So its Harry Hill or Stephen Mulhern for the gold medal of how low can you go.

There's only one way to find out. Fiiiight!

I pop in there occasionally but not as much as here. The thread over there is OK but very BBC-biased (perhaps unsurprising given that it is on a website dedicated to a BBC show).


It's the gift that keeps on giving, that one. No idea how it keeps doing so well.

Also Take Me Out: The Gossip seems to be doing quite well for ITV2. 540,000 on Saturday and last week's edition consolidated to 697,000. Not bad for an ITV2 spinoff of a show only doing 3.3m.

I notice You've Been Framed (2.52m/14%) outrated Stars in Their Eyes, Planet's Got Talent and Jonathan Ross on Saturday. Ouch!

I rather liked the idea of 'Celebrity Crimewatch' from the Deadringers show.

What a week for 5USA in the officials. The new programming strategy is most definitely growing the channel's audiences at 9pm.

Three unique series topped the half a million mark: Castle hit a 2015 high of 629k, as did Law & Order: Special Victims Unit with 524k.

But more noteworthy than either of those was the channel's newest acquisition The Mysteries of Laura - only on the bubble in America for NBC after middling performances at best - climbing a massive 40% from its pilot episode to 515k, with the Thursday repeat pulling in a further 348k.

Another problem with ITV, is with shows like Family Fortnes and Take Me Out, is that they will keep bringing them back year after year because they think their success relys on other formats propping them up.

Apropos of UK channels showing US imports; the number of programmes that Watch has shown and made a big song and dance about that if you google you realise they have been cancelled after 10 episodes. I want a series which I know I can continue watching. I hate being sucked in by flashy adverts.

Viacom might be pleased with 5USA but I can't imagine they'll be as thrilled with MTV's Ex On The Beach. It returned with 426,000 - a well above average audience for the channel and the most watched programme since Geordie Shore's most recent season finale on December 16 - but it was down 37% on the series 1 opener last April despite high profile advertising slots around C5's Celebrity Big Brother.

Better timeshift from Call the Midwife, consolidated rating up on the previous week despite the lower overnight. Shame Last Tango could hit 8m but still 300k up on its previous high, it had a series average of 7.42m, up 0.32m from last series and up 0.10m from the first series.

In fairness a lot of the time UK broadcasters will be buying in these shows without knowing whether or not they will be renewed. I don't think anyone sets out to buy a cancelled show, if a cancelled show gets picked up after that call has been made it's most likely been picked up along with something else as part of a bigger buy with the same studio. But if you do pick up a show that gets cancelled, you're hardly going to shout it over the rooftops: you have to just go with it and try and make the best of it, as frustrating as this ultimately may be for viewers if it ends prematurely.

The Mysteries of Laura's fate hasn't been decided yet, so it may get a reprieve. C5 will certainly be hoping so if it can keep up these strong UK performances, but still early days for it. I think it's becoming clearer though why C5 are keen not to screen US imports on the main channel on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights at 9pm this spring - they are obviously looking to protect the new to 5USA shows that air on those nights.

28 days.... late...er

data for w/e 4th Jan, 28th Dec and 21s Dec now on BARB website

enjoy!

TV Wise was right about Outlander finding a UK home. When the article referred to "major broadcaster" though Amazon wasn't quite what I had in mind. Although I've been a subscriber for a couple of months now and it's increasingly worth the money.

http://m.broadcastnow.co.uk/5083009.article

March premiere. It follows the VoD service picking up "first run" UK rights to both Extant and Constantine last year, as well as ramping up its original content.

I am reasonably sure that ITV will do another series of Mr Selfridge and try it on another night. If only as it has been planned as a 4 series run and the final series for 2016is already intended to bring the story to a proper conclusion.

Short changing those viewers who have watched will not enhance ITVs reputation or attract them to anything that takes its place.

Though any plans for a successor show - Mr Sainsbury, or whatever, will not be furthered. Indeed ITV and historical drama seems not to be as good a fit as it is on the BBC. So I expect any replacement series will be more in tune with how ITV see themselves.

Therefore something like WAGS - a reboot of Footballers Wives, set in Spain, is probably being dreamed up as we speak.

I think ITV hoped Mr Selfridge would appeal to the Downton Abbey fans and pull in similar ratings

Bosch is worth a look.

This is interesting. Unsurprisingly, drama programmes look to be the chief beneficiary. Here are a few examples that stand out so far:

Last Tango in Halifax: 7.89M (+6% / 0.48M) December 28, 21:00, BBC One
Esio Trot: 8.31M (+6% / 0.45M) January 1, 18:30, BBC One
Gotham: 2.92M (+13% / 0.34M) December 15, 21:00, Channel 5
The Missing: 8.70M (+4% / 0.34M) December 16, 21:00, BBC One
The Fall: 3.92M (+9% / 0.33M) December 18, 21:00, BBC Two
Top Gear: 7.70M (+4% / 0.32M) December 28, 20:00, BBC Two

Esio Trot over 8.3 million, wow!!! The charm of Judi Dench knows no bounds. That's the standout rating of the entire Christmas period, for me.
Last edited by Zac Quinn : 09-02-2015 at 14:46

Well thats disappointing. Another show I will probably never see then.

The dramas were always likely to gain more I suppose - what about the comedies though?

Big 28 days for episode 1 of The Musketeers, it gained + 0.53m/10.7% to put it up to 5.46m.

Foyle's War also looks to have seen a big bump. Unfortunately it didn't make the HD top 10 but across the SD and +1 channels alone it gained 0.38m, so probably gained close to 0.5m in total.

It'll be interesting to see what gains Broadchurch makes.

The evidence is less compelling on that front:

Mrs. Brown's Boys: 9.85M (+2% / 0.16M) December 25, 22:05, BBC One
Mrs. Brown's Boys: 9.67M (+2% / 0.16M) January 1, 21:35, BBC One
Miranda: 8.55M (+2% / 0.15M) December 25, 19:15, BBC One
Miranda: 9.61M (+1% / 0.1M) January 1, 20:00, BBC One

BOAF looks to have done better here but can't work it out exactly as the HD and +1 data is missing.

Movies also seem to benefit from it somewhat. ITV2's New Year's Day screening of Despicable Me gained 13.9% (from 1.354m to 1.542m - a weighted average of both parts of the screening).

Good spot, that's huge!

No doubt if the BBC had called it a day after series 2 the likes of Amazon may have been interested in saving it given a good percentage of its audience seems relaxed - if that's the right word - about how they watch.

Yeah I suspect you're right, and this is the sort of data the BBC especially should be paying attention to.

Doctor Who on the other hand didn't gain as much as I would have expected (considering it is supposed to be some sort of trailblazer for timeshifting or something). It gained +0.27m/3.3% for the Christmas Day episode, putting it at 8.55m. Even Atlantis gained more for its December finale (+0.35m/6.2% to 6.04m).