How did Have I Got News for you do last night?

Friday 9pm: #TheXFactor: 6.34m/29.2% #HaveIGotNewsForYou: 4.27m/19.4% #Gogglebox: 2.84m/13.1%

Just -1.84m / -2.07m behind X Factor's average (exc / inc +1), probably closer in the head-to-head. Very different demos, I suspect.

And Have I Got News For You was promoted far more than The X Factor's Friday episode (from what I saw anyway). I thought the Bake Off themed ad was inspired.

Strong timeshift for Strictly, but I still feel it'll struggle this year. I'll be surprised if it rates above the high 8's tonight.

You have to be kidding me don't you?

The X-Factor features on almost every ITV ad-break, it's promoted constantly in the press with it's fake bollox stories about judges, and most of that promo mentioned Friday.

You are seriously saying the most hyped show on TV, because of a few decent promos on the Beeb for a news quiz, was less promoted.

Blimey I've seen it all now.

You watch more ITV than me then. Thinking about it I haven't watched ITV live since last Sunday so maybe that's an issue. I may be sounding like SamuelW but if less people are watching the channel live less people are watching the promos.

I will reiterate that people on Digital Spy - who I would say are hardcore television watchers and are more up to date with scheduling changes than anyone - are saying they didn't realise The X Factor was on last night. So what does that say about promotion or lack of? Certainly that it didn't work.

For anyone wondering, here is the soaps state of play year-on-year, in the officials approximately - just posting this in case I don't have time to do a full comparison mid-week when all of September's data is in.

- Coronation Street: down 1.8m
- EastEnders: down 0.8m
- Emmerdale: down 1.2m

Sad times really for all, especially Coronation St

Why has "Coronation Street" suffered from a ratings drop, is it purely down to bad storytelling and characters then or is there more to it?

D.M.N., what are their consolidated year-to-date averages sitting at, please?

I have the averages for both CS and EE

Up to w/e 21 September 2014 (excluding +1)
Coronation Street - 8.22m (DOWN 0.90m on 2013)
EastEnders - 7.14m (DOWN 0.56m on 2013)

Thanks Lewie; that'll be exc +1 I take it?

EDIT: D.M.N.'s presumably go up to 26 September but I think we still have a data conflict here.

Yeah that excludes +1 I'm sure DMN will have more stats.

So "EastEnders" was 7.7 million average over 2013 then and that's what its looking to match in 2014 or surpass. Its needs to keep gaining in autumn then.

I would say its simply down to there being no big stories. Last year we had the Rovers fire, Kirsty/Tyrone domestic abuse plot and Nick/Kylie/David. These stories were big and the newspapers picked up on these stories as there was something to say about them - there were stunt pieces with the fire and David and Nick's car crash, that the newspapers could hype up and promote and therefore lure in the casual viewers. With Tyrone and Kirsty, the story was distinctive and stood out as it was a man that was the victim of the domestic abuse and that got people talking and tuning in. What's going on in the show right now that could get the newspapers excited and something that ITV could actively promote? I would argue that there is nothing much.

We have Rob and Tracy's wedding and Rob being unmasked as Tina's killer, but that story doesn't stand out and isn't distinctive enough to get the casual viewers tuning in. Plus there's no mystery surrounding it - it's a case of waiting for Rob to be found out. There was an element of mystery to the three big Corrie stories of last year which I highlighted above.

Posters on here talk about cast culls etc, but I think that is looking into the issue of Coronation Street too deeply. The average Joe on the Street cares about the majority of characters, the characters of Coronation Street are liked and well loved by the British public. The issue is creating distinctive stories and having that element of jeopardy in the storytelling again. Make things unpredictable to get the viewers tuning in.

In my opinion, that is in a nutshell the reason why Corrie has lost nearly 2 million viewers in a year.

There's still an element of mystery with the Tina murder storyline. We know that Rob and Peter are both leaving and neither are being killed off. However we don't know who will eventually be found guilty of Tina's murder or how either will exit. We don't know how Rob will be found out and who will find out first.

Ho ho, I very much doubt HIGNFY makes it out of the listings page in The Sun, while TXF is on the front cover almost every day. I suppose next the Brahms season on Radio 3, which I saw promoted once this week on BBC One, will have a pull out instead of the football one in The Sun.
HIGNFY last night did quite well, but I very much doubt it's because of over promotion.

I didn't see much of either TBH, but I've watched little TV myself this week other than Sport. Think I saw one around the Champions League.

It isn't the characters, as they are mostly pretty much the same as they've been for years. All the popular ones are still there, all the unpopular ones still there as well.

It's the storylines, nothing much is happening, and to make it worse, the 'not much happening' storylines are miss firing.

Corrie was always the soap where they could feature Norris and Rita fussing about, and it would still be entertaining, but recently comedy stories have been too forced.

I was out Tuesday otherwise I would have watched the football live. I just can't believe the near 2m gap between the Friday and Saturday show is explained away by Gogglebox (Have I Got News For You rated less than Doctor Who does and was only on for half the run time) and a lack of audience watching television in general but... maybe it can be.

Strictly Come Dancing starting late so Right Said Fred can perform on Pointless. There's a sentence I never expected to write.

Was going to watch SCD, But I found the BBC Four collections on BBC iPlayer so now watching them: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...group=p01277qd

I am not sure anyone can definatively tell you. CS was fine up to Xmas and then reasonable in January although the Hayley story did not do as well as it might have been expected. Not long after that CS started posting overnights 1m down on the previous year. Someone with the figures might be able to tell us exactly when that started but the reason who knows? Certainly as the year has gone on there has been increased disatisfaction on here with regard the quality but how much of that is reflected outside the DS bubble I dont know.
All the soaps are down though so maybe its not just a CS problem.

Is that going to lead up to Christmas for Coronation Street?

Well Rob will be gone by this time next month (nearly - he leaves November 5th). However SB said the Tina storyline runs up to January. I don't know how that will work. Also we have Cilla's return leading to Fiz's departure and Kylie's storyline leading to her departure as both actresses will be going on maternity leave.