Mmm agreed and this is where tension in the format lies. That cliffhanger approach to entertainment shows, something doesn't work about the results show on "Strictly Come Dancing" perhaps it's not that its recorded that takes the drama away but the Dance Off itself.

Resting tends to mean cancelled, it's an expression that was used a lot in the noughties for shows that hadn't done very well, or were getting on , that might never return. Stars In Their Eyes has been rested for eight years.

i was feeling down because its the end of the weekend and nearly the start of the working week and that dreaded monday morning.

sam you have cheered me up, thank you, the best laugh i have had all day.

Spider-Man 3 was shown last Sunday at 18:25. The lunchtime showing today was a rapid repeat.

Strictly's dance off is an odd beast.

You can see why they want it because the sing off works so well on The X Factor and indeed worked really well on the BBC's Lloyd Webber shows but it just hasn't translated well to Strictly. I think the main problem there is that the judging dynamics mean the result is just never going to be as exciting or as dramatic. I also think it doesn't help that the bottom two are performing the same dance as the performance show but its obviously not practical to have them learn a second dance just for the dance off (is it?). Actually in an ideal world I wonder if it might work better if the bottom two couples performed the same dance at the same time but that feels like it would be a lot to ask of the celebrities. I might be tempted to go the Tumble route. As bad as that show was I thought it was on the right path with the formatting of its results being a decision based on a separate skill away from the main performance. I'm not sure how well a technical challenge of that nature translates to a mainstream dance contest though and Tumble's 'vault off' was a damp squib (like so much of that show).

The obvious problem with doing away with the dance off though is that it makes sustaining an hour long results show every Sunday a bit tricky. The results show is already padded to high heaven with the dance off. And its not like the results show does badly. I think maybe we just have to accept that Strictly's results are always going to be a much more sedate offering.

What Australia Watched: Sunday, October 19

Seven
18:00 Seven News: 1.03m
18:30 New Series: The Big Adventure: 0.95m
20:00 The X Factor Grand Final - Performances: 1.32m
22:10 Castle: 0.66m

Nine
18:00 Nine News Sunday: 1.03m
18:30 New Series: The Embassy: 0.87m
19:30 60 Minutes: 1.09m
20:30 Gotham: 0.70m

Ten
18:30 Scorpion: 0.66m
19:30 Modern Family: 0.66m
20:00 Modern Family (R): 0.52m
20:30 NCIS: New Orleans: 0.42m

I don't think the Strictly audience is ever expecting high drama, most dance offs(especially early on) are foregone conclusions anyway and the judges make absolutely no attempt to do anything other than what is the right thing to do in the situation.

The great thing about Strictly is its audience recognises this and still tunes in large numbers, its just a feelgood warm show to watch and be part of. The fact that it is able to produce such high figures with a 24 hour delay is pretty remarkable imo.

Brilliantly put. Theres nothing wrong with the SCD results show. If they mess about with it, they'll turn viewers away. Dancing on Ice could never sustain its audience for its results shows in the later years despite being pretty much the same show, so it's testament to SCD that such an audience tunes in on a Sunday. If people want the drama, they'll watch XF results.

With Sunday Night at the Palladium, I imagine they'd have to film on the day that the Palladium doesn't have a show running which is fine because the next show at the Palladium Cats doesn't have Sunday performances although they do occassionally have concerts or one nighters so they would need to work around that before filming any episodes

Yes, it's nothing to do with the shambolic ratings, is it?

I do think your on to something to have them learn the "Dance Off" dance rather than perform the same one. This may have the judges divide their opinion more as we already know what they think of the performance they couples have given there for its a foregone conclusion who will be voted out.

Millions watch the results on "Strictly Come Dancing" but its a lengthy affair to get to the conclusion and with zero tension.

The BBC have been resting Don't Scare the Hare for a while as well, any news about when it's coming back

The hare sustained some bad injuries!

The Puppet Show is having a rest as well

Indeed. I could just about imagine in America people totally writing off Thursdays if they don't like what's on because series there run for months and months and months, but why write off Thursdays now when you know that in a couple of weeks there's going to be something totally different there?


As you many have gathered from my previous posts, I will never ever slag off Alex Jones in anything. I was using her as an example, people say they want entertainers to do entertainment shows and we've got one here - Shane Richie is a popular performer who knows the mechanics of a game show. I don't see how he's any different to people pitching Bradley Walsh for every single format going. As you say, this is a fairly low profile quiz show and they're clearly after a safe pair of hands who will keep it ticking over.

I think the broadcasters are pretty brave in bringing new people to light entertainment, as it happens. Alexander Armstrong was a bit of a leftfield choice, and you could argue the same is true of Rob Brydon whose other telly work has been well after the watershed. Then you've got Miranda Hart being lined up for something as well. There are plenty of people coming through.


You could argue that currently it's a bit crowded with Graham Norton and Alan Carr also doing their chat shows at the same time, but presumably they need to do the chat shows now because so many potential guests have things out for Christmas so there's loads of people to go at. Same reason they have to do The X Factor at this time of year.

I've said here before that it would probably be better if Ross did one-to-one interviews rather than the show he's doing now, which would stop comparisons with Norton and Carr, lose the can't-be-arsed interviews he does when he clearly doesn't care about the guest and would also have the happy side effect of replacing P**rs M*rg*n.

Of course, while we're talking about 29 Minutes of Fame we can remember Oh What A Week, as piloted last year and brilliantly described as not being about "things like politics and normal news"...
http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/0...jason_manford/
Also in that link is reference to his Top-Gear-with-films show which he was talking about for years and years and never happened.


Almost certain this is going to be on ITV4.

When you think about Dont Scare The Hare you really have to ask what were they thinking or maybe what substances were they on?

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 19s19 seconds ago
Sunday ratings:
#Strictly results 9.11m/38.8%
#XFactor results 8.57m/34.6%
#DowntonAbbey 7.90m/32.3%.

Sam Hodges ‏@Sam_Hodges 11s11 seconds ago
#StrictlyComeDancing was Sunday's highest rating show, peaking at 10m and averaging 9.1m on @BBCOne

Goodness! Didn't think the Strictly results would get over 9m!

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 25s26 seconds ago
#StrictlyComeDancing was last night up 620k compared to last Sunday, #XFactor down 220k and #DowntonAbbey up 160k.

Does everyone have their X Factor fan excuse bingo cards ready?

Ooh! So Strictly beat X Factor?!

I see no one in this thread is watching ITV this morning, so I will borrow this from DS Forms, (can be watched on +1 I guess)

ITV Lorraine studios evacuated!

Right now (09:13) due to fire alert presumably!

has ITV hired the Jacket Potato from The One Show?

Ironically Don't Scare the Hare was the first programme ever made at what were then the BBC's new studios in Salford - I think the brick dust must have got into their drinks.

Didn't it do so last year for most of the time?

Fine for all three shows. Actually, exceptional for Strictly.

more to the point if memory serves Downton Abbey was rating in the 10 millions, what happened there?

Only Strictly holding its ratings it would seem.

But Samuel has to make his provocative post first to kick things off.

We had Downturn Abbey.

Seems it's now Downed Abbey.

Or at least Doomed Abbey....