It's time Home and Away was shunted from Channel 5. Its ratings are little better than what a certain ITV 2 reality show gets at the moment and for what is considered Channel 5's third most important show, 390,000 in peak time is dire. Also being hampered by a whole life deal means Viacom are left with this antique as long as it's still shown in Australia, although ratings are tumbling there as well.

Anybody else go all week without watching a single thing on C5? Looking back and forward to tomorrow I haven't watched a anything (I'm not including Spike and FiveUSA) on their main channel. If anything it seems to have gotten worse since Viacom took over.

It's a serious question so Dancc, if you can avoid leaping to their defence.....

I know I am a bit late asking but would anybody have the ratings for the French open tennis finals Sat/Sun on ITV?

I can't recall the last time I watched anything on C5. I used to watch BB but have finally managed to kick that habit .

Other than Neighbours, there's nothing on Channel 5 that interests me at the moment. I do love Gotham, Wentworth, CBB and Under The Dome though.

There's never anything good on Channel 5 unless it's Gotham, Cowboy Builders or Cowboy Traders. Probably due another pointless countdown show by now.

Compared to BBC2 dramas in general and BBC2 dramas on Thursday then yes. Even before I'm A Celebrity came along The Game wasn't reaching 2m in consolidated. Peaky Blinders, Banished and The Fall all managed over 2m in consolidated for every episode that went out on a Thursday.

That money from BBC Three axe should go to BBC Two instead of yet another rubbish BBC One drama.

I agree that more of it should definitely go to BBC2 and I think they'd be better at making drama that skews younger than BBC1.

Well, you rather contradict yourself there because I can't really see why the 400k for Toast of London (at 11pm too) is a total disaster, whereas The IT Crowd was a hit when it used to get 800k on primetime Friday nights, and in 2008 when ratings were generally higher (in fact The IT Crowd was the first thing I ever watched on 4OD through my TV, fact fans). Toast of London will probably be repeated over and over again and be considered a classic, and nobody will care what ratings it got.

I always quote this, but when Michael Grade was told the ratings for Vic Reeves Big Night Out was pretty poor, he said "If nobody is watching this we should keep on doing it". And it's still an influential and much-loved series to this day. Who cares what ratings it got in 1990? It has clearly over the years justified itself.


No it can't, because the ratings are still going down, long after BBC1 have abandoned kids TV. And also ITV hasn't had kids TV since 2006 and for a good few years after that C4 were absolutely thrashing them, ITV were totally dominated and it took them ages to find things worth putting there.

There was that Radio Times cover in 2006 (sorry I can't find a better image - https://create-cdn.net/siteimages/5/...29/143x187.jpg) with C4's daytime stars, Noel, Des Lynam, Vorderman, Paul O'Grady and Richard and Judy, the whole schedule had a real swagger about it. Amazing to think only one of those people is still around on C4 daytime and it's the one who does the show that you would assume had the shortest shelflife. Why they weren't able to maintain this dominance I don't know but they were already massively declining before BBC1 got rid of kids shows.


It used to be that no BBC1 drama would ever go on Wednesdays unless it was really, really bad because ITV were so strong on Wednesdays with big, big shows. But not so much these days, Long Lost Family is alright but hardly something like a new episode of Inspector Morse or an England match. Wednesday seems no worse a day to do it than any other, especially now the ITV lead-in to the 9pm show can be very erratic.


Hmm, I'd not noticed that, and you're probably right, I think it might be the first ever episode of 'stEnders never to get a repeat, although I wonder if they ever showed the omnibus on the day Diana died? They may have shown it the following week but of course that week they'd shown five episodes - and set in Paris!

One bizarre bit of scheduling I only just noticed was Channel Four's Dementiaville which started last week at 9pm but tonight's and next week's episode is at 11pm. But it was billed as such in the Radio Times so it was seemingly planned all along. Seems a bizarre way to do it, though, why show the first episode at 9pm anyway?

The Cube showing why it shouldn't have been commissioned. And I suspect yet again ITV will renew it, just to keep Schofield sweet. AXE IT!

Shame for LLF. Hopefully a rise next week.

Agreed. The Cube is rubbish.

The ratings basically confirm Love Island should never have been revived

Some of the problem lies I think with them making no real attempt to bring the format up to date or fix what was wrong with the original plus it looks so 2005

Won't be surprised if it gets axed for good

Remove The IT Crowd and use the other sitcoms I mentioned then from Channel 4's past.

Some low rating shows will be commissioned endlessly because they are award magnets. Others won't. We never saw a second series of Plus One for example. When programmes get low ratings their chances of survival are iffy. And when you have no hits, you have no viewers and the schedule suffers. TV shouldn't just be about vanity projects from stars/writers and getting ratings is an afterthought. It pisses off other writers/performers who think why is this low rating show still on the air taking up slots when other shows could be given a chance there. You can't build a channel on niche shows. It's Channel 4 not Sky Arts.

And 400k is poor for Toast Of London but the dreadful scheduling doesn't help it and is mostly to blame. 400k on a digital channel is respectable, on Channel 4/BBC2 it's reprehensible. It was on at 10.35pm on Mondays for series 2. Not ideal. But it should be able to go a bit higher than that.


Channel 4 daytime had a glorious period back then with those shows. Especially with Deal Or No Deal and Paul O'Grady. They just didn't find hits to replace long in the tooth shows. One of their last recent successes must be Come Dine With Me.


ITV used to be so dominant with drama. Something big on most nights. Peak Practice on Mondays, Soldier, Soldier on Tuesdays, two hour Morse on Wednesdays, high rating Catherine Cookson drama/Wexford/first series of Heartbeat on Fridays.

Drama hasn't rated well for either BBC1 or ITV for years on Wednesday. Inspector George Gently must be the first one in a couple of years that has done well on the night. And that didn't have a great lead-in.

The Cube was good when it launched but now it is being out shadowed by ninja warrior as it is much more challenging

The Cube was good when it started but it got very boring very quickly. ITV should cut their losses and ditch it....I mean 'rest' it.

It's embarrassing for The Cube to be that low when it follows Coronation Street.

It's not even something the new look ITV 2 should be doing, but hey ho someone has decided that this show deserved a revival as surely someone might watch it and at least it's not YBF on a loop for weeks on end.
Next up, England do OK in the Euros, let's bring back WAGs Boutique for six weeks every night.
No wonder ITV 2 and ITV Be have such a crummy image, they show little watched drivel and repeats and think every woman under 35 is only capable of watching reality shows and re runs of chick flicks and last night's soaps.

Anyone know when Don't Scare the Hare is coming back, I used to enjoy that

Quite a lot of people I'd imagine being only the 5th most watched channel. All that gets enthused about in here are either BBC One programmes, ITV programmes or soaps, so there's your answer.

No need for the digs by the way. Your frankly ludicrous position that C5 should have their licence revoked is not going to change, nor is mine that they get more stick than they deserve, often punch above their weight and have the potential to be much more of a competitor to ITV and C4. End of story.

Big Brother's ratings aren't going to reach the 1.3m-1.5m level of respectability if C5 keep changing the time it starts. Switched on at 10pm to find it aired at 9 will have to download it on catch up now.

What I would say and I acknowledged it yesterday is that C5 is particularly weak at the moment apart from Big Brother. Too many cheap as chips clip shows, too many repeats, too many programmes that didn't deserve recommissions and are outstaying their welcome in the schedule like OAPs Behaving Badly etc.

It's disappointing but I see no reason to think this is anything other than a temporary quiet period that most channels will have at some point in the year. They've just recently revamped their commissioning process and their has been a lot of other behind the scenes changes since Viacom took over, so I'm sure these are factors.

I expect things will pick up soon. If they don't I'll be starting to ask serious questions about Viacom's intentions myself.

I wouldn't bother. Worst episode for quite a few days.

But there's no fixed start time for BB and it will change occasionally. With the advent of EPGs and +1 channels, it's really a non issue.

So you leapt to their defence anyway even though they weren't being attacked.

It was a legit question about a truly abysmal schedule this week.

You must have a problem with reading. Because it wasn't a defence as you put it, nor was by subsequent post.

Forget it. Don't wish to waste my time further on this. You should have just been honest and said "Don't reply to this Dancc, I don't want to hear constructive things about C5 from someone who might actually know something about the channel... I just want post after post of C5 bashing!"

There's just no discussion to be had about this channel where you don't defend them regardless. Why? You champion them like they're BBC4! What is it they do that's so great?

I reckon it's even worse under Viacom than it was before. Next week's schedule looks just as awful as well!