Monday.

Think I spotted Eddie Cahill at the end of the trailer, a face that will be very familiar to C5 viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlMVVdw1a8w

In response to its resounding popularity, C4 have not only extended the current series of Million Pound Drop from 8 to 12 episodes but are also currently set to air a 2 hour episode of it on Friday 5th September (from 8-10pm).

Also on C4, Educating The East End begins on Thursday 4th September at 9pm.

Wonder if it will be as successful as Yorkshire, has it almost been a year?

It was a fantastic programme. I'm sure it will launch with 3m, it depends whether it will maintain the audience though. Educating Essex did OK for Ch4, but Yorkshire did very well, I wonder if it will continue to the same success or fall back to Ed Essex figures.

Honestly do they ever learn? From Thursday being strong, to Friday's a complete flop at 9pm. Dump Life Stories its a complete waste of space.

In regard to Tuesday's, ITV really is the laziest broadcaster. A programme about teleshopping really is taking the piss. Frankly they deserve all they get. Its won't be long before everything after 7:30pm is below 1m.

That's an error H of de Vil surely? Oops im sorry no its not after all. Oh well see how that goes down

Life Stories should be on at 10.35pm. Wouldn't make too bad a late night chat show in the run up to Graham Norton's show returning in october.

New tricks damaged Long Lost Family by a million viewers, so it is still very powerful in denting the opposition. It is likely that New tricks will dent whatever Itv drama it faces by a million or so. So if a drama on Itv had normally got about 5million against normal competition, it will probably get 4m against New tricks.

New tricks has been tacticaly scheduled by the BBC to prop up a difficult slot for them and to damage Itv's drama ratings in the process. The beeb knows that all they have to do is reschedule it back to Tuesdays next year and the viewers will flock.

There's no guarantee viewers will flock. All shows have a natural shelf life and eventually they start fading. Perhaps it's New Tricks's time.

No they won't flock at all as Monday is traditionally New Tricks' best night. Posts like that just prove why so many people won't take you seriously. Stand up and admit how poorly it did. You've been saying for ages how whatever dramas ITV put on Mondays are DOA as they'll be crushed by New Tricks which gets huge ratings. Yet I don't think that's necessarily the case any more. Sure New Tricks is still a very solid drama that will be tough competition for whatever drama it faces, but last night's result is potentially a game changer and shows it is no longer guaranteed to crush whatever it faces. If it only got 5.8m against Long Lost Family then what will it get against drama, especially one like Grantchester which will most likely attract a similar demographic?

Interesting times ahead as you've been saying how many huge hits BBC1 have and how they've completely blocked off a key slot for ITV, yet that doesn't seem to be the case given how NT underperformed last night.

Statisically speaking, BBC one dramas rate better on a Tuesday than Monday. This is becasuse of increased lead-in on Tuesday and much weaker competition from itv. We have seen shows move from Tuesday to Monday on bbc1 and then rate worse or vice versa. New tricks will be back to normal business next year IF it moves back to Tuesdays. This year, the priority for the Beeb is to have established programs in difficult slots, which allows new programs the chance to thrive in the best slots possible. It is all in the long term plan for the BBC.

The bbc dont look at the short term, they look at the long term. They know New tricks is a few series away from ending. So why give it the best slots possible? There's no point. May as well air it in a tricky Monday 9pm Itv loyal slot, dent Itv in it, accept the lower ratings for New tricks but still solid ratings, and then allow new shows to become successful in the piss easy Tuesday 9pm slot. It's very clever scheduling from the Beeb and the lower New tricks rating for last night are kind of expected by some people at the BBC Broadcasting House.

I will watch Only Connect on BBC2 as long they don't change anything.

Next week could potentially get worse for NT as it's being shown on BBC Scotland at a later time than on BBC One proper. So regardless of whether last night was a fluke, the rating will still be lower.

Well, according to the statistics which I have to hand, New Tricks averaged 7million last year in the overnights on tuesdays. About the same as what it got the year before on monday nights [7.2million]. So not really any difference in the figures between the two years, bearing in mind that last year it lost 2 of its key cast members, that was a very good yoy hold for New tricks.


Oh, we will see in a few weeks when the likes of Cilla launches on Itv. New tricks will murder it in the ratings. Im already fed up of that Cilla trailer with Sheridan Smith in it singing that god awful song. And Im sick to death of Sheridan Smith constantly being in Itv dramas, she's overexposed these days. Anyways, Long Lost Family is actually one of Itv's most popular returning midweek brands. Last year LLF was doing 5m, this year it was doing 4.5million, but New tricks damaged it to its WORST EVER rating yesterday. Imagine if a normal Itv drama got 5million viewers in that post Coro Monday night lead-in slot, it will end up launcing to just 4million against New tricks. Then take into account the 20pct+ drops which 90pct of new Itv dramas experience, any drama airing in that MOnday 9pm slot this Autumn against New tricks is indeed pretty much DOA.

Last Monday's overnights...


And in the officials...

Tipping Point: 1.88m (21.5%)
The 21st Question: 1.73m (14.2%)
Judge Rinder: 0.99m (13.6%)

Comparatively speaking, Rinder timeshifted a fair bit in comparison to ITV's other daytime shows.

Remember that not everyone is interested in New Tricks.

Mate, you need to just read what you write and consider real facts. You have absolutely no idea how NT is going to perform this series nor can you be certain that all ITV's dramas will be DOA. Let's just take a reality check and see how things progress. New Tricks, just may not be the show it once was. Viewers of long established shows don't like change.

Sorry to be blunt but do you ever get bored of slagging off a television channel and repeating yourself over and over again?

Yes i agree New tricks is not the force it used to be. Many cast changes and going into an eleventh series means it's inevitable it's not going to hit the highs of yesteryear. However with figures of 5.8million in the Monday 9pm slot, a slot normally which is Itv terrrioty, it did a solid enough job. It will definitely ensure Itv dramas are DOA!

New Itv Dramas drop on average over 20pct across their series from launch to end, often more than that. Let's say the best an Itv Drama can launch against New tricks is 4.5million exc+1, a reasonable enough estimate. Take the 20pct drop into account, it would be down to 3.6million towards the end of its run. That is cancellation territory. There is no way an Itv drama from the ones Ive seen lined up for this Autumn will be able to survive against the ex- ratings beast [but still powerful rater] which is New tricks.

The difference is that it averaged 7.2m in 2012 against dramas on ITV (nor particularly strong ones but still). The 2013 run faced cheap filler. In 2011 when it aired on a Monday but faced very Tuesday-like competition it was getting over 8 million, hence why I think Monday is its best night. So that 5.8m last night against non-drama competition suggests something has gone wrong for it (the new cast?). Not to mention that the first episode of NT is usually the highest of the series, yet last night got it's LOWEST EVER rating, as you always like to point out.


I think Cilla will flop but I think it would flop wherever it goes though. And what's your problem with Sheridan Smith? Aside from a couple of one offs this is the first ITV drama she's starred in since Mrs Biggs two years ago (The Widower doesn't count as she was only in it for about 20 minutes). So that's not fair at all.

But I think something like Grantchester has a perfectly good chance of doing well there. It could still launch well (5m+ potentially including +1). NT is solid competition but not something to run scared of any more. It could be very interesting if ITV put Lewis against it. That could rate pretty well against it and really dent NT (the last series averaged 6.4m against brand new Miranda and Mrs Brown's Boys).

How did the live feed of Big Brother do last night?

Everything was down in the 9pm hour last night as every programme took ratings from each other. New Tricks down, Long Lost Family under 4m with +1, Commando School under 2m with +1, Celebrity Big Brother down. Everything was down.

But the other significant rating was Judge Rinder getting 1m. Who still thinks it's not a hit?

Only 5.7 million in August.

New Tricks returned with 5.8m (its worst ever rating?), over 1.5m down on last year. I wonder who on this thread would thrive on a ITV drama drop like that. Let's think..........................

ITV drama can do well against it and both dramas can pull in over 5m in the same slot. Nothing has to be crushed.

But it has rated higher.

Got better ratings than that in July some years. Says something when New Tricks is seen as disappointing with nearly 6m, The Village would kill for that now.

Exactly. It's still a pretty decent rating that only looks so poor when compared to its own standards. As long as it stays consistent I'll be happy.