Week two was boosted by the rugby. It would probably have been closer to episode 3 without it. Looks like the first 15-30 mins was dented a little by the FA Cup last night.

I don't think you can use the Digital Spy response to a show to judge whether it will rise or drop the following week. It isn't representative. How it does next week will depend on how the 6 Nations does. It might get dented but alternatively it might pick up more of the non-sport crowd. The early start (combined with Easter weekend) will be a problem the following week but not much anyone can do about that other than promote it a lot and push +1. Hopefully it'll rally for the finale though.

It looks that way regarding YBITR and Bang on The Money which seems odd, particularly as Money is 8 episodes so the finale will have to air on its own as BGT is 8 weeks. Also will the first episode of BGT air at 7pm like Takeaway before shifting to 8pm for week 2? Again a bit odd but would make sense to do so if the launch is against the final of The Voice.

Hard to believe it was sponsored by cigarette companies!
And on the BBC ?!

I believe BBC policy allowed the mention of the sponsor twice in every transmission (plus title of the actual competition). There was also a football division called the Rothmans Isthmian League but they didn't get on TV much as they were below the football league.

.............add Darts and Snooker too. In fact the players referred to "The Embassy" (as opposed to the World Championships) with great reverence as it represented the pinnacle and because the more years the same company sponsors an event the more it becomes engrained in the tradition.

Curiously its the betting companies who have moved in and I wonder how long that will last given how gambling (in a different way) can still end up destroying people.

Having a huge interest in county cricket up to about 5 years ago I always used to refer to the competition as the B&H-although I have to say Iv never smoked a Cigarette in my life(prompted probably due to childhood asthma which was always a good reason not to get involved-asthma resembled hell on earth at times).

SNT slips again slightly but is still beating The Voice and is up y-o-y. So it's doing relatively well. The Voice is flat week-on-week. It might see a bump next week when it shifts to Sunday but after that I believe that's when it goes live so we might see it dip below 5m.


Just checking the latest BARB figures for w/e 28 Feb 2016 (and the new look website is terrible BTW).

The Blacklist returned to a very poor number of just 846k (inc +1). Meanwhile, Hawaii Five-O scored it's biggest number (of 1.21m) since 2012! In fact, only 2 other episodes have rated higher than the 128 episodes that have aired (up to season 6, episode 10) since the revival in 2011. That is mighty impressive stuff!

As I don't smoke I don't care if they mention tobacco companies or not but I think it's recognition that the companies put money into the sport which is obviously a help.

I wonder if the reason The Rack Pack is iPlayer only, is the references to Embassy (both in dialogue and on screen) throughout the programme?

Yes, BBC2 showed the Sunday League until the end of the 1998 season, although that final 1995-1998 contract only gave them six matches a season, with none of the six shown in full.

In the launch day interview at The Masters tournament in January, the people involved hinted at an eventual television screening.

The Voice is doing abysmally - good luck ITV.

Even with a revamp there's still the issue of overkill having that, the XF and BGT with singers on one channel.

A new low (if it's possible)?

7pm - Budgies Make you Laugh Out Loud

Guess which channel?

To be honest I doubt it, its just realism in depicting a bygone era. I presume it will turn up on BBC2 at some stage.

I would recommend it to anyone, it has many emotions running through it(its very funny at times)-though Iv got to say Alex Higgins could be one scary fella if that is anything to go by.

Its interesting, although accepting its not a question of brand names, its taken Call the Midwife 5 series to even start to question smoking. A number of characters smoke like chimneys -which is all right and proper because its correct history-but its interesting that no-one seems to have even questioned the fact given its on primetime tv with audiences up to 11 million. Personally I think you shouldn't airbrush history in any way-but Im surprised no-one has raised its example with it being so popular.

Yes you could just tell the BBC was winding down where Cricket was concerned-and they have never been tempted back in any meaningful way. Iv got some old VHS recordings of highlights (basically a few Warwickshire knock out games that I attended) and Tony Lewis is presenting them. I loved the style, and its my era of watching, but I would bet on it sending the modern audience to sleep in some ways. The pre end credits with Tony's quiet thoughtful approach in the silent dusk is a world away from now.

I don't think its doing abysmally, its rating roughly in line with the second series, which hit some horrible lows (the Friday Night Live show being a particular horror show) but I think the BBC will be glad they don't have to try and reinvent it next year. If ITV do try it on Sunday's like we think they might it'll be up against it from the start as TVUK skews older and we all know which Channel skews older on a Sunday night.....

I also agree that it'll be a very tough sell for ITV to start promoting the voice immediately after XF has finished and then go from that into BGT and then probably from BGT into the first kids series of The Voice and then back into XF again- Seems like far too much of the same thing which was one reason why Talpa wouldn't sell it to ITV initially I think (I know they've been bought out now)

It'll certainly be interesting to see how it pans out

Yes I would like to know the full story behind ITV's move for The Voice and whether there was any internal argument surrounding it. Pro's and Cons presumably, some confusion even panic? Clearly the show hasn't quite hit the same peak this year which was unknown at the time. As you say it will be interesting, promoting the shows will practically be an all year round process.

For me though The Voice certainly isn't a spent force yet, ITV might kill it off with their decisions, but they might also revitalise it. Time will tell. Clearly though with XF as well the papers are going to be fed a running commentary of judge/ coach rumour.

Looked on the BARB website to see if they were still doing a BBC3 top 10. They are. Don't Tell The Bride, showing at 2am, is at number 3 with 17,000 viewers.

Nearly doing as well as Too Much TV.

(Too Much TV - a W1A production.)

At least it should be a cheap show to make.


The news is a real momentum killer for ITV, in a way it wouldn't be for BBC, it would make much more sense to have the news in between the rugby, and have that kick off later say at 5.15 or even 5.30. However rugby is a nightmare at the moment, with the potential delays due to the video ref.

If they have any sense they'll dump Kids on CITV.

Will they be allowed to under the terms of their contract.

ITV might now be regretting not letting BBC1 sign the series for another 3 years so that ITV could gleefully watch the series collapse away to nothing whilst counting the licence fee money they picked up for the new contract.

Abandoned title for it was "Benefits Budgies Make you Laugh Out Loud" but all the inhabitants of Jaywick had Staffies and Pit Bulls, not budgies so that was dropped.

If Youtube closed, Five would lose about 20% of their programming overnight.

Terrible for the quality production Stag, perhaps the worst scheduling of the year? BBC2 on a Saturday night.

Anyway speaking of ciggie sponsors, surely the most shameless was B%H snooker by getting the outside of the table in their colours. Pictured with coke-addict Kirk Stevens.

Sport was so innocent back then

The Flintstones were advertising cigarettes when its first started but keep in mind, it was a primetime animated series and was not aimed at children, once Pebbles was introduced, they changed sponsors to Welch's Grapefruit Juice.

Mad Men also had characters smoking but no one bat an eyelid because it's a period drama and it would ridiculous to have them not smoking

It will probably air at 6pm on a Saturday during the Summer and probably wont perform that bad

To those who were discussing the BGT live show scheduling a few days ago, the England v Turkey match on Sunday 22nd May has been confirmed as a 5:30pm kick-off, so will be providing the lead in for the first BGT live semi final, as suspected.