Thanks for the constructive post. The thread really needed it.

Happy to oblige. No doubt I'll be labelled a BBC-loving troll for not buying into the momentum of the thread.

Ah this thread is a good laugh. Positivity about any ITV show is always met with this sort of attitude from some. Jekyll is well worthy of discussion purely because ITV are trying something different and really going all out on this one. The promotion has been unavoidable and in recent days it's been trailed after almost every programme by the announcers and trailed during every ad break I've seen.

When I had full access to BARB figures I remember seeing that in the peak 15 minutes of SS from 4.30-4.45pm it was up around 1.5m.

Incidentally the Q2 reach figure for SSN HQ this year was 12.099m, 20.8%. In Q2 2010, the last year SSN was on Freeview it was 17.404m, 30.7%.

A reasonable drop, but not in proportion to the available audience.

Because it's in your head that's why. Strictly is loved here. TXF is not and has been posted about negatively tonight as usual.

Low ratings have occurred during Doctor Who but there have also been ratings highs. This series hasn't had any yet.
This year could be the first series of new Who where no episode crosses 7m in consolidated ratings.

2.5 hours plus 1.5 hrs of "Judges houses" was far too much
I watched on sky+ earlier and got last nights down to a cool 1hr 15, having decided to skip all the begging, the stupidly long countdown and choosing and adverts. ITV could have easily shown it 815-945 saturday and 730-9 tonight without the shockingly shit padding. Why bring out the girls sitting down when they werent even on last night?

Though to be fair, as jlp95bwfc said, Strictly is very much loved on the thread. As is the likes of Bake Off, The Apprentice, Countryfile etc.

There's a new drama on ITV which has a lot of debate surrounding it because it's something a bit different for the broadcaster. Maybe there wouldn't be the same kind of debate for the BBC because they've taken more risks in the recent past than ITV.

I don't know if this is already common knowledge, but it was mentioned on Radio 1 this afternoon that Outnumbered is coming back for a one off episode next year.

The longer the programme, the more ad breaks. Why give up 12 minutes of lucrative ad sales when the majority of viewers are watching live and sitting through them?

They launched Cilla opposite a previously unbeatable New Tricks. People will watch if a programme looks good and is promoted. Wolf Hall, Indian Summers and Humans are other recent examples.

Late night F1 on BBC1 may do well.

I'm slightly surprised they didn't pick it as one of their live races considering the start time, even if they had to schedule it on BBC Two.

I loved J&H on ITV tonight but I suspect its going to be moved to a new timeslot
personally I think it was amazing idea putting something do dark on so early very original
and hope It does well in the ratings.

But can see the Daily Mail kicking off about the content

I think it was more the fact the positivity started long before the thing had been broadcast and anyone on here had even seen it. Were it not an ITV programme, there wouldn't have been that kind of hype. No chance. And whilst it's no secret many RT regulars have a soft spot for ITV and there's nothing wrong with that, it can grate when everyone's bigging something up before we even know whether or not it's worth watching.

Sure, they might have spent a lot on it. But if it's no good, it doesn't deserve to rate just because it was expensive. That's absurd. Titanic was massively expensive, but deservedly flopped because it was terrible, for example.

Anyway, it's gone out now so there may be more valid reasons for liking it than the fairly predictable getting behind an unknown quantity just because of the broadcaster and the scale of the project.

Cheers mate. Very healthy figures considering that the majority of it's core audience will not be watching television at that time IE football fans. I watch live football every other Saturday, so do a lot of my friends and 100,000s of other people. Another large percentage of my friends play football at that time every Saturday. If you take that into consideration those figures are very good.


You cannot compare the two shows, final score is just drab. I don't have sky sports at the moment so i'm stuck with FS for now. The guests are just crap and there's no laughs to be had. Garth Crooks talks about the games as if it's a matter of life and death,

I honestly think presenting a live scores programme, especially Soccer Saturday is the hardest presenting job on television barring maybe election nights. Stelling has nailed it down to a T, balancing around 20 reporters around the country, 4 blokes reacting to the games there watching and keeping tabs on goals flying in at around 60 games is a tough ask. How he manages it as well as he does with a good deal of humour is brilliant. My Mam who is not a football fan in the slightest loves soccer Saturday because of the laughs it provides.

Unfortunately my OH watched Countryfile and Strictly and I spent the hour sulking! I will watch J&H on itvPlayer though because stupidly I forgot to record it. I genuinely applaud ITV for trying something different and fingers crossed it pays off for them.

I'd have thought last year's lineup was a much younger friendly one with Pixie Lott,Caroline Flack,Frankie from The Saturdays,Mark Wright,Scott Mills and Jake Wood. When this year's was being announced, it seemed very heavy on oldies but interestingly most of them been voted out bar Carol and Jermey.

The Daily Mail kicked off about Jekyll and Hyde ages ago.

This is ITV doing a Merlin/Doctor Who. Instead of putting light entertainment opposite very popular light entertainment try fantasy drama instead.

You have to take gambles and can't avoid facing big shows forever. It's good for television in the long run and viewers.

On the subject of football ratings, anyone else think BT Sport could get their best ever figures for a PL game next Saturday?

It's Chelsea v Liverpool. The Special One v The Normal One. Given all that's gone on at Chelsea in recent days and weeks, the Klopp factor and Liverpool looking to put recent results behind them, it has all the ingredients of a must watch fixture.

Pity it's a lunchtime K/O but I still think it will top 1m and the share of the audience will be on the big side.

I often wonder if there can be some way of measuring football ratings through pub attendances as many pubs use football as a way of getting customers in and it must add quite a lot to the ratings.

EP1: 0.52M / 2.4%
EP2: 0.44M / 2.5%

Still going very nicely.

Not sure if already mentioned but it seems like Saturday's Xtra Factor has been scrapped from next week.

I thought it was weird that they were giving the show an extra slot midweek when it's been rating woefully lately but it appears that they've just moved Saturday's edition.

I doubt they care too much. Pubs are already paying through the nose to show live football, so it doesn't matter whether they have 10 or 200 drinkers watching at the same time in a pub, they're still getting the same money from the landlord.

It'll all be so much easier when we're microchipped at birth. Then machines can monitor our whereabouts and behaviour patterns and determine precisely how who was watching something, where, when and how.

Why, will continue to be debated on Internet messageboards.

You watch Final Score because you have to, not because you want to. More often than not if people have the choice they watch Soccer Saturday.