The important thing for ITV1 was that HK's audience was consistent across the hour. It didn't start with 7m of BGT's audience then shed viewers faster that the lady with the tassles shed her clothes.

It looks like HK will do enough this year for another series.
BBC1, take note, and get some decent competition lined up for it next year.

Did anyone post STV's alternative for this afternoon? If not, then.....

15:15 - Scotland at The Movies Shorts
15:30 - FILM: Heavenly Pursuits
17:20 to 18:15 - The Cosby Mysteries

For their sake, it better not go into extra-time. Be interesting to see which one of my schedules ITV adopt should extra-time occur.

BTW, would anyone else find it funny if the F1 combined rating (live [07:00 to 10:10] + re-run [13:15 to 15:05]) beat the FA Cup rating today? I admit, its unlikely, but given ITV's sub-par FA Cup ratings so far, its possible.

ITV1 must be exstatic with those figures for BGT.

11.9m and a 50% on a warm saturday night!

Also HK rising to over 5m when It had only 2.4m the other night!

BBC1 held up quite well though

That'll be some of the BGT audience settling down for their show and filling in the waiting-time with another shiny-floor show rather than an adventure series which will be too complicated for their brain. (Note: I am referring here to the strange breed of young females who only watch BGT, XF, IACGMOOH and BB throughout the whole of the TV year. Otherwise they just wander round night-clubs and the close vincinity wearing nothing but their underwear and half a tonne of make-up. See Snog, Marry, Avoid on BBC3 for examples.)

Incidentally TTN was only 0.3m behind the overnights for the first ever episode of BGT. Perhaps in two year's time TTN will also be attracting 11.9m viewers on a Saturday night.

Brilliant figures yet again for BGT. Next week is the Kelly Brook thing so its anyones guess how many are going to be watching this by the end of the series.

Hells Kitchen also went way past my expectations of about 4m. I expect the figures will be fairly high again tonight after last night (people will want to see the aftermath and the firing).

I also never knew how well Come Dine With Me repeats do in the afternoon for Channel 4.

Primeval is one of the most boring shows on TV and those you describe probably wouldn't go anywhere near BBC1 anyway.

Primetime Shares (18:00 to 22:00)
ITV1 - 28.3%
BBC One - 20.9%
BBC Two - 6.8%
Channel 4 - 5.4%
five - 5.1%
Multichannel - 33.5%

Note: This is only an estimate based on the breakdowns

I wonder if Chris Moyles will rise tonight with his Quiz Night thanks to the mass of publicity The Sun has kindly provided him, with it's fictitious headline grabbing stories over the weekend.

Filmed in advance of this happening of course but many of the viewers won't know that and it may create some additional interest.

I think I saw that the first one got a fairly disappointing 1.x m or so. (I say disappointing, that would be better than what ITV1 has managed in the Friday night slot an hour earlier in recent weeks...)

It's a great new show, a worthy successor to QI for BBC2, but doesn't seem to have been promoted enough.


It had gone very nippy where I was by 8pm, anyone who'd been outside at that time (like me..) would need to put something warm and comforting on when they got in.

Seems like millions did.

As for me being a reality TV judge, not my thing at all. However, I did audition to be on Britain's Got Talent with my storming comedy routine. I stood there with my dancing dog and read out some of ITV's most hilarious ratings performances of the past twelve months whilst fido howled along beside me. Cowell thought it was fantastic. I believe I'm on in a couple of weeks, but i'm sworn to secrecy as to how I got on.

My YouTube page is being primed in readiness though...

A great schedule paid off for ITV1, because they were in control last night 'bouncing' off the BBC1 schedule with BGT digging into Casualty, Tonights The Night viewers switching over to BGT and Robin Hood viewers switching to Primeval. I'm please Primeval is back up comfortably over the 4m mark and beating the other family drama Robin Hood. I can see if it goes up against TTN again it will increase even more. Surely TTN will flop!

Hells Kitchen received a similar boost to IAC last year and it will probably hold most of those 5m viewers tonight and certainly it shouldn't be falling as low as 2.5m next week as the competition heats up.

While you're probably correct that Barrowman picked up some of the BGT audience, it's probably because there is no point in watching the last 10 minutes of a 60 minute drama. Or, in my case, because I wanted to see if it was still as bad as it was for the first 5 minutes.

While I don't watch Primeval, family drama not being my thing, I do hope it does well. What I like about the idea is that it is a new idea, not a remake, or a modern telling of a classic story.
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Hells Kitchen is looking a bit stronger. While I wasn't surprised that it hit 5m last night, the Friday night rating is a bit better than I thought. If it can keep this up, it could be back next year.

This is probably unlikely but I wonder whether ITV would ever consider have Hell's Kitchen as a weekly series like the US version rather than a daily because it would benefit from a lead in from shows like BGT and it could be the mid week entertainment show that Peter Fincham has been looking for.

Good news for ITV if Man Utd vs Everton goes to extra time. Bad news for stv.

Oh no ... what's going to happen to the TV highlight of the year: Beat the Star ?

Lots of posts for me to read through, today.

Big two soaps slightly low on Friday night. Decent figure for Emmerdale, though.

My ratings prediction game estimate of 12m for next Saturday's Talent is starting to look good now, although, knowing my luck the ratings will drop to 10m-ish next week.

Must dash. I'll leave you with a trivia question:

Which returning BBC One series has received more trails:


A. Ashes to Ashes
or
B. Last of the Summer Wine?

Answers on a postcard.

Good ratings for BGT. I imagine every episode will be 10m or above now.

I am not surprised the Barrowman vehicle did ok, as BBC1 viewers will watch any old rubbish. I'll be interesting to see if it holds up next week, what is it up against next week?

ITV should schedule BGT up against it!

Friday 9pm 17.4.2009

BBC ONE: Swiss Family 2.6m / 11.7%
BBC TWO: Top Dog 1.6m / 7.1%
C4: Ramsay USA: 2.7m pk 3m / 12.2%
Five: NCIS: 2.5m / 11.3%

Genius at 10pm on BBC TWO did 1m / 5.1% share.

Tonight's The Night is up against ITV News and The Colour of Money this Saturday.

I think it's safe to conclude that's the last we'll be seeing of Real Swiss Family Robinson.

Why do the BBC continue to pimp John Barrowman as if hes God's gift to show-bizness?

If hes good enough to sustain 60 minutes of 'entertainment', I'm Julia Roberts. At least ITV had the sense to shrug off Anthony Cotton.

Briliant for BGT, I hope it sustains.

What's happening with Emmerdale of late? While EastEnders and Coronation Street start to feel the summer crunch, Emmerdale's ratings are starting to look healthy once again. Very strange.

As for Saturday night - fantastic for Britain's Got Talent. Ok for Primeval, but should've beaten Tonight's the Tripe. Robin Hood was hit hard by the early start, and I agree with those who are saying it should go up against Britain's Got Talent, as they appeal to difference audiences. Hell's Kitchen held up well, and after an awful launch night it's a better series than last time round.

Match of the Day did well to beat the FA Cup Highlights, but I'm not shocked by that at all. BBC1 has more of a traditional feel to ITV1 when it comes to domestic football. Casualty held up well.

Thank god Swiss Family Robinson flopped. It deserved to and usually crappy style shows perform well on the BBC, but there's a actually a big flop for once! Almost coming 4th in its slot which would have been embarassing for BBC1.

It seemed like Ramsay wasn't dented by Marco, which is surprising. Nice to NCIS back up after a dip last Friday.

TTN might grow its audience, then?

Share-wise, anyway. Not sure how many people will be watching TV at 7pm next Saturday, if the weather holds.

According to the listings I have, TTN is up against Primeval between 7-8pm next Saturday.

I think Primeval will edge it- it deserves to, it's a much better show.

Can someone actually post next Saturdays schedule for next Saturday? There seems to be some confusion somewhere. The RadioTimes website has the schedule where BGT starts at 8.30pm, but rzt and ITV are advertising BGT as starting at 8pm.

No it isn't, it's against Primeval again (both at 7pm). The schedules seem to have had problems updating but TTN is at 7pm, against Primeval (also at 7pm) in the final schedules.