Looking at my TV magazine this morning, it seems they did the usual thing of Ken Barlow's son geting drunk and gatecrashing an event. They're hammering his alcoholism even more than EastEnders used to with Phil. It becomes very boring for the viewers after a while.

Hi, can anyone direct me to the Ratings Game please? Cheers.

And also as well ITV's match on Saturday was opposite the Grand Prix qualifying, splitting the sporting audience a bit (I see it got 1.6 million viewers) while the opposite for the Beeb match for much of its duration was Tipping Point and Ejector Seat.


I notice that BBC3 were even prepared to reschedule (the dreadful) Badults to 11pm to allow the repeat to go out in a good slot, which is not something they've done with the repeat very often recently.

Anyway, next week we get all the fun of Schedule A or Schedule B which is very much like Christmas as far as I'm concerned. As you'll notice, this year we get our first ever occasion of this affecting Channel Four who have published two schedules for Saturday so they could show a chick flick if England were playing, which seems pretty stupid to me, that just confuses absolutely everyone. Don't know why they couldn't hve shown the chick flick anyway, might have been more use opposite Italy vs Colombia or whatever it ends up being.

So here are my predictions about who'll choose what. You would think Brazil vs Chile might now be first choice but that's a teatime game, so for their first pick BBC1 might look elsewhere. To be honest with England not involved all the fixtures are broadly similar in interest so it may well go down entirely to the particular slots rather than the actual matches. Now it's clear that BBC1 or ITV cannot show the 9pm games on both Monday and Tuesday, because BBC1's schedules for those nights are identical (so that would either involve not showing Holby at all or showing two episodes).

I'm going to suggest that BBC1 would prefer to show the Saturday and Monday 9pm matches, because it means they could also show the Python documentary on Sunday (which presumably would be shown next week if not then) and 'stEnders and Holby in more or less their normal slots on Tuesday. ITV would probably also be happy with that because it would give them a fairly normal soap schedule on Monday. Saturday 9pm would also be a substantially more appealing match than Sunday 9pm which would seemingly be Costa Rica vs Ivory Coast.

So I'm guessing it will be BBC1 showing Saturday and Monday 9pm and Sunday and Tuesday 5pm, and ITV vice versa. Watch me get all of those wrong.

EastEnders holding up rather better than I expected. It hasn't clashed with Coronation St very often (four times, I think), and last night's circumstances were the toughest it's ever had, but the figure wasn't terrible. Would be interesting to see if it was c5m all the way through, or 4m at the start and 6m at the end.

It begs the question whether those two soaps have a smaller crossover audience than the EastEnders/Emmerdale crossover, or whether the Emmerdale viewers on the BARB panel are just very dedicated. I'm no mathematical expert so I'm willing to be shot down in flames, but being as Coronation St has a much higher audience than Emmerdale, surely the statistical likelihood is Coronation St should affect EastEnders more than Emmerdale does?

Should measure it ratings wise by tonight when its not facing any soap/football or anything of a threat just the regional and main news on ITV, and the weather seems slightly cooler today as well

I like the small print in Radio Times, explaining what time certain programmes will start if one channel shows both matches on a particular day. For example, next Friday's Emmerdale might be on at 7pm or 7.30 or 8.00.

Yes, I remember in 1998 ITV had three schedules for some days if they showed both matches. They did show both matches on one day and, because the early match went to extra time, all three schedules were inaccurate.

It needs to get its share back up to well over 30% to get a decent rating.

Damn !!! I was hoping for a schedule where it wouldnt be on at all.

I really do wish BBC would rest Eastenders during two major sporting events which take up most of the hours and forcing other programmes to move around tennis games and football matches. Maybe a cliffhanger before the world cup/wimbledon would've got people talking about EE and then it would've returned with big ratings.

Just my thoughts

There doesn't seem to be very much slack in these schedules if anything goes to extra time and/or penalties.

Do we know how Wimbledon rated yesterday on BBC1.

Well there's tonight if that helps heh, although I can't see what the excuse is for it not being on.

Ooh its raining outside, not good.

The alternative schedules seem more complicated than ever this year, with the small print giving a third possible scenario. Countryfile for example might be at 6.40, 7.30 or 7.40 on Sunday. And then you've got the possibility of extra time, meaning all three could be wrong. There's also some possibilities which don't seen to be covered - eg. ITV showing two games in the same day in the last 16, or one channel not showing either game on a particular day. I can imagine some Radio Times readers getting a tad flustered!

Even Channel 4 have got in on the act with an alternative schedule if England were playing on Saturday night. ITV3 and 4 have also got alternative schedules.

I've been at home today, and I don't think I've ever spent this long studying the schedules in Radio Times. Very complicated.

EastEnders is holding up well and that's the most I would say about its ratings. Trying to squeeze it into the gaps of The World Cup have knocked 1 million off the ratings. Wouldn't have hurt the show to just postpone a few and put them on in later weeks when the schedule is less cluttered.

I think I'm right in saying the BBC/ITV will decide their picks for Saturday/Sunday after today, then Monday/Tuesday on Thursday.

I would personally be surprised if the Beeb don't go for Brazil v Chile as top pick, despite the 5pm kick off. ITV would then (probably) pick Italy? V Colombia?, Saturday at 9. Which would leave the Beeb a tough decision, go for another 5pm kick off but a more interesting match - Holland v Mexico, or the potential 9pm match between Ivory Coast and Costa Rica.

If they do two 5pm's they'll have a bit of a schedule hole to fill, as Casualty's done for both Saturday and Sunday night, so they'd have to dig something out for Sunday at 9.20. Perhaps Holby City would go there if the Beeb had both 9pm games on Monday/Tuesday?

With England not in it, I expect both channels will go with one match per day, 50/50 split of both time slots. It only got complicated when they were balancing out England as well as other top picks, plus providing extensive build up if it was England playing.

Any breakdown for last night? for EE and Corrie?

I expected both to be lower, Decent for Corrie and EE did well for holding up

Very hard to predict tonight's football rating considering this situation has never happened before. I predict higher than a normal friendly but lower than both the other England matches so far! Is that a narrow enough prediction window?

If ITV get the lowest ever England World Cup rating it will of course be solely down to the quality of their coverage and the ITV weekly reach crisis!

What did the early games on ITV1/4 get ?

I don't know if this will have any impact on the ratings (apart from boosting HD figures), but Channel 5 have taken advantage of the Sky HD EPG swap. C5 HD has moved to 105 in the South of England (excluding London) and Wales, for Sky HD subscribers.

Yes, given the way the schedules have worked out, I'm certain the Beeb can't show the 9pm games on both Saturday and Sunday, and both Monday and Tuesday. They'll have to have one weekend 9pm game and one weekday 9pm game because, as you say, Casualty and Holby are down twice (and there's no way, having billed Holby as being on either Monday or Tuesday, they'd get away with showing it on Sunday instead). It is very much the convention that both channels get the same number of teatime and primetime matches, so they'll have two of each.

I reckon the Beeb's first pick could be the Germany game at 9pm on Tuesday, to be honest. It's a bit awkward because quite a lot of the big teams - Brazil, Holland, France, Argentina - are all going to be at 5pm (if they all win their groups).

And if you're not a Sky HD subscriber, what happens if you punch in 105 ?

That's depressing that there are so many revivals in entertainment.