What exactly are they meant to do though? It's that way for a reason as they're trying to compliment ITV's schedule, as the alternative would probably rate even worse, they have to skew older at 8pm because of X Factor, and younger at 9pm because of Downton Abbey.

When's Jo Brand and "Extra Slice" getting a promotion to BBC one anyhow. Its likely to have rated just as well as "Our Zoo" perhaps better at 9pm on Wednesday. Such a funny show.

I would agree with that, but that's probably not exclusive to ITV2, you could argue Sky Living is an equally pointless channel as it seems to have no obvious hook (as Sky have specifically said it's not a women's channel). At least with ITV2 there are obvious big brands like Celebrity Juice and The Xtra Factor to give it a leg-up and lure across casual viewers, the problem is quite a lot of them are clearly nearer the end of their life than the beginning.

I suppose it looks a bit now like the original ITV2 back in 1998 when it was a mix of ITV repeats and vaguely young-skewing content, and where the opening night famously pulled in a whopping seven hundred viewers. Though of course it was only on ONDigital when hardly anyone had it.


Yeah, the basic idea is an obvious one but content-wise it's all over the place. There's too much continuing drama I think, and when they launched ITV3 they specifically said they weren't going to do continuing drama because they knew the audience wouldn't be there every night. Presumably it's like Sky Atlantic where they expect everyone to record it and watch it like a box set, but if people were that interested to do that they'd have watched them on ITV in the first place. Also, the daytime line-up is hopeless, repeats of Peak Practice seem totally out of place.


Yeah, as we've said before it's a bit pointless now on a Friday, because it means Friday's episode is shown three times within six hours and then never again. You'd think given all the spare time on BBC2 over the weekend there'd be space to put it somewhere but clearly it's much cheaper to repeat factual there than it is scripted content with the contractual situation. I was going to say the BBC3 showings have become more settled recently, but then I see the Tuesday episode is at 1.30.


So why do they always keep showing Quantum of Solace?!


But you can say that about loads of slots all over the place, how does 'stEnders flow into Panorama on a Monday? And how does Hollyoaks flow into Channel Four News? It doesn't. And as has been said here before, BBC1 have tried every possible genre of programme against Downton Abbey, from By Any Means to Spooks to Garrow's Law to Georghe Gently to Andrew Marr. The ratings have always been much the same. What it tells uis is that Downton is just too big a programme to counter. But that's a problem that affects eight Sundays out of 52, so hardly a major issue. They usually win every slot for 22 hours of the day, only 8-10pm is an issue, so there's not losing sleep over it.

Tell you what might flow better with Antiques Roadshow and Countryfile, The One Show. Let's have an extra episode of that.

It's already dark and about to get darker, far too lively for the viewers looking for the ploddy stuff you usually get on Sunday nights. Sherlock airs on Sundays yes but I don't think it would if it had a longer run.

I would do something like this on BBC One:

20:00: GBBO Final
21:00: GBBO Final Extra Slice
22:00: BBC News

Also move Our Zoo to Sundays at 18:00.

I noticed it lost some viewers at 10pm on TWO. Much better to have it follow "The Great British Bake Off" on BBC one I agree.

the BBC 3 airing seems to be circle the drain when it moved to 10:30, its ratings dropped, but yes a few times recently ive found the repeat on some totally random time, or not at all, hard to depend on something like that.

Still the BBC 3 repeat was always going to end soon anyways, or at least be going on-line, so its really an iPlayer thing now, only hopefully with a longer viewing window.

Its a shame to see the BBC pulling away from EastEnders, the show is currently really strong, but still needs some support the rating are not quite what they should be, the over use of this Inside Soap award in the media shows this.

The live episode will be on 30th Anniversary Day - Thursday 19th. I think that's the best possible day personally. Monday and Tuesday build up (maybe a bonus Wednesday too?) and then Friday aftermath.

I think "Who" would thrive overnight in a fixed Sunday slot where viewers knew where it was from week to week.

Why do all successful BBC2 shows keep having to move to BBC1? Yes Bake-Off was moved because it letelly has outgrown BBC2, but Extra Slice in nowhere near that size and it would be nice for BBC2 to keep some bigger ratings.

Its basically like ITV moving BGMT to the main channel following the main show.

extra shows should not really be on main channels either IMO

BGMT would probably rate better on ITV than the news at 10.

But I agree, while I like an extra slice it does not need to move to BBC1, in fact while the Friday slot seemed odd at first it actually works quite well IMO.

I don't think there's a problem in having the spin off on BBC One just for the final. They do the same with The Apprentice (You're Hired) for example.

I think the Sunday autumn schedule is fine as it is for BBC One - the only reason they would change it is if they want to really challenge The X Factor/Downton Abbey dominance and, I suppose, considering the signs of decline (albeit both being 'big' shows still) maybe now is the time?

17.20 Countryfile
18.20 Our Zoo
19.20 Strictly Come Dancing: The Results
20.00 The Great British Bake Off
21.00 Death in Paradise

BUT would that leave them lacking elsewhere?


It couldn't do any worse than Amazing Greys!

Initially I thought I knew what Sky was doing with Living. It looked to me like the plan was to make it the new home of imported US drama while Sky1 would become more focused on comedy, entertainment and showcasing Sky's new found commitment to original UK productions. That obviously hasn't happened and now its never entirely clear why any given show ends up on any given channel. I can't for example work out why The Blacklist airs on Living and not Sky1 so I just conclude that someone at Sky flips a coin and that's how these decisions are made. I'll also say that I'm slightly surprised Sky haven't rebranded Living especially since they're now so insistent that its not a woman's channel.

The problem I suppose with this ITV2 / ITVBe split is that it doesn't feel entirely natural. By that I mean it doesn't feel like ITV2 was two channels co-existing which is highlighted by the fact that ITV2 doesn't really have a base strong performing shows right now. I could understand this split more if some of the new and imported drama and comedy that was screening on ITV2 had caught because they'd then at least have a base to build from but none of it really has.


I completely forget that they had repeats of Peak Practice running during the day. Jeez. They really need to look again at how they're scheduling the channel and try and find a way to introduce some kind of new content that viewers might notice. I honestly think they should consider shifting the next series of The Americans to Encore. Its not as if it does well on the main channel and that would at least give them something.


I assume because its the shortest Bond film and thus easier to schedule.


I don't think they are pulling away from it. They're right the omnibus are BBC3 repeat are increasingly pointless with more people having access to DVR and the upcoming expansion of the iPlayer window and introduction of BBC1+1 there's really no point in keeping them.


I don't think it really matters where they schedule Doctor Who anymore. My guess is that it gets more or less the same overnight figure regardless of where they put it. Assuming that its still in prime time obviously although even airing at 5PM I suspect it wouldn't be too badly impacted. Just as an experiment I'd actually quite like to see them air Doctor Who a 3am or something just to see what the final figure would come in as.

I don't see it as them pulling away from EastEnders as much as they just want viewers to watch in certain ways. Moving on from repeats to more of an iPlayer focused catch up, which makes sense considering the younger audience. I think Dave01 posts EE iPlayer figures and they show good growth year on year as more people discover and use iPlayer and I'm sure the BBC will hope that those catching up on the soap online may stumble onto other shows as well.

Yes that would definitely leave them lacking elsewhere.

Also I can't imagine airing Bake Off against The X Factor would be a good idea. I think if Call the Midwife has shown us anything the best way to counter an aging reality series is probably to put a comforting mass appeal drama on opposite it. I'd probably go for something more along these lines:

18:00: Countryfile
19:00: Strictly come Dancing: The Results
20:00: Our Zoo (or something similar)

Absolutely no idea what I'd put in the 9PM hour though. That's still a complete puzzle to me. I'm really not sure how they counter punch against Downton Abbey at this point because whilst its slipped I'm still not sure any drama series is going to be able to get much against it at this point although if the declines continue across this series I might adjust that thinking. I suppose maybe a comedy block could get some traction and that's more or less the only thing the BBC haven't tried yet but given how woefully most of the BBC comedy output has done lately I wouldn't go that route myself. Maybe some kind of live entertainment show? A reformatted Top of the Pops?

Coronation Street was Wednesday evening's top-rated soap (October 1) as Kylie Platt revisited her past, overnight figures show.

6.98m (34.2%) watched at 7.30pm on ITV and 162k (0.7%) on +1 as Kylie headed back to her old neighbourhood in order to track down Max's father Callum.

Emmerdale attracted 6.2m (34.0%) at 7pm on ITV and 150k (0.7%) on +1 as Edna and Lawrence came face-to-face.

Neighbours continued to perform strongly as 777k (12.5%) tuned in at 1.45pm and 836k (6.3%) at 5.30pm on Channel 5 to see Imogen struggle due to her secret feelings for Daniel.

Hollyoaks interested 823k (4.8%) at 6.30pm on Channel 4 as Ste made a scene while giving evidence at John Paul's rape trial, while E4's first look followed with 743k (4.1%) at 7pm and 133k (0.6%) on +1.

Home and Away managed 229k (3.6%) at 1.15pm and 662k (4.2%) at 6pm, while 5*'s first look secured 314k (1.8%) at 6.30pm.

Elsewhere, Doctors was seen by 1.35m (22.1%) at 1.45pm on BBC One.

I had forgettten about BBC 1+1.

That's if the BBC Trust agree to get rid of BBC Three...

They have done this with BBC2 ever since its inception in 1964, surprising really that BBC2 has been allowed to keep Top Gear.

Those soap ratings took long enough . Pretty good shares for Corrie and ED.

I think Jeremy Clarkson threatened to quit the show if it was moved to BBC One as it wouldn't have the freedom it has now (in other words, Disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells is more likely to see the show if it's on BBC One).

Emmerdale's share is very good - I'm not so sure about Coronation Street's. It's worth noting that EastEnders on Tuesday beat Coronation Street's Wednesday share (excluding +1) and was only 0.03m behind.

They're getting closer...

Neighbours keeps on finding. Nearly 13% at lunchtime is impressive. This time last year it was around the 10% mark.

Fresh from bagging Best Daytime Soap (albeit a category it couldn't really lose with only two bad shows to beat) and with Sheree Murphy popping into the Loose Women studios today, interesting to see if it climbed again.

I think the show has strengthened up at the right time and should enjoy a successful winter.