our breakfast shows? I've seen a bit of it in the past but not much.

Well I am going to miss Musketeers tonight - stupid Baftas. What did they get last year?

Around 5.5million viewers. Better than what Musketeers rated last week. Mr Selfridge should be looking to get 5m [exc +1] tonight without facing any drama competition.