George is an inactive member on here apparently. Wonder why?

I do miss your banter, was very funny. The days after the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies were funny reading on here IIRC.

Anyway do we really think Skyfall will get 6m? I don't know, but that Professor Brainstorm thing looks awful I have to say. Could've been a nice family drama after Puss in Boots on Christmas Day.

Apprentice has run out of steam as well. By this stage you should have a handful of front runners and a couple of dodgy ones left for annihilation at interview stage. You have a handful of useless ejuts and the Irish girl. If she doesn't win this Sugar has lost his marbles.

Personally I would not trust any one of them to carry out the simplist task. As for giving them £250k - I would not give them £2.50 of your money !!!

Virtually everyone has said Branestawm looks awful, yet you say it would be a nice thing to have on Christmas Day? Surely if we think it looks awful, then it must be awful which is why it's been put on Christmas Eve, the lesser of the three days, compared to Christmas Day or Boxing Day?

Why on earth did I write that? Sorry, I'm really not in the right frame of mind today. That's what writing a 4500 word essay does to you!

Erm just ignore what I said, but I'm not keen on it. I'll be watching Skyfall as I haven't seen it since I saw at the flicks two years ago.

Surely it would be the other way around!?

If ITV's schedule was/is strong the BBC's would look weak. The fact is the BBC has plenty to offer, much more than ITV over the festive period, but even with their supply of dosh they have had heavy budget cuts. This has therefore increased the need to rpt's in the schedule.

Personally the only things on ITV that are worth watching this Christmas are:

Birds Of A Feather
Benidorm
POD Dogs
Elf animation
Skyfall
The Dark Knight
Downton Abbey
The Queen's Garden
Santa Claus: The Movie (I love this film)

On the BBC

CTM
Doctor Who (If its a good story, though I don't hold out my hope)
Vicar Of Dibley
MBB
Miranda
Toy Story 3
101 Dalmations and any other Disney animation

Daniel! Daniel! Daniel! Daniel! Daniel! Sugar must have a soft spot for him! Has anyone, ever, been in the boardroom four times and survived?

Last night's Apprentice was extremely poor by this year's standards. The way that Lord Sugar seemingly plucked a fine out of thin air to ensure a particular team lost based on one mistake. It was unfair as they were the better team throughout the task. It made the whole thing rather pointless imo. I still think this year's series is the best for a while though.

We're decrying BBC1's weak Christmas Eve because it's weak. 2012 was their best in years. Merlin was popular family drama followed by two popular sitcoms in Outnumbered and Mrs Brown's Boys. This year we have Not Going Out which never became big then a repeat afterwards. And Christmas Eve 2012 still looks strong now if it was against ITV this year.

5.05pm Film : Lady and the Tramp (1955)

6.20pm BBC News,*Regional News,*Weather

6.45pm Film : Disney's Christmas Carol (2009)

8.15pm Merlin

9.00pm EastEnders

9.35pm Outnumbered*Christmas Special

10.15pm Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special*

That line-up was FANTASTIC. I watched all of that (bar EE)

Why on earth would you want to put crap on one of the biggest days of the Christmas period? That is just nonsense. Porridge went out on Christmas Eve in 1975 & 1976. The 1976 edition won the BAFTA for Best Sitcom. That proves your theory of crap on Christmas Eve then!

It's had a greater share if ejuts which makes the earlier episodes fun to watch. Trouble is by now you should have a group of decent candidates. There isn't. The fact that Daniel is still there shows how dire in ability this lot have been. Sugar firing Felipe was right. He is*early week fodder that made it through. Daniel will go soon. The series is dying as the sharp end is not sharp enough.

Christmas 2012 was great on BBC1 as there were strong programmes on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Not Going Out isn't in the same ratings league or comedy league as Outnumbered, Mrs Brown's Boys or Miranda.

I posted this again from this morning to try and demonstrate that Christmas Eve has always been the lesser day of Christmas. We assume it should be given the same presidence as Christmas day and Boxing Day. It never has done.


As I say in my post above, that was an unusually strong line up for Christmas Eve. But it is unusual, and as such we should not expect every Christmas Eve to be that strong. 2012 had the worst BBC1 Christmas idents ever, yet all three days of Christmas (Eve, Day and Boxing) had the most consistently strong line ups. Something that happens once in a blue moon. What is miussing from that schedule though, is a Vicar of Dibley repeat at 10.45pm. Just 30 minutes later than this year.


Yes, it was a superb line up. Probably unbeatable for Christmas Eve.


No need to get narky! Porridge may well have been on Christmas Eve back in 1976. But in 1976 the BBC had lots of sitcoms to play out at Christmas. That and Are You Being Served were the only decent programmes on Christmas Eve that year though (if you like Porridge - I've never really rated it to be honest). It also had a Disney movie called Million Dollar Duck, an episode of Kojak and Mastermind plus an Andre Previn musical special. Not Going Out may not be up there with the greats like Porridge, but it is a current, popular cult sitcom, so surely it deserves a decent slot during Christmas since its in its seventh series, has a loyal fan base and is a Christmas Special that is also likely to be its last ever episode. Nothing these days rates as highly as the comedies of the good old days, so considering what the BBC has to offer this year, we can't really complain that Christmas Eve isn't as strong as a schedule from 2012, which was possibly the strongest Christmas Eve line up in recent years.

The Snooker final and the IAC final seems to be always on the same night every year.

I wpuld suggest we wait for the ratings before we declare something dying though.

Erm I found the launch flat and the lack of actual celebs quite disappointing, but the first couple of days/week with Gemma (one of the few only entertaining people this year) was quite good. However since I've found it rather boring and have missed some days and I'm not even bothered. The tasks are rather laughable too this year, not really challenging. Let me guess, you're getting so defensive because someone's criticising an ITV show right? If it was on the BBC it's fair game ???

It's still better than anything itv have on.

Losing Gemma and Craig early hit the programme hard and I thought the shows immediately after their departures were quite piecemeal and patchy - understandably so. Then to lose Jimmy in the first eviction (albeit they brought it on themselves to an extent due to the twist) was a hammerblow. Personally, other than the episodes directly after Craig's departure I've found it to be a good year but can understand why others have struggled with it.

With regards this point (sort of)

It is interesting that on this thread for the past two weeks, the two biggest complaint points have been You've Been Framed - a clip show - and Professor Branstawm - a Harry Hill prog.

Yet for most of the year we get people repeatedly ask for the return of TV Burp... i.e. a clip show, fronted by Harry Hill.

Not saying I necessarily disagree but go figure.

I've said nothing of the sort and I'm one of CTM at Christmas' biggest haters Both are as ill-suited to CD as each other. There are a lot less complaints about DA being on Christmas Day, I grant you but that's understandable because they can just be responded to with "well ITV has nothing else to show". Which is something absolutely not true of CTM on BBC One.


Spoiler tags please Silly me for assuming that after I succesfully avoided all spoilers on social media all day I could come on this thread.

Why do I need spoiler tags? I was merely posting a speculative observation and have not revealed anything about future shows. All I was commenting upon was last nights episode which is widely discussed and has, as such, already aired.

With regards to your CtM reply, I was necessarily referring to you, I was generalising based on comments from several posters.

I used to like Harry Hill in the first how many years of TV Burp, but since the last few series, the Harry Movie and X Factor Musical, I've really gone off him. I'm sorry but it stinks of desperation now.

I'm dreading to think what mess the new Stars In Their Eyes is going to be like.

Wednesday 26th November 2014 - Consolidated Ratings
I'm a Celebrity - 10.01m (9.33m excl. +1)
The Apprentice - 7.04m

Craig was a big loss in my view. Gemma less so. She had walker written all over her but she probably walked earlier then they expected. Producers have themselves to blame with the loss of Jimmy. It is BB all over again fiddling with process and then being shocked when it doesn't turn out as they planned.

Gumtree to sponser Celebrity Big Brother this January - and give users the opportunity to sell their items to furnish the Big Brother house.

Seem like a neat marketing trick and is far more upmarket than that bloody super casino advert of the last couple of years.