Superb rating for Planet Earth 2. Not entirely surprised though, it's a very high quality event piece that has rightly had a lot of promotion and deserves a performance to match.

X Factor held up so well you almost have to question it. Must have been a lot of timeshifting going on though so the "live" figure would be interesting.

Channel 5 week 48 bits and pieces...

Starting w/c 26th November
* MPs Behind Closed Doors (New Series) featuring Naz Shah (Lab), Jacob Rees-Mogg (Con), Nick Clegg (Lib)
* Tour de Celeb (New Series)
* The Boy Who Can't Stay Awake (New)

Ending
* Neighbours and Home & Away finish up for 2016 on Friday 2nd December.

Source: Channel 5.

Brief Encounters was the only Summer drama this year, in years previous ITV have kept Summer drama free. Now they've axed that, who's to say they axed it because they were not happy with its performance?

If Broadchurch can return with a self contained storyline, I don't see why BE can't.

Sorry I enjoyed it, as I did Home Fires. Its annoying when dramas you enjoy are axed.

Far be it from me, but you seem to think anyone who criticises ITV is just ITV bashing for the sake of it.

Look at that consolidated rating for The Peter Kay Story on Ch5. 2.3m is a great rating.

I remember The Ant & Dec Story doing similar numbers for Ch5 not that long ago.

Clever use of the Behind Closed Doors brand, I wonder if this will air at 8pm or 9pm.

And you're allowed to say it's "simply not good enough" for XF yet others aren't because...?

They are repeating that on Friday, ahead of the IAC launch on Sunday, with their usual lineup of Great British Castles and Greatest Bridges rested for a week.

Bizarre to say the least to see them clearing their schedule in this way and effectively promoting a show on a rival channel which will hammer them in the ratings for the 2-3 weeks it's on!

I've no idea. It's an odd result for Dan to pick on though, the Halloween Saturday show only got 7.2m last year so it was pretty flat year on year.

6.9m every week is good by ITV's bar. Possibly they'd have expected over 7.5m but it held its audience well, albeit in an easy slot. I'm sure the demos were spot on for itv and it's not an expensive drama to make; I wonder how it exports.

It's no Silent Witness but it has led to itv winning Mondays and that'll be the case for 13 weeks at least. Sundays at 9pm in January 2018?

ITV have normally aired dramas through the Summer, but didn't in 2014 and 2015. Hopefully they do again next year. They've got quite a lot in the pipeline for early next year so some of that may spill into the Summer.

They probably axed it as it didn't quite rate where they'd want it to. The numbers weren't bad but there are only so many slots and so much money and if theyve got something else in the pipeline that they'd rather have than another series of Brief Encounters then that is what it will come down to.

On another topic, if The Next Great Magician holds up, do you think they'd renew it? It did better than I (and you) expected, but do you think the number is still too low, or acceptable against Strictly? I think if it can hold above 3 million (a big if, it doesn't have much room to fall) then it's worth another shot.

Looks like it'll be 9pm. Monday and Friday are both TBA. I can't see it rating particularly well, but it has more of a shot than Tour de Celeb so hopefully they dump the latter on Friday which is becoming their equivalent of ITV's Tuesdays.

No premiere on November 27th, by the way. Looks like the classic Saving Private Ryan will be the feature movie.

I was going to ask why on earth has ITV bought back Rebound, but no dohbt they're trying a second series with the hope it might catch on. I suppose the first series of TP and Chase didn't too well either.

Then again, if Pick Me is coming back. At least that has some life to it.

Worth remembering that Blue Planet was also thought to have done so monumentally well in 2001 because it premiered the night after 9/11. Viewers definitely wanted some escapism.

Given the uncertainty facing the world right now, is the Attenborough Factor having the same effect again?

Thank you to everyone for the ratings posted today, it was such a great TV event last night, all these shows doing so well!


Awful for Citizen Khan as expected, the BBC shouldn't keep recommissioning this.

Some demos from rzt left over:

16-34s
The X Factor: 1.43m... 22.0% skew
Planet Earth II: 1.27m... 13.7% skew
Strictly Come Dancing: 744k... 7.5% skew
Next Great Magician: 672k... 14.2% skew
Off Their Rockers: 380k... 12.8% skew

Extreme Railway Journeys is 4 episodes with a Christmas Special so I imagine it's Mondays, I imagine Tour de Celeb will be banished to Fridays

McIntyre's Big Show is replacing the Lottery. 8:10-9:10 on 19 Nov.

Others have agendas - fans and those with a balanced perspective are the ones I think provide the most valid criticisms.
Also I saw you criticise the number a page or so back so I don't know why you're going off on one.

Looks like 16-34s have the right idea... Do something better than watch ITV or BBC.

SCD barely over half of XF in the 16-34s, and this completely new show Next Great Magician not a million miles behind SCD either!

Amazing for Planet Earth.

I'm very surprised the magician program held so well against Strictly for ITV.

Sunday is definitely the place for the big ratings.

There's so much great TV on at the moment.

Planet Earth ratings were spectacular...so was the show itself.
Poldark finished on a 'high' too....

XF simply doesn't have the kudos it used to have. They are just recycling losers now.
Not sure if cheryl would make any difference at all!!

It seems Channel 5 has done well for Viacom increasing profits year on year and considering Viacom as a whole has a turbulent year, they'll be very happy.

http://deadline.com/2016/11/viacom-c...le-1201849957/

Not sure if it was mentioned but Alan Titchmarsh is going to present Secrets of the National Trust for Channel 5. Titchmarsh has presented for ITV and Channel 4 before but for 5 to get another known face to the channel along with Chris Tarrant, Eamonn and Ruth, Ben Fogle etc is always a good sign

I wonder how long it will be for Channel 5 gets its act together and air Rupaul's Drag Race the day after US broadcast on sister Viacom channel Logo I mean it could be a hit at 9pm and Untucked running from 10-10:30pm. I know Tru TV runs the old episodes and is currently airing All Stars 2 but I think it would be a massive and brave move to go to main network TV.

So very pleased 9 million viewers tuned into PE2 this is quality TV and restores my faith in the. UK viewing public that they can identify quality over other programming.

On BBC News this tells a story.

The most-watched TV programmes of the decade so far:
Olympics 2012 closing ceremony (12 August 2012), BBC One: 24.5 million
Olympics 2012 opening ceremony (27 July 2012), BBC One: 24.2 million
Euro 2012: England v Italy (24 June 2012), BBC One: 20.3 million
The X Factor (12 December 2010), ITV: 17.7 million
Olympics 2012: men's 100m final (5 August 2012), BBC One: 17.3 million
Euro 2012: England v Ukraine (19 June 2012), ITV: 16.4 million
The X Factor (21 November 2010), ITV: 16.1 million
The Great British Bake Off (26 October 2016), BBC One: 15.9 million
World Cup 2010: England v Germany (27 June 2010), BBC One: 15.8 million
The X Factor (14 November 2010), ITV: 15.7 million

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37897727