The Ratings Thread (Part 59)

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welshfoxy

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by allthingsuk:
“I agree. We have missed a pre-watershed proper police procedural drama so it's good to have a similar format to The Bill. The question is, will be two hour-long episodes or two half-hour episodes? I would personally prefer two half-hour episodes instead of committing myself to two 60 min episodes a week.

And the half-hour Bill format was popular as well. As Davey said, a mix of crime stories and soapy storylines should work fine.”

No way could I see them coming for half hour these days sadly.

James J

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by NeilVW:
“Didn't seem to help EastEnders when Corrie was riding high not so long ago.”

Heaven knows how low EE would have been if Corrie hadn't been riding high, then.

NeilVW

06-05-2014

Breakfast

Good Friday: 1.14m (32.0%) v Daybreak: 0.37m (12.0%) inc +1
Easter Monday: 1.07m (31.2%) v Daybreak: 0.30m (10.6%) inc +1
Yesterday: 1.06m (31.5%) v Good Morning Britain: 0.34m (11.9%) inc +1

Thanks to ronant for the extra numbers there. Definitely less appetite for the breakfast news magazine shows on Bank Holidays, beyond the usual drop-off for all TV in the early morning (judging by the shares). ITV hit proportionally harder though (probably a function of Breakfast 's older skew).

Originally Posted by James J:
“Heaven knows how low EE would have been if Corrie hadn't been riding high, then.”

Good point. We can't know the counterfactual.

AnthonyC

06-05-2014

That bastion of unbiased quality news Sky News shamelessly plugging 24 just now. Screams of desperation given those woeful simulcast ratings...

C14E

06-05-2014

Pleased to see The Island start well last night, although I'll be interested to see how it holds next week. I thought it was decent enough and the "next week" teaser looked quite dramatic.

Originally Posted by Philip Wilson:
“Just shy of 1.6m for Britain's Got More Talent on Saturday then inc +1, should switch it with Amazing Greys on ITV, another 589k on Sunday so BGMT is rating brilliantly this year!”

And 165,000 later on Saturday night as well. It's doing very well at the moment.

And I know it would never happen, but with some of the post X Factor and BGT offerings on itv, I think it's a safe bet that Xtra and More Talent could do better.

Originally Posted by James J:
“They should call it The Beat and put it out on Wednesday at 8pm.

Bring in some ex-Bill stars.

Good move IMO. I'd like a firefighting drama as well, but maybe that can come later.”

I guess cops are the obvious one seeing the BBC have doctors well and truly tied up across 3 soaps. Just seems bound to be compared to The Bill though.

As unimaginative as it is, I think itv are in need of a soap for Wednesdays/Thursdays. They've never quite filled the hole left by The Bill.

aberdaberdonian

06-05-2014

Here's this week's Drama Top 15 (YTD) for up to and including the 27th Apr.

Ranking is based on their consolidated ratings (+1 rating reported separately). Ratings courtesy of D.M.N, BARB and rzt

Vera makes its first appearance in the chart at No 7 and in the process becomes ITV's highest rated drama. It should be noted though, that the HD rating is TBC (assumed to be 0.65m) and so its position could be subject to revision downwards.

Four episodes in, and with only two more to go, Crimson Field swaps position with The Widower in the chart and now occupies ninth place.

Meanwhile, the two Easter dramas served up by BBC and ITV both fail to break into the top 15. Jamaica Inn registered an average on 5.95m viewers, which is only enough for 16th place, while Not Like That, Like This becomes ITV's lowest rating drama of the year, placing at 24th in the chart.

Code:

01: 11.83m - Sherlock (c)
02: 10.54m - Call the Midwife (c)
03: 08.46m - Death in Paradise (c)
04: 07.38m - Silent Witness (c) 
05: 07.38m - The 7.39 (c) 
06: 07.36m - Jonathan Creek (c) 
07: 07.12m - Vera (+1: 0.53m) NEW
08: 06.89m - The Widower (c) (+1: 0.61m)
09: 06.82m - The Crimson Field  DOWN 2 
10: 06.74m - Undeniable (c) (+1: 0.38m)  DOWN 1 
11: 06.57m - Inspector George Gently (c) DOWN 1 
12: 06.56m - DCI Banks (c) (+1: 0.51m) DOWN 1 
13: 06.44m - Midsomer Murders (c) (+1: 0.37m) DOWN 1 
14: 06.30m - The Musketeers (c) DOWN 1 
15: 06.24m - Endeavour (c) (+1: 0.53m) DOWN 1

NeilVW

06-05-2014

What are the little Cs, aberdaberdonian? I was thinking Crime but they're not ALL crime-related.

EDIT: aha - Confirmed, as Vera isn't. Got it.

H of De Vil

06-05-2014

Really looking forward to Comedy Playhouse Monks. This one looks like it become a series. Last weeks Over To Bill was poor, but I guarantee they will commission a full series.

cylon6

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by FlorianN:
“For those of you who wanted to know, In the Flesh averaged 364,000 (2.2%) viewers Sunday night. Ouch.”

In The Flesh launched higher than that with series one. Very disappointing as it's a very good drama.

James J

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by C14E:
“I guess cops are the obvious one seeing the BBC have doctors well and truly tied up across 3 soaps. Just seems bound to be compared to The Bill though.”

That's why I thought firefighting. But then that'd only be called a poor man's London's Burning and it'd probably be more expensive with less story potential. Whatever ITV does they've got a challenge on their hands - as with everything they do but a serial drama pre-watershed is badly needed since they deleted their Sun/Wed/Thu combo of Heart/Bill.

aberdaberdonian

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by NeilVW:
“What are the little Cs, aberdaberdonian? I was thinking Crime but they're not ALL crime-related.

EDIT: aha - Confirmed, as Vera isn't. Got it.”

Actually the (c) is meant to indicate the series is over (ie complete), but I could see how you could come to your conclusion from what I've posted.

yorkie100

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by H of De Vil:
“Really looking forward to Comedy Playhouse Monks. This one looks like it become a series. Last weeks Over To Bill was poor, but I guarantee they will commission a full series.”

Why do you say that - the clip I have seen looks less than promising. What do you know?

aberdaberdonian

06-05-2014

Just for interest, below is the average ratings for the remainder of the dramas shown on BBC1/ITV, along with all other dramas that have managed to register 1m viewers for at least one episode in their current series (not including +1 viewers).

Couple of caveats
1) Where the average rating is listed as less than 1m, it is feasible there may be other dramas that have a higher average (say through rating at a constant 0.97m viewers).

2) I've extrapolated as necessary where +1 info (typically C4 and E4 programmes) or HD ratings (ITV) are not available.

3) Two programmes have been omitted - Helix because it was pulled from Channel 5 mid series and New Worlds because after registering 1m for episode 1, it's ratings fell so far through the floor that each of the final 3 episodes failed to make Channel 4's top 30.

Spoiler

H of De Vil

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by yorkie100:
“Why do you say that - the clip I have seen looks less than promising. What do you know?”

Oh does it? I haven't seen that, I only read the TV guide sypnosis and thought the bases of it could make for a nice comedy. Now you've said that I'm thinking I'm going to be disappointed - if its anything like Over To Bill

yorkie100

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by H of De Vil:
“Oh does it? I haven't seen that, I only read the TV guide sypnosis and thought the bases of it could make for a nice comedy. Now you've said that I'm thinking I'm going to be disappointed - if its anything like Over To Bill”

Well to be fair I dont know anything really it was just that clip - maybe we all will be pleasently suprised.

H of De Vil

06-05-2014

Happy Valley was good tonight - despite being very depressing and far from Happy Valley. Is this a drama Samuel would call niche? Given that its dark with blood, rape, and possibly murder- and yet it pulled in 6.3m.

I'm interested to see how well it does tonight, whether the lack of opposition keeps it over 6million or it drops being a dark drama.

allthingsuk

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by James J:
“That's why I thought firefighting. But then that'd only be called a poor man's London's Burning and it'd probably be more expensive with less story potential. Whatever ITV does they've got a challenge on their hands - as with everything they do but a serial drama pre-watershed is badly needed since they deleted their Sun/Wed/Thu combo of Heart/Bill.”

London's Burning was very very expensive. When they started cutting back around the late 90s, the show suffered massively and became soapy, so a firefighting soap isn't really viable. Hospitals have been done already so that leaves police.

That is, unless ITV want to go down a completely experimental route and a soap based on a sport (e.g. football) of some description, although that would work a lot better on a more male-skewing channel, plus the failure of Footballers' Wives shows it's a tricky format to get right.

yorkie100

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by H of De Vil:
“Happy Valley was good tonight - despite being very depressing and far from Happy Valley. Is this a drama Samuel would call niche? Given that its dark with blood, rape, and possibly murder- and yet it pulled in 6.3m.

I'm interested to see how well it does tonight, whether the lack of opposition keeps it over 6million or it drops being a dark drama.”

Dark or not I think its great. Probably will drop a bit like Prey did though.

James J

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by allthingsuk:
“London's Burning was very very expensive. When they started cutting back around the late 90s, the show suffered massively and became soapy, so a firefighting soap isn't really viable. Hospitals have been done already so that leaves police.”

I totally agree police is the way to go.

I'd just quite like a firefighting drama. I remember quite liking Steel River Blues from 2003 ish but it wasn't given a second series.

Too many comparisons to LB even though they were pretty different shows.

Also would something like London's Burning be as expensive today with technology/filming advancements being as they are? And even if it is expensive, shows like Broadchurch are expensive but if they're good enough quality and run for 8-12 weeks they're assets to the channel and the ratings would come.

Suppose we have The Great Fire by Tom Bradby coming up soon (4 parts and supposedly big budget). If that does well it may inspire some form of London's Burning revival or procedural firefighting show.

allthingsuk

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by James J:
“Also would something like London's Burning be as expensive today with technology/filming advancements being as they are? And even if it is expensive, shows like Broadchurch are expensive but if they're good enough quality and run for 8-12 weeks they're assets to the channel and the ratings would come.”

But you can sort of tell the difference between CGI stunts and proper pyrotechnics. The whole appeal of London's Burning was that the stunts were real and they had that wow factor. That would be taken away with cheap CGI.

If there is the budget though for proper stunts, and proper believable characters, then a new firefighting drama could work,

Brekkie

06-05-2014

They've had The Smoke on Sky1 - not sure how that held up. By their definition though firefighter dramas generally need a big stunt in every episode - and nowadays most drama budgets would be lucky to allow for a big stunt in once every couple of series.

Wouldn't be surprised if ITV were looking for an all year round police drama but it wouldn't be the first time The Sun has got the wrong end of the stick (Only Fools and Horses for example!), so wouldn't be surprised if it's just a one-off six parter (or even two parter) in the works.

The way ITV seem to be going though they might as well just edit all the Harry Potter films into one hour chunks and play them out over six months then rinse and repeat.

yorkie100

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by allthingsuk:
“But you can sort of tell the difference between CGI stunts and proper pyrotechnics. The whole appeal of London's Burning was that the stunts were real and they had that wow factor. That would be taken away with cheap CGI.

If there is the budget though for proper stunts, and proper believable characters, then a new firefighting drama could work,”

Have not Sky just done a firefighting drama?

Bushmills

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by H of De Vil:
“Happy Valley was good tonight - despite being very depressing and far from Happy Valley. Is this a drama Samuel would call niche? Given that its dark with blood, rape, and possibly murder- and yet it pulled in 6.3m.

I'm interested to see how well it does tonight, whether the lack of opposition keeps it over 6million or it drops being a dark drama.”

Why do you care?

This thread's obsession with Samuel is wierd.

James J

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“They've had The Smoke on Sky1 - not sure how that held up.”

It didn't - it's not coming back. Averaged around 750k in the officials, dropping throughout its run.

Let's face it though, Sky1 have their work cut out making any big-budget drama pay its dues.

yorkie100

06-05-2014

Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“The way ITV seem to be going though they might as well just edit all the Harry Potter films into one hour chunks and play them out over six months then rinse and repeat.”

I was just thinking that ITV have shown an awful lot of primetime repeats recently - have these been worse than normal for this time of year? - it certainly seems that way to me.

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