I thought that.

I thought that too.

I liked the episode. The audience will probably stick with it regardless. Looks like they're going to put the episodes on preview one week before broadcast.

And what if Paul didn't want to do Top Gear or his own shows on the BBC? If he's the weak link of GBBO as many have said here, if he lacks charm etc then surely those shows won't be a success. If he loves doing Bake Off that much then it's a no brainer to stick with that show imo, rather than gamble on new formats which could flop just as easily as a C4 Bake Off.

The BBC would be foolish, derelict even to not enforce the year gap in the contract and in the interim get their own Mary, Mel and Sue show on air. It'd be the perfect response to C4/LPs shoddy behaviour and all on its own could land a fatal blow to the remounted GBBO before it's even aired! Get the new show up and running in the existing Bake Off slot next year and people will flock to it.

All's fair in Love (Productions) and War!

Paranoid may get hit next week as well as its up against the return of The Fall on BBC Two

All true and it is worth remembering that BBC1 used to get good ratings for shows starting at 9:25pm on weekdays.

British people aren't conditioned to do things late. People used to eat dinner at 5pm; many probably still do. This week Barcelona v Atletico Madrid kicked off at 10pm Spanish time. In America NFL games finish at 11:30pm local time. Big basketball, baseball and ice hockey matches can finish at 1am if they go in to overtime.

In London they panic if a sporting event or concert is going past 10pm.

Yes they look to be getting back on track, I can see why they have scheduled things as they have, with Penn & Teller Fool Us in the pre X Factor slot, 2 episodes of Ice Road Truckers against the X Factor aimed at a very different demographic, then the movie in the post X Factor slot, it's actually quite clever by their recent standards!

Thanks rzt and cylon

BBC1 had a poor night. Looks like ITV flop zone. Though would undoubtably be lower on ITV.

BIB Excellent. POG Dogs rises 500k from last week to a series high. No doubt helped by the higher rating programme at 9pm.

Ch4 had an excellent night. Look at George Clarke. Property on 4 rates very well.

Ch5 didn't have a bad night. But 1.2m are still watching Benefits. Surely they've seen everything they could have? It really feels like this series has been on all year?

Red Dwarf returned well. Given its on a smaller channel, it did fine. I suspect it will be 800k inc Dave Ja Vu.

I'm willing to bet The Fall willbeat Paranoid next week. Paranoid will drop to 3.3m and The Fall will launch with 3.4m

In a turn of events, looks like a good day for all except for BBC1.

From ITV Media:

Thursday Top 10 (inc. +1) *Not tape checked

1 ITV - 08:00 PM Emmerdale 5.486m 30% *
2 BBC One - 07:30 PM EastEnders 5.477m 30% *
3 ITV - 07:00 PM Emmerdale 5.375m 31% *

* Broadcast app has 5.95m (32.5%) for EastEnders (19:29-19:56)
Emmerdale probably around 5.7m (?) tape checked

4 BBC One - 06:30 PM Regional News and Weather 4.731m 31%
5 BBC One - 06:00 PM BBC News at Six 4.233m 30%
6 ITV - 09:00 PM Paranoid 4.141m 21%
7 ITV - 08:30 PM Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs 4.062m 22%
8 BBC One - 10:00 PM BBC News at Ten 3.381m 22%
9 BBC One - 07:00 PM The One Show 3.317m 19% 3.21m/18.6% tape checked
10 BBC One - 10:30 PM Regional News and Weather 2.951m 22%

Thursday Top 10 (inc. +1) (not including the five main channels)

1 ITV2 - 10:00 PM Celebrity Juice 817k 5.6%
2 Dave - 09:00 PM Red Dwarf XI 810k 4.2%
3 E4 - 07:00 PM Hollyoaks 712k 4.1%
4 ITV2 - 10:50 PM Family Guy 536k 5.3%
5 ITV2 - 11:20 PM Family Guy 501k 6.5%
6 E4 - 08:30 PM The Big Bang Theory 487k 2.6%
7 Drama - 09:00 PM New Tricks 465k 2.4%
8 More4 - 09:00 PM My Floating Home 421k 2.2%
9 Film4 - 09:00 PM I, Frankenstein 404k 2.3%
10 ITV2 - 11:45 PM American Dad! 386k 7.0%

I agree as GBBO needs to air first. It seems like the beeb isn't going to delay GBBO and they have to be careful that any new show is deemed to be innovative rather than derivative. Not that that bothered C4.

Maybe Simon Cowell is talking David Walliams and Matt Lucas in to presenting a new Food Glorious Food.

Celebrity Juice is doing much better this series than the last two series. Red Dwarf did well I think. Should consolidate well over 1m.

New Tricks repeating well on Drama.

You nailed it.

Quite something to see Emmerdale ahead of EE in the ratings and closing on Corrie.
I notice ITV Encore doesn't score good ratings. Maybe that isn't the best channel to launch new dramas (on a channel called encore).

Totally agree. As a massive lurker of this thread I am finding some of the reactions quite OTT. Hollywood is not the devil incarnate for making his own decision about what he feels is best for him. Really, some folk need to get some perspective here.

On the topic of ratings, a shame for Paranoid as whilst it didn't disgrace itself the only way is blatantly down. I actually really enjoyed it!

According to Wiki:

Red Dwarf series 8 episode 1 (18/02/99) 8,050,000

Red Dwarf series 9 episode 1 (10/04/09) 2,742,000 (including repeat)

I think the 8 million was its highest ever audience bolstered by a cliff-hanger, a two year gap and associated highest ever hype and anticipation. Series 8 was dreadful though in my opinion and seemingly shared as figures dropped markedly to 4.2 million by the last episode.

Red Dwarf was a massive cult hit for BBC2, much loved and talked about over 10 years from its low budget start in 1988. For me that 750k is rather a sad looking figure.

I think its one of those things, that those on this thread who are BBC supporters are irritated that Ch4 have nabbed the BBC's biggest show, and that the longing for it to fail is overwhelming. Therefore Paul going over to Ch4 means its got a better chance of succeeding that if he were not on it. Thus he is enemy now going over to Ch4. If he stayed with the BBC, its likely a new show with all four would do well.

Today I read that the Chuckle Brothers might have been approached to host the Bake-Off. Now that would be fantastic if they got these two.

I did didn't I

Yes Emmerdale is the strongest of the three. But its amazing how whilst both top Soaps have dropped millions YOY, Emmerdale has gradually dropped viewers (affected by the other two dropping), but the decline has been nowhere near as obvious.

It would be nice to see Emmerdale actually top both, and give ITV a shock at what has happened to the beloved Corrie.

Hope that's meant ironically?! Or do you mean "fantastic" in the sense that then it would deffo bomb?

Chuckle Brothers are the go-to name when someone wants to spread a rumour too ridiculous to be true. Them or The Krankies usually.

Thursday Top 10 (inc. +1) *Not tape checked

1 ITV - 08:00 PM Emmerdale 5.486m 30% *
2 BBC One - 07:30 PM EastEnders 5.477m 30% *
3 ITV - 07:00 PM Emmerdale 5.375m 31% *

* Broadcast app has 5.95m (32.5%) for EastEnders (19:29-19:56)
Emmerdale probably around 5.7m (?) tape checked


Sometimes I think I'm wasting my time on here.

Ha! Sorry. I guess I don't think BBC will be affected by tape check. You do a grand job on here.

Now if you can just post us the top yearly ratings for EE and Corrie for the last 20 odd years....

I am trying to be fair to Paul but I think he will pay the price for what viewers will see as disloyalty - ironically by staying with the show. Because with GBBO I think the team were more the show than the format and so he seems to be the one quitting the band. Whereas the others will get anew show and carry on.

He is the John and Yoko of GBBO.

I saw something similar happen when working on Strange But True? - obviously in nothing like as high a profile (aka none at all!) But the play out was not dissimilar with the BBC on that occasion battling with ITV. So I got to see the different factors that can be involved as that was not over money in any meaningful way at all but more about profile.

Nightmare Neighbour Next Door did well to run Hunted so close considering C4 spent an absolute bomb marketing Hunted and Nightmare Neighbour goes about its business rather more quietly. C4's overconfidence in Hunted yet to be rewarded, but maybe it can grow.

Paranoid started well for something which had me rolling my eyes at the description - so clichéd sounding it hurt. Looking at the reviews, I didn't miss an awful lot and I expect this one will be up against it staying north of 3.5m across its lengthy run. 8 episodes seems an awful lot.

Red Dwarf did well but it doesn't look like it's going to be breaking records for Dave this time around.

What channel did that air on?

And in two weeks its up against The Apprentice

Pray for Paranoid. I can definitely see it under 3m before long.