saw it last night for the first time and thought Rob Brydon was brilliant in it... actually he'd now be my choice as the new host of SCD

I was surprised at just how versatile as a presenter Rob is. He seems to ooze talent. Possibly the BBC's biggest presenter who they should desperately try to keep at any cost.

What's unanswered about that? He's already specifically said he's too lazy to commit to it.

What do you mean by 'biggest'? Especially if you include radio there are quite a few famous names working at the BBC..

Do we know what they are actually calling it yet? Have to say I shudder at the thought of it. As you say the way LE ratings are at the moment its got disaster written all over it.

Britains Got Talent was down half a million viewers from last year's 4th episode. In fact, it was BGT's worst rating 4th episode of a series since 2008!

Dire rating for Amazing Greys, cant even pull in 3million with a BGT lead-in. Happy days for BBC One who is taking advantage of it with Casualty pulling in some good numbers.

Yes, perhaps "biggest" was a wrong term to use. I mean he's one of a few versatile personalities who seems to have old fashioned talent and by that that he is "bigger" than bland Nick Knowles or "I'm looking tired and can't be arsed anymore" Dale Winton. Rob is enthusiastic and naturally funny. BBC may have charisma oozing from its radio stations but is totally limited when it comes to TV. Mind you if in doubt, there's always shouty Barrowman!

If ITV other than BGT is performing this poorly, how low will it drop when BBC makes an effort with Eurovision next week?!

Samuel, BGT may be slightly down, but it aint going anywhere for some time yet. Everything is down, across the board! You could argue (but you won't) that In It To Win It is down a million on the last series! It's all swings and roundabouts, and negative spin on BGT is not going to make it a lesser show.

Good point!

How did Eurovision do last year? This year, the UK are one of the favourites with a damn good song so it should, at least in theory, do better!

Susanna Reid also said she bled BBC but she changed her mind on that one.

In TV terms you could say Brydon is one of them.

Itv's Weekend with Aled Jones is a ratings disaster:

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 40m
ITV's new morning show #Weekend drew 0.16m/2.7% yesterday, losing out to BBC1, 2, C4 and C5. @BBCBreakfast averaged 1.26m from 6 to 10am.

Worst rating terrestrial program in its slot! Over a million viewers less than BBC Breakfast. Thats what happens when you try to take on the ratings beast which is Breakfast, you get eaten up.

Normally Itv programs fall around a million viewers on Eurofarce weekend up against it. So next week's Amazing Greys rating will be quite a good one to look out for.

The last time the UK were thought to have a chance (with Blue in 2011) the average rating was around 9.5m IIRC

In it to win it looking very poor last night, can't remember seeing it that low before, yes it faced bgt but normally it holds up right!

It's good to see optimism that our entry will do well as that will help the ratings, which is the most important thing about this farce of a musical contest. It's cheap as chips and helps boost BBC1's ratings, the only reason it's still on air on BBC1.

Realistically, there is no chance of Molly coming in the Top 5. We could send Adele over to Eurovision singing Someone Like You and we'd still not do well. The rest of Europe hates us, they vote politically but more importantly they do neighbourhood voting - and vote for countries around them. The eastern block stick with each other, Cyprus always gives Greece at least 10 poitns, the Russians and ex Russian territories hand each other a huge number of points etc. The standard of singing is generally abysmal and performances are plain out weird, but it's those ones which end up doing well for some reason. The UK has no chance.

Would not be at all surprised to see them give it to Grimshaw.

But Norton has no reason I can think of to be lying about this, unless he is trying to play hard to get, so in my eyes he's made his position quite clear.

Why do you call it "Eurofarce"? I know there are some elements of political voting (the UK always generally give Ireland 12 points - regardless of song), but the voting has been split 50/50 by televote and jury these days. Before you say "we'll never win because nobody likes us", take a look across the internet (you like doing researches for negativity) at how our song is being received across Europe. There hasn't been so much positivity about a UK entry for years. It is even surpassing Jade'e efforts in 2009 with the Lloyd Webber song. We will finish top five, you mark my words. We could even win. Even the French like it!

ITV's new morning show #Weekend drew 0.16m/2.7% yesterday, losing out to BBC1, 2, C4 and C5. @BBCBreakfast averaged 1.26m from 6 to 10am.

Someone posted the figures a few days ago - last year IIRC was 7.5m.

We came in the top five in 2009. It's a long time since the Iraq war now.

(P.S. sorry to be a pedant but we couldn't send Adele with SLY, the song has to have been written and recorded since the September before the contest IIRC).

If the UK wins, I wonder whether there'll be a ratings spike during the voting segment at the end/for the winner's performance?

2011: 9.54m (40.4%) [Peak: 12.7m (62%) at 11pm] / Against BGT 8.1m (32%)
2012: 7.47m (36.2%) / Against England v Norway match 4.64m (23.5%)
2013: 7.7m (35.3%) / Against BGT 8.8m (38.1%), The Cube 3.2m (13.8%) & Jonathan Ross 1.7m (8.1%)

We just about scraped into the top 5 that year mainly due to the jury vote. We came high up in the jury vote. But once again, in the televoting, we did pretty bad. IIRC, the UK came just 11th in televoting that year even though we clearly had one of the best songs. The rest of Europe just dont like voting for the UK for their reasons so even if we do well with the juries [no guarantee of that though], the likelihood is that the in the televoting we will do bad once again. It's the most biased 'competition' in the world and thats why I call it a farce.

Firstly, UK was actually closer to 4th place than 6th place, so we didn't scrape through. Secondly in 2011, Blue came 5th in the tele-vote but the jury vote dragged them down to #11.

It's purely on the song. Jade's song was nice, but there were better songs that year. It was too musical/theatrical for Eurovision.

The problem with the UK and Eurovision is nothing to do with political voting because it's a simple case of sending poor songs. Either joke acts which no one in Europe understands through the 2000s or washed-up has-beens with songs that sound like Adele ballad rejects.

This is the first year in a long time that the UK has made an effort with a good/powerful song. And it should get at least top 5 as a result. I can imagine it being the type of song to pick up a lot of casual votes on the night due to the song coming alive with performed live.

Handy for the Star Rating in the Prediction Game!

They don't like voting for the UK because the UK generally send bad songs. The UK hold the record for finishing 2nd! No other country in the contest has had more success than the UK. We have come 1st 5 times (jointly with Sweden and France) and 2nd 12 times. Ireland have won more times than any other country. So it isn't really biased towards the Eastern Bloc as you think it is!