But what are they so busy with between June and November that means they can't fit in another series of Takeway is what I don't get.

This year i am lead to believe that they have been filming a documentary for the Princes trust and Dec got married

It would be overkill. One series per year is enough, plus the last series was down on the previous series ratings.

They also seemed like they were struggling to get decent guests just for the one series.

ITV never give up with this Princes Trust do they? The related shows never bring in good ratings.

It's the same with Alan Titchmarsh and his Queen's gardens docs.

A few key points to note here.
(1) The post-main show editions have only recently been rating poorly because of the main show's length. Nobody wants to watch more of a show after 2 or 2.5 hours of it, I say that even as a massive XF fan. The length normalises again over the coming weeks and the post-results Sunday editions should improve drastically.

(2) Viewers aren't avoiding it, but they lacked awareness. A lot of people weren't even aware of the Thursday show considering it was plugged nowhere other than on Sunday's Xtra Factor. The figures should rise from here on out as people know about it.

(3) +1, which ran from the great 8-9pm slot, will probably have added a good amount.

Princes Trust is just like ITV, Very useless but that is another subject for general discussion.

Unforgotten getting 3.6m amazes me. It's been one of ITV's best shows this year, the quality of the writing and acting is very high.

I loved Broadchurch and I don't think Unforgotten is far off that standard, maybe even equal, so for Unforgotten to get ratings as low as 3.6m is staggering.

It's a decent show, nothing as spectacular as you or the programme's thread on DS suggests though.

Apologies, I'd assumed it had aired at 8pm.

It was never going to do well at 7pm. Strange move all round really.

I can only assume they thought that they might pick up a few floating viewers from It Takes Two. It makes little sense but ITV's scheduling is just bizarre - for example, on Monday 9th November they're splitting The Hangover around News at Ten. I might be missing something here but why not do that in late August and launch Doc Martin a week later so it ran right up to I'm A Celebrity?

No Xtra Factor in the provisional schedule for Saturday 7th November, by the way. It looks like they're persevering with the Thursday episode... for now anyway. There is another soap clash coming up due to the football on 8th November - Emmerdale is running an hour long episode from 7pm on Thursday 5th November followed by Coronation Street. I'm not sure whether BBC One will move EastEnders considering what happened yesterday.

According to digiguide, I'm A Celebrity... is now down for an hour and fifty minute launch but that seems to change daily so it could be three hours long come tomorrow. Channel 5 are launching Impractical Jokers at 8pm on 9th November with a double bill (2x30); it's not the easiest of slots to say the least!

You should write to Adam Crozier and tell him.

I agree that it is being over praised generally but as others have posted ratings don't equate to quality in any sense. After 3 eps I really like River, I can see why it is not more generally liked but its different and very good, and Unforgotten is good too.
A lot of good shows have got poor ratings, I am afraid its just par for the course we must just hope that these different dramas continue to be made.

Possibly not. However when EastEnders clashes with Emmerdale it usually draws approx 4.5 million on the overnights. Thursdays at 8:30pm was just over 5 million. ( still poor, I have only just plucked up the courage to come onto the ratings thread, I haven't dare come on earlier, I can just picture some of the comments by certain posters. ) If I were the BBC I would leave EastEnders in the 7:30pm slot, you can't keep moving the show around the schedules, let itv do what ever they wish and the up side is, when Emmerdale and EastEnders clash at least it also dents Emmerdale, it would not have achieved over 6 million and a 31% had it clashed with the BBC soap on Thursday.

The difference is EE viewers who are not happy with DTC do something about it, where as CS viewers who are deeply unhappy with SB do sod all, apart from tutting and sucking their breath through their teeth.

From Monday I am switching back to the BBC News at Ten. I have tried with Tom Bradby and Itv's news at when, I really have, but there is not enough news in the programme for me.

Like turn off you mean? I think being down 1 million yoy indicates CS viewers have done just that.

Also ITV are not bothered if ED is dented by clashes so long as EE is hurt because it makes CS look better to be the clear top dog.

With Halloween upon us, interesting to have a look back to 2009, which was the last time Halloween fell on a Saturday:

X-Factor Saturday overnights 2009
12th Sept - 10.0m (50.5%)
19th Sept - 9.3m (38.0%)
26th Sept - 8.89m (36.1%)
3rd Oct - 10.12m (38.9%)
10th Oct - 11.3m (43.8%) [lives begin]
17th Oct - 10.86m (42.1%)
24th Oct - 11.58m (44.1%)
31st Oct - 10.19m (41.8%)
7th Nov - 11.79m (46.9%)
14th Nov - 11.9m (45.1%)
21st Nov - 12.63m (47.3%)
28th Nov - 12.30m (47.8%)
5th Dec - 12.36m (49.5%)
12th Dec - 12.36m (48.0%)

Strictly Saturday overnights 2009
9th Sept - 7.7m (32.9%)
26th Sept - 7.91m (33.2%)
3rd Oct - 8.42m (33.9%)
10th Oct - 8m (32.4%)
17th Oct - 7.84m (30.6%)
24th Oct - 8.42m (33.2%)
31st Oct - 8.43m (36.6%)
7th Nov - 8.68m (37.7%)
14th Nov - 9.4m (36.5%)
21st Nov - 8.93m (34.9%)
28th Nov - 9.02m (36.2%)
5th Dec - 8.72m (36.9%)/7.34m (31.2%)
12th Dec - 8.10m (33.3%)/7.74m (31.0%)
19th Dec - 10.05m (41.5%)/10.42m (42.3%)

From looking at the figures we can see a roughly 12% Halloween drop for X-Factor compared to the surrounding weeks, whereas Strictly seems largely unaffected, probably due to the older skewing audience. The time slots, run times etc should be considered too but it gives a general idea of the Halloween effect. This year we could potentially be looking at an overnight number around the 5.9 - 6.1 million mark for X-Factor if it were to see a similar 12% drop. On the other hand with X-Factor having rated so low last weekend for the poorly received Judges Houses episodes maybe viewers tuning in for the better live shows will cancel out some of the Halloween dip this year.

A slightly different schedule for BBC One on Friday 20th November

7.00pm The One Show
7.30pm Citizen Khan
8.00pm Eastenders
8.30pm Adele at the BBC
9.35pm HIGNFY
10.05pm BBC News

I wonder if Adele is enough of a draw for viewers on BBC One, and will Citizen Khan draw any extra viewers being on earlier or just limp along.

It's News at Eleven again on Wednesday

Football again. I think it would make more sense to put the Champions league highlights on itv 4 at 10pm then have the highlights on itv after the news

Some scheduling points for next week:

Another silly EE/ED clash on Thursday

On Tuesday BBC1 Scotland opts out of TOS for a documentary about the Glasgow bin lorry tragedy

On Monday Hugh's War on Waste on BBC1 moves to 10.35 in Scotland and Northern Ireland for local programming at 9 p.m.

Hugh's War on Waste is on at 11.05pm in Scotland

Thanks for the correction, my listings magazine is wrong then. Interesting that these regions are allowed to opt-out during peak viewing time, wouldn't happen with ITV

They are nations not regions. Remember how popular it was when STV opted out at 9pm often. It went down really well in Scotland...

What is "Hugh's war on waste" anyway?

Good there now something to have the TV on for to watch today like The Saturday Show on Five hopefully this does well for them.