It is this willingness to buy into total fakery that really drives me crazy. We seem to have developed a generation who soak up this nonsense. When you have shows like TOWIE etc. completely manufacturing reality you have really jumped the shark. It irritates me when shows like SCD start with 'romance' stories to attempt to pull away some of the headlines from X-Factor. Who can outdo each other with complete tripe. Meanwhile lets watch singers & dancers!!

It's an article in The Daily Star. Why get so worked up about it?

Channel demos for week ending 10 August: http://i58.tinypic.com/ru347k.jpg
Previous week: http://i58.tinypic.com/32zrgav.jpg (both from Broadcast magazine).

The week after the Commonwealth Games, BBC One's overall share falls by just over a point, with disproportionate share drops among males (-3.55 points), ABC1s (-3.3) and 16-34s (-3.2). Meanwhile the female share goes up by +0.75 point.

BBC Two - lacking EastEnders, Holby and the like - falls -2.65 points overall and its typical 50/50 gender balance is restored.

And he will only carry on if you keep poking him with a stick.

Leave him alone for god's sake. Interrogate me instead.

No-one's getting worked up about such a cynical publicity stunt that happens every year, never mind if there's ecven a microgramme of truth in it (which I doubt).

And regardless of which paper its planted in, it's still a cynical PR exercise to boost interest courtesy of the Simon Cowell publicity machine.

Can someone explain how these ratings work with all the catch-up services now available. I hardly ever watch anything live anymore & certainly not on a commercial channel. I go through the sky planner every Sunday and set up exactly what I want to watch each week. Some maybe watched live (BBC drama most likely) and then that episode deleted from Planner, others later that evening (soaps or some ITV/C4 stuff. Increasingly stuff is left on Planner to watch when I want to view it. Especially these two/three part dramas. I'm getting too old to remember and prefer to watch them in one sitting. With ITV I have started to download dramas from ITV Player as you don't get any adverts to wind through. 1 hr down to 48 mins for Downton Abbey! Even when I watched on same night I always started to watch DA 15 mins late so that I could wind through adverts. Even more so with DOI where I could cut the viewing time by almost half with all the adverts/competitions/re-caps/VT's. Live News/Sports Events are of course watched live. What about Sky on Demand downloading films/box sets etc. Is this viewing outside of total nos. on these stats.

Going back to this, BBC Three's male skew actually went up fractionally in the week following the Games: from 53.6% to 53.7%. Seems high, because in the three weeks before the Games it was:

w/e 20/07: 48.8%
w/e 13/07: 50.1%
w/e 06/07: 51.7%

Maybe some men got the taste for BBC Three through watching the Games and then the programmes which followed? A little odd though.

EDIT: It could just be down to a more male-friendly schedule: plenty of Indiana Jones and Top Gear in the latest week, plus Meet the Fockers.

Aurora13 - viewing via the TV is counted, including on-demand viewing. The overnight figures available the next day count all viewing up to 2am the previous night, including live, recorded and on-demand-via-the-TV. The officials (available a week or so later) count all such viewing within seven days.

At the moment online/tablet/mobile viewing data is not published although BARB are working on this.

Yes, for the few weeks after it, Carr started the round by saying "Number one is of course the London Bombings, but what are the others?". But as I say, the 7/7 one itself would be interesting to see again and given it doesn't mention the news it would appear to be one of the easiest to repeat. Presumably it's just too poor to show, the panel would presumably have been a bit distracted.

This is going off the point a bit but when 9/11 happened, C4 were running a series called This Week Only with Joe Cornish which was basically a panel show without the questions, with people just swapping jokes about the week's news, with Nick Frost and Lauren Laverne among the regulars. They did an episode in the week of 9/11 and brilliantly failed to mention it at all, and it looked totally ridiculous, a topical news show failing to mention the biggest news story of the century.

On another forum one of the writers talked about that show, they were putting together the script when Nick Frost told them about it, and they said that the news itself was strange enough without it coming from Nick Frost. They had no idea how they could cover it so they just totally ignored it. Unsurprisingly it didn't get a second series.


That was a good rating for Boomers, I think mostly based on the extremely good cast, a lot of people in there who the audience know and like, which can only be improved next week with June Whitfield arrives. I probably won't watch it again because it's not really my kind of humour but I think it's likeable enough for viewers to stick with it, I can imagine it holding on to much of that audience.

As for The One Show I'm loathe to draw many conclusions from Friday early evening in August, at times like that I'm amazed shows get any audience. Will possibly be even lower this Friday with the Bank Holiday. Scrappers would probably have been better off as a one-off documentary than a series, seems pretty repetitive. Room 101 is proving an extremely versatile show for BBC1, they can show it in any available slot from teatime to bedtime.


It has been brought back, Fast and Loose on BBC2 was exactly the same format, with exactly the same production team, but for some reason they were desperate not to mention Whose Line Is It Anyway at any point in the publicity (the press release repeatedly said it was "from the makers of Mock The Week", but not also from the makers of Whose Line). Fast and Loose was really bad.


You can see why the next series of The Paul Daniels Magic Show was dumped in the summer, certainly the weak spot in BBC1's schedules at that point, it really had run out of steam. I think the Gen Game figures in 1992 were disappointing at the time too, hence why the next series was on Friday, where ratings rocketed as it benefited from the six months The Bill was on Saturdays rather than Fridays so it only had to face You Bet, and thrashed it.

Is it going to be a regular thing that you now post random tabloid articles about X Factor?

There are also a string of press stories about Strictly and Doctor Who today if anyone cares to do a round-up, assuming this is a new Ratings Thread feature?

The weather is awful at the moment and wondering if CBB day 1 could benefit from it.

Contd, I think CBB will settle down around 2 million. I think maybe 5 should look to maybe ditching the summer one and beefing up the winter one, which is the one viewers prefer. New Tricks will win the 9.00 battle tomorrow, as it is a well liked drama, but CBB has its fan base or those curious to see who is taking the walk into the house.

I'm wondering if previewing Gotham for five minutes at 21:00 is such a good idea for Channel 5, given the intense competition on the other 'terrestrials'. How much of a draw will that mini-programme be - will be fascinating to see. Maybe it could have been slotted in during the show, with a time not given so as to capture those specifically tuning in for the promo, getting them to watch CBB.

The launch is for a full two hours, mind, so presumably it will pick up a lot of floaters from 22:00.

I think people tuned into Splash! after everyone was talking about it!

I actually think Alex is OK as a presenter, but she doesn't have anyone to banter with except for the judges. Craig is quite good, although he should have stuck to his guns and kept his marks lower for this stage of the competition, and I hate the booing of judges who give a legitimate opinion that the contestants aren't world class yet. Nadia brings a bit of gravitas, and has a nice manner, and Sebastian has experience of working with celebs, so is well placed to say something constructive.

I wish they'd asked Beth Tweddle to be a judge instead of Louis, because it would have created a more balanced panel, and I think her experience as a contestant on DOI is more relevant than Louis' experience on SCD, plus as she's properly retired, so she's got a bit more time, and doesn't take herself as seriously. She proved herself a good, but kind analyst during the Commonwealth Games. Presumably Louis got the gig because he'd done the BBC show, and because the producers think he's eye candy for the mums.

So far, the professional partners and various coaches are a bit anonymous, and there is a risk that every VT is 'this is really hard, but I'm going to push myself'.

Tumble was always going to rise, because of the amount of new viewers watching TV this week compared with last.


Thanks for these NeilVW. They certainly make for interesting reading, and shows the work the channels have to do. The overall message from these tables are;

BBC One really does have a problem attracting, and holding, a younger audience. Around 10% of BBC One's viewers are 16-34, which is very poor for what is meant to be a 'wide-ranging, general' channel. Whilst it does have a high share (in terms of overall market), it does show how 'old' BBC1 is.

BBC Two has one of the truest gender balances of a TV channel I've ever seen. Nearly 50% male and female audiences, it is staggering! However, a very poor share in 16-34 is again concerning.

BBC Three has a very good share and profile of the 16-34 demo, but it's profile skews more to ABC1 adults. This again shows the BBC's problem of attracting a younger audience.

ITV's family of channels really does have major problems. ITV, ITV2 and ITV3 all have defining female skewing audiences, some as high as (female - male) 65% - 35%, and no lower than 55% - 45%. Big problem, especially with 90% of their football content disappearing at the end of this season.

The main ITV channel has a rather large problem. Whilst it has a higher share of Adults 16-34 and ABC1 Adults, the profile (the percentage of the channel's audience) in these demos is quite low in comparison to its commercial rivals Channel 4 and Channel 5.

ITV2 has a lot to do if it's going to transform into a channel aimed solely at 16-34 year olds. Share in that demo, in comparison to their direct rivals E4 and BBC3, is the lowest of the three. Ironically, in ABC1 adults, it's also the lowest of the three, which points to the need for ITV to pay a lot more attention in ITV2's direction.

C4 does well with 16-34 and ABC1 viewers, that is already known. But of the commercial broadcasters, it is the most well balanced (roughly 60% female, 40% male). If they had football rights, of some shape, I imagine they would be at the same levels as BBC2 (not to mention their overall share jumping).

E4 is very impressive. More than half of its audience is 16-34, and in terms of attracting ad money, they could realistically charge a high tariff.

C5 does ok in terms of its audience profile, but it has a heavy female skew like ITV.

Thanks. How does this cater for my type of DOI viewing when I am constantly fast forwarding throughout the show? Also the two/three part dramas over a two/three week period. Am I right in assuming that the first two episodes don't count. The tablet / mobile current exclusion must hit soaps like EastEnders and other younger generation stuff.

Tell me where has this discussion of BB been? Every day I asked for BB ratings and that's it. Is that talking about it a lot? No it's not. Okay next time I won't ask for BB ratings, I'll just rather view 37 pages of soaps debate if it makes you feel better....

With regard to jda 135's post, ITV will need to find a replacement for the ECL and Europa League in peak time on the main channel. The loss of this will mean further falls in male and ABC1 share and due to the very high price for football rights, ITV will probably never get them back. Respite will be there in 14 months time when the RU World Cup is shown, which has very high ABC1 male demos, and this will complement hits like IAC, DA and TXF. However, following the 2016 Euros, ITV will really feel the loss of the football.

Nope, just

1) trying to break up the increasingly tedious/repetitive arguments about Tumble and now CBB/BB, as well as the barbed comments thrown in Samuael's direction etc by

2) adding a cynical view on what I see as an attempt to shore up or increase ratings for XF (so not so random after all)


And for that matter, others post details of new series, newly-commissioned dramas etc, I see no-one querying those posts, presumably because they also have some bearing on ratings discussions




Edit - it does seem that this thread is becoming increasingly fractious ....... it must be some hot weather somewhere.

You may wish to check mediaguardian.co.uk for some news...

Generation Game returns 2015.
Harry Hill signs for the BBC.
Miranda back for a 2 part Christmas show

Edit: Happy Valley 2 confirmed...
Last edited by C.M.W. : 17-08-2014 at 18:12

Mmmm.. Interesting....

Some good decisions there, " The Generation Game " may receive some criticism for being brought back though, in terms of doing something different its not the most creative decision but one which will work absolutely with Miranda Hart I think. It sounds like they gave her the opportunity to do anything she requested and this was the project. Harry Hill is a little more ambiguous "scripted comedy".. Is that sitcom??

I don't know whether I dare comment on those now .....

Get in there! Generation Game is going to be very successful for the BBC, especially if the stories about Miranda hosting it are right. If the BBC can hopefully air that against Got Talent next year, it could put a major dent in BGT's figures and help boost BBC1 share.

Also great to see top talent like Harry Hill join the BBC - he is wasted on Itv narrating on Youve Been Framed. The BBC will look after him very well and offer him top primetime projects. Miranda will do excellent ratings at xmas. All in all,some great news for the Beeb once again.

More in here - http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...ore-doctor-who

I don't normally agree with Samuel, but TV Burp stopping was probably one of the worst things they've done in recent years, even if the format was starting to go into decline.

Pleased about the Generation Game's return........but Miranda hosting. Gah!