Maybe an 'up yours' sign to ITV after the numerous Emmerdale and EastEnders clashes? Can't blame them if so. It's definitely nothing to do with the football; it's a 5pm kick off so will be over by 7pm.

But they need to be very careful at the moment in trying to deliberately damage a commercial channel,given the scrutiny they are under by their paymasters ie The Government.

Easier slot for Casualty if the schedules don't change tomorrow.

Admittedly it might give the Government (and ITV hypocritically) another stick to beat the BBC with if they want it. I'm sure Syco/ITV will make a fuss once confirmed, even if it's just for headlines. If the BBC made a fuss every time ITV created a soap clash it would never be out of the papers.

I hate to suggest the BBC should give up competitive scheduling but this is just unnecessary in my view. Football should be pretty much done by 7 anyway.

They will get punished for this kind of thing in the end.

Schedules aren't confirmed till tomorrow, let's not rush to judgement.

ITV Saved My Life, sorry Changed My Life sounds like it was designed for Ratings Thread parody.

Would be a nice series for ITV's 60th anniversary. But I can't see many giving up Bake Off for it.

This time yesterday Strictly was at 7pm. Do you really think it'll move back?


ITV Changed my Life... I used to watch it but have changed due to their current standard of programming...

While it seems like the schedules have been poor, if you consider the consolidated numbers, then so far since this summer (June/July/Aug) there have been 11 dramas which have pull in at least 4.5m viewers for at least 1 episode:

Casualty, Holby City, Home Fires, The Syndicate, The Interceptor, Humans, Black Work, The Outcast, Partners In Crime, Ripper Street and New Tricks.

In Comparison, in 2014 there was 7 (Casualty, Law and Order, Happy Valley, The Village, In the Club, New Tricks and Doctor Who).

Obviously just because they pulled in a lot viewers doesn't necessarily make them any good or memorable, but the numbers would suggest (for drama at least) this year is no worse than normal.

Emmerdale tonight was absolutely brilliant. EE will be dented heavily. Big twist at the end, although I had predicted it .

......could it be that maybe BBC1 is just trying to protect Casualty from the X-Factor (or does that not play into the SCD vs X-factor narrative that everything must be viewed through ).

It could be that too it's certainly a better slot or Casualty than it was in the previous schedules.

Seriously can't see the big deal. It's a clash of what 15 mins or so.
The same happened every Saturday for a while last year when there were so many couples still in.
It's Saturday night, it's going to happen.

Absolutely - there were many 10/15 mins clashes last year, its no big deal.

They didn't used to. Well, they did... then they didn't... then they did. But when they have four hours of primetime it seems silly to have the big shiny floor shows go head-to-head when it's obvious so many watch both (hence the increase The X Factor sees after Strictly finishes). It was different in the early years when both had to cram in a results show on Saturday night as well but neither have that issue now.

And yes, EastEnders v Emmerdale is another example of this when it shouldn't really happen but does.

It was different when the boot was on the other foot and XF bullied SCD back earlier.
Now they can't.
15 mins is more than acceptable IMO.

It was stupid back then as well. Strictly 6-8, The X Factor 8-10. Neither need to be longer than two hours either. IIRC in 2010 The X Factor's second live show got moved back to 7.45pm and struggled against Strictly's final 15 minutes. I don't think they tried that again.

IMO it isn't so we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

It might be acceptable but it certainly isn't necessary. Why can't the BBC just avoid this sort of nonsense which doesn't actually benefit them?

A very long way off, it is sold as part of the Football League contract and Sky and C5 have just started a new three year contract. To be honest the Football League might benefit from selling the Cup separately but there you go. It could certainly do with having the League Cup Final live on terrestrial telly. Having highlights at 11pm on Channel Five isn't doing much to promote it as a special occasion.


What usually happens is that the rights are sold for two tournaments at a time, because it alternates between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, so they always get one in primetime and one in the middle of the night. They wouldn't get much just selling a non-primetime one on its own. I don't think Sky are very interested, it's not the kind of thing that drives many subscriptions because it's only on for a few weeks and they already have plenty of rugby.


I would seriously argue about Planet's Got Talent not being promoted, Warwick Davis did loads of interviews to promote it, he was on The One Show and everything, not something you usually get for a clip show. And it was on opposite Now You See It, the exact same format more or less, a clash you would assume Got Talent would win because it had an established brand. And it didn't.

As for factual, I have indeed said many times that ITV factual needs to be a bit brash and a bit sentimental. Someone mentioned Neighbours From Hell before and though that was hardly the most edifying format and wasn't going to trouble the BAFTAs, it was at least an obvious ITV format.* That's the kind of thing they need more of, not ob-docs that could easily play on BBC2.

* Course, I say that but after the original one-off they commissioned a series but the producer defected to the Beeb to do a lookalike show called Neighbours at War, which they scheduled first - http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1998-01-05 - but ITV rushed the first episode of Neighbours From Hell out to show it at 8.30 the same night, with the rest of the series following later in the year. The Beeb only did one series, of course on ITV it ran for a while.


A bit of a misleading headline, this, I think, because while they have indeed got the rights to the Ashes it's the series played in Australia, ie the middle of the night. Still a bit of a coup for them, though.



Yeah, I can't really decide if that's wonderful scheduling from ITV or stupid scheduling. Keep It In The Family is clearly there as ballast against Strictly but I really think this of all nights they could have easily got away with showing The X Factor straight after it. If they're going to orchestrate clashes and be aggressive in the scheduling it would make far more sense to do it here than a pointless soap clash. As it stands you've got a big audience at the end of the football and they're just going to drfit off, with no guarantee they'll switch back for The X Factor.


Meaning 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown finishes after a seventeen part series which must be some kind of record in recent years for a comedy show (TV Burp had longer runs, but they took breaks). In the Radio Times it was never billed as X/17, so presumably they didn't know how long it was going to last and were just recommissioning it in dribs and drabs. It would be outrageous if it wasn't so funny. Brilliantly hopeless C4 scheduling next Friday of course with three out of five shows starring Adam Hills. They say a lot about encouraging new talent but they have such a small pool of regulars.

Also I see from the Radio Times that the new series of Duck Quacks Don't Echo, which we were talking about the other week, was supposed to be starting on Friday, still at 8pm, but it's now been abruptly rescheduled to Monday, presumably as someone at Sky realised it would be ridiculous to have a panel show starring Lee Mack going up against Lee Mack's other panel show on BBC1.

Also as well I see Countryfile's Ellie Harrison is doing a factual show for ITV next week so I look forward to extended posts about how she's defected to ITV and how she's going to fall flat on her face and Julia Bradbury and blah blah blah.

It isn't the football so don't listen to that suggestion. It's blatantly to damage X Factor but the BBC will again claim they "don't care about ratings" and everyone will gobble that up and believe it.

Although they're likely to drift away at full time (unless England somehow lose) and that will be half an hour before Keep It In The Family starts. If Strictly started at 7pm, as provisionally scheduled, that would just be gifting an audience to BBC One and The X Factor would be flattened at 7.15pm. Keep It In The Family is Strictly fodder, the latter's switch only happened today.

Can't believe it's all X Factor v Strictly talk again already!

Roll on Sunday mornings for the ratings.

its BBC's flagship Saturday night show. Surely they would want to schedule it where they feel it fits best.
ITV always have the option to put the XF back 15 mins. Why can't they do that ?
BBC move EE so you can't say they don't move their progs can you.

There is nothing wrong with a 7pm start time. Following Pointless Celeb which rates well anyway a 7pm start time is just about perfect. Now they have decided to deliberately run into The X Factor for no good reason. Of course they are entitled to do so but it isn't in their best interest and the BBC should be avoiding it imo. Pushing TXF back to 8:35pm is not really a great option for ITV. It will be forced into a late finish with "Fruit" Keyhole being pushed to nearly 10pm. But yes you are correct with the BIB.

Though the 20 minute clash will probably mean Strictly doesn't grow to the extent it could do. We've seen it in quite a few breakdowns from recent years where Strictly continually grows then plateaus as soon as The X Factor comes on rather than increase to the end.

But they place it where they want to place it. I don't buy that it's simply because it's the best slot for Strictly, especially when it's best year was when it and The X Factor tended to avoid each other - admittedly not always but mostly.