That is a subjective opinion, and I disagree with it. I'm a viewer and I think ITV News is worse than the BBC News. I don't like the presenters as much, I don't like the reporters as much, I don't like how it's not as in depth, I certainly don't like the way they do the weather which tells me nothing and regionally it's much less relevant. In addition, the fact ITV News gets flung around the schedule means there's no incentive for me to try and search it out when I can trust when the BBC News is on.

And yet, back in the nineties, I watched ITV News just as much as the BBC News, if not more. In those days BBC News was terribly unappealing with its relentless Birtism, it was incredibly boring and pompous. ITV had better presenters and a family of reporters and the scheduling was very convenient for me as well, when I was a student I always had my lunch with the 12.30 news and as a family the 5.40 news fitted us just right. And, like ten o'clock, it wasn't the Beeb who forced ITV to move out of those slots.

ITV News used to be by far the most popular news on telly, now it isn't. That's not because of BBC dirty tricks or a default audience but because ITV drove viewers away by relentless tinkering and the Beeb got better. It's wrong to say as a fact that ITV News is as good as BBC News. I say otherwise.

Why do more people buy Coke than buy Pepsi? Because they like Coke better than Pepsi! Same principle.


I think that is to totally underestimate the intelligence of the audience. Channel Four has got an amazing history of drama, GBH, Queer as Folk, A Very British Coup and other shows got enormous critical acclaim and, indeed, very high ratings. And then you've got Film Four and all the big successful US dramas they've shown like ER and Lost. Drama has played a huge part in the history of C4, still does, and people are well used to watching it on there. But if it's no good or scheduled badly, they won't.

Same with ITV, the ITV audience are well up for watching challenging and unusual programming, always have been. Things like Cracker and Band Of Gold and The Second Coming all pushed the boundaries and viewers have come to them and they've been huge successes and testament to ITV's bravery. What's been one of the highest rated programmes on ITV this year? The election debate! You can argue people "aren't used to" seeing that on ITV but clearly viewers had the wit to come to ITV to see it. Viewers aren't stupid.

Almost all of the ITV programmes that have failed in primetime have done so because they're simply not strong enough to engage a big audience in primetime because they're not ambitious enough. And I would include Newzoids in that. It's not that the ITV audience can't cope with it, it's because people who might be interested in it are already watching HIGNFY and Newzoids is doing nothing new.


Not that much different to how it used to be, though, in 1992 it ran until 4pm (http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1992-04-10 - Midnight Caller was dropped, and note the fillers schedules after it, with CBBC on BBC2, in case they needed to extend it) and in 1997 as you can see, bar a quick break for Neighbours it was scheduled to run until 4.30 with the potential to continue for longer - http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1997-05-02 Though in fact it actually finished at about 3.30 because everything that was going to happen had happened.

And in February 1974, as seen on BBC Parliament, it was supposed to finish at 3pm on the Friday but continued until 6.45 - and then came back again at 9.25 for another hour!

And I miss Neil VW's ratings analysis too. Hope they're both okay.

You're right Steve

Andy's analysis of Channel 4 drama is too simplistic. Their problem with drama is that too much is unappealing to large numbers of viewers. That's why audiences are so tiny. The media love it and viewers avoid it. Doesn't mean people won't watch drama again on Channel 4.

It's like saying ITV can't get viewers again then people tune in for Britain's Got Talent.

People can still find ITV. Phew!

Fantastic rating for BGT even if the quality was poor.



He has unregistered his DS account. He's still on twitter, he's fine and well.

Good to hear. I always wonder what happens to big users of the forum when they don't post in a while, so glad he's safe as I haven't seen him post in a while.

I doubt either is a great show, but ratings are impressive. Certain shows punch above their weight, another is Gogglebox. What they have is populist appeal. BGT could be a quality show, but oddly showing faked/weird/dross acts pull in the audiences these days on ITV.

Thanks.

What a shame he left, he will be missed on the forum, but I'm glad he's okay.

Television stations nowadays cater for certain types of viewer. BBC Four goes mainly for the highly educated older viewer who reads broadsheets, ITV go more for the mass audience who are more likely to buy redtops, MTV is largely aimed at under 25s, hence the bias towards reality shows and cotemporary music. BBC One is probably the only channel that tries to appeal across the board and does a good job in ratings terms.

I have always wondered if there is an audience for ITV to maybe repeat Celebrity Juice on Saturday night maybe after Play to the Whistle.


Also I might be wrong but last year did ITV not repeat drama such as Prey on a Saturday Night. If they Did how did it rate.

I'm interested as to what plans ITV have for the autumn when the ECL moves to BT.
I'd suggest a one hour Emmerdale, Celebrity Chase at 8.00 and drama at 9.00. All of these should be capable of attracting at least 4 million viewers and would put the flopzone to rest. Also the one hour Emmerdale would free up the 8.00 slot on Thursday for ITV to try new comedy or drama.
ITV's weakness on Tuesdays in recent years can be put down to having to schedule around the ECL for seven months of the year. This meant no drama could be scheduled in the autumn as the ECL would interrupt it every two weeks and when this tournament wasn't being shown, cheap factual filled the slots. Also with the relative failure of English teams since 2012, the tournament has become an irrelevance for most viewers.

That would mean Emmerdale would be against Eastenders on a Tuesday

It's happened before, but it would provide a stronger lead in to what would follow. Or alternatively, Emmerdale could retain its half hour slot, be followed by a show on the lines of The Dales( good for 3.5 million) and then Celeb Chase and drama.

I find comments like that strange, but they come up often. Just because people are watching HIGNFY then that's it, their satire diet for the week is satisfied. I've even seen various satire/comedy review shows on ITV fail to get going because people say they aren't as good as HIGNFY (which would be quite a big ask for a new show compared to a 25 year old show) and therefore they aren't watching them or giving them a chance, even when HIGNFY isn't even on air.

People also dismiss Jonathan Ross and the reason they give is that it isn't as good as Graham Norton. Which presumably means they are only allowed to watch one chat show a week and can't watch one on another day or even another time of year.

The clashes are bad enough when they happen rarely. It was terrible when they were regular. Terrible idea.

But HIGNFY is on air. And because a lot of the Newzoids writers also write for HIGNFY, the jokes are very similar.

itv will have a better nights sleep now they have a Saturday night hit. Excellent share and figure. Shame it only lasts until Spring bank.

People do watch Jonathan Ross. I only watch one chat show and might watch another based on guests.

People don't watch shows because they're either scheduled badly or they think they're crap. That's the truth of the matter.

You're making a simple thing very complicated.

Satire can work if the programme it is framed in works. Nothing wrong with Newzoids in principle but the first show scared viewers off. Also the shadow of Spitting Image looms large. Perhaps instead of another variation on Spitting Image ITV should have tried a different format with a host and contributors?

Truth is you never really know what will work but you just keep trying.

It will probably be back for an.extended run. ITV should try Ninja Warrior UK in January.

No I think it will remain an 8-part series. Extending it would be foolish.

Another amazing rating for BGT last night with a series high too. It's performing excellently so far - and considering the nightmare ITV are currently having this year, it's even more impressive that BGT can still pull in the viewers 9-years later. Excellent for Ninja Warrior too.

As for BGT - I'm sure it will be down next weekend due to Bank Holiday. Will be shocked if it manages another 10m+ average.

ITV will need to build a new Tuesday schedule now the football is going. I did amend my choice to keep Emmerdale as is, follow it with The Dales or equivalent, then Celeb Chase and drama. Actually the ECL has proven to be a hindrance to ITV on Tuesdays and they have been left for the last two seasons with all foreign matches that even cheap factual can outrate. Indeed this tournament, with its endless rounds and group games, is a big commitment and I can see with ratings falling, why it's gone to BT.

This would work in Emmerdales favour, they could do this on both Tuesday and Thursday. If viewers want to watch EastEnders they can always watch it on catch up in some form or another or just skip it and just watch it Monday and Friday.

It wouldn't surpise me that ITV would consider an hour of Emmerdale on Tuesdays, as it could harm EE and beef up their terrible Tuesday schedule. Yet this could lead to allegations of overkill if they keep the second Thursday episode and could push the soap even further down the ratings.
My second post Champions League schedule seems to make sense. Obviously BBC One has its two soap heavyweights on Tuesday, which means ITV could never become dominant before 9pm, but a show like Celebrity Chase is good for 4 million viewers and could lead in well to new drama at 9.00.

BBC2 has Russell Howard and Family Guy now.