Thanks. So a bit better and an okay rating but not great. Will be around 3.3m including HD and +1.

Great ratings for all three dramas. And reading the reviews, all three were well received. Especially The Durrells and Undercover. So no reason why they can't stay strong.

Cheers for those. For a new drama that breakdown isn't too bad for Undercovers. Home Fires dropped over the hour but not by much. Might not have been anything really depending on where the adverts were.

Do you have a breakdown for The Durrells Mike?

Hang on!

But I thought new drama couldn't launch well on ITV especially if it wasn't a crime drama? That's what we've been told!

I thought The Durrells could get 5m easily, 6m is impressive. Fun drama at 8pm is the type of thing ITV could churn out with ease back in the nineties and noughties. The audience is there.

ITV
5049
5101
5276
5074
ITV HD
975
989
1005
970

Have a feeling this will be the one that drops the most in coming weeks.

I'm not sure if I ever said that. I may have accused ITV's programme makers of not being original enough to come up with stuff that isn't a crime drama. I'm a bit disappointed that Jekyll & Hyde, Beowulf and Jericho failed with the public, as ITV needs more non crime drama success.

The Durrells has done very well and hopefully will retain its audience. Eventually at some point ITV will try to sort out its woeful Tuesday night schedule. Just to contradict my anti-crime drama (well maybe not 'anti') I think ITV really miss The Bill.

They also miss Heartbeat/The Royal type of drama.

Not by you Mike! Once again I was talking in general. I'm going to stop quoting and just make a few points!

This thread keeps saying Sunday is a tough day, new drama can't do well. I've never thought that was true. If something decent comes along people will watch and if it looks better than what's on another channel it'll take viewers. We saw this with Call The Midwife and Dancing On Ice.

TV is full of people saying something won't work, critics are the same. Too much thinking like that and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Thanks. So it actually grew a bit over the hour. For a new drama launch that's quite impressive.

The 20:45-21:00 period had the most adverts (there was a full break just after 20:45 and it ended around 20:57/58) hence the slight dip.

In other news, Broadcast are reporting that ITV have ordered a UK version of NBC's new hit Little Big Shots. Not sure when that'll air.

Also they've got a new 2 part documentary 'Killer Women with Piers Morgan': http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press...n-piers-morgan

Sounds quite interesting, shame about the presenter!

Also they've announced the cast of big new drama The Halcyon and started filming: http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press...series-halcyon

Oh, right.

Some people would probably be hoping that was a game show. Imagine how that would work?

Marcella should launch well with virtually no competition but my God it is cliched. Parts of it are like scenes from A Touch Of Cloth.

BBC One are really waving the white flag tonight with that 90 minute Viking thing - which sounds as if it ought to be on BBC Two or even BBC Four. Still, I imagine Mr Whittingdale is happy that BBC One is airing such niche and "distinctive" programming in primetime.

EastEnders will also be hit tonight in an unattractive schedule, being framed between that and Panorama at 7:30pm. Poor night ahead for BBC One.

Funnily enough MrAlley's Dad was saying the same only yesterday - he'd been channel hopping and found old eps of Heartbeat and The Royal and Wild At Heart playing somewhere and wondered why they don't make those sorts of things any more (you could also add Where the Heart Is to that list as well).

I won't be watching tonight that's for sure.

I'm looking forward to that Viking thing

Yes, Heartbeat, Where the Heart Is, Wild at Heart, The Royal, etc, all did well and would still probably be popular now if new episodes were being made. After all, they are always being repeated on ITV3 presumably drawing in a decent audience.

Given that ITV's effort is very obviously inspired by The Bridge, Whittingless perhaps ought to look at other broadcasters' output and think about whether or not that is distinctive …

It's not as good as The Bridge either.

Well, it's got Anna Friel in it so that goes without saying.

Said other broadcasters are not publicly funded so whether their output is distinctive or not is of no concern to Whittingdale.

ITV never should have stopped making those Sunday 8pm dramas.

If one falls out of favour look for something new, instead ITV just stopped. The Royal/Heartbeat were on their way out ratings wise and had to go. The mistake they made was Wild At Heart. Just because it came second to Call The Midwife they shouldn't have axed it. Left them with an even bigger hole in the schedule to fill.

But what is it saying?