I dont disagree with you overall. DW is not on live figures getting much better than a lot of shows but lots of shows get millions of viewers on timeshift these days and we dont analyse their live figures. Other shows that have gone against XF have done ok but its not as if any of them have been massively ahead on live figures at least not as far as I can see.

I think Homeland will be renewed for a fifth series but TWD did hurt the show. It's lucky Showtime has solid performers like Ray Donovan, Penny Dreadful, Shameless etc they have a few things in development plus Twin Peaks in 2016

I wonder what the BBC target for The Apprentice is tonight? If only someone could tell us.........


Joking aside, I think 6m would be a good figure to aim for. I'm interested to see whether TA suffers from the audience dip.

Really? I thought it looked terribly awkward, would have gone some way to ruining a show which wasn't so exceptional in every other respect. Not anywhere near as bad as Cumberbatch in 12YAS or the other two though, I grant you.

They haven't 'specifically said' anything, she just isn't on the list A list which includes such luminaries as 'Ashley Banjo' and 'John Torode' so the only explanation I can think of was that she actually declined a nomination - although why she would do that, I've no idea.

Its now what around 10 years old, so how long can the same format go on for? Or perhaps it may be an indestructible type of formula, "The Apprentice" has been a decent ratings winner but I think Lord Sugar would take it as an insult if the BBC asked him to rest and revive the show for a couple of years.

It's been promoted well and talked up by the usual suspects (as in BBC radio DJ's, not Nick Knowles' gameshow contestants) so 6m is the bare minimum it should be getting IMO.

5.9million target is what Im hearing from my sources .

Nick Grimsaw isn't a DJ, He is just a switch off

Lord Sugar's new job as a BBC1 presentation announcer didn't last long - they might at least have put him in front of a camera.

In fairness I meant the ones I actually listen to, quality broadcasters like er Greg James

What's happened? I heard the usual man announce that AS would be on later when introducing The One Show but I must admit that I did think it a rather pointless excersise if he's only going to introduce an hour of programming.

I forgot that TP had returned yesterday. That explains the rise for The Chase. But all three quizzes above deserve their success IMHO.

TP is a repeat, but as we've seen with Pointless, that makes no odds. The Chase goes to repeats next week, as it usually does around half-term, although I gather half-term in my town is actually the week after, when the clocks go back. I expecting Pointless and The Chase to return to new episodes when that happens. I'll be disappointed if they don't.

Tipping Point doesn't interest me at all but I enjoy The Chase

The Apprentice should start high tonight as it is in the cushy Tuesday 9pm slot with minimal competition. It may end up lower on Wednesday though.

Why they've gone for so many contestants I don't know, it'll be hard to work out who is who.

With regards to Would I Lie To You? and Citizen Khan.....

I reckon BBC1 have ended WILTY a week early because otherwise the new series of Khan would only be on for one week before he has to come off for Children In Need and that would be a bit clumsy. I predict the missing Lie will turn up at 8.30 on Friday 19th December (which would be slightly less clumsy. Also that would be on against Text Santa rather than Corrie) with the Christmas specials for Lie and Khan going out sometime over the Christmas/New Year fortnight (which starts December 20th), probably opposite Corrie on Monday 22nd or Christmas Eve. Last year the Lie Christmas special went out on Monday 23rd at 8.30pm opposite Corrie.

Despite liking Lie and not liking Khan, I'm happy to see Lie stop a bit early as I have too much to watch at the moment what with Doctor Who and The Apprentice and Scott & Bailey and Life Stories and New Tricks and Lewis and Detectorists and Plebs and Top Of The Pops and The Job Lot and Have I Got News For You and QI and Not Going Out and Bad Education and Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish and Only Connect and The Chase Celebrity Special and Pointless Celebrities. Oh for the Summer when there was nothing on except sport.

It's so they can do more double and treble firings presumably.

I didn't know you watched Plebs? Last night's episode was a good'un!

Are you sure? I'm hearing 7m. I tell you what lets add them together, dived them by 2 and get the average. 6.45m

Revised figures issued by Neilsen in the US show that NBC Nightly News was still the No 1 programme in the evening news ratings of the week of October 6, leading ABC by about 300,000 viewers. Neilsen had issued figures which it later conceded were wrong giving ABC the lead which reportedly led to crisis talks at NBC.

I don't think ITV would ever move Downton away from Q4 because I think they just want an absolutely packed Q4 beause that's where all the money is. A combination of X Factor and Downton every year is a bit uninspired and obviously as they decline they get that bit less interesting, but they're big hitters and I think that's all ITV are interested in. They see no need to change their biggest night in their biggest season.

It might have been the case in the past they'd have been willing to move it to Q1 because obviously there are still big audiences to be had because it's winter, and hence decent advertising revenue, but there are so many big advertising campaigns planned for Q4 they want to have all their big hitters there, and never mind the rest of the year.

As for Grantchester, I think it probably is a Sunday show but so absolutely is Downton and I can't see that feeling right on any other day. I wonder if there's too much period drama on ITV at the moment.


And the clash of the clapped-out panel games was a victory for the marginally less clapped out. 8 Out Of 10 Cats seems to do just as well on a Monday as it does on a Friday, and is probably better this time of year because it means it won't face HIGNFY which does the same thing. A bit overshadowed by its own spin-off these days, though. I still watch it, though. They really need to axe Buzzcocks.


I would agree with this, to be honest. Especially as Gotham is a new series, I can understand people getting hooked on it and downloading future episodes but nobody knows if they're going to like it yet. I do think it's a bit overstated, especially among the older generation. My parents have been watching The Walking Dead on 5*, they don't care how long ago it was on in the USA (or on Fox), it's new to them and they're used to watching shows on a weekly basis. And people are happy now too to watch stuff ages after it's been transmitted via box sets.


You would think there wouldn't be a problem but for some reason Doctor Who fans appear to demand a series every calendar year and any time there isn't it means it's heading for the axe. No matter that no other series works like that and is made and shown whenever they're good and ready.

I'm not sure what the issue is, to be honest. No, Doctor Who isn't doing amazing figures after Strictly but I don't think moving it there was any kind of great experiment, it's just where it ended up. Could they have show it earlier this year? Well, maybe it wouldn't have been ready by then, and it would have got a bit messed up with the World Cup. So it's gone in the autumn, and they've decided they want to show the whole series in one go, so it ends up after Strictly. I don't think it's any kind of grand plan, it's more or less the only place it was going to go.

I like it, because I like Strictly and Doctor Who and it feels a bit like Christmas Day with them both on together, whereas I don't like Merlin or Atlantis. But as far as most viewers go, BBC1 have a fantasy drama after Strictly and this year it happens to be Doctor Who. My mum liked Merlin and Atlantis so as far as she's concerned it's business as usual. As mentioned, even if you did lose Who from there, what's going to go in its place? Just another series of Atlantis, which would do maybe the same, maybe a bit worse because it's a weaker show. As mentioned, it is opposite The X Factor. Yeah, Atlantis is probably in greater need of the Strictly lead-in, but it'll get that for half its episodes anyway.


Hmm, not sure about that for ninety minutes. One thing that seems a little bit interesting about next week's BBC1 schedules is that they seem to be finishing a bit later in the week with films on Tuesday and Wednesday taking closedown well past 1am, whereas in previous months they've more or less packed up by midnight, handing over to News 24 at 12.05am tomorrow for example. Maybe they've found a few pennies to stay on for a bit longer.


I like how in the Radio Times you read it's "taking a break" and then turn the page and see it's episode seven of eight. It seems very odd because if they were to show the eighth episode (which certainly does exist) and the outtakes show (which is of course entuirely new material and usually just as good as the other episodes), it would have taken them to 7th November and then that would be mean a new series could start the week after CiN. Unless the Christmas Citizen Khan has to be at the end of the run rather than in the middle so it has to start now.

I'm probably going to agree with Pizza's suggestion it could go on Saturdays when Strictly gets shorter - the last episode on 6th December, the outtakes on 13th December and the Christmas show on 20th December, or everything a week later.

First time anybody has mentioned Dave Gorman, I love his stuff. Thanks for reminding me about Only connect as well I missed it this week.

Lord Sugar proving there is more to announcing than simply reading what is in front of you.

Lord Sugar- You're fired.

Does Sugar own the rights to the UK version? The only logical way to give The Apprentice a new lease of life would be to have a different boss.

That sounds quite likely, as if Citizen Khan had started on the 14th or 21st it would either have, as you say, only had one week on before being interrupted, or would have started too late and run into the New Year or over the Christmas period when schedules tend to be less fixed. It does still leave one WILTY unaccounted for but that's the compilation show which tends to show up in odd slots anyway.

EDIT - Just checked - HIGNFY is due to end on 12 December, and the Khan Christmas special should be on 19 December, for what it's worth.

Nigel Farage could be interesting, he always strikes me as a budding used car salesman.

It would be good to see BBC one rest "Doctor Who" next year, just to push it into Winter 2016. I think "Strictly Come Dancing" really pushed it out of its slot. I would have prefered "Doctor Who" to have a lead in at 7pm by "Country file" and a lead out by "The Great British Bake Off" at 8pm on Sunday evenings at a regular time of 7pm, but again probably BBC one would not want to deprive viewers of a series of either hit programme during 2015.

But even though it has a small audience people enjoy it. There are other popular comedies on BBC2. That's what you said about another show wasn't it Steve?