You have hit the nail on the head. ITV have sunk quite low, in aiming for the lowest social class and socio-economic status. Taking for example This Morning and Loose Women - these two programmes are now trashy. Any good dramas on ITV we watch on catch-up at a later date.

In addition to those already mentioned (Jonathan Creek, Bugs, Crime Traveller) and, of course, Casualty, these drama series were shown on BBC1 on Saturday nights in the 1990s :

Waterfront Beat
All Creatures Great and Small
Bergerac
The House of Eliott
Moon and Son
Growing Pains
Westbeach
Harry
Ghosts
Dalziel and Pascoe
City Central
Sunburn
Roger Roger

On ITV :
Yellowthread Street
The Saint
Stay Lucky
Frederick Forsyth Presents
Perfect Scoundrels
The Other Side of Paradise
Frankie's House
Sam Saturday
The Bill
A Pinch of Snuff (with Hale and Pace as Dalziel and Pascoe)
The Governor
The Vanishing Man
London's Burning

Thanks Ray.

I honestly thought Death In Paradise and Birds Of A Feather would be hit more by their respective competition.

River started with 3.9m, only 600k more than Jericho last night and that was against weaker competition. It isn't anything to do with ITV's poor 2014 and 2015, it's to do with Jericho being in a very tough slot and not appealing to enough people. Simple as that. Home Fires, Black Work, Safe House and Unforgotten all launched with a lot more viewers than Jericho last night. They generally had it a bit easier, yes, but they were clearly also more appealing to the audience. And they were all only a few months ago. I think some of ITV's new dramas will do better than Jericho, they're never all going to work.

Plus, last year everyone moaned about ITV airing a cheap show like Bring Back Borstal against DIP, now people are moaning as they aired a new drama there (which did get a better rating). They can't win really.

BBC1 always comes out of the traps really strong in January and ITV really struggled to compete. This year they've upped their game so let's see how it goes. The new dramas launching in the Spring will hopefully have an easier ride.

I don't see where else Jericho would have done much better. Saturday would have been a disaster with a Take Me Out lead-in! Sunday would have left a gap at 8pm. Monday night have done slightly better but would have been against Silent Witness still. Tuesday would have been worse than Thursday and Wednesday would again leave a gap at 8pm, and why move Midsomer away from a slot where it works well? Friday night have even slightly better but I doubt it'd make any difference really.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, what was the last new ITV drama that launched big?

I can only think of the first series of Prey as something grew its audience each week, even then I wouldn't say it had Downton-esq high ratings.

Something about Jericho put people off long before it started. The trailer didn't sell it.

Poldark and Jericho have similar things in their shows, hardship, fighting, shots of the landscape etc. But compare their trailers which also feature similar clips from their shows. Rich and poor, love, struggle fights and so on. The Poldark trailer gets you pumped up and excited while Jericho's makes you think it's okay but nothing to watch immediately.

I was sold on Poldark by the trailer, I wasn't sold on Jericho by the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A0U6kQNCN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiB1gT4rA8I

This is exactly how I view ITV. Corrie, Jeremy Kyle, Benidorm, BOAF, YBF(Seriously WHO watches that ) and a billion re-made quizzes from the 80s - Mr & Mrs, Catchphrase.
The channel is chav central. They have over relied on 2 or 3 shows for years now and have produced nothing new or returnable.

This series has started quite slowly. I don't think it will stay that way, but going by what we've seen so far it's hardly a surprise that it's down on last year which was majorly eventful right from the very start.

There's a feeling of waiting for things to get going at the moment with this run. Plenty of interesting characters though and I'm not writing it off yet.

I'm not sure they are massively bothered about how the second BB episode performs, as long as it boosts Lip Sync Battle then it will be job done.

BB will be down as always on Saturday anyway so there's absolutely nothing to lose.

They got beat by the doomed looking Dagenham & Redbridge at home at the weekend and have lost their last four games in a row in League 2. I don't see how, on that form, they could possibly cause even the Liverpool reserves the slightest bit of worry.

Luckily for BBC One, Liverpool games always rate. But I'm not expecting too much for it if it's as straightforward for the reds as I think it'll be.

But, it's football and this season is utterly mental so I guess anything could happen...

I think tonight might be down due to bbc1 fa cup match.

Lots of over analysis and silly nonsense posts around today, suggesting that people won't watch an ITV drama because they show Jeremy Kyle on a morning, or the general genre snobbery you get here where anything that isn't a drama apparently doesn't have a place on TV and effects the reputation. In any case if that was true, ITV has had the most talked about dramas of recent years (Downton, Broadchurch) which proves it's nonsense.

I expect it was simply a case of,
Am I a viewer of DIP? - Yes
Am I a viewer of Jericho? - No (as it's not been on before)
Am I bored of DIP? - No
Decision: watch death in paradise.

Am I that interested in Jericho that I will record it and watch it later? - some might, but some won't, some will but never get round to watching it.

Also anyone who suggests last night was a bad slot is vindicating ITV running cheap factual all over the place, as looking at BBC1's schedule they'd basically be only allowed to show anything substantial on Wednesday at moment. Anything else is apparently bad scheduling.

Channel 5 has nabbed the rights to the 2016 World Rally Championship highlights from ITV.

Starts w/c 23rd Jan.

Viewers don't want anything new. They might say they do if asked, but time and time again they fall back on the reliable old favourites and don't give anything new a go, particularly if it is something slightly outside the safe zone.

One example of this, how the minute ITV take The Chase off for a break, the replacement quiz rates low from the first episode. People aren't interested in even having a look at a new one as they have all they need.

People often moan about how shows like HIGNFY and Mock the Week aren't as good as they used to be, with tired phoned in performances from the regulars etc. But if a new satirical panel show launched, it would flop from the start and are would never be seen again. So despite moaning they must have their full quota of satire already catered for.

Very few sitcoms on BBC1 or ITV. When a new one starts pretty much all of them flop.
Etc etc

I'm fine with Jericho being on Thursday, but its just a shame its not done well, when the ambition ITV is putting into their dramas of late, is not paying off when safe drama like Midsomer and DIP are huge crowd drawers.

Its also quite an expensive drama to put against an already established hit.

Its qute telling if you look in the Jericho thread, many are suggesting it felt like a Sunday drama.

Very true.

So in your opinion, do you think ITV should keep looking out for new fantasy drama series, or keep well away until the channel is stronger and under a new programming director?

Err, I think you just did that yourself Andy.

Not that I disagree that that was the reason. But clearly the scheduling was a major error in that case.

Do you think The Durrells could be an 8pm drama?

Victoria I suspect with launch in April where I think it should get a BGT Final lead in and give it a big push.

I would launch The Halcyon a week or two before BBC1 launches Poldark which will give it a jump on the popular drama. I suspect the BBC are eyeing up the DA slot to launch Poldark, so ITV have to be careful not to let BBC1 dominate another slot in Autumn Sunday's.

I'm pleased that Birds of a Feather did pretty well last night. I was fearing for it, thinking it would be in the high 2s as it was facing EastEnders and people maybe not knowing it was back. But that's an encouraging start for it.

A shame about Jericho - I actually thought this was a drama that could have taken off. Even though it faced tough competition, there have been plenty of viewers around this week so I thought it may have got more around the 4 - 4.5 million mark.

Death in Paradise performed brilliantly. I do like these type of whodunnit murder mystery shows, but I must say this series is starting to feel a bit tired to me now (I have watched since Series 1 though). It will be interesting to see if it stays at this level or if it drops off a bit as the weeks go on, as the plots do get repetitive.

Lol started at same time as BB, wonder which will run longer.

Location, easily. Interest in property shows won't diminish, entertainment viewers more fickle.

By the way, I wasn't slating Location. Just a light-hearted comment to break up of the repetitiveness of "this got x, that got y." I think most on here get my humour, thankfully.

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/n...6dc19d822a7d86

My prediction Jay Hunt will be replace Fincham at ITV by the end of 2016

Does anyone know how Blindspot has been performing recently on Sky Living? I've really got into this show. Thanks

It's doing well so far. Roughly 350,000 in the overnights, rising to around 1m inc. +1 once consolidated.

Interesting that in the press release C4 attribute their success to the suite of "returning" shows they have shown, starting with mentioning Humans and Indian Summers. Of course we don't yet know how either of those will do in their second seasons.