Presumably Christine should have been happy to be a host on The One Show for the rest of her life. Never taking a risk to do anything else. When they do her obituary she would be known for just linking into clips of steam engines for 40 years.

Other opportunities would be hosting second rate Saturday night entertainment only on BBC1 instead of ITV and that made up job at the Olympics that didn't exist. (There was no 'host of the Olympics')

And in any case Julia Bradbury did not "move across to ITV for more money" she's freelance and has done 2 shows over about 2 years!

She just did what anyone else would do. The fools are more ITV in paying her such sums and not recognising that she is not some massive talent. Just another average presenter.
Don't blame her at all, nor Chiles.
I bet she is more than happy living in New York now.

And still waiting patiently for Frank Lampard to marry her........

It was 1 million ahead!

Corrie 6.61 EE 5.95 makes 660k ahead not 1 million

300k on +1.

What happened with Christine Bleakley was a textbook example of how NOT to renegotiate a contract.

Forget Andy's revisionist history. This is a reminder of what happened.

Jay Hunt was firstly to blame for all of this showing a complete lack of skills with talent management with Adrian & Christine on The One Show and that older female presenter on Countryfile.

When Hunt decided to tinker with The One Show for no particularly great reason she split up a good team in Chiles & Bleakley. Bleakley was left on the BBC and weighed up her options. However, she very stupidly did interviews talking about how she was in a dilemma and wasn't sure what to do and put a statement on the website of the new management company she signed with (Avalon), saying she was torn between the BBC and ITV. What a plank! The BBC saw that and withdrew her contract offer. Bleakley HAD to go to ITV as it was the only deal left on the table.

Then after the debacle of Daybreak she 'took another risk' by dumping Avalon who she signed with to get the ITV contract (and a company she signed with after dumping her previous longterm agent), and signed with James Grant Management to try and restart her career.

Was it worth it? Money wise you have to say yes. Career wise? I will leave others to decide.

530k on BBC3

Why are you quoting a repeat figure which is in no way comparable to a +1 rating? . (It's tongue-in-cheek guys don't worry).

In all seriousness Corrie was well ahead however you spin it.

The Minder v Only Fools Christmas Day showdown was quite the topic of conversation at our school. TV Times had a great Minder themed cover and also in 1985 Minder was on air in the Autumn while Only Fools was on in the Winter so Minder was more recent in people's viewing habits. Smart money was on the Minder win.

I think the Christmas 1985 special was to Only Fools what the Christmas 1971 special was to Morecambe & Wise. It put them on the map and broke through as a big deal on Christmas Day.

I remember the 1985 All Creatures special, it did really well and there was a real clamour for the series to return, took a few years though.

And then she will be pregnant ........

To be replaced by 'The Wonder of ITV Factual Commissioning'.

The Wonder Of Britain will play to the very end. But nobody on it should make plans for a second series. Probably would have done a bit better as a show opposite EastEnders. Those are usually good for 2/3m.

On Tuesday 8 September, England play Switzerland at Wembley in a Euro 2016 qualifier. The ITV broadcast runs 19:15-22:00 (kick-off: 19:45). Emmerdale moves to 18:45. EastEnders at 19:30 as normal so half of it will clash with actual match action.

Then another hour-long Emmerdale on the Thursday.

Emmerdale is always an hour on a Thursday be it a full hour ep or 2 half hour eps

I believe it was our old friend Alan Yentob at the BBC who got fed up with her dithering and withdrew the offer.

People make up there own rules on here official figures don't include +1 so if your including +1 why not include the bbc3 figure for ee of 530k. So that only makes a 430 k difference. ☺

Yes corries still ahead but very close. I wonder how many watch on iplayer lots apparently.

Soap Ratings

Corrie 6.55 (35.8%)

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3...pm54A5719dClHD

Not good news for Emmerdale then. Last year they did one of these at a similar time in the year and it dipped to 4.92m (excl +1).

Once the Rugby starts on ITV, the disruption of missing episodes is going to dent both Corrie and Emmerdale.

EastEnders slightly behind Emmerdale on first showings. The BBC News at Ten was very low: only 2.92m (17.9%) for some reason.

Eastenders always suffers on a Friday when there has been a clash or disruption on the Thursday.

Fairly normal figures as we approach the end of August. Last chance holidays for families before the new school term starts. Even the train home on Friday was empty in rush hour, as I managed to sit at a 4 seat table on my own

Looking across the 22-22:30 slot, Rick Stein averaged 1.70m (10.0%) over an hour from 21:30, The Last Leg got 1.26m (8.8%) exc +1 over the 22:00 hour, and Channel 5's The Best of Bad TV scored 0.65m (4.8%) exc +1 over an 80-minute slot from 22:00. Nothing too amazing, must have been a slowish news day even for a Friday.

I wonder how the semi-final of BBQ Champ did.

Mastermind: 1.81m (9.7%)
Extra Slice: 2.36m (12.6%)