Impartial analysis there

When it hits 4.5m you'll say it should be doing 5m, then if it manages that, this humble little PSB-packed show should be beating Emmerdale, and so on. You're in good company though; GeorgeS used to accuse me of possessing "goalposts on wheels".

Led to believe by ITV I meant, I wasn't accusing anyone.

those with Digiguide should know for sure by 6pm I think.

ITV Press Centre now has Saturday X Factor down for 7.30-10pm.

Sunday results set for 8.15-9.15pm due to the football bumping everything back.

WTF is going on !!!!

Gotham confirmed for Monday nights at 9PM from October 13. Repeat window Fridays at 9PM on 5USA.

New season Law & Order: SVU to air Thursday nights at 9PM on 5USA from October 16.

Live television and particularly live drama is a rarity in modern television though and that's part of the appeal. Plus the 'something might go wrong' factor. Personally I'd be quite interested to see how a weekly live drama or comedy did in this day and age. If nothing else it should be a nice gimmick that helps attract a decent sampling.


If they're moving it they're presumably moving it away from The Apprentice rather than Our Zoo. Seems like an odd decision though. Its not as if they didn't know The Apprentice was coming...


I think the loss of credibility for Pop Idol was down to how overtly staged managed the second series was particularly in comparison to the first. In series one I think the majority of the audience brought into the idea that they were picking a big new star whereas in the second series it was blindingly obvious that Michelle McManus was being pushed as the winner (and pushed because of how she looked). In fairness I think the production team just panicked. They'd obviously been grooming Gareth Gates as their winner of choice for series one and the audience pulled a fast one on them and they just shut down any chance of that happening in series two. Presumably this might also be why the second series final was down on the first. There was really no question of who was going to win whereas in the first series even if it weren't immediately obvious there was clearly a (largely) silent majority that was rooting for Will Young.

Thinking about it that might be a problem The X Factor needs to tackle. The last few series haven't really been a competition by the time the live shows hit but more of a slow march to victory for one particular act. Series five, six and seven were the shows strongest years and there also the years when arguably the live shows were their most competitive.


Someone at ITV Press saw it was schedule for 2.5 hours and thought "that can't be right" and then someone at ITV said "no that is right"?

The X Factor has now been bumped to 7pm - 9pm and will be followed by the displaced Scott and Bailey.

So who will be more bored. Those watching 2.5hrs of singing and copious amounts of adverts or those watching 2hrs 10mins of dancing and waiting for Bruce to appear?
How many ads will ITV be able to put in XF anyway?

I think it should do well on Mondays and I imagine the last few episodes of Under the Dome will get a boost.

It'll be interesting if FOX orders additional episodes of Gotham since the rest of the lineup isn't doing so hot but they do have plenty of midseason shows like Backstrom, Wayward Pines, Glee and Empire so they may decide to renew it and replace it in February with one of the three.

Looking at shows that have yet to picked up, the only ones I could see on Channel 5 aside from NCIS New Orleans and CSI Cyber is Battle Creek and perhaps Backstrom. Comedy wise, I'm not sure 5 would be looking for to bring up comedy to the channel but Mulaney or The McCarthys would be good. I'm not sure about any of the single camera comedies, perhaps Blackish?

I think there's basically zero chance Fox won't order more episodes of Gotham for this season. They're going to have more than enough space on their schedule as it is is. Sleepy Hollow is 18 episodes this season, Utopia isn't going to last past midseason, Red Band Society is going to be lucky to make it to midseason and Gracepoint is a mini-series. That frees up Monday 9PM, Tuesday 8PM, Wednesday 9PM, Thursday 9PM and Friday 9PM without even really trying.


If Channel 5 are going to buy comedy then they'd presumably have to buy two of them or risk leaving the one they buy incredibly isolated on the schedule. Black-ish and Marry Me seem like the safest bets in terms of full season orders. There's almost no chance both of those shows won't run for 20+ episodes this season. Mulaney is a risk given that its incredibly uneven quality wise. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if people wait to see how it pans out in the US and if it becomes a bit more stable creatively.

They can have up to eight breaks in a 150-minute scheduled slot, each up to 3 minutes 50 seconds long with no more than 3 minutes 30 seconds of that being commercials. They are also subject to a maximum of 40 minutes of ads between 6pm and 11pm and an absolute maximum of 12 minutes in a clock hour (the last of these being part of a European Directive).

So I make that a limit of 56 x 30-second spots.

Meanwhile over in the US ABC came crashing back down after a strong start to the season. New comedies Selfie (1.4) and Manhattan Love Story (1.3) both look DOA. Agents of SHIELD (1.7) dropped to what must be a series low and after a promising start last week Forever (1.3) tumbled into the danger zone. NCIS: New Orleans (2.3) held up really well week-on-week for CBS though. A second new drama for them that was remarkably stable in week two.

Live television and particularly live drama is a rarity in modern television though and that's part of the appeal. Plus the 'something might go wrong' factor. Personally I'd be quite interested to see how a weekly live drama or comedy did in this day and age. If nothing else it should be a nice gimmick that helps attract a decent sampling.


While viewers will happily accept live coverage and ''things going wrong'' in sport and news events they have come to expect high production values in drama, post-production etc. The pace between a live drama and an edited one is pretty obvious, not sure how you do many special effects in a live programme. The first few months of Coronation Street (1960-61) were indeed done live (before it was fully networked) and there used to be quite topical references (ie how Manchester United got on) but they rapidly switched to videotape and they were only doing two episodes a week then. After March 1961 all episodes were recorded.

To be fair there's really very little reason why a multi-camera/studio audience comedy couldn't go live every week. The production values wouldn't take much if any hit there. Admittedly it would be more difficult to maintain for a drama series but certainly not impossible. Its not something I'd recommend for a soap though. That would be a hellish nightmare for everyone involved I suspect but a 6-8 episode drama series could certainly do it with a lot more ease.

I do however wonder if maybe the UK broadcasters must follow on from their US counterparts and starting look to do more live 'event' content like last years The Sound of Music on NBC and the upcoming Peter Pan on NBC or Grease on Fox.

Wasn't it reported a couple of months ago about ITV doing their own Sound of Music Live next Spring?

No.

I'm consistent in thinking BBC1 should be closer to ITV at 7pm. I think there is an audience out there to improve ratings in that slot that don't want to face Emmerdale or The One Show. Having TOS at 7pm is BBC1 settling for mostly mediocre audiences all year in that slot and thinking they can't do better. They can. It also doesn't help that it's shit.

The constant talk in here about Holby being weak and then The One Show being great in that timeslot is white noise to me. Neither are good enough in the timeslots they occupy.

Shield will be saved by its timeshift numbers. Personally I think it took too long to get going and lost the audience. Selfie was always going to struggle based on universally poor reviews. Oh Karen! You should have turned it down.

Nobody would watch a live sitcom if it wasn't funny.

Yep, I've totally always been on the same wavelength as you on this issue. There should be better variety at 7pm on BBC1. ITV have opted for a soap at 7pm but it doesn't mean that BBC1 should just stick on Blue Peter for morons at 7pm each day.

Marry Me is going to E4, Black-ish would be my choice. I think Mulaney I agree, needs a bit more time but comedies rarely hit it out of the gate but it's the odd one out in the FOX Sunday lineup.

NCIS New Orleans is very compatible with NCIS, more so than LA before it, it's definitely a keeper for CBS but it's come at the expense of LA which was down yesterday but CBS will likely keep it there.

I can remember rumours, was it ever officially confirmed?


I'm not convinced that SHIELD will be saved by its DVR numbers. They're going to drop along with the Live+SD numbers. The more likely thing to save Agents of SHIELD is corporate synergy I'd guess. At this point if it gets a third season though they're going to have to do a complete series reboot. What they're doing now obviously isn't working. I'd suggest getting in a new show runner might be a good place to start. The writing (it has by far the worst dialogue of any drama currently on the air) and creative direction on the show is awful.


Well yes obviously a comedy needs to be funny...

Selfie looked awful and opposite the Voice had little chance, AOS should adjust up but even so its looking in for a rough ride this season. Forever really nose dived this week after doing well for episode two, what a difference a week makes!

This is the issue. Putting The One Show on at 7pm every week-night isn't bad per se (there was a time when it was a lively, interesting half hour with presenters who knew how to interview). As a result it had a growing audience and was putting Emmderdale under pressure.

These days, despite Emmerdale being weaker, its audience has fallen back - and no wonder. It's just ho-hum telly. It gives dullness and blandness a bad name.

No-one told the writers of 'Vicious'.