True. Although I said it was the first one I can remember. We aren't all old enough to remember that!

I'm not sure if the name changed.

I think Paloma Faith is a fantastic singer, but she came off as very irritating tonight. Just what were the really long shots of her laughing about? 10-15 seconds of it. Yes the joke was funny, but not that funny.

Boy George is just a bit flamboyant I think. Especially thinking about his err, past...

It's wet, cold, miserable and dark here. Luckily I have my lottery ticket on and it will be interesting to see how the results fare tonight as there's a £ 57 million jackpot that must be won. I often wonder if this would have rated with a Voice lead in rather than the lower rated Casualty.

Yes, while the format works in a lot of ways and is an interesting hook, that audition definitely exposed a flaw. On BGT that audition would have been a brilliant moment for the show whereas it just didn't work on The Voice because of the format.

Lip Sync Battle did very well last night. Obviously benefited from the CBB sandwich. CBB did okay. Is two celebrity versions a year one too many?

Excellent for Emmerdale last night. It's done very well this week. Corrie did good too with the second episode dented by the football which did good also.

Not watched The Voice. I ditched it mid series during the 2014 series. It's just too drawn out and boring IMO. I wonder how many changes ITV will make next year? Could Simon be in a turning chair soon?

I like The Voice but next week I will be recording it and skipping all the chatty bit. I would rather watch Ninja Warrior live with the ads than The Voice live with the chatty bits.

The one thing about ITV getting The Voice is there will be less chatty bits due the ads

Thanks. A pretty consistent performer overall, with valid excuses for that low rated Sunday episode.

Given what you say about the demographics, maybe C5 were planning on airing it either before or after Football League Tonight in their failed bid to boost share on Saturday nights, but decided against it when they saw the ratings for FLT.

I'm not sure where I would put this now, thinking about it. Maybe Fridays would be best.

No there wont the ads will just be added to give a 2 hour run time.

The chatty bits and Ads could kill the Voice for ITV.

I doubt they'll do 2 hour auditions. They never have for their other shows.

Looks like the regular running time from next week for the auditions is 80 minutes. I suspect it'll be 90 on ITV. A bit longer than on BBC1 but probably a bit tighter. It's quite a commercial show really, I do think some of the faffing about is almost in place of the ad breaks. I guess if they really want more hours they'd be more likely to try and get an eighth show rather than make each one longer, but I think they'll try and replicate the BBC scheduling as much as possible.

Wonder what they'll do with the longer later shows though. Some of them are over 2 hours as they are on the BBC. I can't see them going over 2 hours if it's going to be starting as late as 8.20 (which it will be if it's on after Takeaway) although maybe they'll do a few Sunday shows to make up the time.

There was a lot of moaning if social media regarding TV. People saying 'I'm switching over'. I wonder if that actually happened.

Kind of wish I had watched NW and TMO instead. TV was very 'stop and start', didn't flow well, didn't have great singers and not a great judging panel. A lot of people online wanted Tom back.

There's too much filler on Ninja Warrior as well, to be fair. No need for profile VTs for example. It would make for a much better show if it was just half an hour, it really doesn't need to be an hour long.

The Voice has never really done anything for me but I can't argue with its ratings. It will lose a good few viewers when it moves channels though, that happens straight away when you insert advert breaks, not to mention ITV's worse reach and the potential for the brand to be that bit weaker anyway due to age and other factors.

The Battle Rounds on TVUK are terrible. I think these should be scrapped. Its just people trying to sing over each other, but shouting in the process.

Well you now know for next week

Just a heads up that a good quality debate is taking place over on the Broadcasting board about ITV's recent string of high profile drama flops and why this has happened. Personally think msim nailed it in post #5.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2127968

ITV rely too much on soap, cut back on this and they might get a broader audience leaving more slots open to schedule new programmes.

But ITV will never do this.

For the record I'm not that old either!

Did the +1 figures for CBB appear anywhere?

Why would they want to replace shows getting 6/7m with shows getting half that if they're lucky. With EastEnders, Holby and Casualty it's not like BBC1 are far behind anyway.

There are still slots left for new programmes, but half the time when they get used people say it is bad scheduling!

I think they could spread the soaps out better than they do as it is all a bit stacked right now, but I wouldn't start cutting episodes. What they actually miss is a The Bill/Holby style midweek show. If they brought The Bill back for one episode per week it could really help them. Just using the shows they're airing this week but with The Bill throw in as well they could have:

Saturday: 17:30- Beowulf, 18:30- YBF!, 19:00- Ninja Warrior, 20:00- Take Me Out, 21:20- Jonathan Ross
Sunday: 19:00- Emmerdale, 19:30- Coronation Street, 20:00- Endeavour
Monday: 19:00- Emmerdale, 19:30- Corrie, 20:00- Griff's Great Britain, 20:30- Corrie, 21:00- Benidorm
Tuesday: 19:00- Emmerdale, 19:30- Kyle Files, 20:00- Trawlermen's Tales, 21:00- Saved
Wednesday: 19:00- Emmerdale, 19:30- Corrie, 20:00- Midsomer Murders
Thursday: 19:00- Emmerdale, 19:30- Tonight, 20:00- The Bill, 21:00- Jericho
Friday: 19:00- Emmerdale, 19:30- Corrie, 20:00- Martin Lewis, 20:30- BOAF, 21:00- Mr Selfridge

Not perfect, but I do think it feels stronger than what they've got right now and the soaps feel less dominant.

I see Sky One are launching a new drama with James Nesbitt in. There is an extensive poster campaign on the go at the moment, and it was promoted on Graham Norton last night. I wonder how well it will rate.

Exactly, and I doubt the light entertainment that airs at 8pm on Wednesdays does anything to help the reputation of the channel anymore than the soaps do.

The days when millions used to tune in for game shows at 7pm and didn't just sneer with their nose in the air at anything that wasn't a drama is long gone. These days they would be branded as cheap and tacky and watched by 3m if you are lucky.

Well Jericho which I downloaded was 66mins so if the auditions were 90mins then the actual show would be much shorter than at present although they could extend the number of auditions I suppose.
I just dont get the idea that ITV are going to cut the faffing about when they clealy dont do it on all their other LE shows especially XF.

I don't think a regular XF audition show has as much faffing as tonight's Voice did. A couple of montages felt more like something you'd see on Xtra Factor. They've also never once done a 2 hour audition show. I think the longest ever for XF/BGT is 90 mins (or maybe 95?).

That's something to bear in mind actually. There's going to be an ITV2 spinoff for The Voice which it currently doesn't have, so some of the faffing (and more) plus a few auditions and other extra bits will be used on there. 66 mins isn't much shorter than the ~78 mins it'll be from next week onwards anyway.

I hope The Voice does well tonight

I wonder if 5 will be looking for more comedy entertainment to build on LSB UK? There's a panel show format owned by ITV Studios called Talkin' Bout Your Generation which I'm surprised they've not tried pitching to any UK broadcasters including ITV. It'd be a good one for 5 to look at. Another format that could work is Whose Line is it Anyway which had a successful run as a live show in the West End last year. I think Channel 4 have first dibs but I think they only want a one-off whereas the creators want a series.