Well Raiders of the Lost Ark famously premiered on Christmas Day for ITV and was equal top of the Christmas ratings that year with 19.35 million along with Porridge(the following two (indeed three) Jones were on BBC1), but that was an exception rather than the rule. I dont there is the will at ITV to make Christmas Day a focal point much beyond the soaps (and Downton was pretty much a soap too).

EDIT: Amazing to see the impact of films back then, Christmas 1984 saw Raiders, Mary Poppins, Airplane and Kramer v Kramer all post ratings of 17.35 million or more according to BARB

X Factor will always have a record for high ratings but Strictly keeping its ratings up since 2010 isn't too shabby either. Neither are going anywhere because of the ratings they still command. There's room for both and in a way I think their rivalry has been good for both as they've pushed each other to be better. Comparing production values now to when they started shows how big they are now.

Yes 2009 (Series 7) is often cited as the worst series in it's history. The winner was a duffer who would not survive 4 weeks these days. The runner up was arrested, the third place was so boring. The whole cast was rather talentless apart from the 2nd and 3rd place. Many good dancers were eliminated early. But 2010 (Series 8) saw the new modern studio, better casting and a lot of talented dancers. In fact if the Beeb had not bucked their ideas up after S7 the show would have not be here today.

Strictly have had to work really hard to make the show what it is these days and maintain it. In fact it is nice to see Strictly, BGT and XFactor still doing fantastic numbers (more so in the previous) as it proves you can have long running TV shows that can run for years in a "throw away TV binge watch" culture. If all 3 go on past 2020 they would have seen 3 decades pass (00s 10s and 20s) which is amazing really as there is only 3 TV years to go (17, 18 and 19).

I wouldn't use Grantchester or Vicious on Christmas Day. Neither are really strong enough and as we've seen in recent years, standard drama (ie not the soaps or Doctor Who) doesn't tend to play particularly well on Christmas Day.

I'd really try and get Ant & Dec to do some sort of special for Christmas Day, but given how unlikely that seems, I'd go with something like:

3.10 Despicable Me 2
5.05 ITV News
5.15 The Chase Christmas Special
6.15 Paul O'Grady: For The Love of Dogs
7.15 Emmerdale
8.15 Birds of a Feather
9.15 Coronation Street
10.15 Christmas at the Palladium

Quite heavily focussed on entertainment/comedy earlier in the evening with Corrie pushed later. Ideally it'd be tied up so that Birds goes against Midwife where I think it could pick up an audience. Palladium is a bit of a weird 10.15 offering but I couldn't think of anything else, Blankety Blank felt like a waste, and Palladium is the sort of thing that could probably mop up a half decent casual audience at that sort of time. I know it's normally pre-watershed but it could maybe work there on Christmas Day. Either that or some other entertainment show (or one of those Nation's Favourite...Song shows maybe).

That'd leave Blankety Blank, Grantchester, Maigret, Vicious and whatever else they've got (probably a load of naff entertainment one offs) to scatter across the remaining days. Blankety Blank on Boxing Day could work, particularly if BBC1 put Jonathan Creek there (as I suspect they will) as it'd be complementary scheduling.

They made such a mess of the 2009 series of Strictly. The combined performance/results show didn't work. The biggest own goal was taking the results show off Sunday leaving the way clear for X Factor to put their results there. X Factor's ratings skyrocketed after that.

The best thing that happened with 2009 was that it led to the revamp in 2010. Bigger budget, new set, the introduction of the launch episode and the return of Sunday results. Ratings went up and like X Factor hit record numbers that year due to the snow across Great Britain. Strictly has managed to keep much of that audience since 2010/2011 by having minor tweaks here and there to keep it fresh, in the same way BGT and I'm A Celebrity have to stay high in the ratings.

I like your Christmas Day schedule, and on second thoughts on mine, I too see Grantchester on the main day would be a mistake. Notmany would sit down to watch this live.

Grantchester would probably be better on Xmas Eve, if ITV don't have a film premiere to put there.

But I thought Blankety Blank & BOAF would fi well together as female skewing programming.

Would Nations Christmas Song not be better at 10.15pm. At that time viewers will be looking for something easy to watch.

Are ITV likely to have any film premiere's this year? It'd also be nice if ITV re-aquired the Harry Potter films to scatter over the festive period. Philosophers Stone would be good on Christmas Day.

I agree Blankety Blank and BOAF could fit together, but couldn't think of anything else for Christmas Day so put Birds there. Boxing Day is a Monday this year so there might not be room for both with the Corrie double.

Christmas Eve is a Saturday so I could see them going with entertainment, but if BBC1 are doing entertainment on Christmas Eve and drama on Boxing Day it could maybe be wise to do the opposite.

Can't think of any big movie premieres they'll have this year sadly. The Lego Movie maybe, although that isn't even that big and I don't know if they'll have it (I've no idea who gets what any more). 2017 should be better for them on that front with Spectre and Jurassic World. They could definitely do with getting more movie packages. Hopefully they'll have Potter back, they always rate reasonably enough and are decent filler options for them over Christmas.

I like this schedule, although I would swap Birds & Corrie as I think 9:15pm is a bit late for Corrie. I actually suggested "Christmas At The Paladuim" on the "Christmas Radio Times Countdown Thread" a few months back, I think It'd be a nice change to see an entertainment show on ITV on Christmas Day later in the evening, as opposed to a 2 hour drama or something.

Interesting officials for TXF and SCD (from rzt):

Saturday 3rd September Officials
Strictly Come Dancing - 10.43m
X Factor - 10.12m (inc +1)

Highest SCD launch ever, up over 600k on last year, first time a launch as topped 10m.

Best rated episode of X Factor since 2014.

Fantastic figures for both.

that's amazing for the x factor tbh, I don't watch it like I used to but that's quite good!! Wonder if it'll keep consolidating like that? Only time will time.

Amazing for X Factor and SCD.

X Factor still has it looking at these ratings.

From rzt:

X Factor: 7.20m (32.5%)
Victoria: 5.10m (23.6%)

inc +1

Poldark: 4.81m (22.2%)

Ta. XF down 0.4m on last week, Victoria down 0.2m.

Wonder how Poldark did. Edit: seen your amendment, so Poldark down 0.3m.

Down all round, then.

How did it manage to consolidate that high? Both rated amazingly well. But TXF has closed the gap.

I'm saying The Paralympics might have had a hand again.

A shame to see both dramas drop, both down 200-300k. When looking back at how solid Poldark was in March 2015, its suprising to see Victoria outrating it.

As I said on the other place.

X Factor was always been a higher time shifter. You'll see that Strictly adds around 1.1m for the launch show since 2013 (apart from 2014) and X Factor usually adds around 1.7/1.8m to the overnight rating and that's a lot of the commercials taken out.

Yep, down all round. A bit disappointing but I assume the Paralympics dented everyone a little bit (as they will for the rest of the week). The shares were steadier than the audience numbers (Victoria was actually up...a whole 0.1 share points) which suggests slightly fewer people were around.

I think The X Factor producers might be a little bit disappointed with this weekend after how well last week went, but I think had you shown them these numbers a few weeks ago they'd have happily taken them. Still surprising to see Victoria beat Poldark and also to see Poldark below the 5m mark. It's still a hit show (quite possibly a big hit consolidated, we'll have to see), but I think Charlotte Moore's description of it as "one of the nation's most loved dramas" is perhaps a little far fetched.

X Factor doesn't normally add that much. Last year XF's average Saturday gain was 1.33m.

Amazing official number for the X Factor, and my prediction was correct - Sunday overnight even with series 12.

Not forgetting that all SCD's PVR and catchup get added to the one original broadcast, whereas X Factor's repeats aren't included and catchup is added to the most recent linear showing.

BBC1
Antiques Roadshow: 5.34m (24.0%)
Countryfile: 5.30m (29.7%)
Poldark: 4.81m (22.3%)

BBC2
Horizon: Jimmy Carr and the Science of Laughter: 0.80m (3.7%)
New York: America's Busiest City (R): 0.60m (3.4%)
Scotland and the Battle for Britain: 0.54m (2.4%)

BBC4
The Comet's Tale (R): 0.29m (1.3%)
Horizon: How Big Is the Universe? (R): 0.27m (2.3%)
From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: the Golden Age of Children's TV (R): 0.26m (1.4%)

Channel 4 (exc. +1)
The Last Leg: Live from Rio: 1.54m (7.0%)
Paralympics 2016 (9pm-1am): 1.48m (11.9%)
Paralympics Highlights (7.30pm): 0.97m (5.2%)

Channel 4's #Paralympics coverage peaked with 2.4m last night as Amy Marren clinched Bronze in the pool for @ParalympicsGB
Average audience of 1.5m/12.3% (inc. +1) from 9pm-1am, up +112% for vol and +120% for share on the slot average
Channel 4 Press@C4Press

Channel 5 (exc. +1)
Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away! (R): 0.96m (4.5%)
First Day at Big School: 0.58m (3.3%)
Mysteries: The Bermuda Triangle (R): 0.52m (2.3%)

Excluding +1:

The Xtra Factor Live (ITV2): 0.41m (1.9%)
Suits (Dave): 0.20m (1.3%)
The Last Ship (Sky 1): 0.18m (0.8%)
Jay Leno's Garage (Dave): 0.17m (0.9%)

Christmas special and third series confirmed of Still Open All Hours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lat...name=corporate

It rates well but I sort of hope this is the last series. The last series was dire and more like Last of the Summer Wine in a shop. And no Lynda Baron either for the next series

People must like it more this year. It has more positive chatter about it this year.