Exactly. EastEnders would be perfect at 6:15pm

Maybe I'm making too much of the crossover between Strictly/Doctor Who and Call the Midwife. To me it looks pointlessly ugly and the natural flow of the day is interrupted. Whereas if they used EastEnders as a 'demo-switcher' the day would have more of a flow from one show to the next.

If you look back at the Christmas Day ratings for 2008 on BARB's website when Wallace & Gromit were the meat in an Eastenders sandwich, you will see that W&G had 16m viewers and the two Eastenders had 11m

Plus last year Mrs Brown followed Eastenders on Christmas Day and Open All Hours followed it on Boxing Day and both comedies vastly out-rated the soap.

People don't have to park themselves in front of the TV all day on Christmas Day. They can pick and choose what they want to watch.

Poor scripts?

That's the two shocks for ITV mate.

The thing is EE is so much weaker this year. Its still getting sub 7m. When it was last split on Christmas Day was 2010? when EE was really pulling in the ratings.

I guess good or bad, high ratings or low ratings, nobody can change, shift or manipulate the schedule or ratings so have fun doing that but enjoy Christmas!!

2008 I think was the last time.

That might be so but as shown at Easter if the storyline is good and the promotion is good enough then ratings will rise. Easter saw EastEnders highest rating & share for a couple of years,

I think the BBC will get behind it this year and I really do see it being up a fair bit on last year despite it being down the rest of the year (Mostly)

I agree with what you are saying and said as much a few days ago,

From a ratings point of view it will work though, people won't channel hop and EE will pick up extra viewers waiting for the next comedy, so it will get a high rating and all it's troubles will be over as it was the highest rating soap all Christmas (or so they will hope)

I do not know if anyone else has spotted it but Downton gets a very quick repeat on Boxing Day at 4.20pm in the provisionals. If this stays thst will harm it on Christmas night. DA does get Sunday afternoon repeats on the main series, and has had a repeat before at Christmas three or four days later, but I would consider 4.20 pm Boxing Day to actually be prime time, even those out at the sales should be back.

People will think watch BBC1 on 25th as they can see DA a day later anyway.

Would that mean people watching a recording of the first Xmas Day showing after 6.20 on Boxing Day will get added to the repeat's official figures rather than Xmas Day?

Given how much the Xmas DA consolidates like a b'stard that would not be optimum scheduling, if this is how it works these days...

I thought that only happened to BBC programmes?

Its possible it will have an affect but will it be that big? I would have thought most will record it on the day so it will still get its mammoth timeshift.

ITV would probably prefer viewers watching LIVE than recording it and skipping the ads. Although since they don't make much on advertising at Christmas, it does seem rather silly scheduling. Better to get the official as high as possible.

Series 6 of Downton which starts filming in February is likely to be the last according to the Sunday Express.

Three more episodes of Foyle's War to be screened in January on ITV will also be the last says the Express

That's even more barmy if that's the case!

What's the logic of that? Why would BARB treat BBC programmes so disadvantageously to its rivals?

It will likely to be the last series of Downton, but I imagine specials will continue.

Foyle's War is a definite.

Thanks for that - very interesting.

It could make the difference on the night. People have from the 6th to study there TV Mags and such an early repeat will be seen and as DA is on the decline now choose the BBC comedy.

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 12s12 seconds ago
Saturday:
#StrictlyComeDancing 9.63m/42.4% (up 460k)
#TheXFactor 7.68m/33.7% (down 60k)
#ImACeIebrity 8.12m/39.8% (up 50k on last Saturday)

Celebrity Mastermind: 2.69m (16.5%)
BBC News: 4.40m (25.2%)
BBC Regional News: 4.80m (26.7%)
Pointless Celebrities: 5.90m (31.1%)
Strictly Come Dancing: 9.63m (42.4%)
Atlantis: 3.76m (26.7%)
Casualty: 3.92m (17.4%)
Lottery Draws: 2.64m (12.2%)
BBC News: 2.84m (13.8%)
Match of the Day: 2.99m (19.5%)
The Football League Show: 879k (13.7%)

Six million for Pointless?!

Mammoth win for SCD, especially when you strip out the second showings of the ITV shows.

Do feel SCD should be at 10m in the overnights though by now. Though it is still consolidating to c11m I think so perhaps of little concern.

IAC showing The X Factor how its done. I think IAC is actually up YOY from last year 8m. Can someone confirm that?

Sam Hodges ‏@Sam_Hodges 14s15 seconds ago
Peak audience of 10.6m (av 9.5m) for Saturday's #StrictlyComeDancing - the biggest show of the night. #SCD

Fantastic for SCD the share is great, good for pointless with its SCD theme and XF keeps on its decline