I know what you mean, but then where do you put them? There's not really anywhere in the schedule where they seem a natural fit based on what ITV currently airs. I'm currently favouring Sundays at 7pm for Jekyll, but not sure about Beowulf. Saturday is probably about as good a fit as anywhere, particularly as there's a precedent for this sort of thing airing there with Merlin.

Yes I agree that whilst ITV need to be bold, there is no point throwing these away to die against SCD and TVUK which is all possibilty is likely. ITV have not helped thmselves with this year, so the audience are less likely to want to test out new dramas on ITV. They are more likely to stick to what they a familar with (SCD and to a lesser extent TVUK) and catch up with ITV dramas.

Scheduling is key and for these, support is needed. Given that this trailer for Beowulf has been released to early, suggests to me that it premiere will be very early January. Its gettng a screening next week at MIPCOM, and its also been sold to a US broadcaster. I doubt they would buy a drama series unless it was good enough.

ITV pres isn't always live. The night of the live Corrie proved this.

When is the x factor final this year?

12th/13th December.

Is that at Wembley

I'm not sure if it's been announced where the final will be this year. There is a space in Wembley's calendar for it to be held there.

No, no I don't have to. Mostly because it's self-evident but mainly because you think I must!

Looks like another 4 hours of past contestants, second rate popstars and no doubt One Direction and Big Mix Little Mix performing then,

I agree but the Merlin audience ( and I suspect the Jeykll one too) were more similar to the SCD audience than that for XF so playing against SCD seems pretty risky. Anyway we will know how its going to play out soon enough.

C4 and Gogglebox have done ITV a favour in showing a scene from Release The Hounds. This is probably the best promotion it could get with ITV2 having very few viewers at present to promote it too.

It will definately have the last performance by One Direction on uk tv. I think it will be a melody of there biggest hits and it has been rumoured that Madonna will be on but that rumour happens every year

I don't think Jekyll & Hyde is aimed at the older audience that SCD and Merlin attracted. I suspect with this one thery are more after a young demo with a high male audience. It seems to me like more of an teenager/adult audience drama (16+)

Beowulf looks more family adventure, like Merlin and I suspect might get a good audience of children watching.

According to this, Beowulf will launch on New Years Day which is Friday 1st January 2016

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4520906/

I didn't know about a Derren Brown programme. He tends to be my cue to switch off if he pops up on telly.

That'll be interesting as I can see Sherlock being on that day as well.

I think Beowulf looks better than Jekyll and Hyde.

BBC2 have started promoting The Last Kingdom. God knows where they'll put it. Hit or miss?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JP6...ature=youtu.be

Moffat has said a few times Sherlock is on, " at Christmas " he hasn't said at New Year. Once he said, not Christmas Day.. But I wouldn't rule it out.

Eternal Glory (Tuesday 8 p.m.) sounds like another clunker from ITV - Richard Bacon introduces ''a Superstars-style show which follows eight sporting legends in a series of bizarre challenges''. Jade Johnson and Christian Malcolm are legends ?

I did wonder if they'd do that. To be fair it should be doable for it and Sherlock to avoid each other, although if you throw EastEnders into the mix it becomes more difficult. At a guess:

20:00 EastEnders
21:00 Sherlock

18:30 Emmerdale
19:00 Beowulf
20:00 ???
21:00 Coronation Street (1 hour)

I'd assume the point of the New Year's Day launch is so that episode 2 can follow on Saturday 2nd or Sunday 3rd, so if it gets too crowded on NYD they could switch to a 2nd & 3rd January double instead.


I prefer the look of Jekyll & Hyde myself (although the people who went to the screenings said it's quite funny in parts and I think they could do with giving a glimpse of humour in the trailer) but I guess we've not seen much of Beowulf yet. I do think Beowulf looks very ambitious in terms of scale for a UK TV show, they've clearly spent a lot on it (so no doubt it helps that they've already sold it in the US) so I hope it works out.

I suppose it's a sign of things to come but every programme on BBC2 today from 9.30 a.m. to 11 p.m. is a repeat

It's just like much of BBC4 then! Maybe they're softening us up for the merge.

The Kennedys last night was bloody awful - Be interesting to see next weeks's ratings.

A new comedy that is awful - who would have thought that !!
I have not seen it yet but I will watch it eventually.

EastEnders: 5.59m (28.5%)
HIGNFY: 4.46m (20.8%)
Great British Menu: 1.99m (11.4%)
Gardeners' World: 2.09m (10.7%)
Gogglebox: 2.87m (14.0%)
Chatty Man: 1.04m (7.0%)
NCIS New Orleans: 0.71m (3.5%)
NCIS: 0.81m (5.1%)