Attenborough doesn't garuntee ratings. BBC1 Sunday does. Put The One Show on Sunday and I gartunee it'll be over 5.5m+ when ITV's weak.

Thanks lewi

That is pretty poor figure for TVUK (in respect of its previous series). And suspect ITV are now slightly concerned, but then again if they schedule on Sunday a 7pm, it will do better than anythong they've currently got.

Thanks iaindb!

ITV really need Wild at Heart back on Sundays.

There was talk of this last year and on This Morning I recall Stephen Tomkinson saying it was in discussion and Amanda Holden being quite miffed that her character was dead so could not come back and chatting about ways round it.

Sounded like a commissioning message to ITV.

But that was last Summer. Did anything come of it as right now ITV seem to need something for Sundays that will even do credibly well early/mid evening.

Midsomer Murders did fantastcaly well for ITV3 on Saturday appealing to the older audience:

4pm 700k (5%)
6pm 692k (3.6%)
8pm 1.22m (5.8%)

Dependable as ever.

ITV2 are attempting to kill off Skyfall with I think the 4 showing this year (and then 5th on Wednesday). This weekends outing got 801k, even though on Boxing Day it got 2m, then a couple of weeks ago over 1m.

Why should Beowulf damage Vera? If I wanted to watch a 2 hour drama, I'd tune in when it starts at 8pm. I didn't know I had to watch the preceding programme to be allowed to do so? This lead in business is quite ridiculous, it's almost like you don't have to make a good programme, you need to make a good programme before and after it.

If you consider that the 1.5m who are watching Beowulf are viewers who don't watch ITV often, and don't watch the usual ITV dramas, what would pulling it mid run do to those viewers? It means they'd disappear and not consider ITV next time they do a drama that is different from the norm. So you'd be back to square one.

Shoving on a repeat of Celebrity Chase might increase ratings by a million max, but it's not worth alienating those viewers, and they'd still be 6m behind BBC1.

If you look at the SOAH thread you'll see that some people like it because it's a harmless bit of fun,

Comedy is subjective and the history of British television is full of comedies that had good ratings and bad reviews. Look what the BBC's biggest comedy hit of the noughties was - My Family. Hardly a comedic work of art,

And there are also plenty of people who can't stand the country's current top comedy, Mrs Brown's Boys.

Comedy is subjective (r).

And Citizen Khan has just been recommissioned for six episodes

Wizzy I always agree with everything you say, I wish that you were working for the BBC I think you would be a great asset there.

Beowulf can damage Vera because if viewers are already watching BBC1 at half six or seven o'clock and then see that Call The Midwife is on at 8 o'clock, then some of them will just stick with that without even looking to see what's on ITV.

Anyway, the bottom line for ITV isn't ratings, it's profit. And that's up. So I don't know why people are worrying. And I don't know why Adam Crozier keeps going on about the BBC damaging ITV when they clearly don't.

A few more programmes on ITV getting 1.5m viewers in peak viewing and ITV will soon be churning out as much money and profit as it did in the 1960s and 70s when it had a commercial TV monopoly.

Although Citizen Khan doesn't get 7m viewers.

I know that this might be off topic but i only come on here mainly to read the ratings thread, Is anyone having the same problem as me ?? there is no link to click on in the black strip at the top of the page to take me to the forums when i go to the digital spy home page.
Is it just me having this problem or what on earth has happended as i only come on here for the forums. Sorry about being off topic but i do like this thread.

Coronation Street (Mon – 19.30): 8.67m (36.5%)
Emmerdale (Thu – 19.00): 7.42m (34.8%)
Midsomer Murders (Wed): 6.62m (26.1%)
Endeavour (Sun): 6.34m (21.8%)
Birds of a Feather (Thu): 5.86m (25.5%)
Mr Selfridge (Fri): 4.90m (18.0%)
Ninja Warrior (Sat): 4.76m (21.6%)
Jericho (Thu): 4.49m (16.0%)

All ratings include HD & +1

Again, a few of the +1 's made ITV's Top 10 +1 chart on BARB this week. So fairly easy to get the exc +1 numbers if you need them.

Thanks Roscoe.

Nothing for Beowulf I take it. Jericho could survive if it's consolidated ratings don't end up below 4m I reckon.

Yeah nothing unfortunately.

Do you think so? They don't normally keep dramas that low. I suppose being ITV Studios could help and maybe they realise the scheduling was stupid. Even so I suspect it's toast.

Thanks for the numbers Roscoe. The comedies are doing well. Great for Endeavour against Midwife. Mr Selfridge added on quite a lot from a low base. Over on BBC1 fantastic for Silent Witness and Death in Paradise and a nice rating for Shetland.

Don't be suprised to see Benidorm drop below 4m. Its now a chare to watch and laughs are few and far between.

If it was a series of 7x30minute episodes it would be all the better for it, but stretching out to 1hr, its now showing its weakness. Time to end it at series 8.

It should have an easier slot again next year as ITV will probably put Broadchurch against Silent Witness - though I fear for it considering how it did last year. With Chris Chibnall taking over Doctor Who I presume the next series will be the last anyway; didn't he say it was a three series story before?

I thought Benidorm showed signs of promise tonight compared to the previous two episodes but they really need to ditch Joey. Unfortunately it's too late for this series.

Thanks Roscoe

I think they should give it a send off next year with a couple of specals to tie everything up, because another series of 7x60 will see it die a painful death.

Its not a question of easier slot, its the quality. Watching the orginal series, even series 6 was so much better than this. The Garvey's have been a big loss.

Birds Of A Feather doing fantastic. 5.9m is a great rating for what last year looked like the BBC had killed off by scheduling EE against it (which I note they are doing again this week).

Highest rating since series 1 ep 7.

I recall a claim being made that ITV have tried harder this winter to put together a schedule to at least compete with the BBC. To see if they have benefited from this, here are the ratings from the respective week last year, excluding the soaps, compared to this:



But basically, looking at the figures for the most part, it's a case of more money spent for scant reward. Truthfully, have ITV made more money out of Quarter One this year than last considering the relatively cheap Get Your Act Together/All Star Family Fortunes rated higher than the expensive Beowulf and the cheap Bring Back Borstal was only a million down on the more expensive Jericho? Though the latter seems to have helped Birds of a Feather to an extent. Midsomer Murders is performing very well on Wednesday's but what will the channel air in it's usual slot? They can't keep airing two hour dramas on Sunday and Wednesday forever more.

I can't see how ITV are going to come out of this funk. BBC One are just stronger in all departments, except maybe light entertainment and even then they have Pointless doing a job. They really need to work on new dramas which appeal to the masses because certainly their first three big attempts - Jekyll & Hyde, Beowulf and Jericho - do not. Is it going to be a case that their drama department will retreat to the safety of crime and period again?

Fudd, we've had two full weeks of data from BARB for 2016. In those two weeks ITV's share is up 6% on the same two weeks in 2015. In comparison, Channel 4 is up 3%, BBC1 down 2%, BBC2 down 4% and Channel 5 down 9%. Clearly something has gone right for them. Certainly looks like they are starting to come out of "this funk". Although obviously that's only 2 weeks of data and there's a long year ahead but it's promising and it is difficult to imagine BBC1 putting together a schedule as strong as their current one for the rest of the year (it tends to fizzle a bit from February/March although Happy Valley should help this year).

Saturday is up, Sunday is probably even overall (although will be up from next week onwards as they introduced the ASFF/Mr S lineup), Monday is down, Tuesday is down, Wednesday is up, Thursday is up, Friday is down.

So even or slightly up in primetime. Daytime is presumably up in that case. Having said that, total audiences are probably down (I suspect why their share is up as much as 6%), so being even is the new up, as has been the case for everyone for a while now. It's interesting as they've not had much luck with the new shows so far, but have done well with returning shows as Midsomer, Birds and Take Me Out are up whilst Endeavour and Benidorm have held up well in tougher slots. Ninja Warrior is a big improvement on Stars in Their Eyes.

The problems have been the new shows. Although Beowulf was probably the toughest sell of all their new dramas this year. Jericho probably wasn't far behind and the slot killed it. You'd think stuff like Victoria and The Durrells will be an easier sell but we'll have to wait and see I guess.

Also incidentally, Animal Orphans is returning later in the year, given that you mentioned it.

Jonathon Ross was 2.27m inc+1.

The scheduling is key, but ITV's current scheduler just seems to be all over the place.

Tuesday and Sunday is where they truly need to build up the evening. They cannot keep going through the year with Tuesday's becoming a dead zone. They keep scheduling double factual, and every time this proves not to work.

And Sunday is just one disaster after another. Not learning from mistakes.