Re: Christmas (don't expect a response from all you sane people ) after Charlotte Morris stated she wanted Christmas Day to be more comedy filled, what about moving Call The Midwife to Christmas Eve/Boxing Day and putting Still Open All Hours on Christmas Day?

ITV would curl up and cry at the idea of scheduling against that.

Corrie would have to be slaughtered by Still Open All Hours/Miranda (10m each), and Downton by EastEnders/Mrs Browns (leading to Downton's worst Xmas Day performance by a country mile).

It's a bit mean of the BBC to do such a thing but I actually think Christmas Day is the one time the BBC should literally put everything possible into their schedule and forget the opposition entirely.

You have to remember the issue of cost though. They spend a lot of money on it especially promotion. Will SC be dropping his fees?

If it doesnt get the overnights advertisers won't want to pay premium rates and it all goes downhill from there.

I would bring back Pop Idol. I thought it was a neat little format that ended way before its time.

And then straight on into BGT. At least you've been spared Rising Star.


Thanks.

Some extra bits I gleaned from the breakdown:

BBC Two
18:15 - Restoring England's Heritage: 0.55m approx (2.9%)
* First shown on BBC One East Midlands
18:45 - Gardener's World (r): 0.5m (2.5%)
19:15 - The Great British Bake Off: an Extra Slice (r): 0.45m approx (2.3%)

I've said before that the comparison between BB and XF is uncanny. It is as if both ate themselves and a segment of audience just felt grubby watching them. They were both guilty pleasures in their prime but gradually turn overtime to a programme you don't admit to watching. XF isn't there yet but the trajectory as per BB is there. Contrast with SCD and IAC both event tv that just plod along a wavy path over the years.

I agree. It would have nostalgic element to it to bring back lost viewers. Ant and Dec doing main shows.

Pop Idol would just look twee these days when compared with the other singing shows.

BBC1 stayed over 20% share for the whole of prime time - the Beeb will be really happy with that I'm sure.

As for the x-factor, that rating will undoubtedly be alarming for ITV. It will be interesting to see what it gets on consolidation. For me, it's still too soon for people to be declaring the programme dead. Let's see what happens when the live shows start. If it is still struggling to clear 7m, then it's a different story.

TXF need to get rid of Cole, the reason she was popular before was because her rich boyfriend cheated on her. People felt sorry for her. This time round, she is just nasty and unlikable.

Also I am amazed no one has commented on how poor the production on TXF is. For years we had people banging on about how spectacular the production was, now it just looks jaded and cheap like the judges.

In comparison SCD is so upbeat and warm and so polished. Great to see viewers turning away from TXF in their droves.

Why is TXF on three times a week now?

Saturday 27th September 2014 - Consolidated
Strictly Come Dancing - 9.40m (40.9%)
The X Factor - 8.47m (32.4%) / 9.02m (34.6%)
Doctor Who - 6.82m (26.4%)

Christmas schedule talk already eh? This would be a very strong lineup for BBC 1

Christmas Day
15:00: The Queen
15:10: Film: Brave
16:35: BBC News
16:45: The Boy in the Dress
17:45: Strictly Come Dancing
19:00: Doctor Who
20:00: EastEnders
20:30: Still Open All Hours
21:00: EastEnders
21:30: Miranda
22:00: Mrs Brown's Boys
22:40: BBC News

I think Esio Trot might be saved for either Boxing Day or New Years Day and I think Call the Midwife would be perfect for Christmas Eve.

OR if they really wanted Call the Midwife on the big day then they could do this. Means that Open All Hours and The Boy in the Dress would be probably shown on Boxing Day. No doubt there'll be a massive balls up with the schedules like last year.

15:00: The Queen
15:10: Film: Madagascar 3 (it's a longer film than Brave)
16:45: BBC News
17:00: Strictly Come Dancing
18:15: Call the Midwife
19:30: EastEnders
20:00: Doctor Who
21:00: EastEnders
21:30: Miranda
22:00: Mrs Brown's Boys
22:40: BBC News

Strictly come dancing increased it's lead over XF in the officials. Surprising that XF is timeshifting less than SCD these days. It used to be the other way round.

Thanks DMN.

I said the Saturday rating would be closer with +1 between Strictly and X Factor due to the smaller gap between the two compared to last Friday. But I expected Strictly to be ahead. The only surprise so far was the launch show not being ahead of X Factor and adding 1m.

There are two Christmas MBBs scheduled for recording on October 16 and 23 at Pacific Quay. No recording dates yet for Miranda.

That's an incredibly poor figure for The X Factor but lets try not to get ahead of ourselves here. As poor as the figure is it'll no doubt rebound at least a little tonight and even more so in the weeks to come when the clash with Strictly is less pronounced or non-existent (and after last night I suspect ITV will look to dramatically limit the clashes with Strictly where they can). Having said all that the 2.5 hour show next week suddenly looks like an even worse idea than it a did earlier in the week. The X Factor could very well be looking at an incredibly ugly figure next Saturday...


The BBC have been promoting it all week.


Cowell went to the US because the success of the Pop Idol format over their made everyone involved a fortune. He was hoping the same would be true for The X Factor. Not to mention that it made very little sense for the format, which had sold to basically every other territory on the planet, not to be sold into the US market. Plus the back end record sales were potentially more impressive with a US outlet as well. Cowell's problem is that he stayed with American Idol for too many seasons and missed the launch window on The X Factor in the US as a result. That he stuck with Fox wasn't a particularly good move either. The television landscape on both sides of the Atlantic (and several other countries) could incredibly different right now if Cowell had sold the format to NBC as he originally planned to until Fox offered him a boat load of money. If NBC had The X Factor they wouldn't have launched The Voice and I suspect without the massive success in the US The Voice wouldn't have landed in the UK (at least not on BBC1) or several other regions.

More broadly ITV (or maybe just commentators here) have to stop look at their Saturday night schedule as a way to try and hurt Strictly and the BBC. The approach needs to be what works best for ITV. Clearly clashing for extended periods of time with Strictly Come Dancing is absolutely hammering The X Factor's numbers. The lesson to learn here is that ITV absolutely have to avoid these extended clashes with Strictly and The X Factor.


That might not be such a bad thing. Part of the problem with The X Factor (at least from my perspective) is how horribly over the top and gimmick filled it is. A reversion back to an incredibly simple format might not be such a bad idea and would certainly stand out in the current reality television climate. I think though ITV might be wise to look outside of reality competition series for a new Saturday night flagship. These shows are playing to diminishing returns across the board really which would suggest that the audience appetite for them is waning. Its probably time to try and find a new format to milk dry.

D.M.N. - do you have the consolidated ratings for Emmerdale for it's big week that aired Monday 22nd - Friday 26th September please? exc/inc +1 if possible.

Thanks

ITV (inc +1)
18:00-18:30 - ad break / ITV Regional News / ITV News: 1.8m (11.0%)

Channel 4 (inc +1)
18:00 - last 5 mins of Come Dine with Me (r) / 2-min break / Stars at Your Service (r): 0.45m approx (2.5%)
* 15-minute breakdown: 0.7m (4.2%), 0.4m (2.1%), 0.4m (2.0%), 0.3m (1.8%)
19:00 - last 2 mins of Stars at Your Service (r) / 3-min break / Channel 4 News: 0.3m (1.5%)
19:15 - last 3 mins of Channel 4 News / 1-min break / Sarah Beeny's Double Your House for Half the Money (r): 0.35m approx (1.6%)
20:15-21:15 - 3-min break / Grand Designs (r): 0.68m approx (3.0%)

Channel 5 (inc +1)
18:00-19:30 - most of FILM: Silverado (1985): 0.63m approx (3.4%)
* ran 17:05-19:35

I do wonder if The X Factor would have been successful had it launched much earlier, FOX unsurprisingly didn't want it to hurt Idol but I'm sure it would been a hit on NBC. The Voice probably would have found a US broadcaster had NBC not picked it up but whether or not it would have had the same success is hard to tell, CBS had too many successful shows at the time so wouldn't have ended up there, ABC might have been a possibility though.

The X Factor still draws in a demo that is craved by advertisers which is why it's not going to be axed anytime soon plus it would be too expensive for Channel 4 or Channel 5 up as it wouldn't be able to draw in the same numbers of viewers that you can get on ITV

I assume you do not actually watch The Chase, which is an excellent game show, hosted superbly as well by someone I suspect the BBC might be poaching if they can in future as he appeals to a wide audience like few others do these days.

As for last night's episode :



By the way, Samuel, on The Chase celebrity version ITV always give £1000 to the charities even if the celebs lose, which helps dispel the idea that the chasers lose on purpose so as not to be mean. And it is noticeable on Pointless how the BBC are considerably less generous in their celebrity version prize funds for charity.

SCD/XF both down yoy which isnt paticularly good. DW just dipping a little when you might think it would increase.

9.02m. Not bad for a show dying on its arse.

Yeah cos the BBC should be giving loads of licence fee money to charity.

The only reason why we had drama on Christmas Day on BBC1 was because BBC1 had no comedies. And they underestimated the popularly of the comedies they did have. It makes sense to pack Christmas Day with Miranda, Mrs Brown's Boys and Still Open All Hours and don't bother what the competition does. If EastEnders continues to find its ratings mojo then that would work well as split episodes on the day.

The last few years BBC1 have been scheduling around Downton Abbey. Just schedule and be done and put Midwife on Boxing Day with a second Mrs Brown's Boys and/or second Miranda.

I'd be careful what you wish for! I am a big fan of the BBC across all its services. But if it's as dominant as you suggest, I think that may turn out to be counter-productive eventually. There will be calls from commercial broadcasters for a more level playing field and for licence fee funds to be more widely distributed or even for the licence fee to be reduced. And that would be disastrous.

Well that's a result of one being a commercially funded broadcaster and the other being a publicly funded one. To be honest I think the success of Pointless and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent The Chase (where its somewhat easier to win bigger sums) make it pretty clear that audiences really aren't all that bothered by how much contestants, celebrity or otherwise, win (the abject failure of Red or Black seemingly proves that theory as well). I suspect the audience wouldn't really care if the celebrities won absolutely nothing for charity if they lost on either show because that's not really what these formats are about or what their appeal is.