That's not too bad considering everything everywhere has essentially collapsed this summer. I guess its also timeshifting enough aswell, unfortunatley i was abroad for its first 2 weeks on air so haven't managed to get into this series

I imagine ITV's poor efforts across Summer are now being felt. They should remain strong throughout the year. Awful numbers last night, for three new programmes.

A rpt of AR got 4.6m, that's 4.6m for a rpt at 7pm and CF 5.5m. Repeats seem to do better for BBC1 especially if they skew older.

They need to realise that their autumn schedule gets hurt too if they don't put effort in in summer. Their adverts are currently being seen by very few people.

Thing is they won't even learn from this, they'll probably just give up for longer periods brought on by their own laziness. Saturday's are woeful, an embarrassment to the channel.

I suspect all programmes to now will be down as we go into Autumn.

yes, any +1 would be put in brackets and I only ever do that for Big Bro tbh

And the first series of The Village finished on 5 May, a higher-viewing period than yesterday I would imagine, so a good number all things considered.

That's precisely my gripe with ITV, they seem to think people will suddenly just come in their droves as soon as The X Factor is on.

Leaving aside the fact that ITV is just relying on one programme to drive it's Saturday audience (seriously what else have they got), why are people going to suddenly sit down and watch ITV having taken the post-World Cup off?

If you don't consistently maintain an audience during the year, you can't expect it to grow/achieve big(ish) audiences for the tailend dark Winter nights.

Profits may be up at ITV, but sensible programming scheduling is down/non-existent

1.32m with a tiny bit of tape-checking adjustment

So The Mill just won't stop droppingl but it's doing Downton Abbey numbers compared to Utopia!

Cant disagree with that. I think the problem is they are concentrating just too much on their big hitters (which will all still do well) but what about the programs in between - its almost as if theres no money left to do anything.

As for X Factor, People don't know its on as they never seen a advert for it as there summer line up is dire apart from The Chase when its new at 17:00.

After 4 days of recorded viewing, The Great British Bake Off has gone from 7.18m to 8.396m. Thanks to Yog for that one.

It will be ALL over the media when it comes back.
Expect loads of silly stories about Cheryl, Simon etc. feed to tabloids to whet the viewers appetites.
Not my bag, but I'd imagine it will do mega numbers as usual.

Birt was the worst DG the BBC ever had and was bad for ratings. Indeed in the mid nineties the BBC' s only drama hits were EE and Casualty and they had a massive string of flops like Trainer and A Year In Provence. I think he was the only person who could simultaneously annoy Radio 1 listeners, whose favourite DJs were sacked, and cricket fans, whose sport was steadily ditched by the BBC.
Birt to me was the BBC's answer to Michael Brown, as he presided over some real junk like Pets Win Prizes.

Wow, and it was repeated Saturday morning too!

That rating for the WW1 documentary/drama on ITV was all about perceptions.

This was a BBC show on ITV and would have doubled its audience on the other channel.

It was actually extremely good. The best thing I have seen so far about the centenary on any channel. Though I have not watched all by any means.

But it was never going to appeal to people watching the usual ITV Sunday fare of jolly game shows, easy watching dramas like Heartbeat or family friendly documentaries.

Basically excellent programme + wrong channel = rubbish ratings.

You do post some rubbish. Why do you have this false perception that The Chase is one of ITV's highest rating shows? Most of primetime rates higher than it every night. The X Factor has been advertised heavily during the soaps which rate way higher than The Chase.

Excellent timeshift so far, and looking back at the other series, the first episode usually timeshifts the least so you have to wonder how high it will go.

All over the type of media that has had a lot of drop in readership

I think it was more the wrong time. Why not start it after The X Factor or have it on a weekday instead? You should watch BBC2's Great War Diaries which is on iPlayer as a comparison. Similar style programme.

Bake Off could match last year's high at some point this series. Could it pass it?

ITV should still be allowed to feature documentary. I don't think this was on the wrong channel. Good to think they can do other things.

My guess is that ITV would have put it on after 10.15pm given a free hand, but it ticked an Ofcom box for PSB in peak time.

It was always going to struggle in the ratings, but it was good quality TV. I don't think anyone who watched it would say that ITV didn't make any effort with it last night.

Definitely, with four days timeshift the first episode is only 1.05m off, so I think it'll pass it before the final. I think this series will grow more throughout, last series stayed around the same level, until the final of course, rising slightly whenever the football wasn't on, this time the competition is weaker which will help.