I'm pretty sure that was Brookside's 1000th Episode, with the Sue Sullivan and baby characters being pushed whodunnit style from the parade scaffolding. Good times storyline wise.

Any guesses on the Strictly return tonight? I guessed 8.7M on the DSRPG. But anything close or exceeding 9M would be fantastic for the show.

But if the series has all been filmed, does that mean some people know who the 2016 winner is?

It's time for a new season of the DS Ratings Prediction Game!

With week one upon us it's time predict how returning drama The Fall will figure, whether The Level will be at a good level and how Morgana Robinson's The Agency will pull in the viewers. Will Strictly be up year-on-year for it's results and how will The X Factor do for the first Judge's House show of the series? Could Ambulance put the BBC One 9pm slot in need of life support or race away from the opposition? Is Damned damned from the off?

Why not have a go at predicting accordingly? Everyone's welcome, whetehr you're a new player, lapsed or a regular! Just click HERE, left click 'Quote', delete the quote marks and get predicting!

Thank you to everyone who takes part in advance.

They do but I'm sure they've signed non disclosure agreements to not leak it to the press. It's the same with The Apprentice which is filmed months in advance

Eastenders omnibus was a big player for many years. Iirc ITV did have repeats of Coronation Street but they either were on and off or dependant on region. Whatever it was they weren't as high profile.

I'm quite happy to criticise ITV when they need to be, and the Tuesday schedule was poor. The low ratings are deserved.

But there still no denying Ch5 rely way to much of Benefit programmes. I know they rate well enough, but they can do so much better. As Loch Lomond docs showed.

Yes, I don't see how anyone could have missed the fact EastEnders was half a million ahead of Emmerdale.

21st April which year?

Here's how Strictly Friday launches have rated since 2010:

2015 – 7.68m (36.4%)
2014 – 6.53m (28.5%) – direct clash with X Factor
2013 – 7.81m (35.2%)
2012 – 8.00m (34.0%)
2011 – 7.98m (33.1%)
2010 – 9.05m (38.2%)

I'd be amazed if it got over, at the most, 8-8.5m to be honest given previous years.

Though with the Apprentice it's just the down to the final two.
I'm guessing no bookie will take bets on the GBBO winner then. They do well to keep it all of social media.

Paranoid is the latest example of commissioners churning out the type of stuff viewers have already rejected many times over.

This one will be down to New Blood levels by the end of its run.

Was it?

To be honest Im not sure why they persist with them. Its a hard slot to do well in. They manage live shows over two days anyway so Id go for Saturday/Sunday for this split starter.

In his book on the Apprentice Lord Sugar said that they use to film two endings in the boardroom with both being declared the winner at the time of filming but just before it went to air he would phone the actual winner up and tell them they had won -they dont do it like that now

I'm looking forward to Three-Point Turn Wars.

Last night's EE ended four or five minutes early.

A few disgruntled Twitter users got their thoughts on it aired in a couple of clickbait articles:

http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/22/easten...ormal-6146302/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbi...-five-minutes/

Oh I see, thanks. How odd. I assume it didn't start a minure or two early and so was a normal length.

Obviously a few tweets or Facebook posts is worthy of an article. I wondered why people were matching the streets last night.

All the soaps had repeats, apart from Emmerdale, although it eventually introduced them.

The EastEnders and Brookside omnibus editions were reliable, but ITV's Coronation St omnibus came and went from time to time, so it tended not to rate very well. The ITV regions all had different opinions on the best days and times to show it, some gave up on it altogether, and others moved to weekday afternoon and/or overnight repeats.

Basically, if you wanted to keep up with CS, it was best to watch or record the 7.30pm screenings. You couldn't rely on the repeats.

It was ahead using Ray's estimates too.

You don't seem to like EastEnders or the BBC very much. There's low key venom in almost everything you post.

I know your game.

Thanks Dancc. Do you know if it's just a regular episode or will we have a special like the previous disasters?

In the latter days of the ITV regions, probably around the late 90s Yorkshire (and therefore Tyne Tees, Granada and Border) used to show CS repeats on weekday afternoons,

The problem was that after the Sunday episode started, they'd be more than one episode adrift half the week, as they'd still be repeating Friday's edition on Monday, with Sunday's appearing on Monday. I think Emmerdale was repeated alongside these as well with equally complicated arrangements but it was fairly short lived and was probably only a Granada/Yorkshire arrangement.

Some other regions preferred showing stuff like Shortland Street.

Obviously a different era with a much less competitive schedule.

I've made it clear I'm not a fan of any of the soaps including Holby and Casualty. That's why I want soap blocks.
I've also criticised BBC1, itv and 4 for a variety of things. That is probably even too, though I'm not keeping count.

Low key venom? Never heard that expression before. Or did you mean Loki?
Not sure you've got my 'game'.

Oh and the 'was it?' question was genuine rather than sarcastic as I'd already not spotted the tape check thing and wasn't sure if I was missing something else.
I'll let you off on that one though as I can see how you misunderstood that.

My theory is that there is a three week gap between the Strictly launch show and the start of the series proper, but by having the Friday night episode, Strictly is only absent from the listings magazines (which run from Saturday to Friday) for two weeks and that makes the gap seem shorter to the viewers keeping the programme fresher in their mind.

I like that. Although I think it's more because they like the performance shows to be live and Len and Bruno have to be in America on Monday nights for Dancing with The Stars so couldn't do a Sunday show and a pre-record wouldn't be the same.