ITV HD does have regions, but they're not the same as the SD regions, hence in Yorkshire I get Granada HD (although heaven knows why Yorkshire isn't HD, it's a bloody big region). ITV want the ratings reported separately so they can have accurate ratings of who watched what ad. The other channels don't need to know that.


Still watching it, and still quite enjoying it, although possibly the cast are carrying it a bit. One thing that perhaps hasn't helped it is Aisling Bea's boyfriend who I think is a totally misjudged, unpleasant character and I was a bit sad to see in the Radio Times that he's back in it next week because he's virtually unwatchable. But indeed, nowhere near brash or exciting enough for primetime ITV.


If Peter Kay wanted to do another series, the Beeb would commission it on the spot.

One thing to bear in mind when discussing Car Share's weekly rating is the effect that putting the entire series on iPlayer for almost 1 week had.

It was the first time BBC had ever premiered an entire comedy series on the iPlayer in advance of it airing on 'normal tv'. 3 million people watched the series on iPlayer, so if you think that the majority of those are probably not watching the show airing weekly now, added to the 4.5m to 5m that the show is getting weekly, it's a major hit in the same realm as Mrs Browns Boys and Miranda.

As it should be, because it's really great.

I notice nobody's picked up on two new ITV commissions. Both look like they are no your average middle of the road cop drama and do have some ambition.

Wendy and Peter guest starring Paloma Faith and Stanley Tucci

Yes we did. They were posted earlier. One is Christmas and the other looks like a gritty Sunday night drama. If Jericho makes Steve Thompson too busy to write for Doctor Who then I hope it runs and runs!

Twitter suggests Peter & Wendy is going to air on Boxing Day although that's obviously subject to change.

Definitely some ambition though, especially Jericho which sounds a bit different and a bit risky, especially 8 episodes of it. If it's good it could go very well. With that, Beowulf and Jekyll & Hyde ITV drama have taken some big swings and I hope at least some of them pay off.

Cant help thinking Jericho sounds a bit like The Village/The Mill.

Yes it does. Period drama hardship.

And they were such a success ITV have commissioned their own...

At least it isn't a police drama but it will have to be scheduled carefully.

Despite the lack of commissions, those that have been commissioned are bigger budget than the usual ITV drama.

Credit squeezed again tonight. And another thing I haven't seen do before, promoting a Comedy Central show starting next over closing credits. The show in question - Russell Howard's Stand Up Central - made a strong start when it debuted on April 29 according to BARB, pulling in 248k. This'll help point an attractive audience demographically in the direction of other relevant programmes on the network.

There's also been plenty of promotion on C5 and around BB especially for MTV's upcoming Geordie Shore spinoff, Judge Geordie, so interesting to see how that gets on.

It does. Hopefully it'll be a bit less depressing though! Or just more interesting at least. We'll have to wait and see.

People will watch gritty as long as it's not relentlessly grim. Call The Midwife is the best at making gritty palatable as it mixes the light with the shade. The Village was a turn off for me. The Mill did The Village better than The Village.

Do we know this for certain?

Putting it in any slot they could!

I mean with usual ITV cop dramas are going to be cheaper than these two recent commissions. Peter and Wendy is going to include CGI for Neverland, and the other is an eight part period drama.

Both are more ambitious than cop/crime dramas

I see what you mean. It's good to see ITV do something different. Really hope they get a few hits out of it.

Does anyone have any viewing figures for VD this week?

(Victoria Derbyshire)

I'm hoping they are as low as ever.

Thats one thing we can be certain of !!

The Island with Bear Grylls increased to 2.31m (11.6%) exc. +1. It was well on top of ITV by the tune of several hundred thousand.

In a terrific night for a resurgent Channel 4, Born Naughty pulled in an excellent 1.90m (9.3%) at 8pm, beating BBC Two's The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge which had 1.72m (8.5%).

Channel 5's most watched was The Hotel Inspector, which hit a series high 1.25m (6.3%) at 9pm.

Big Brother: Timebomb continued with 1.14m (7.2%) at 10pm.

Jeez, this is bad. Is that with +1, not like it makes a difference.

Tellymix and Twitter saying 1.3m.

It excludes +1 but that's unlikely to add any more than about 90,000. I don't know if those Twitter sources can be trusted, they said the same thing yesterday and it actually did 1.19.

Britain's Got Talent is having some success overseas as well. Last Night in New Zealand, it hit a series high with 581,010 viewers (629,260 incl +1) the second most watched show of the day behind One News (786,550). On Monday, NZ X Factor had 240,620 viewers.

Channel 4 on Twitter revealing that Born Naughty - which had 2.3m including +1 - was up 42% on slot average and "more than double" for youngs. Impressive. But this other tweet of theirs is misleading:


Clearly rubbing it in about BB not doing all that well this series, but the above tweet makes it sound as though The Secret World of Tinder was on top when on the figure I've got it doesn't take a mathematician to work out it clearly wasn't. If they were in front in 16-34s between 9pm-11pm it was because of how well The Island did at 9pm, dragging up the overall average.

In Total People, The Secret World of Tinder was actually the weak link in an otherwise strong lineup of programmes, averaging 0.73m (4.8%). Even if an exceptional amount of those were 16-34s, I still don't see how it could have beaten BB in this demo.

So beware the spin on the @C4Press handle. Having said that, I do think Channel 4 is in a really good place right now ratings wise after a few very difficult years and is the most improved channel of 2015 so far. And last night's figures are a good example of that.