That should work well. So BGT at around 7.30/8pm? That's something that's worked out for them - I'm less convinced the rest of the week will, particularly where the final has landed.

I think iaindb might have been onto something the other day though with his suggestion that celebrations for the Queen's 90th might be the reason why BGT can't have its usual week.

Something else interesting: isn't the new Top Gear now meant to be launching on the 22nd? Up against BGT now it seems.

Dont know if this is old news or not but I have just seen an ad saying

Marcella starts Monday 4th April 9pm

Just seen an advert for "Can't touch this"

Rather than being similar to Ninja Warrior, it seems to be near identical.

If they're clever it may work wonders - they make use of the lead-in and (likely) more viewers, by putting better acts on show 1. First nights are sometimes considered to be the worst shows of live week (not by me though) and I don't get why they let that happen. Having a strong (but not overwhelming) first show may help the rest of the week via a ripple effect!

You do know these Make You Laugh Out Loud shows have sold around the world and also repeat very successfully on Comedy Central UK, don't you?

Yes, they are cheap to make and not doing anything Youtube couldn't. But people watch them, so where's the harm? If the entire C5 schedule was that lightweight you might have a point, but it's a bit of early evening filler on a Sunday.

You're actually defending "Budgies Make you Laugh Out Loud"? I wonder if you'd be leaping to its defence if it was on any other channel?

Rhetorical question - I already know the answer.

I imagine it'll be the usual schedule with Corrie getting a Sunday episode. So the Sunday schedule:

5pm: England v Turkey
7:30pm: BGT
9pm: Corrie
9:30pm: BGT Results

ITV should do very well with that line up to kick off the semi finals week.

Fabulous programme, one of my favourites.

More to the point, would you be making a big song and dance about a bit of early evening filler if it was on any other channel?

Rhetorical question - I already know the answer.

...which was also the case when it was on BBC Three, of course.

One thing that has surprised me slightly is that Big Bang Theory's ratings on E4 seem to be normal or even slightly higher than average since 8 whole seasons landed on Netflix UK last month.

Given the likely demographics I am absolutely fascinated by the idea that potentially a good percentage of its viewers are actively seeking out the E4 broadcasts when the ad-free Netflix versions are a few button presses away.

You seriously believe that nobody would be having a go if Budgies Make You Laugh Out Loud was on primetime Sunday night on BBC1 or BBC2 or ITV? Of course they would, And quite right too if it was on the BBC.

There would also be plenty of criticism if it was on primetime Sunday night on ITV. It's essentially a variation of You've Been Framed! And ITV get plenty of stick for continuing to show YBF on primetime Saturdays.

Including from me - but You've Been Framed! is on pretty much nightly on ITV2, and far too often for my liking on the main channel. With the much higher budgets ITV are working with I'm convinced they can do better and rely a little less on YBF.

C5, rather less blessed when it comes to their entertainment budget, has only just recently began airing these clip shows, and for the most part they are airing in suitably low key slots - 7pm on C5 is probably the equivalent of about 5pm on ITV. So that's absolutely fine by me. And if they can sell to Australia and rate really well on their #1 network over there, great. Repeat well on sister channel Comedy Central? Wow, even better. A minor, massively insignificant commission even by C5 standards, but it ticks boxes.

I'm dreadfully bored of the "everything C5 does is crap" narrative and yes, you can expect me to challenge it whenever a poster decides to be as lazy as Straker and just pick out the worst areas of the C5 schedule each week and ignore all the progress that has been made already in 2016.

Wow very interesting! I forgot it ran as long as 4 years, and surprised it beat This Morning in it's first! Though Nick and Anne were huge names in breakfast tv back then, if the BBC left the running time as it was, who knows, it could've sustained it's audience for a good few years.

Is anyone making you defend C5 whenever their programming is mentioned/discussed?

Rhetorical question - We already know the answer.

Loving the idea they're "making progress" in the week this tut airs along with a new Benefits series. Yeah, it's all change at Five!


Quite so. Cats/Dogs Make You LOL is barrel-scraping (Cats Make You LOL 2 next week folks!!) but if anyone can't see the utter absurdity of a show called "Budgies Make You Laugh Out Loud" then it's fair to suggest they're a tiny bit blinkered.

I suppose the other point to make about YBF! - and this is a Ratings Thread not Broadcaster Preferences Thread after all - is that it doesn't rate.

So you have this slightly asburd situation with ITV so focussed on maximising their ad minutes later in the evening on a Saturday, that they knowingly put on a programme that won't rate week after week to kick off a block of programming they hope will.

Bottom line: ITV doesn't care that they are massively underachieving on Saturdays at 6:30 because they can only run limited advertising there anyway. So why should we?

By contrast, I would say C5's clip shows are working pretty well for the channel. Now That's Funny's share of 4.8% yesterday just outside of peak is above average and puts into perspective the woeful 2.1% they posted across primetime.

Well, this is where we differ because I very much enjoy Catsdown for all the reasons you state, I love how it's virtually all messing around now with virtually no game, and the presence of Winkers can only improve it because I'm in love with her. I laughed and laughed and laughed. If you're fast forwarding through huge swathes of the show, I wonder why you'd even bother watching it at all. I don't watch shows if I hate half of them.


Well, Drive appears to be identical to Stars In Fast Cars which started as a Top Gear special for Sport Relief in 2004 and was then turned into a series, minus the Top Gear time, first on BBC3 and then repeated on BBC1 - http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...01-20#at-19.30


That's not the format, though. That's Points of View which we've already got.


I noticed that. But they already knew The Getaway Car would be flung about from pillar to post when they scheduled it there.

Back to benefits again. Strewth!

Five must be doing alright just now if you're this low on material. Surely you could find something else that's dubious in the coming days apart from the benefits programmes they're busy burning off?

True, but they make it worse by not scheduling it in weeks where there's a slot available. Now they're starting Can't Touch This on March 26th and presumably they won't run both on the same night so that must be it for The Getaway Car. I guess it'll be burned off in the Summer.

BBC1's Spring Saturday lineup looks to be Pointless Celebrities, Can't Touch This, Michael McIntyre, Win Your Wish List and Casualty which is decent enough. Wonder how they'll schedule it though around BGT?

It used to be OK, but lately the style of humour has not been to my taste. I rarely watch it now, but if there's not much on the other channels, it's something I might record and fast forward through any painfully unfunny segments. The game itself is still good fun for a word and numbers geek like myself, despite Winkleman's best efforts to make it unwatchable.

The ratings seem to reflect a growing boredom with it - not surprising given the volume C4 has commissioned. And the switch to Thursday hasn't helped matters, although it had already begun to decline by then.

But at least the far superior Last Leg is getting the ratings it deserves. It was pretty unjust before that something distinctly average like Catsdown was getting more viewers than a very funny show like The Last Leg purely because the latter was in a worse slot, with the audience shares telling the real story.

What's going to air on 28th March if Marcella is April 4th, I assume Maigret is Easter Sunday which rules it out for Easter Monday

If you're so "bored" with this (as you say), why participate when their shows are being discussed/laughed at? You seem to feel a need to defend any and all criticism of them no matter how wretched the show. I honestly thought "Budgies Make you LOL" would draw some condemnation even from you. I guess I overestimated....

"Low on material" you say...? I'd point out the irony but I fear it'd be lo5t on you!

I reckon they'll be "busy burning off the benefits programmes" for years to come, as long as they're cheap as oven chips to make and still rating in fact.

You're right that I shouldn't bite. It is a weakness of mine that I fully hold my hands up to. And previous experience on here tells me if someone is intent on making a series of unconstructive posts only to resort to personal attacks when challenged for doing so, this behaviour is likely only to continue. In a largely unmoderated forum this has to be expected to an extent.

I will work on it. Fortunately, there's a growing contingent of members on here that actually want to talk constructively about C5 - where they are getting it right, where they are getting it wrong, what needs improving on, what they need more of. I think we're getting close to a point whereby the unconstructive stuff will just feel incredibly irrelevant and out of place, especially if the channel can follow through on their programming ambitions for the coming year post-rebrand.

Interesting as I'd thought it might start the week before. If BGT week is the week I'm thinking it'll have to take a week off between episodes 7 and 8. Surely ITV aren't that inept so perhaps some of my dates are wrong.

Budgies Make You Laugh Out Loud sounds rubbish but it's only there as cheap schedule filler. Not the best example of the schedule as a whole and not worth making a big fuss out of.

And if that day ever comes I'll be first in line to congratulate them but vague promises of change from them while awful tat still assails the screen in primetime is a mismatch that cannot be ignored. Benefits series, Youtube shows and omnipresent Big Brother are not indicators of a change towards quality.

We assess success in here, not quality. But both are areas where I expect to see C5 improve in the coming months. The emphasis will be more on the former and understandably so, winning over Guardian readers long-term is not part of the strategy and nor should it be.

Frankly I find it hard to believe that somebody who only looks at the negatives, could ever acknowledge anything positive or meaningful that they are doing. And that's the problem really.

Whilst I accept not everyone is going to share my belief that they can be much of a player beyond the odd show like Celebrity Big Brother or X-Files, I'd rather we were more analytical than judgemental in here because it makes for better quality discussions.