Now that's what you call an 'ouch'.

Even GeorgeS couldn't put a spin on that.


Perhaps BBC1's "factual filler" was just more interesting and engaging than ITV1's latest 9pm tat?

Can't say it's a surprise though. The Bill has been limping along as it is, without a massive storyline climax eating into it's time slot on BBC1. The sooner it moves to 9pm the better - the opposition seems weaker there at the moment!


Why do the big two insist on clashing with content? Can't they talk so they can offer up an alternative? Saturday nights pre-Christmas and Sunday after Christmas are good because the channel's offer up different genres. Why start clashing all the time?

Sky News currently has live coverage of Jade's funeral - four hours of air-time. BBC News has reports only. Interesting to see if this lifts Sky above the BBC in the ratings.

It will just be interesting to see the figures in general whether beating the BBC or not.

The figures you have quoted for Corrie and Emmerdale are incorrect. DS reported them wrong.

The correct overnights are:

Coronation Street: 11.1m
Emmerdale: 8.4m

Not that it makes a difference to the list, but still...

And it's the consolidated figure that really counts. Comic Relief had a massive overnight but in the end BARB averaged the rating for the duration of the programme and it dropped to just under 10 million. I've noticed that ITV are a bit cute about how they list programmes. They have The X Factor and The X Factor Final as separate shows, whereas BBC1 had Strictly Come Dancing and the results given the same title so that they only got one entry in the final chart. They should have listed Comic Relief as part 1 and part 2 but that's another conversation for another time.

The BBC will have a similar problem with today's Grand National. The ratings will be for the whole of the horse racing programe between 1pm and 5.05, thus dragging the ratings right down.

I remember when the BBC used to promote the actual race as a seperate programme with the BBC Sport logo being screened before and after the race. Maybe the BBC should start doing that again.

Or kept the 7.57 news bulletin in place, thus meaning the 8-10pm show would have got a good solid 10m+ audience, in fact 11m+ probably.

Don't have a problem with how broadcasters name their shows, my beef has always been with how BARB decide to include slightly differently-named editions of the same programme as different shows when compiling Top 10/20/40 etc lists at the end of the year.

It's easily solved though, we just take out the duplicates when posting our own lists on here...

The Bill consistently wins its slot expect when the BBC resort to some extended soap fest or charity chugathon. I'd rather take the long view as opposed to getting over excited about one night wonders & pissing contests about Top 10 tables tbh.

Erm...I don't think ITV can be entirely absolved of blame on that front...

Or when Rogue Traders or Rogue Restaurants is on.

My Family also beat it 2 to 1 on Thursday, and will outrate it on Thursdays now for the rest of the run.

The Bill also lost out to QI at Christmas.

And I just love the reference to "an extended [BBC1] soapfest" coming from a network that currently belches out 6 episodes of Emmerdale and 5 of Corrie each week...

Nearly six hours a week with Corrie and Emmerdale I think. And they did that because they couldn't be arsed to find shows popular enough to go in some of those slots. I blame Marcus Plantin for that.

Before 9pm, the schedules for both ITV and BBC1 are totally uninspiring. Nearly all soaps with a few cheap factual shows like DIY: SOS and current affairs burried away against the soaps.

In terms of soap output, BBC1 have Doctors for 2 1/2 hours a week, Eastenders for 2 hours, Holby City for 1 hour, Casualty for 1 hour and Waterloo Road for 1 hour plus an hour of River City for us lucky Scottish people!

It's rare to see "ambitious" programming pre-9pm. ITV do the football and had The Krypton Factor recently. BBC do My Family to try and use that EE lead-in on a Thursday.

I'd be tempted to class Holby City, Casualty and definitely Waterloo Road as not soaps.

At least Doctors doesn't clog up primetime. ITV rely on soap in the early evening and BBC1 rely on endless factual shows!! It drives me up the wall. I want a bit more variety. I want Casualty cut back to 26 episodes a year likewise with Holby City. I don't view these as soaps in the same way as Emmerdale, Coronation Street and EastEnders because they never used to be. I wouldn't even consider Waterloo Road as a soap as it isn't on all year.

The Bill, Holby and Casualty worked better as series rather serials.

It is certainly uninspiring if you dont watch the soaps.
The other extra almost unnoticed (apart from here) move, is Countryfile to a primetime slot on Sunday. I can find time for Countryfile-where it belongs on Sunday morning, but its just another example of pre-watershed primetime being effectively put out to pasture. Others have speculated that this heralds a return of the soaps to this slot on ITV. If not then it is a very lazy policy.

I think Countryfile could do quite well at 7pm on Sundays in a not very competitive slot now that the big audiences for the dancing have melted away. If it's a success in that slot, then it could be moved back a bit, say 6.30 or earlier, to allow room for other things in BBC1's evening schedule during the year.

I would have put it at 6pm and depending how it does at 7, maybe it will end up there.
I wonder whether old JC ever ever saw himself fronting a Sunday night primetime show?

I don't care about the countryside, keep that crap in daytime. I'd rather they put it on at 6pm and not 7pm.

You don't have to watch it, you know.

As a country-dweller (ish), I'm staggered at your sentiments though.

"Don't care", "crap"???!!

I won't be watching it and I know it has its fans but it just doesn't appeal to me. Part of me thinks it is BBC1 looking for a cheap filler programme on a Sunday rather than putting a drama/sitcom/entertainment programme there. And I REALLY hate the fact that John Craven and others that helped make the programme a success are being sidelined. It's like Anne Gregg on Holiday all over again!!

Well i love the countryside and Countryfile is a great show.

I think part of the reason behind the move is cos they need room in the Sunday morning schedule for the new Football league highlights programme, which i believe will be at 11am on Sunday mornings from the 9th August. Though they have Country Tracks - which just sounds like a poor man's CF until then.

So they moved Countryfile, i think it will be earlier than 7pm come the autumn, more like at 6ish when really there was not a lot on anyway. But yeah dont like the way John Craven's been sidelined.

I've growm up with John Craven and it's like they're putting him out to pasture. Just because the show is moving to primetime there is no need to suddenly ditch him!!

John Craven was on TV last week promoting something else and he said he was excited about it moving to primetime because he thought the countryside was important. He didnt sound like he was being sidelined.