BIB - it's hard to see Beowulf as being anything other than in decline, in which case ITV is facing the prospect of another awkward climbdown after having greenlit a second series of an expensive drama that is getting embarassing ratings. There should also be some questions from ITV's independent suppliers about why series from ITV Studios are treated very differently from those made externally, when it comes to recommissioning ...

I've thought this for a while. Strictly results and BGT final all did better on a Sunday. Maybe things will shift!

Other than Endeavour, Sunday is the new Tuesday for ITV.

It's come a long way from around 2.0m-2.1m inc. +1 for the early highlights shows. To rally the way it has to hit these heights is quite remarkable.

Would love to see some demos for last night as well. Given how old-skewing some of those BBC and ITV shows are, CBB would be quite high up on the list for 16-34s.

I thought James May was a repeat. Will be watching that one.

As an FYI, on Saturday 23rd January:

The Getaway Car: 3.61m
Ninja Warrior UK: 4.05m/4.19m (140k on +1)
Take Me Out: 3.11m/3.37m (260k on +1)
Jonathan Ross: 2.07m/2.24m (170k on +1)

BBC One's early evening line up still going great guns. The nature documentaries can be curious things - they either really take off like last night or Frozen Planet, or they can wind up languishing like Great Barrier Reef did. I suppose it comes down to subject matter and you can't really beat 'Giant Dinosaur' in a title, but they're difficult beasts to predict.

Call the Midwife naturally seems to be fading just a little in its fifth series, but it's not alarming, while I'm pleased War & Peace has held steady. It made a big ask of viewers at first, but has really hit its stride and I think will go down as a major success.

Incidentally, I know it's fashionable to criticise the BBCs 'old folks TV' on a Sunday night - but you have to hand it to the schedule they turned out last night - two huge dramas, a flagship nature doc, a big comedy, perennially popular magazine show and MOTD highlights. Impressive.

From seagull_Mark on the BT Sport forum

Why is it that most 16-34 audience are morons who watch crap? They should be watching Channel 4 instead.

Thanks for all the figures Cylon.

Did Ninja Warrior get 90k or 140k on +1 as the figures don't quite match?

Do you have anything for Mr Selfridge on Friday?

Well there's no justice in that!

Those Saturday lunchtime kickoffs...limited is the word. Shame.

Beowulf is awful. Maybe people weren't interested in the idea from the start but if it was good there might be a bit more word of mouth about it. A programme that starts low and STILL manages to go lower is not good enough. It should have been held back to a less competitive slot but its crapness would still be found out. It's like watching amateur theatre round the corner from your house every Sunday.

How could they let a programme this bad get to air? Remember, somebody saw the rushes and final edit and thought "Yeah this is brilliant! No changes needed. Put it on!" How did this happen?

I could say something here but I won't.

Feel free to start a "why do people watch shows I don't like?" thread elsewhere. We're not doing that here, it's needlessly argumentative.

Oh yes! You're right. My mistake. 4.19m with +1.

Nothing for Friday sadly but I've asked around for the Mr Selfridge rating.

Fantastic for CBB. It's been a fantastic series this year better than last year as its been a lot more fun.

The best game of the weekend got the lowest rating of the televised games. No justice.

Anything for Countryfile? Would be interesting to see how it held up (slightly) earlier in the schedule.

I remember the days when dinosaur programmes used to get 15m (19m including repeat)....

Still. Very eye catching number though it did steal Countryfile's slot.

And Attenborough doesn't guarantee big ratings. Great Barrier Reef hardly set the world alight.

Great, thank you. Broadcast has a Friday report up but I can't access it for some reason. Might work again later.

Ninja Warrior doing pretty well. It is down 8% on last year so far but that's mainly because of the one off Sunday 6pm episode. Throw that out and it's down less than 3% which is fine considering it overlaps with The Voice and isn't alongside BGT. Take Me Out is actually up. Impressive as it clashes with The Voice a lot more this year.

Beowulf is dire. 1.6m is dire. Surely they can't keep it in that slot? Endeavour would be closer to 5m with a better lead-in, it is actively dragging down the 8pm drama and inflating BBC1's 7pm hour offerings. Diabolical.

It was a thoroughly entertaining doc
+ Attenborough + dinosaurs = big ratings

I can think of a few reasons why it won't happen but imagine if they ditched the 12:45 kickoffs and introduced a 7:30 or 7:45 kickoff on Saturday nights (keeping the 5:30 k/o also).

That would shake things up a bit, wouldn't it?

3.2m (14.3%) for Mr. Selfridge.

2.6m (11.6%) for part 1 of CBB's eviction, including +1.

BBC 1 is so strong on a Sunday night.

Different league to the others, for sure.

Such a turnaround from when I first started following ratings. ITV owned Sundays then with the likes of Heartbeat, The Royal, Wild at Heart, etc.

BBC One often did well also but were playing second fiddle most of the time.

I think TMO is only up because last year it was abandoned in the worst Saturday night schedules ITV have ever had and so suffered.

I also remember the days when the only source of (official) ratings was Oracle/ITV Teletext and its weekly top 30s, and when that tragically ended it was any newspaper (The Sun on a Thursday I think) that published a Top 10 TV shows list (BBC1 rarely getting more than EE, Neighbours and one other in it). If I was in Manchester I might find a copy of Broadcast in WH Smiths and stand there reading the wealth of ratings data in that!

We're blessed today by those standards.