Wowee. 4m+ fo sho

Seems a week late really. Though I suppose the expenses thing is still running and its the last edition before the European Elections too, so its probably worthy of a high profile slot in itself.

It doesn't have much opposition, so I can see it winning it slot with 5m+. The only opposition it does have is Taggart and I can see that only getting 4m because the viewers won't know if its "new" or "repeat".

Good move giving the ratings boost they had last week. This is the biggest political story in years and it's got the entire nation absolutely furious.

See here

http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsSe...stingsFormat=G

...they've also moved This Week from 11.40 to 10.40.

Edit: And well done to our politicians from providing the BBC with an excuse to dump bloody Traffic Cops from the schedule.

No, there's a European Election edition next Thursday (with the elections on June 4th). I wonder if they will move this one to 9pm. That would put it up against BGT

To be honest it seems a week too late, I doubt it can be as firery as last week's

Perhaps but it would have been more apt last week. The move just seems a bit belated a week later.

Don't forget Waking the Dead and Hope Springs. And I think the second run this year of Who Do You Think You Are?

Do I have the feeling that ITV are showing their hand in regards to Primeval? To axe it completely from the schedule (not even giving it a Britain's Got Talent lead out) seems completely bizarre, especially considering how it's been building an audience of late.

Is this Saturday's Tonight's the Night the last in the series? Just as well methinks.


Tourettes is currently in the 9pm slot at the moment. I wonder if they'll swap the two around - there's no This Week next week, with a film currently scheduled to follow on from 10.40 Question Time.

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Yesterday: No wonder the big two channels flopped...why are Tuesday nights a graveyard for them with repeats and poor documentaries (I guess ITV are waiting for BGT week to be out of the way before they start playing around with Tuesday's schedule, but still...)

Holby City is flourishing without competition and is becoming a strong programme in it's own right. EastEnders was down on BBC1 due to it being summer and the Emmerdale clash, but the BBC3 repeat did fantastically. Indeed, the multi-channels really appeared to benefit from lack of effort terrestrially with Dollhouse, Prison Break and Blood, Sweat and Takeaways also doing well.

CSI is as consistent as ever for Five.

BBC1 has had Mistresses and All The Small Things in the Tuesday 9pm slot this year which aren't repeats or documentaries and next week it's "Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link" which is written by Sir David Attenborough so that won't be a poor documentary

And if the nightly run of Torchwood is coming soon then the BBC can't start a new series in that slot until afterwards.

Fair point - I'd forgotten about them. Though you can hardly call Mistresses and All the Small Things really successful dramas.

Something I don't get though...Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link sounds a really interesting programme. Why sacrifice that against Britain's Got Talent while giving a repeat of New Tricks a (relatively) free run?

I think Question Time will win the 9pm slot but it should have been on at 9pm last week. It could easily backfire but I think it will get 4m+ and Taggart around 3m since it's a repeat.

Does anyone see Question Time becoming a permanent fixture in the 9pm position? It'd save BBC more money on drama, and they'd be able to strengthen up other slots by having the Thursday position filled for much of the year.

It was the last episode of Waterloo Road tonight, hope it does well.

Ratings this year are down for WR, however it has done well on Wednesday nights and i think it will remain in that slot.With WR and The Apprentice BBC1 on Wednesday nights doing so well, it's hard to think just three years ago Davina aired.

The next time Waterloo Road airs it shouldn't have any competition from The Bill, which'll help it in the Wednesday 8pm slot. Wednesday's are likely to be ITV1's filler night because of the Champion's League football, so it could really benefit.

The lineup for QT is a bit weak imo, Hague aside though Kielty has been axed which is good

Would have been the perfect opportunity to get a big Labour name or a big Lib Dem but as of yet its only the Tories bothering

As for This Week, I hope Mr Neil starts his drinking earlier...

It's not sacrificing it. It's giving viewers who don't watch to watch Britian's Got Talent another option other than repeats.

Why should people who don't want to watch Britain's Got Talent be subjected to low programming on the country's biggest broadcaster?

But then...using that argument, why subject people to low programming on the country's biggest broadcaster on a day when the major commercial broadcaster is showing a filler which had flopped in the ratings two years ago?

New Tricks would still offer a viable alternative to Britain's Got Talent, yet if it did flop then...well it's a repeat. It'll be really disappointing if Uncovering Our Ancestors flops when it looks like an intriguing show due to the opposition it's been put up against.

What twaddle. They had fairly notable Labour and Lib Dem representatives on last week, who ended up receiving most of the flak alongside a relatively clean conservative MP. About time the heat was turned on a tory. Let's see how Hague tries to justify this:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-21234861/

I think enough time has passed for people to forget that one...I certainly had before reading the link!

I reckon the Tories are going for 'this is what happens if you do wrong' - Hague'll be contrite, explaining the punishment that Cameron dished out, and showing he's the "only" person who's been sorting out this mess.

Because of Hague's relative likeability with the public (Have I Got News For You has been a godsend for any politician who's name is not Alan Duncan) I think it could well be a shrewd move by the party.

Whats twaddle?!

But I was referring to...this weeks episode

End of a momentous week yet no-one aside the Tories can bother to send a decent representative and the Lib Dem's have no representation. Perfect opportunity for each party to send a big gun and win in some votes. Not necc the BBC's fault but this could have been better

Personally, I'd move Question Time to Wednesday at 10.40pm - after the lottery - middle of the political week, more impact. I'd move This Week up to 10.35pm - larger potential audience.

Then I'd tie up 2 blocks of Have I Got News For You and Q1 of 7 episodes each. Then I'd move Jonathan Ross up to 9pm to fill the other 38 weeks (2 less than he does now).

I'd then extend Graham Norton to one hour (always feels like a VERY short programme) and put it at 10.35pm.

I think that could save quite a bit of money, essentially spreading a 10.30pm show and 11.30pm show out across two 10.30pm slots and essentially replacing 38 weeks of new Friday night primetime content with more Graham Norton.

Might be a big too much - 2 chat shows in one night, but Jonathan only used to do 20 weeks a year until very recently, so if you time Graham to be on for about that long, mainly while Have I Got News For You/QI is on there would only be a few weeks where that is the case.

Australian Overnights
Wednesday 20th May

Seven:
17:30 Deal or No Deal 0.9m
18:00 Seven News 1.74m
18:30 Today Tonight 1.52m
19:00 Home and Away 1.22m
19:30 Thank God You're Here 1.69m
20:30 Criminal Minds 1.29m
21:30 My Name is Earl 0.91m
22:00 Family Guy 0.73m
22:30 Russell Brand's Ponderland 0.48m
23:00 Lost 0.3m

Nine:
17:30 Hot Seat 0.66m
18:00 Nine News 1.3m
18:30 A Current Affair 1.1m
19:00 Two and a Half Men (R) 0.92m
19:30 What's Good for You 1.03m
20:00 RPA 1.16m
20:30 The Mentalist 1.08m
21:30 Cold Case 1.1m
22:30 Cold Case (R) 0.58m

Ten:
17:00 Ten News at Five 1.07m
18:00 The Simpsons (R) 0.89m
18:30 Neighbours 0.81m
19:00 MasterChef Australia 1.29m
20:00 The All New Simpsons 0.98m
20:30 House 1.08m
21:30 Numb3rs 0.6m
22:30 Ten Late News with Sports Tonight 0.33m

ABC:
19:00 ABC News 1.09m
19:30 The 7.30 Report 0.83m
20:00 The New Inventors 0.69m
20:30 Spicks and Specks 1.41m
21:00 The Gruen Transfer 1.31m
21:30 Moving Wallpaper (R) 0.55m

Seven wins Wednesday with 29.2% share.

Good night for Seven except the 9.30 hour with Cold Case coming up trumps for Nine. Odd to see Cold Case outrating The Mentalist despite the later timeslot - technically shouldn't happen but Criminal Minds is proving to be stiff competition for the latter.

Deal or No Deal is rating very well in the 5.30 slot - 900k today, 950k yesterday. At this rate it could hit 1m soon.

Some numbers for 20.5.09

The Apprentice 8.4m / 35%
You're Fired! 4.1m / 19%

Emmerdale 6.1m / 34%
Corrie 8.4m / 42%
Midsomer Murders 3.6m / 16%

Simon Cowell: 1.3m / 7%

Waterloo Road 4.5m / 21%

Embarrassing Bodies 3.2m / 16%
Grand Designs 2.2m / 10%
Desperate Housewives 1.6m / 9%

Chelsea Flower Show 2.4m / 11%

The Apprentice continues to see a rise, i really do wonder what sort of figure the final will get this year! Can anyone remember what it got last year?