The Difference is one is EastEnders and one is Corrie.

ITV+1 is a different channel and if that is included into it's ratings then it's only fair BBC3/Ch4+1/Five+1 are also included.

Like for like or not at all.

The channel is being axed soon so I am not going to mention BBC3.

Thinking about it, ITV will have to confirm the timing of Stars episode 3 tomorrow, before they have the rating for episode 2.

To be fair there is not much all year drama wise that gets that high. I wonder if its a sign that we may get some other bigger timeshifts. Lets see what SW and DIP get and then CTM in a few weeks.

Not confirmed yet though. I still have my doubts it will go.

I think Doctors will rise tomorrow if we get this snow they are talking about.


No it isn't
Those ratings are higher than they were before Christmas and it's what 300k behind it's Christmas day episode. The gap between EastEnders and Corrie is at it's smallest in years.

I was out last night so have just watched Broadchurch. Oh dear - what a mess!

I really wish they would stop this bringing back 'one off' series. I was dubious about Broadchurch but happy to be proved wrong. Sadly it appears I was right to be concerned that it was going to be a stretch. The issue they have is that nobody gives a damn about the Sandbrook murders and the going over the same story as series 1 in court is tedious from the start. Cobbled together seems to be the best description. Its credibility in terms of legal procedure is going to put people off as well.

It seems that drama is a mess on both channels. Series that are capable of returning are having to be written so that they have an ending if they are not recommissioned. Classic being The Paradise where the need to tie up at end of first series led to the cobbled together mess in second series which was deserted by viewers unsurprisingly.

You've got one-off dramas having cobbled together second series. Potential series being messed up as writers don't know what they are being asked to write - returning series or not.

On a positive note. I've watched Silent Witness as well. It is really back on form after a very iffy last series. It lost its heart but it is back to simple storytelling again. Need Harry back though!

EastEnders deserves to be higher but it is back to being number 2.

Is that a surprise to anyone?

I'm not sure anyone expected it to maintain its festive lead this far into January. It's pretty close though.

Hard done by EE fan brings up Corrie again for no reason at all?

wizzywick in reply to you, I see where you're coming from including separate channels such as BBC3, or ITV2 I assume, I just don't see a +1 channel as a 'different channel'. It's simply a same day timeshift of a programme that was on an hour ago. In that case do we not include HD channels as they are on a 'different channel'? But that's just my view.

The way I like to look at soap ratings is that there's the main showing (BBC1/ITV1) and then the first repeat (BBC3/ITV1+1), you either compare just the main showings or compare the main showing + first repeat. It seems unfair to me to include one repeat and not the other.

HD is no different to regional variants to me, they're all showing the same thing at the same time (most of the time) so they all get counted as one channel.

How Mature.


Exactly.


It is very close.
Where has Corrie's 1.5-2m lead gone?


I agree and it will be.


Nope

I agree with all that. I just hope the Trust allows the Executive's changes, so in the autumn BBC Three is replaced by BBC One +1 (and an HD variation I believe), thus ending this particular argument.

That would be brilliant.

+1 wont come to 9pm I believe so only Monday and Friday's Eastenders will be shown on it.

That's the BBC's problem.

No, it will show programming originally broadcast at 7pm from 8pm.

Meanwhile CBBC gets an extension to 8pm. If it all goes through.

I wonder if it would lead to 7pm becoming a hard boundary on BBC One, even at weekends.

The One Show normally starts a minute or two early, so I wonder if they'll finish CBBC slightly early.

If it stays, I can see it turning into a evening sports spill over channel that BBC2 doesn't want to air. Bit like Snooker which is only on the BBC Red Button at the moment because BBC Two are running a prime time lineup.

Around the time of Light Lunch you also had Under The Moon, early TFI and Johnny and Denise-era Big Breakfast (which was an acquired taste, but at least distinctive and imaginative), and these days C4 have got nothing that distinctive and original on a regular daily (or weekly) basis. But I'm always going to look at 1998 with rose-tinted glasses because I was at university at the time and absolutely loved it so anything that reminds me of that period gets a free pass.

Wogan's Web was brilliant, it ran during May and June 1998 at twelve o'clock on BBC1. It was sold as a show where Tel would find out the answer to all your questions (hence the web reference) but what it actually was was his radio show on the telly, so it was set in a mock-up radio studio, with Tel sat at a desk and Paul Walters next to him, with Deadly doing live voice-overs, and it would mostly involve Tel doing whatever the hell he wanted, so he'd read out loads of e-mails and faxes and talk about what was on telly or in the news - I remember the first show was the Monday after Eurovision so they reviewed that and solicited opinions, and it was on the day Sinatra died so they devoted most of the show to talking about him - and there'd sometimes be guests and on Fridays they'd go "on the roof" (ie, another bit of the set) with Richard Edgar the weatherman and do the weather for the weekend.

Great, freewheeling fun, one of Tel's best ever telly vehicles because it was just him messing around. But after that first month-long run, they never did it again, alas.

As for Monday, brilliant rating for Inside Out, testament to the popularity of the regional programmes. Amazing to think twenty years ago they were playing on BBC2 opposite EastEnders, watched by nobody. And I like seeing Broadchurch and Silent Witness both pulling in decent audiences at 9pm, you want that slot to be competitive.

My response is always the same with the +1 debate, if we are talking about who won a slot, there is an argument to ignore +1, but even then the overnights contain people who recorded the show and watched it the same night so even that isn't clear.

Very few programmes get a same day repeat on BBC3 and ITV2 so those channels rarely apply, except for the soaps, and even then they are only used to prove that EastEnders that is firing on all cylinders with strong must see storylines is just about scraping past Corrie which is well known to be going through a dull patch, when every possible viewer has been counted. So to prove such a daft 'win' is barely worth bothering.

The fact that most of the +1 debate only comes along so an ITV rating can be made lower to then go off on one that 'only' such and such a number of watched a show and how much of a disaster is, even when talking about the consolidated figures which include all kinds of catch up, is just plain daft though, and the obvious aim of these posts is quite obvious.

Well of course those programmes are also just as close to Silent Witness.

It seems to be support for the default audience argument, if 4m watched all that stuff and a massive major drama only got 5m, it only brought an extra million to the channel than The One Show. Is that a good statistic?

It's the same argument as 9pm slots

Do you keep the big show on a Monday to maximise its figure as big as possible, and launch something new on a Thursday that will flounder.

Or do you move the big show to Thursday that would reduce its figure but should hold up, and try the new show on a Monday where it has more chance of doing well.

Obviously those aiming for the biggest headline numbers would always choose option one.

Looks like that's what they did with Mel & Sue, rather than just dumping it in the weaker Titchmarsh slot, they moved Tipping Point there, which will still rate well, and in theory Mel & Sue should do better in the stronger 4pm slot with stronger lead in and lead out

Of course it might not work, especially as viewers are increasingly not trying out anything new and sticking with the favourites.

Great for Broadchurch and the consolidated figure, looks like the BBC have done their job in denting last nights overnight, and the negative press will start. I'm surprised there isn't a story on BBC News online. Many will catch up with Broadchurch as you have much longer to watch it, whereas with SW you only have one day.

Has Silent witness now got a clear run to the end, or does a Monday night FA Cup game slot in again?

If not, the last three episodes of Broadchurch will still have a clearer run.

Ah, the + One Show, cylon will be pleased.