I wonder how things went for the latest Emmerdale v EE clash tonight.

I can see Emmerdale probably doing quite well as the break at 19.30 announced a shock return and ended with a verdict which was probably a bit unexpected.

Lot of rubbish written in this thread today.
"How dare the BBC aggressively schedule against Broadchurch? Evil b**tards! They should have shown a repeat of a BBC4 documentary about coffee plantations. Disband them immediately! Moan, moan, moan."

Broadchurch was supposed to be the biggest show on television this year. It should be able to cope with a bit of competition from a programme that's not only 18 years old, but one of the least fashionable dramas on TV. It doesn't have any critics ranting and raving about it and, as far as I can make out, it doesn't even get nominated for awards, never mind win any. Whereas Broadchurch won loads of awards including 3 Baftas.

In addition Broadchurch inherited an 8.7m audience from Coronation Street whilst Silent Witness followed on from Panorama which had 3.5m.

I also don't get why we're not supposed to have drama against drama. We've always had drama on against drama. Back in the days of the Nine O'clock News, BBC1 had two post-news weeknight drama slots, Tuesdays and Fridays, and they were always on against drama on ITV. Plus on Sundays we would get Howard's Way against The Ruth Rendall Mysteries or London's Burning against Pride And Prejudice. And, of course, last Autumn we had Cilla and Grantchester on against New Tricks and it was New Tricks that took the hit so what are you going to do about it?

Dancc said he didn't think the BBC would be thrilled by how SW is performing in the overnights. I disagree. 5.87m would be a solid overnight for SW against ITV low-rated Tuesday factual. Against "the biggest programme on TV this year" it's brilliant.

That overnight is compatible with the standard overnights of such critical smashes as Happy Valley, The Missing and Last Tango In Halifax (before Last Tango got a leg up from Call The Midwife). It puts it above New Tricks which collapsed big time last Autumn, it puts it above Lewis which performed underwhelming last Autumn and it puts it above Foyle's War, which has collapsed badly this series. (This may be Last Series Syndrome. Maybe we will see Silent Witness collapse when the BBC announce its last series, although I'm not sure if many of us will live long enough to see that.)

In addition, Silent Witness timeshifts just as well as any of these other dramas. The recent Wednesday episode timeshifted over 2m, so last night's episode should be very close to, if not above, 8m. That's pretty good going for an 18 year old drama on against "the biggest programme on TV this year".

Poor old Broadchurch is suffering that "difficult second album". As others have said, in so many words, the success of the first series created a rod for its own back. Some people think it's still brilliant but others have been disappointed and that has resulted in the fallen overnights. And we've yet to see how much episode 2 timeshifted.

But none of this alters the fact that Silent Witness was able to cash in on Broadchurch's slip. Doubt very much if The Musketeers or Traffic Cops would have cashed in so much.

Yes, Emmerdale will not be affected at all, but EastEnders will probably be around 5.5m which would be a real shame. It was a very powerful episode, a tough watch but very sensitively handled and something that could actually help people in similar situations so it's a shame it won't be seen by as many as it would have normally. You could see why they couldn't avoid the clash though, it just wouldn't have worked to merge this episode with the next to create an hour at 8pm.

Earlier today Fudd suggested that BBC1 could have put their Wednesday (factual)programming on against Broadchurch. Well, that factual stuff (Pets: Wild At Heart and Churchill: The Nation's Farewell) is the competition for the first in the new series of Midsomer Murders. So no strong competition for Midsomer and no excuse for it not to be matching Death In Paradise in the overnights (including +1).

Well said Iain.

When Downton Abbey started in 2010 it followed The X Factor and BBC1 put drama against it with Single Father. Downton wiped the floor with it. Wild At Heart used to beat every drama BBC1 put it against it. Broadchurch beat most of the drama competition BBC1 threw at it in series 1. There always have and always will be drama battles with winners and losers or honourable draws.

Silent Witness has been around on Mondays a lot more than Broadchurch over the years, SW has also been a January show for a few years too. You could say why didn't Broadchurch start in March? If we get soap clashes then we'll get drama clashes and reality TV clashes and everything else inbetween.

And the BBC will be very happy with Silent Witness's ratings opposite Broadchurch. It's holding up against one of the biggest shows on TV.

It's a shame George S isn't here to comment on this in his usual charming, unbiased manner! 😁

Ok I'll back down with dignity... sorry, too late for that. I'll just back down.

DMN if you're around do you have any final ratings for last Sunday?

Silent Witness superb again tonight! The final scenes were amazing, and this show has an ability to make guest characters incredibly captivating.

One thing I will say is I completely agree with those that suggest that BBC One will be delighted with Silent Witness' performance - it's done brilliantly so far. And considering it's 18 years old as well.

iaindb - I said The Musketeers first as an option before the Wednesday schedule.

I wonder if The Eichmann Show on BBC2 might take some viewers from it?

Actually I was planning on watching that too (because of Martin Freeman) but didn't realise it was on at the same time. Something for me to catch up on.

The BBC should never clash drama with drama or comedy with comedy.

Thank goodness for catch up tv !!

I agree but they didn't really have a choice with this, the only other option was to put it on Saturday. I don't think it will hurt Silent Witness that much, as one I doubt it will be a big draw, and two if SW can more than hold up against Broadchurch it'll be fine against this.

Wednesday's the only night for the foreseeable future when BBC One isn't showing drama at nine, and Two has Wolf Hall on then.

Having said that they could have stuck The Eichmann Show on at 9 this Friday against the football and Benidorm. Not a great slot either but possibly better, although other programmes would have to be moved.

Or indeed a cup semi-final between two well-supported teams on Sky Sports 1.

On the subject of ITV and spending more money, the simple argument against it is that the drama series they have now aren't rating so why spend more? Sure, the Mondays and Sundays will generally do well. But we've seen them come and go on Thursdays. More drama in summer? Unlikely to work well. So it's easy to see why a sensible exec would be reluctant to put more in the pot when there aren't any obvious or interesting opportunities. Sure, if there were loads of gaps on Mondays where they could be running successful drama then pump more money in. But that's not the case. This thread is obsessed with more drama as the cure to all ills. But I don't think it is.

I also disagree that the lack of money shows through as much as some suggest. ITV put out 4.5 hours of scripted drama/comedy (excluding serials) last week. Autumn had plenty of expensive scripted as well. This weeks entertainment spend between the NTA's, Stars, GYAT and Take Me Out is more than substantial.

And on BBC1 - for all their promotional power and brand reputation, none of their autumn dramas were consistently overnighting beyond 5m. I'm not convinced that there's actually this overwhelming desire for more primetime drama. Or that it's a particularly cost effective route for ITV. For all the time, effort, marketing and money put into Broadchurch, it's 10th hour (which has taken 2 years to reach) is doing just over 5m and getting a kicking from another crime drama on BBC1. Since it launched I doubt it has actually made a fundamental difference to the bottom line or audience share at ITV.

BBC2 had a lack of slots admittedly. I just hope lots of people get round to watching it. It was very good.


Football might dent a few things as well.

Good. I loved having BBC One HD as an alternative to BBC One Wales (SD).

The Missing was unlucky to face an England match and I'm A Celebrity as I think it was BBC1's star performer in drama during the Autumn period.

An incredibly detailed and passionate rebuttal. Core of my point though and I made it clear this morning was Silent Witness could be doing at least a million better elsewhere and when there are precious few dramas capable of operating in that 7m ballpark nowadays, it's a waste to schedule it in such a way that the lid is kept firmly on its overnight.

I'd always look at doing the best for each programme over doing the best for the Monday 9pm slot. It's an important slot but opportunities in it will come and go through the year, BBC One can't possibly win them all and shouldn't be aiming to do so. I'm not saying don't compete with the big ITV shows either, but look to compete in ways that are more complementary, and don't compromise the big hits unnecessarily for essentially cynical reasons as looks to be the case here IMHO.

Fine to disagree, but a Victor Meldrew style rant about as long as Part 62 was perhaps a bit uncalled for.

Just the one replay interruption by my maths if it starts on Wednesday the 11th. Finishing in time for Red Nose Day.

11/2 GBBO
18/2 GBBO
25/2 FA Cup replay
4/3 GBBO
11/3 GBBO

Would Mondays at 9pm be too cheeky?

I agree. Should be a golden rule in the scheduling bible.

But they always do it!

Burntchurch!