Bake Off must be huge in Scotland. Look what happened to BBC Two's The Long Shadow week-on-week:

Episode 1: 1.83m (8.1%) inc. GBBO on BBC Two Scotland
Episode 2: 721k (3.2%)

I think GBBO appeals to people who are not particularly interested in the whole fame / celebrity / wannabe culture that surrounds many of today's reality shows.

Wentworth 657k (4.3%) excl +1

Let them down slightly after very strong figures 8PM-10PM. Share is still okay but as for why it's continuing to lose viewers, that would be beyond me. Starting to think Five's drama output is cursed as nothing will stick. A lot resting on Gotham. If even that doesn't rate maybe we'll start to see less drama on the main channel and an increased focus on factual/reality as well as some comedy.

Cracking figure for GBBO and nice to see our Zoo rise as well.

Meanwhile following the commission of a local version of Drunk History, Comedy Central UK is also poised to announce a new series of Impractical Jokers [UK] following the success of the US version. BBC Three previously aired a UK version of the show.

http://m.broadcastnow.co.uk/5078169.article

I agree. I really couldn't care less who wins. It will be the best person on the day. It is a simple format / quirky presenters / lovely knowledgeable judges and the best of British taking part. Compare and contrast 17 year old Martha with some of the wannabes on X Factor. TV over the last decade has promoted the latter far too much. The underlying message being that Martha types are geeks.

Ir perhaps any alleged manipulation is simply imagined, with some viewers just filling in the bits that are missing.

The quality of Wentworth is immense. The problem is it aired six months ago in Australia so a lot of people have already watched it online. Perhaps if Five broadcast it a week after the Australian airing it would help.

I don't think they will ditch it like Dallas though. Wentworth is a cheap import because it only airs on a cable channel. If it was on one of the main Aussie networks it would be costing more.

Sorry if its been mentioned but BBC are launching yet another dance contest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29442240

This seems at the arty end of entertainment and will be on BBC4/ BBC2.

Is it that easy to get hold of then? I know you used to have to jump through hoops to get access to diwana.org which closed down a few years ago and I had thought it was perhaps harder to obtain Australian TV shows online than say an American programme.

I'm not convinced piracy is the issue, but it's worth a try next season. I can see why they might have felt the consistency of airing it at the same time of year as the first season (and crucially out of CBB to begin with) might have been helpful.

Diana was very unimpressed with how she was presented.

Anything which has an edit also has a side order of manipulation, even if it's not overtly intentional. It's human nature. Saying that, I think Bingate was edited for high drama with the contestants given a role accordingly. And understandably so.

Its very easy. Just search the episode you are looking for on Google and you will get it within seconds.

That's not good.

I can't imagine more than tens of thousands at best are doing so from the UK though. (could be wrong)

It is. Can't wait for the final.


Yes, the other notable thing to take out from yesterday's ratings. Really interested to see what Viacom have in store for Milkshake.

Last year's final rose by about 2m week-on-week I think? In the unlikely event that happened again we'd have the rating of the year done-and-dusted already

I still don't quite understand the fuss over the edit, they showed Diana taking it out of the freezer (which happened as shown) and then the focus was entirely on Ian, he didn't even mention Diana when he was judged. So I don't think the edit can be blamed for reaction towards Diana. I think the overreaction on twitter etc (what doesn't get an overreaction these days) as skewed how people have viewed the edit, as it really isn't that bad and pretty much matches what both Iain and Diana said happened.

Last year it got 8.42m up 2.82m on the semifinal, but the semifinal was against an England match, if you compare it to its previous high (episode 7, 6.26m) it was up 2.16m.

I don't think 2m increase is likely, adding 1.2m to take it above 10m could happen though. Last year they had Ruby getting the show a lot of attention though, none of the finalists this year attract that kind of attention, as likeable as they are. (Well people seem to find Luis likeable, he bugs the hell out of me, which of course means he'll win.)

Richard all the way!

Thanks for the stats. Obviously there's less room for an increase with more of the target demos already tuning in but it should still get at least 10.5m in the officials, possibly 11m which would just be something else. This whole series has been incredible ratings-wise and I just hope it gets the last headline it deserves.

It wasn't the edit on GBBO but the cynacism of the reality tv audience. At long last even the dumbest are waking up to the sheer level of manipulation on a show like X Factor. Having finally cottoned on sadly they think it is clever to find manipulation on every show and create a frenzy about it. Having a frenzy appears to be a highlight of using twitter.

I don't normally watch cooking shows (far too many) but we watch GBBO as a family. My wife loves it as does our 10 year old son. I love it because both my wife and my son are constantly laughing throughout the show and that makes me

Its interesting how some are comparing GBBO with The X Factor, both reality shows but very different in content. One is about baking (and yet still has producer manipulation) and the other about singing (with obvious manipulation).

You can't compare them. Compare The Voice with TXF, Strictly and GBBO with BGT.

The X Factor is more like Big Brother with its obvious manipulation. Strictly, GBBO and BGT cover it up a bit more to make them more friendly and cosy programmes.

So I'm dumb because I think every reality show has a sense of manipulation about it? Thank you for that.

Similarly to wizzywick and his shop customers, you can't extrapolate from a sample of one person to the entire UK.

The audience for GBBO is very broad as we saw from the demos posted the other week. I think it was always unrealistic to expect a very large proportion to carry over into the lead-out, however many family-friendly boxes it ticked on paper. (And I agree with others that the 21:00 start time harmed the potential for maximising the family audience.)

Good to see half a million added to last week's overnight for Our Zoo, albeit perhaps skewed somewhat by the Scottish football last week. And it's now beating an established former hit, Scott & Bailey, in the overnights, let us not forget. I think if it's practical, the BBC will renew.

But then the dramas are getting completely different preceding programmes and post progrmmes.

Celeb Squares 2.2m
S&B 3.8m
News 2m

GBBO 9m+
Our Zoo 4.5m
News 4m

Our Zoo is getting a much better supporting slot than S&B. Quite frankly Our Zoo should have not dropped below 4m. Its got so many factors for it to do well.