Did News at Ten even mention the Terminator premiere at all? As in, a credible entertainment story. There is such a thing, Sky News have been reporting on it all day

Have a look in tomorrow's papers, I bet there'll be something of that order, coming from the ITV PR machine.


Not particularly watched anything, been out and about in the glorious sunshine. Was pretty packed at the pub that I've been sitting outside, no signs of folk dashing home for the latest gripping instalment of novelty acts and cutesy bawling kids.

The BGT stories aren't the only thing that are going to be missing next week. You can shave about 3m off the viewing figures too


And what does that tell you?

Oh, good grief...

I've been trying to find other words, but that pretty much just sums it up! Some awful acts & one of the biggest problems that has ever happened on live TV-who has authority on that show? Because Simon seemed to take the upper hand saying she will perform etc. Should see a nice peak tonight and the show has just secured itself an extra 0.5-1m viewers to see if Hollie will be able to perform tomorrow. Front pages with Hollie on them and the final has turned out perfectly for ITV, bar the good weather!

I predict around 12.5m for tonights episode and BBC1 on around 4/3m. I think the rest of the terrestrials could be below the 1m mark.

And to think someone said earlier that this thread was pro-ITV

I think having it as 'Breaking News' on the news channel is going beyond reporting an interesting development in an entertainment show.

And in this case, the drivel has been relegated to the notoriously lightweight 'And Finally item - it's not dominating the news agenda. If it was then I could certainly see your point, but I honestly, honestly don't think it's as bad as people are making out.

So ITV trailed it in the final ad break. So the ITV announcer mentioned it during the credits. If it's going to give them a ratings boost then why not?

If you insist :sleep:.

I think you've become a parody of your old self Robbie: Boring and predictable. And I don't get the whole thing about "supporting" a channel. It's just plain weird.


Yeah, I'd go with that.

You're almost certainly right but that does sound like a very partisan comment.
If they can hold on to an extra 500,000 viewers I think that would be considered a great result.

Does it really matter? What's all this garbage about pro-ITV/pro-BBC all about anyway? It's utter nonsense as far as I'm concerned.

I'm merely expressing my opinions and calling it as I see it, just like I always do. I have no loyalties to any of the broadcasters and certainly don't let preferences get in the way of my judgement!

I'm sure that is the case for 99% of contributors to this thread as well. Of course, the other 1% becomes apparent straight away so it doesn't really need pointing out every 5 minutes.

Next someone will suggest an extra profile tag to indicate "favourite network." Good grief indeed...

Good question. At the end of the day, how on earth could they not let the girl perform when she was bawling her eyes out? The producer who said they didnt have time would have appeared in the Sun with a turnip for a head!
The girl was obviously distressed and although good sense prevailed and she came through brilliantly, it wasnt an easy watch. I think this will be the source of a few press articles in the next weeks.

One last point before I do us all a favour and head to bed for the night, has anyone actually seen an ad for Mumbai Calling during the BGT semi-finals? I don't personally recall seeing one, but I could be wrong.

At this rate it's going to be difficult for Mumbai Calling to follow the 6m+ that BGT Extra at Ten has been getting the past few nights in the post-BGT slot.

ITV, Cowell & the producers had to make a decision quick it seems which wouldn't affect the reputation of the show, but also that wouldn't delay NaT much. They made the right decision in the end I think, but it was obviously Cowell who swayed it. I must say A&D kept very calm during the whole thing, as usually they rely on autocues but they did very well improvising. This week has proved they can be useless without autocues, but they are one of the main reasons the show is such a ratings winner.

ITV would probably have wished what happened tonight happened on yesterdays show which would have seen a nice boost for tonights show, but nevertheless there are interesting times ahead come Sunday morning...I expect this thread to go into overload more than ever before, with possibly the biggest rated non Christmas show in years.

The producers seemed to be worried about time. Simon clearly has final say because he seemed to make the decision there and then that she was going to perform a second time.

I don't think A&D are absolutely 'useless' without autocues - maybe it's the pressure of a live show that's seen them slip up occasionally but I definitely think they're the safest hands for a show of this scale.

Don't get me wrong I'm huge fans of Ant & Dec and they can be good with their quick remarks to happenings sometimes, but I do think the pressure of 15m people watching them is getting to them, understandably though.

I understand Ant & Dec's concerns about time. As we know from brutal experience ITV ad break timings are extremely rigid.

Some people said that they should have had a Plan B in situations like that... I'm not sure how you can have a Plan B when a kid is on stage crying. You just react as you do, you don't have a "backup plan", "right, if this act cries, we do this".... you just don't do that in shows like this. Same with The X Factor as well.

Tonight they were very clearly in a difficult scenario, but I think they did well to hold the show together.

To put it into perspective it cant have been as bad as the night Tommy Cooper died live on stage at the Palladium

Don't be so touchy, only having a bit of fun at BGT's/ITV's expense and attempting to balance things up a bit on this thread.

Why not have a pop at GeorgeS whilst you're at it, his constant BBC-sniping and pro-ITV party line is unfailing. At least I try to be neutral and have a go at the Beeb when they get it wrong, as they often do. I did coin the "BBC Scheduling Idiots" expression, don't forget.

Anyway, I'll probably have a few days off now. But I'll keep an eye out for those big Cup Final ratings when they come in...

Give it up Robbie. BGT this week has been a true television event. These are rare things these days. When was the last week of consecutive 11m-12m nightly shows on any channel?

But what's there to balance? In the last few days BGT has been getting some of the highest ratings we've seen for a long time. Obviously people are going to praise it; what do you expect people to say?.

And why does there need to be a balance? It's not a competition.

It's the biggest week in ITV's calander - naturally BGT is going to be the focal topic of discussion. I'm sure we'll be back to talking about The One Show this time next week and order will have been restored.

Tommy Cooper, no????

They did extremely well to get it finished by 22.01. I thought it was handled rather well, particularly by Dec (although I felt sorry for Ant having to tell her that she couldn't sing again) and Amanda. I don't think they could have had a 'set procedure' for what happened, although the right decision was definately made. If anything, it showed just how much power Cowell has at ITV.

Some people may say that it was cruelty to let her sing again, but it would have been far crueller not to, and she managed to do it second time around. I wouldn't be shocked if they pull her out before the final though.

It'll definately make the front pages tomorrow, and ensure an extra 0.5-1m like someone said earlier.

I wonder if BGT is the world's most successful version of the format. While America's Got Talent draws decent numbers, it certainly doesn't get American Idol figures while over here the figures for BGT and X Factor are pretty much on par. I know I can't really comment on the format elsewhere in the world but you never see videos of their contestants over here a la Susan Boyle. Unless we've missed out on what the rest of the world has been raving about.