The Level really doesn't deserve 2.2m last night.

There was a comment in What's On TV mag the other week, that one viewer stated the same thing I and others have said, in that Paranoid and The Level feel so similar, they just merge into one. No differentiation at all. If viewers avoid one crime drama, they avoid the other crime drama.

On a different note, they showed a clip of Meet The Parents on Gogglebox. Well no wonder its doing so badly. Its absolutely piss-poor and only likely to appeal to a certain young female audience. That is why the rating is so low.

Pretty poor scheduling on ITV's part. This show look more like something that would fit better on ITVBe. Not the main ITV channel. Its like scheduled Sam Fairs Baby Diares on before TXF. It'll be down again tonight - around 1.5m is my bet. I'm bored of dating shows (I'm no fan of Take Me Out), and clearly so are viewers.

The more mature viewers won't touch it, and I can see why.

Meet The Parents is actually quite decent, and would undoubtedly doing better if it was placed elsewhere. The format is entertaining enough, the host is perfectly capable and overall it's a good bit of light entertainment.

ITV are targeting the younger audience who won't be watching SCD.

A strange comment about the maturer viewers - they certainly won't be watching ANY type of dating show, regardless of it's quality.

If MTP was a bit more established, it would be decent opposition to Strictly.

Of course Blind Date was cheesy and tacky and cringeworthy in parts, but that used to get 10m and lasted about 100 years

Blind Date seemed to appeal to all sorts of ages, and also the family audience. MTP and TMO seem to only appeal to the younger and probably more female. That's the thing with ITV, they seem to only go after a certain audience type for alot of these new shows.

Not a Strictly fan but credit where it's due, from what I've seen tonight they've done a really good job with the Halloween theme. It looks incredible.

From what I remember in the past X Factor has taken a hit for Halloween (which it really can't afford) and Strictly hasn't. So XF could be down in the very low 5s (possibly even below 5m excluding +1...) whilst Strictly could possibly break 10m again.

Your not doing it justice. 18 million at its peak.

Absolutely, this seems like the most likely outcome. I predict a bad night for XF.

I'm not a Strictly fan, but I've had it on tonight. They really go all out with the Halloween theme don't they? The studio looks great, and the make up/costumes are good.

Once again, I'll say that X Factor should have given in and moved the show back by 20 minutes.

Could there be less viewers around due to Halloween parties I wonder hitting both?

Did they really need to that gimmicky thing with Bratavaio on XF just now?

It was awful.

X Factor haven't really bothered with any decorations - certainly not close to the effort Strictly have gone to.

EDIT: Just seen the smoke machine blowing smoke across the judges desk.

Can't imagine many of that 50% over 65s audience that Strictly has going to Halloween parties.

DANCC - I've said it before and I'll say it again: the margin of superiority the soaps have over what I would consider "regular" peak time programming is narrowing to worrying levels. Certainly it's not inconceivable that if things continue as they are you have a situation whereby cheap disposable factual like Eat Well for Less is doing better than EastEnders by 2018.[/quote]

The soaps are overexposed and need cutting back. They're there for the taking if another broadcaster put on a genuinely attractive alternative to them in the early evening.

I actually believe that the ratings superiority has not narrowed but has virtually all but gone - they're generally being artificially boosted / protected by the lack of decent competition that they face.

Wait and see what they do with the staging of performances.

Totally agree and like you I've actually watched more than a clip of it from Gogglebox. The demographic breakdown showed that a surprisingly decent percent were OAPs but then when you think the stars of the show are people in their 50s and 60s that's maybe not that shocking.

The scheduling was shocking though. Strictly doesn't start till 6:55 next week so 6pm would make even more sense for it now.

It's slightly concerning when you look at the poor performance of the soaps. Especially considering EastEnders is getting a multi-million pound new set. Should the BBC consider putting it on hold? The new set needs to last at least 20 years to make it financially viable; can EE really survive another 20 years?

Tbh, it feels like they're trying too hard this year. Yet previous years they seemed like nit enough efffort.

I can't help but thinking about Dermot everytime I see him, like how he left the show and came back though, it all seems very forceful.

All thanks to the choice of host. Cilla made that show. ITV seem to see Holly as the new Cilla which is asking too much from her.

The jokes on Strictly were again horrific and terrifying but the theme was great again. XF seems to even have Halloween themed adverts which is a good indication to just how much bigger Halloween is becoming in the UK.

Edit... Lenovo clearly the PP on XF again this week.

Things like Simon and the false teeth seem a bit forced. It's kind of like being forced to smile when you're having a photo taken with people you don't really like.

Yes, and it's the not the first time he's rolled out those false teeth, I think he done it back in the day, too.

A ratings question on Who Dares Wins

People do every week butut this thread is so biased it cnnot be taken seriously.

Well why not. This is a nostalgia sries after all.

Please don't say I am biased, I equally criticise both ITV and BBC shows, and goes for the same of praise when due.


It's starting to feel that way, but a shadow of it's former self. The best way for me to describe it is that XF feels empty to me these days.

I said the thewad is biased, not you individually.

I dunno, I'm liking the nostalgia. Staying true to istelf clearly helped the ratings in the earler stages. Dunnoo why its not working now